SIR GEORGE DARWIN 173 



but they proved wrong — even the cellars being 

 remarkably dry. The house is built of faded 

 yellowish bricks, with old tiles on the roof, and has 

 a pleasant home-like air. It was formerly the 

 house of the Beales family,* one of the old merchant 

 stocks of Cambridge. This fact accounts for the 

 great barn-like granaries which occupied much of 

 the plot near the high road. These buildings were 

 in part pulled down, thus making room for a lawn 

 tennis court, while what was not demolished made 

 a gallerj' looking on the court, as well as play-room 

 for the children. At the eastern end of the property 

 a cottage and part of the granaries were converted 

 into a small house of an attractively individual 

 character, for which I think tenants have hitherto 

 been easily found among personal friends. One 

 of the most pleasant features of the Grange was 

 the flower-garden and rockery on the other side of 

 the river, reached by a wooden bridge and called 

 "the Little Island. "^ The house is conveniently 

 close to the town, yet has a most pleasant outlook. 



* The following account of Newnham Grange is taken from 

 C. H. Cooper's Memorials oj Cambridge, 1866, Vol. iii., p. 262 (note) : 

 " The site of the hermitage was leased by the Corporation to Oliver 

 Grene, 20 September, 31 Ehz. [1589]. It was in 1790 leased for a 

 long term to Patrick Beales, from whom it came to his brother, 

 S. P. Beales, Esq., who erected thereon a substantial mansion and 

 mercantile premises now occupied by his son, Patrick Beales, Esq., 

 alderman, who purchased the reversion from the Corporation in 1839." 

 Silver Street was formerly known as Little Bridges Street, and the 

 bridges which gave it this name were in charge of a hermit, hence 

 the above reference to the hermitage. 



* This was to distinguish it from the " Big Island," both being 

 leased from the town. Later George acquired in the same way the 

 small oblong kitchen garden on the river bank, and bought the 

 freehold of the Lammas land on the opposite bank of the river. 



