CHAPTER XV 



Crichmere Memories 



A HARD task it is to put upon paper all the 

 little details that combine to make some of 

 the most delightful open-air days of our 

 life. It needs a far more skilful pen indeed 

 than this to depict in black ink the glories 

 of Crichmere and the wooded beauty of 

 Haslemere on a fine summer's day ; the eye 

 and mind can scarce take them in, much less 

 the unskilful hand portray them many months 

 afterwards when midsummer has long since 

 slipped away. 'If you see a fat little man, 

 with his cap stuck full of flies, it will be 

 Thomas Andrews ' ; so wrote the master of 

 Crichmere in an invitation to me to come 

 down to Haslemere one June day, inspect the 

 ponds, and afterwards travel back and dine 



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