An Autobiography of an Ancient Athlete & Antiquarian

AUTOBIOGRAPHY 75 went on to Norwich about the Hickling case for the new year. During r891 I only published two books, viz., the Monumental Inscriptions of Tunstead Hundred and the Visitations of Norfolk for 1563-1589 and 1613 for the Harleian Society. I was practically obliged to take this in hand, as owing to the practical decrepitude of General Bulwer and the abominable laziness of the Norfolk and Norwich Archrelogical Society, it was quite clear that the Visitation they began years before would neyer be finished. Nor has it been gone on with to this day, but my shorter edition has filled the gap temporarily. On 13th March, 1892, we moved fro:n Putney to Hampstead. I bad been bivouacking there getting ready for some time before. Our first winter at Hampstead was severe and I saw tobogganing on the Heath for the first time, and we had our first children's musical evening there on 19th January, at which we introduced a very fine ghost effect of a slim girl walking downstairs across the old Hall, in the full view of everyone, and then disappearing behind a curtain. It was done by cutting out a panel in a locked door through which she slipped, the panel working with leathern stops which made no noise, and letting her through into a back stairc8se, the joint being masked by a screwed on picture on the one side, and a coat rail on the other. It took a lot of working out successfully, but though repeated yearly was never found out till one of my children gave it away "in strict confidence " to a schoolfellow. On the 19th March, J.B. Rye ran third from scratch in the Ch. Ch. half, doing the veriest shade over 2 minutes all the way. Later 011 he ran third in the Varsity mile, doing about 4.31 all the way, and on the :znd April, ran second in the L.A.C. half mile handicap, doing a shade under two minutes all the way. In the Inter-Varsity mile on the 8th, he was only started as a pace-maker, and Lutyens won on his merits in 4.24 3/5. On the 21st May, Dr. and Mrs. Grun came to Norwich, the former to analyse the water of the Broad, and I had a curious experience driving over Mousehold, soon after I fainted. The Hickling case began on the 14th and ended on the 27th June, when the court decided for us as to the