134 DAYS STOLEN FOR SPORT 



Western Railway the line of communication between 

 London and Porthoustock. I had secured a roof, 

 bed and table for a large party, but my happiest guess 

 had been overreached. The unattached among us, 

 three younger sons, expressed such sincere willing- 

 ness to be housed as gipsies, if that would help 

 to solve the seeming difficulties, that their attitude 

 evoked offers of roofs beyond our needs, and we 

 were soon all established in this out-of-the-world 

 dreamland, which has since been described in one 

 of the chief London papers though no name was 

 given to the^place as an untouched Arcadia. The 

 writer of the articles claimed that he and his comrade 

 " a famous but, happily, quiet actor " were the only 

 foreigners who had ever visited it. This is surely a 

 compliment to the behaviour of our party during our 

 sojourn there which was evidently not sufficiently un- 

 congenial to cause the villagers to babble of us to 

 strangers ; please do not suggest that it may have 

 been the shame of having harboured such visitors as 

 ourselves that kept them silent. At anyrate the said 

 writer, I must keep his name " Dark," and his actor 

 friend, are not forgotten, but are spoken of down 

 there with eager kindness. 



I was just indulging proud feelings at the settling 

 of my family when a telegram was brought me 

 from St Keverne saying that two more of my sons 

 would be at Falmouth next morning, by the first 

 train, and asking me to meet them with the 

 Shag\ so after dinner we had to go bed-hunting 

 again. This satisfactorily arranged, the captain 

 of the Shag was interviewed. She lay at 

 anchor in the bay, and a halloo soon brought the 

 captain ashore. Tides and wind chances were 



