CHASTISEMENT AND FAIRYLAND 53 



Manifestly, the old Adam was very powerful in us 

 about that period, and it may have been fortunate that 

 Mr Gray found occasion a little later to beat us both for 

 making general hay of our bedroom and other parts of the 

 house one evening when he and Mrs Gray were out to 

 dinner. The beating was performed with great solemnity 

 the following afternoon, an ordinary horsewhip being 

 applied across the back while one was firmly held by the 

 collar. I rather fancied myself afterwards, because Bob 

 howled lustily and I took my share without a murmur, 

 but it would probably have been better policy to follow 

 Bob's example. 



It is a little curious that amid the undesirable character- 

 istics which are perhaps common to all boys I seem to have 

 had quite other fancies, and one of these was to construct 

 a " fairyland " on the top of the trunk of a very large 

 old tree, whose branches were all gone, and had left quite 

 an extensive plateau to deal with. In the same letter 

 which describes the American ironclads there is the 

 following passage : 



This afternoon, after a most perilous ascent, with a rope fastened 

 to me, I reached fairyland, and I hauled up the basket a great 

 many times full of different things, such as ivy, violet roots, 

 stones, slates and soil. Queen Mab's cave is covered over the 

 top with ivy and violets. It is exactly like a real cave, with 

 lots of little passages out of it as far as you can see. It is a queer 

 tree. When first I got up it had soil all over the top of it about 

 a foot deep, with gooseberry bush, and some ivy, nettles and 

 flowers on the top of it. We have cleared all the nettles away 

 and it looks so nice already. 



On Friday 6th, the next year, 1863, there is the following 

 note in the Diary : 



This morning we learned mythology, after which we went into 

 the garden. I climbed into fairyland. 



Day-dreams are frequent enough at that time of life, 

 and mine used to be largely inspired by the works of 

 J. G. Edgar, such as A Boy's Adventures in the Baron's 



