Ii6 MY LIFE [Chap. 



from quite a heroic point of view, so different from the 

 enormous mass of gross and stupid caricature and abuse 

 which prevailed during the epoch of his military successes 

 throughout Europe. 



As there was no work of importance after the maps and 

 reference books of the parish we had been surveying were 

 completed and delivered, and winter was approaching, I went 

 home for a short holiday. My father and mother and my 

 younger brother were then living in Hoddesdon, and as there 

 was no direct conveyance I made the journey on foot. It was, 

 I think, the end of November, and as the distance was about 

 thirty miles, and I was not very strong, I took two days, 

 sleeping on the way at a roadside public-house. I went 

 through Hitchin and Stevenage, and near the former place 

 passed a quarry of a reddish chalk almost as hard as marble, 

 which was used for building. This surprised me, as I had 

 hitherto only seen the soft varieties of chalk, and had been 

 accustomed to look upon it as more earth than stone. The 

 only other thing that greatly interested me was a little 

 beyond Stevenage, where, on a grassy strip by the roadside, 

 were six ancient barrows or tumuli, which I carefully inspected; 

 and whenever I have since travelled by the Great Northern 

 Railway, I have looked out for these six tumuli, near to which 

 the line passes. 



Where I slept the night I forget, but its results were long 

 remembered, for I was given a bed which I presume had 

 been occupied by some tramp, and I found that I had 

 brought away with me two different kinds of body-lice, one 

 of which took me a long time and the application of special 

 ointments to get rid of. This was the only time in my life 

 that I suffered from these noisome insects. 



After a few weeks at home at Hoddesdon, I went back to 

 Barton, where we had some work till after Christmas. On 

 New Year's Day, 1838, the first section of the London and 

 Birmingham Railway was opened to Tring, and I and my 

 brother took advantage of it to go up to London, where he 



