42 NEWMARKET EARLY IN THE CENTURY. 



pleased them more than to dabble in quas i-scienti^c 

 studies. During their youth this country was 

 continually at war with France, and a semaphore, 

 or signal -post, was erected on the top of the Bury 

 Hill, the highest elevation in the neighbourhood of 

 Newmarket. They were never tired of watching 

 the signals conveyed from Yarmouth by this sema- 

 phore to the Admiralty in London, and back thence 

 to the sea -coast. With a curiosity which was 

 natural under the circumstances, they endeavoured, 

 by constant observation, to read the messages 

 which passed backwards and forwards, and thus 

 to acquaint themselves with the tidings received 

 from the seat of war on the Continent. In those 

 primitive days newspapers were not received in 

 country places for many days after the arrival of 

 a report which told of the loss or gain of a great 

 battle. Everything connected with the war per- 

 colated through the Admiralty, to which the com- 

 manders of the different vessels engaged as carriers 

 of news naturally sent their reports, by semaphore 

 or by road. After many weeks of close watching, 

 my father and Mr Baker got to understand the 

 working of the semaphore sufficiently to write 

 some of the messages down on paper. Unfortun- 

 ately one day they dropped a paper on which they 

 had written one of these messages. It was picked 

 up on the Bury Hill, and carried by its finder 

 to Mr Hylet, who was the official in charge of 

 the semaphore, and was therefore deemed likely 



