V] 



HERTFORD: MY HOME-LIFE 



73 



could for us, and ultimately, I believe, repaid a considerable 

 part of the money, but while the legal proceedings were in 

 progress, and they lasted full three years, it was necessary for 

 us to reduce expenses as much as possible. We had to leave 

 our comfortable house and garden, and for a time had the 

 use of half the rambling old house near All Saints' Church 

 already mentioned. 



Before this, I think, my brother John had gone to London 

 to be apprenticed, and the family at home consisted only of 

 myself and my younger brother Herbert till my sister returned 

 from France. It must have been about this time that I was 

 sent for a few months as a boarder at the Grammar School, as 

 already stated ; but this whole period of my life is very indis- 

 tinct. I am sure, however, that we moved to the next house 

 in St. Andrew's Street early in 1836, because on May 15 of 

 that year an annular eclipse of the sun occurred, visible in 

 England, and I well remember the whole family coming out 

 with smoked glasses into the narrow yard at the side of the 

 house in order to see it. I was rather disappointed, as it only 

 produced a peculiar gloom such as often occurs before a 

 thunderstorm. While we were here a brewery was being 

 built at the bottom of the yard, and while inspecting it and 

 inquiring what the various tanks, boilers, etc., were for, I 

 learnt that the word " water " was tabooed in a brewery ; that 

 it must always be spoken of as " liquor," and any workman 

 or outsider mentioning " water " is immediately fined or called 

 upon to stand a gallon of beer, or more if he can afford it. 



At midsummer, I think, we again moved to a part of a 

 house next to St. Andrew's Church, where we again had the 

 Silk family for neighbours in the larger half of the house. 

 They also had most of the garden, on the lawn of which was 

 a fine old mulberry tree, which in the late summer was so 

 laden with fruit that the ground was covered beneath it, and 

 I and my friend George used to climb up into the tree, 

 where we could gather the largest and ripest fruit and feast 

 luxuriously. 



This was the last house we occupied in Hertford, the 

 family moving to Hoddesdon some time in 1837, to a pretty 



