PREFACE 



Although I lived the first few years of my childhood 

 at Stowe House, near Bungay, in the lovely valley of 

 the Waveney, most of my young life was spent at 

 Reydon Hall, an old Elizabethan mansion in the eastern 

 part of the county of Suffolk, and within easy walk of 

 the sea-coast town of Southwold, now a much more 

 frequented seaside resort than in former days. 



Business or pleasure often led us to the town, and the 

 beach was a great attraction and source of pleasure to 

 my sisters and myself. We loved to watch the advance 

 and recoil of the waves, the busy fishermen among their 

 nets and boats, and the groups of happy children on 

 the sands ; but there was a greater fascination still to 

 us in the search for treasures left by the flood-tide or 

 cast upon the shore by the ever restless waves. 



Sometimes there was little to reward the seekers, but' 



