vi BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 



printed in last century type.. Here Agnes and Elizabeth 

 repeated to the younger children Pope's "Homer's Iliad," 

 learned out of Sir Isaac Newton's own copy, or told them 

 stories from the old chronicles. 



Mr. Strickland was a disciple of Isaak Walton and a devoted 

 follower of the "gentle craft," but being a great sufferer from 

 the gout, required close attendance. Katie generally accom- 

 panied- him to the river, and though Lockwood, a man-servant 

 who had been with him many years, was always at hand, 

 Katie could do much to help her father, and became very 

 expert in handling his fishing-tackle, while still a very small 

 child. One of Mrs. Traill's most treasured possessions now is 

 a copy of the first edition of " The Compleat Angler," which 

 formerly belonged to her father. 



When talking of her childhood, Sara (Mrs. Gwillym) always 

 spoke of " the Katie " as the idolized pet of the household. 

 " She was such a fair, soft blue-eyed little darling, always so 

 smiling and happy, that we all adored her. She never cried 

 like other children — indeed we used to say that Katie never 

 saw a sorrowful day — for if anything went wrong she just 

 shut her eyes and the tears fell from under the long lashes 

 and rolled down her cheeks like pearls into her lap. My 

 father idolized her. From her earliest childhood she always 

 sat at his right hand, and no matter how irritable or cross he 

 might be with the others, or from the gout, to which he was 

 a martyr, he never said a cross word to 'the Katie.'" 



"Stowe House" was only a rented property, and when, in 

 1808, "Reydon Hall," near Wangford, fell into the, market, Mr. 

 Strickland bought it and removed his family to the new home 

 at the end of the year. 



"Well do I remember the move to Reydon that bitter 

 Christmas Eve,'' said Mrs. Traill, when speaking of it on last 

 Thanksgiving Day, her eyes shining as bright as a child's with 

 the recollection. " The roads were deep in snow, and we chil- 

 dren were sent over in an open tax-cart with the servants and 



