40 FRANCIS ORPEN MORRIS 



work, for which he then, and ever after, had so 

 strong a leaning. The quiet seclusion of the spot 

 and its pleasant surroundings made it the home of 

 all others for an author, and especially a naturalist. 

 Despite some stormy times at Nafferton, he had, 

 nevertheless, met with a vast amount of real kind- 

 ness and staunch support, and he and his family 

 left the place with many regrets. 



The move, or flitting, as it is called in Yorkshire, 

 was made in the early spring of 1854, a season 

 remarkable for its forwardness, for in that year the 

 lilacs in the Rectory garden were fully out about 

 the middle of April a sight which we have never 

 been permitted to see here since. 



A flitting in those days was a very different thing 

 from what it is now, when the removal of house- 

 hold goods is reduced almost to a science. At that 

 time a man's bag and baggage had to be rumbled 

 over the country in carts and waggons, at no little 

 risk of breakages : in this case, however, the transit 

 across the wolds was safely accomplished ; even the 

 numerous and delicate entomological specimens, by 

 which their owner laid so much store, were landed 

 at Nunburnholme none the worse for their shaking. 



Nunburnholme, or Burnholme, as it was named 

 three hundred years ago, was a place scarcely heard 

 of outside a radius of twenty miles at the time of 

 which we are speaking. It lay far removed from the 

 highways of the world, and had nothing of its own 

 to make itself a name. If its Benedictine House pos- 

 sessed any lustre in bygone days, the glory thereof 



