BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. Vll 



carpenters. It was so cold they rolled me up in a velvet 

 pelisse belonging to Eliza to keep me from freezing, but I was 

 as merry as a cricket all the way, and kept them laughing over 

 my childish sallies. We stopped at a place called ' Deadman's 

 Grave' to have some straw put into the bottom of the cart to 

 keep us warm. No, I shall never forget that journey to 

 Reydon through the snow." 



A line old Elizabethan mansion, of which the title-deed 



GUN HILL, SOUTHWOLE BEACH. 



dates back to the reign of Edward VI., "Reydon Hall " was a 

 beau ideal residence for the bringing up of a family of such 

 precious gifts as the Strickland sisters. It stands back from 

 the road behind some of the finest oaks, chestnuts and ashes 

 in the county. Built of dark brick, its ivy-covered wall, its 

 gabled roof, tall chimneys, stone-paved kitchen, secret cham- 

 bers and haunted garrets suited both their imaginative and 

 fearless natures. A magnificent sycamore in the centre of 

 the lawn, a dell at the end of " the plantation " (as a wide 



