CHAPTER VII 



IN THE DAYS OF MY YOUTH 1 

 1904 



Early days Country life What I might have been 

 Various incidents Peacock going to roost Nature 

 has played pranks with me I become a publisher ! 



I WAS born in the country, in the beautiful 

 county of Salop, not far away from the pic- 

 turesque old town of Ludlow, in the second 

 month of the year 1825, that notable year 

 of bubble companies and commercial disasters 

 in the great cities, and, if I mistake not, a time 

 of rick-burning and thrashing-machine destroy- 

 ing riots in the country. But with all that 

 I had nothing to do. Nature, that kindly 

 mother, meant, I am sure, that I should 

 become a country gentleman, like one "all 

 of the olden time," farming my own estate 



1 Reprinted from M.A.P. by kind permission. 



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