94 



REMINISCENCES. 



always found birds' nests even up to the last years of his life, 

 and we, as children, considered that he had a special genius 

 in this direction. In his quiet prowls he came across the less 

 common birds, but I fancy he used to conceal it from me, as 

 a little boy, because he observed the agony of mind which I 

 endured at not having seen the siskin or goldfinch, or what- 

 ever it might have been. He used to tell us how, when he 

 was creeping noiselessly along in the " Big-Woods," he came 

 upon a fox asleep in the daytime, which was so much aston- 

 ished that it took a good stare at him before it ran off. A 

 Spitz dog which accompanied him showed no sign of excite- 

 ment at the fox, and he used to end the story by wondering 

 how the dog could have been so faint-hearted. 



Another favourite place was "Orchis Bank," above the 

 quiet Cudham valley, where fly- and musk-orchis grew among 

 the junipers, and Cephalanthera and Neottia under the beech 

 boughs ; the little wood " Hangrove," just above this, he was 

 also fond of, and here I remember his collecting grasses, 

 when he took a fancy to make out the names of all the com- 

 mon kinds. He was fond of quoting the saying of one of 

 his little boys, who, having found a grass that his father had 

 not seen before, had it laid by his own plate during dinner, 

 remarking, "I are an extraordinary grass-finder !" 



My father much enjoyed wandering slowly in the garden 

 with my mother or some of his children, or making one of a 

 party, sitting out on a bench on the lawn ; he generally sat, 

 however, on the grass, and I remember him often lying under 

 one of the big lime-trees, with his head on thi green mound 

 at its foot. In dry summer weather, when we often sat out, 

 the big fly-wheel of the well was commonly heard spinning 

 round, and so the sound became associated with those pleas- 

 ant days. He used to like to watch us playing at lawn-ten- 

 nis, and often knocked up a stray ball for us with the curved 

 handle of his stick. 



Though he took no personal share in the management of 

 the garden, he had great delight in the beauty of flowers — 

 for instance, in the mass of Azaleas which generally stood in 



