CHAPTER III 



HERTFORD: THE HOME OF MY BOYHOOD 



My recollections of our leaving Usk and of the journey to 

 London are very faint, only one incident of it being clearly 

 visualized — the crossing of the Severn at the Old Passage in 

 an open ferry-boat. This is so very clear to me, possibly 

 because it was the first time I had ever been in a boat. I 

 remember sitting with my mother and sisters on a seat at 

 one side of the boat, which seemed to me about as wide as a 

 small room, of its leaning over so that we were close to the 

 water, and especially of the great boom of the mainsail, when 

 our course was changed, requiring us all to stoop our heads for 

 it to swing over us. It was a little awful to me, and I think 

 we were all glad when it was over and we were safe on land 

 again. We must have travelled all day by coach from Usk 

 to the Severn, then on to Bristol, then from Bristol to London. 

 I think we must have started very early in the morning and 

 have reached London late in the evening, as I do not remember 

 staying a night on the way, and the stage then travelled at an 

 average speed of ten miles an hour over good roads and in 

 the summer time. The monotony of the journey probably 

 tired me so that it left no impression; but besides the ferry- 

 boat the only other incident I can clearly recall is our sleeping 

 at an old inn in London, and our breakfast there the next 

 morning. I rather think the inn was the Green Man, or some 

 such name, in Holborn, and the one thing that lives in my 

 memory is that in the morning my mother ordered coffee 

 for breakfast, and said to the waiter, " Mind and make it 

 good." The result of which injunction was that it was nearly 

 black, and so strong that none of the party could drink it, till 

 boiling water was brought for us to dilute it with. I, of 



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