IX] SILSOE AND LEIGHTON BUZZARD 137 



been articled, and who had a large business in the surround- 

 ing districts. 



A younger brother of Mr. Matthews, who was an amateur 

 chemist, was to take over the management of the gas-works, 

 and this led to a thorough overhauling of the whole plant, 

 including the mains and street lamps, so that everything 

 should be handed over in good working order ; and though I 

 had generally to mind the shop while the master was away, I 

 heard every detail discussed in the evening, and sometimes 

 went out with them after closing hours, to examine some 

 street lamp or house connection that showed indication of a 

 leak or water stoppage. Before quitting this episode in my 

 early life, I may just note that in after years we became almost 

 neighbours, first in North-West London, and afterwards at 

 Godalming, and kept up a neighbourly friendship for many 

 years. A son, William Matthews, jun., was brought up to 

 watchmaking, with the prospect of succeeding his father as 

 head of the London firm ; but the business was distasteful to 

 him, and when he came of age he entered the office of a 

 building surveyor. But the strain of London life, and an 

 insatiable love of work when work was to be had, under- 

 mined his health, and he died in middle age. Mr. Matthews 

 himself was also an example of an intelligent man with con- 

 siderable ability entirely lost in the narrow round of a small 

 old-fashioned city business, which absorbed all his energies, 

 and, combined with a habit of excessive snuff-taking, affected 

 both his mental faculties and his physical health. I am, 

 therefore, thankful that circumstances allowed me to continue 

 in the more varied, more interesting, and more healthy 

 occupation of a land-surveyor. 



This may be considered the first of several turning-points 

 of my life, at which, by circumstances beyond my own con- 

 trol, I have been insensibly directed into the course best 

 adapted to develop my special mental and physical activities. 

 It was the death at this particular period of the senior partner 

 in the city watchmaking firm, and his having offered to Mr. 

 Matthews the opportunity of being his successor on exceed- 

 ingly advantageous terms, that prevented me from becoming 



