48 MY LIFE [Chap. 



brother, who had come some miles on a pony to meet us, and 

 rode back alongside of the carriage. 



Of this visit I remember very little except one or two 

 incidents. On the very day of our arrival, I think about tea- 

 time, soon after I and my boy-friend had come in, Mrs. 



became very excited, and then went off into violent hysterics, 

 and was obliged to be taken upstairs to bed. Whether this 

 had anything to do with putting off the visit to Cromer, or 

 some other domestic affairs, I never heard. However, next 

 day all was right again, and I was treated very kindly, as if 

 to show that I had nothing to do with it. I recall the house 

 as a rather long white building with green outside shutters, 

 with a lawn and flower-beds in front, and a kitchen garden 

 and large orchard on one side. In the fields around were 

 some fine trees, and I think there was a pond or a stream 

 near the house and a small village not far off. I and my 

 companion played and roamed about where we liked, but 

 what most struck me was the fruit-gathering in the large 

 orchard, which began the very day after our arrival. I had 

 never seen so many apples before. They were piled in great 

 heaps on the ground, while men and boys went up the trees 

 with ladders and gathered those from the higher branches into 

 baskets. Of course, my little friend knew the best trees, and 

 we ate as many as we liked. Sometimes we went out for 

 drives, or were taken to visit at houses near, or visitors came 

 to tea ; but how long I stayed there, or how I returned, I 

 have no recollection, but the main features of the visit as 

 here related have always remained clearly impressed upon my 

 memory. 



It may be well here to give a brief outline of my school 

 life at Hertford and of the schoolmaster who taught me. 

 The school itself was built in the year 1617, when the school 

 was founded. It consisted of one large room, with a large 

 square window at each end and two on each side. In the 

 centre of one side was a roomy porch, and opposite to it a 

 projecting portion, with a staircase leading to two rooms 

 above the schoolroom and partly in the roof. The school- 

 room was fairly lofty. Along the sides were what were termed 



