An Autobiography of an Ancient Athlete & Antiquarian

74 AUTOBIO RAPHY rather complimentary than otherwi ·e, ha ing iu view the old saying of '' liar , d--d liars, and -- professional witnesses." Later on in the Rockland ca e one of such judges came rouud entirely to my views a to the tide. 11 the year 1891, off aud on we were scheming the fitting up of the '' Alma'" On 2nd eptember, we had our la t (?) voyao-e in the "Lotu ," and on the 7th, our fir t in the " lma," taking the tide· on Hickling B1oad, with J.B.L. and his wife, working light up to ylsbam, incidentally working at the Hickling case and taking tidal notes. On 29th August I went down to orwich in a light single brougham ·with . Dixon, \: ho drove me, ·Jeeping the first night at Chelmsford, the second at Ipswich (White Horse). '!'he next day we only got to Scole, and in the night the mare died of heart disease in the stable. It turned out she had long been ufferiug from a greatly distended heart. After living about seven years at Putney, I got rather tired of it, chiefly on account of the growing noise and blackguardi 111 of the tow-path ro\: dies, and the spoliation of the picture ·queness of the place, by the pulling down the old timber bridge, the destruction of the tow-path, and felling the tree of the Bishop;s Meadows opposite, and having the hance of selling both properties advantageously, I bought a larger and very old-fa bioned panelled house at Hampstead, called Frognal House, which I restored, and in which I pa· ed another seven year:s or so. Here again the garden was to me a great charm; it wa · a very long walled garden rising up a steep hill with a grand south fruit wall. I moved my span house to it, and used it for an orchard house, being most succes:ful with great trained plum trees from Veitch and River·, which bore me great crops. I al o had a long and very succe sful house for green figs only, and was eldom without fruit. It was, and still is, a very fine and roomy example of the old Merchant Princes' home, panelled from top to bottom, a fine wide staircase, and I improved it a great deal by adding the two fine mantels I brought from Putney. The Cbri tma day of 1891 I pas ed at the empty house at Hampstead, with my sous and Dr. Furnivall, but