ANCESTRY 31 



under the southern wall of the house. He built the 

 piggery and stable himself, and the high wall— Amaryllis's 

 wall — which screens the garden from tlie road, and the 

 blue summer-house that used to stand at the bottom of 

 his garden, paved with radiating lines of kidney-stones 

 which he brought himself from Medbourne. He made a 

 ha-ha between the garden and the field ; he put a seat 

 round a sycamore that stood by the summer-house. He 

 was a maker of good gates, and the one which Iden anti 

 the carpenter made in ' Amaryllis ' was hung opposite 

 the little church at Coate. 



He was a funny-tempered man, full of unexpected likes 

 and dislikes. It is remembered that he hated the smell 

 of the gin that was drunk at Burderop over the timber, 

 and he disliked tobacco-smoke. One year he would give 

 up the garden to fruit-bushes ; again it would be gorgeous 

 with uncommon flowers ; and then the flowers gave way 

 to a fountain and gold and silver fish. He could be play- 

 fully mischievous, too, and like to hear the splash of 

 coping-stones from the little Coate Road bridge as he 

 pushed them over into the brook at night. Except in 

 winter, he wore no stockings, and he took little care of 

 his clothes. His most noted public act was the yearly 

 bonfire in the field opposite the farmhouse on November 5. 

 He seems to have excited curiosity, awe, and amusement 

 more often than affection, but there is a story told that 

 reveals his genial side. In the tall copper under the steep 

 thatch of the older part of the house he used to brew some 

 very good, strong ale — •' Goliath ale ' — and he would let 

 his milker, then Abner Webb, take as much as he liked of 

 this. James Jefferies would thus come into the milking- 

 shed sometimes, and find Abner happy but incapable on 

 the floor. He would milk the cows himself, and pass it 

 over, until he at last had to tell Abner one Friday that 

 he would pay him wages no more, 



' Well,' said Abner, ' if thee dosn't knaw a good ser- 

 vant, I knows a good maister ; and if thee won't pay I, 

 I'll sarve ee for nowt.' And he remained on the farm. 



