92 



MY LIFE 



[Chap. 



would be a fair investment. The owner lived at Winchester, 

 and when I went down there to see him and arrange the 

 terms, I recall one little incident illustrating one of the great 

 social changes of the last thirty-five years. After our business 

 was settled and we had had some lunch, he offered to show me 

 the cathedral, and on our way there a gentleman passed us 

 on one of the early bicycles, which were then a comparative 

 novelty. As the cyclist passed, my companion remarked, 

 " There goes a fool upon rollers " — expressing a very common 

 opinion among the older portion of the community. 



As there was a deep bed of rough gravel on my ground 

 and there were large cement works at Grays, I thought 

 it would be economical to build of concrete, and I found 

 an architect of experience, Mr. Wonnacott, of Farnham, who 

 made the plans and specifications, while I myself saw that 

 the gravel was properly washed. In order to obtain water 

 in ample quantity for building and also for garden and other 

 purposes, I had a well sunk about a hundred feet into a 

 water-bearing stratum of the chalk, and purchased a small iron 

 windmill with a two-inch force pump to obtain the water. I 

 made two small concrete ponds in the garden — one close to 

 the windmill — and had a large tank at the top of a low tower 

 to supply house water. My friend Geach, the mining engineer 

 whom I had met in Timor and Singapore, was now at home, 

 and took an immense interest in my work. He helped me 

 to find the windmill — the only one that we could discover in 

 any of the engineering shops in London — and the well being 

 completed, he and I, with the assistance of my gardener, did 

 all the work of fitting the pump at the bottom of the well 

 with connecting-rods and guides up to the windmill, which 

 also we erected and set to work ourselves. As the windmill 

 had no regulating apparatus, and, when the wind became 

 strong, revolved far too rapidly, and even bent the connecting- 

 rod, I attached to the ends of the iron vanes pieces of plate 

 iron about a foot square, fixed at right angles to the line of 

 motion. These acted as brakes as soon as the revolution 

 became moderately rapid, but had little effect when it was 

 slow ; and the arrangement worked very well. 



