An Autobiography of an Ancient Athlete & Antiquarian

IIO AUTOBIOGRAPHY The middle of December I went to arrange "J arley's Waxworks" for P.B.F. for the War Fund, and while there I heard of the death of an old friend, Quaritch, and at once came up for his funeral. He was a most able man and most kind to me in the way of lending me books and giving me information. My father was one of his first customers, and one of the lucky ones who secured an ''Omar" out of the waste-box at the door ! I returned to Norwich and Tasburgh for Christmas. This year (r899) the only book I published was a Calendar of the Feet of Fines for Suffolk, pp. 393. As in the case of my similar Calendar for Cambridge, I had practically no help from the Society, for which I printed it partly at my own expense. Having arranged for my retirement from bu iness on what I think was very fair terms to my sons (anyhow they at once did very well, and made a big profit by selling No. 13, Golden Square for more than I valued it to them), I spent the early part of this year (r900) by myself at St. Leonard's, but according to promise I came up to London every week by the early market train on Monday, returning by the afternoon train on Tuesday so as to see old clients, and make the change of business less obvious. This was a wise, but probably a useless, precau– tion, for few came to see me, and the irksomeness of getting up in the dark to catch the early train was considerable, as I had no servant, and only the help of Carr, the builder, who was fitting up the house under my personal super· vision. It had its amusing side, for I pitched my mattress in various rooms from time to time, and was not always successful in my early morning i.aeal, as on the occasionwhen I had conceived a grand hot-pot of moorhen for my breakfast I left it on a turf fire which wickedly burned up in the night and left me only the cinders of the birds and a burned-out pot for breakfast before I slipped down the snow-slopes to the station. Still, sometimes I had successes, and the memory of a lot of larks and snipe cooked en brioche with alternative lumps of bacon is still, I hope, a pleasant memory with two friends of .mine who shared it. My wife came up to see how I was getting on with the alterations in February, but after a very good dinner at the "Maid's Head," whereat I ate some poisoned mussels,