Is truth more strange than fiction the writer is inclined to ask as his thoughts are carried on memories wings back over a period of sixty odd years, to a small village in the north east of Cornwall. In that small village in the year 1864 there stood an old farmhouse; or to be more correct, there leaned upon its crutches an old thatched house. The front wall had a decided lean to the south so as to be on a dangerous angle, and to necessitate those very substantial crutches. The walls ,as was common in those days , were made of clay and straw and were very thick , Thus making the house very warm in winter and cool in summer, and when nicely white washed had quite a respectable appearance . The house was a large one consisting of two stories ,but at the time of writing, only a part of the house was used as a dwelling, that being the center portion and a skillion on the east end was used as a byre and usually contained one or two cows during the winter . The top story of the western portion was used as a barn and underneath that a pig or two ate and slept in a very contented manner. The house sparrows had burrowed deep under the eaves of the thatch and provided for themselves homes where they could live and multiply. The entrance to the interior of the dwelling portion was by means of two half doors – those doors were fastened on the inside by latches and catches; 1 piece of leather was attached to the latch from the inside and passed through a hole an inch or two above the latch and hung down on the outside, so that by pulling the piece of leather on the outside the latch would raise within and give access. The one window to admit light to the ground floor was on the south side and consisted of panes of glass about four inches square in a lead frame about three feet square. There were three rooms on the ground floor and three bedrooms in the second story.
A stone pavement was laid along the front of the house. The main entrance was into the main and largest room from the south; directly opposite the entrance; on the wall, hung and American clock in a case about two feet six inches long about fifteen inches wide by about six feet. Above the ground floor, in the bottom left hand corner of the case, a piece of the vaneering about inch square had been knocked off by a stone throw one by a neighbour’s son and quite by accident struck the clock with the above result. Next to the clock, on the same wall stood the dresser, plentifully laden with Delft and hanging on the same wall next to it were two sides of cured bacon. In the east end of the room was the fire recess, in a semicircle on the north side of which stood a scuttle; suspended from an iron bar up in the chimney there was a row of chimney crooks and hanging from them were the necessary crocks for cooking, which could be raised or lowered as required, there being sliding ratchets on the chimney crooks. The fire material was placed on the earth in the recess and consisted of wood or coal. Built into the north side of the recessed was an earthenware oven, heated with a wood fire like a baker’s oven. Over the mantelpiece hung a picture of Lord Nelson, the corner of which was a game cock – I presume meant to describe Nelson’s fighting qualities – and over that picture hung a single barrel muzzle-loading gun. On the south side and in front of the windows stood the dining table. Suspended from the great wooden beams that served as joists for the second floor was a bacon rack containing cured hams and other portions of pork, and occasionally pork sausages. On the western end of the same room was a partition wall with two doorways, one on the south side opening into the dairy and the other on the north side opening into the potato and lumber house. Between the two doors stood a mahogany folding table and on the table the family Bible and other books were kept. In the dairy in borad-topped glazed earthenware jars was usually a good supply of sweet scolded cream and milk, and in the potato house a supply of potatoes.
It maybe I asked why I mention these details. It is to show how endelibly the impressions of youth are stamped on our memory and how the veracity of this auto biography depends on those impressions and their retention in our memory. There are many incidents to which I shall refer later so I will hasten to describe further the surroundings of the place.
In front of the house was a courtyard surrounded by huge elm trees; across the yard was an open shed where in winter the feed was placed, and cattle could go in and out at will for food and shelter. On the south side of the Yard and beyond was arable land of only medium quality. On the west side was a road and the village square. On the east was meadowland land of fair quality, And also the kitchen garden with giant sticks of rhubarb, gooseberries, Black and red currants, beehives, and an abundance of vegetables in season. On the north and at the back of the house were the hay and corn stacks. The rural scene with its sweet scented grass, its edge growths of bushes and huge elm trees seemed to offer special protection and make it a congenial place for bird life, And in the early spring when all nature was budding into newness of life, why should not the black-bird, The thrush, the robin, the goldfinch and the skylark mingle their voices in the chorus of praise to so great a creator, or why, since I was not responsible for that creation, or the architecture of the house, apologise for first opening my eyes to the light of day in such a place and amidst such surroundings? And yet that event nearly caused a tragedy and I was hastily removed from the scene and went the first six weeks of childhood in a neighbor’s house and under their care, While my mother’s life hung by a slender thread between life and death through scarlet fever and other complications.
How it was that I was considered to be my mother’s pet I never knew. Was it on account of that early separation while she struggled with death through weeks of pain, or was there a fear that I would share the fate of my two older brothers who had both died in infancy, or was it because I most resembled her in appearance? I know that as a child I was regarded in that light, but the reason I shall never know. Suffice it to say that there was a mutual love that made life seem inseparable – As I child I thought it would be impossible to live without my mother. I was ruled by my mother’s love and fear of my father, and yet my father was kind and good but had a very hasty temper, and, like John the Baptist, he wore a leather girdle about his loins, which did not concern me as long as he wore it there, but it did concern me very considerably sometimes when he took it off, for then I had a very decided inclination to sidle close up to my mother. However, I loved my father and used to look forward to his return from work in the evening and enjoyed his company, because he loved us, and, although he was hasty sometimes with the girdle, he used to say afterwards that it caused him more pain than it caused me. My sister was two years my senior and was to my father the apple of his eye. He simply adored her, and she was worthy of his adoration for she might be called in every respect her father’s girl. How strange, that after sixty-three years a person would remember clearly certain events that occurred during the first six and a half years of his life. Of course, it is only certain events that stand out above others, bold and impressive, after such a lapse of time. It is my intention to recall here the very earliest events that occurred in my memory, and the first of those events was the birth of my brother, who is two years and five weeks my junior, also the nurse, and certain work she was doing, seems as clear as on the day I saw her. It may be considered to be a stretch of imagination to claim to be able to remember events that at two years of age, sixty-three years afterwards, but when recounted to my mother many years afterwards she said that the facts were as I recalled. the yard and beyond was arable land of only medium quality. On the west side was a road and the village square. On the east was meadowland of fair quality, and also the kitchen garden with giant sticks of rhubarb, gooseberries, black and red currants, beehives, and an abundance of vegetables in season. On the north and at the back of the house were the hay and corn stacks. The rural scene with its sweet scented grass, its edge growths of bushes and hugh elm trees seemed to offer special protection and make it a congenial place for bird life, and in early spring when all nature was budding into newness of life, why should not the black-bird, the thrush, the robin, the goldfinch and the skylark mingle their voices in a chorus of praise to so great a creator, or why, since I was not responsible for that creation, or the architecture of the house, appologise for first opening my eyes to the light of day in such a place and amidst such surroundings? And yet that event nearly caused a tragedy and I was hastily removed from the scene and wpent the first six weeks of childhood in a neighbour’s house and under their care, while my mother’s life hung by a slender thread between life and death through scarlet fever and other complications.
How it was that I was considered to be ray mother’s pet I never knew. Was it on account of that early separation while she struggled with death through weeks of pain, or was there a fear that I would share the fate of my two older brothers who had both died in infancy, or was it because I most resembled her in appearance? I know that as a child I was regarded in that light, but the reason I shall never know. Suffice it to say that there was a mutual love that made life seem inseparable – as I child I thought it would be impossible to live without my mother. I was ruled by my mother’s love and fear of my father, and yet my father was kind and good but had a very hasty temper, and, like John the Baptist, he wore a leather girdle about his loins, which did not concern me as long as he wore it there, but it did concern me very considerably sometimes when he took it off, for then I had a very decided inclination to sidle close up to my mother. However, I loved my father and used to look forward to his return from work in the evening and enjoyed his company, because he loved us, and, although he was hasty sometimes with the girdle, he used to say afterwards that it caused him more pain than it cuased me. My sister was two years my senior and was to my father the apple of his eye. He simply adored her, and she was worthy of his adoration for she might be called in every respect her father’s girl. How strange, that after sixty-three years a person whould remember clearly certain events that occurred during the first six and a half years of his life. Of course, it is only certain events that stand out above others, bold and impressive, after such a lapse of time. It is my intention to recall here the very earliest events that occurred in my memory, and the first of those events was the birth of my brother, who is two years and five weeks my junior, also the nurse and certain work she was doing, seems as clear as on the day I saw her. It may be considered to be a stretch of imagination to claim to be able to remember events that occurred at two years of age, sixty-three years afterwards, but when recounted to my mother many years afterwards she said that the facts were as I recalled.
Oh! What a golden chain is memory – it connects our early childhood to our present thoughts and links us to the anchor of our future hopes. Shall we count the links of that long chain, one by one, and see how they connect all our joys, our happiness, all our pain and sorrow, all our ambitions and disappointments, all our likes and dislikes, all our love and hate, all the opportunities that we embraced or neglected, all our good or bad intentions, or unkind acts, all our charitable dispositions or morbid selfishness, all our hopes and dispairs, all our acquaintances and impressions? Probably there is no brighter link in that long chain than the one that connects us with our acquaintances, and our impressions of them. It links those joyous shouts of laughter of childrens’ voices as they rang out in delight at having achieved some advantage in games of play, of hide and seek etc, those swift little feet that have long gone into hiding, those joyous little voices long since stilled in the silence of death. Those voices that once joined with ours as we lisped our morning or evening prayers at our mother’s knee. It links us to our parents voices as they entreated us in words of love, or threatened us with angry words when we had justly deserved it. It links us to all that gave us the inspiration to be good, or to do kindly deeds, and also to those who sowed
tares instead of grain in the fertile soil of our young lives, and marred much of the serne happiness and fullness of joy that might otherwise have been our portion. What a crowd of thoughts conjure up before us when we start to revive the chain of memory.
he next event that stands out clearly in my memory is my fourth birthday, It was customary for the workmen of our district to have a good fat pig to kill about Xmas tine to provide a festive season with fresh pork for us and to provide themselves with ham and bacon for the year to follow. It was also a custom amongst the workmen who were neighbours not to kill at the same time, so when one party killed a pig there used to be what was known as a pig feast, to which all the neighbours were invited and it was probably due to that event that we hear the expression sometimes made concerning people who have seen good times but have since slipped several-rungs down the social ladder – that it is not everyday we kill a pig. My birthday being 23rd of December, it so happened it was on that day of my fourth birthday that my father was to have his pig killed, and although the terrible deed was to be done at four o’clock in the morning, so that it should not interfere with the ordinary routine of the butcher nor my father and I got my father to allow me to rise and see it done. He not only allowed me to see it, but he allowed me to hold the horn lantern that provided the light, and being so anxious to see how it was killed I held the light so that I could see best myself and that so satisfied the butcher that he told me I was to be his butcher when I grew up. Immediately my; aspiration and whole ambition went out to the butchering business, and this remembrance links my first boy playmate, who was about twelve months -my senior, to my ambitions in the butchering business. We discussed the matter with each other, and to wait till I grew up was ruled out of the question. Were we not men then, and could we not start straight away? Of course we could. So we agreed to get into the business and we arranged our shop and started the business with frogs for our stock-in-trade, but there being no demand for our goods the market was so depressed that we; quickly went out of business, and we decided to go in for horses. J. C.,
John COLWILL
Son Male 17 Whitstone, Cornwall, England Ag. Lab.
my first boy playmate, was much bigger than me, and had much less objection to being the horse than I had. We readily agreed that he should be the horse and me the driver. I believe we both found mutual pleasure in the knowledge that he could pull a heavier load than me, and in the knowledge that he was a willing horse. Of course, in playing horses you have to go further afield than your own backyard, so in our wanderings we dropped in on W.J., another willing horse, about equal in size to J. C. So to have a team of willing horses was a very desirable thing and we found a lot of pleasure in it and became best friends, sharing each others joys and woes. About that time ay younger brother was toddling around in his little red frock with the black stars, but he was too small to play horses , and my sister who was two years my senior and who had a girl playmate, used to play and fight in turns, being both of the spitfire temperament, used to join us
In that little village there lived three fanners. One of them we used to call Gramper G. He was a great tall, lanky man as thin as a rake as people used to say, he had a very long nose and had the reputation of being not over-fond of work, but whatever his qualifications or his desire for work he failed in business and came to live with my father, .and mother. The first time I remember being on horseback was with Gramper G who took me up in front of him when he was on his way to the field where he was ploughing. I do not remember whether he did any work that afternoon or whether he spent the time amusing me, but he brought me home again in the evening and I found real pleasure in his company. After he failed in business he became very irritable, and my playmate J. C. and myself found pleasure in teasing him, and getting him to chase us. On one occasion we ran away with his walking-stick; he chased us out into the courtyard, but we climbed one of the elm trees and teased him from our perch. He became so wrathful that he gathered stones to knock us off our perches, and in his frantic endeavour to reach us with the stones he put that much energy into his efforts that he overbalanced, fell backwards, and settled on a heap of manure and then we laughed until we nearly cried while he fumed like a tornado.
Earlier in this chapter, in describing the house, there was mention made of a dairy, with nice dishes of scalded cream. One day my mother had occasion to leave the house for a while, and, on her return and on going into the dairy, she noticed there was a considerable amount of cream missing from one of the dishes, and that meant a line-up muster of my sister and myself to answer a stem question, and that question was put to my sister first.
“Seline, did you take the cream from. that dish of milk in the dairy?”
“No, mother.” “Tom, did you?” “No, mother.” Then with a lurch and a heave Tom could hold on to the cream no longer and I spewed the lie and the cream on the floor in front of where I stood. Oh! The reproach of that lie. Little boys and little girls, young men and young women, old men and old women, think not to escape your sins by a lie, for remember that for all these things God will bring you into judgement.
I was about five years of age when I first went to school. The school was a private one, there being no National Schools at that time in the district. The school consisted of one long and narrow Skillion room and the school mistress seemed to be built especially for such a place. She was very thin and frail looking with sharp, genteel features and although considerably past her teens she was still Miss S. and if ever there was a warm spring of ” love welling up within her, it seemed to have long since dried up, and she looked on her charges through a pair of spectacles with eyes as cole and piercing as icicles, and a countenance as cheerless as a frog in a bathroom., She must have known from the start that I disliked her, for she started early on me with the cane, and I do not remember going to school one single day that she did not practise that method of teaching me. If she had been a reader of character she would soon have learnt that good results were not to be gained by such methods. I disliked and disdained her and not a single lesson nor anything in connection with lessons do I remember having learnt during her reign as school mistress, yet I remember playing the wag one half day. I also remember quite a number of those children attending that school and have to this day some happy recollections of that period. In children there are chords of love – bang them with a cane and you create in that child a jarring dischord. Touched by a kind sympathetic hand those chords will vibrate and respond to love. There was a class of big girls who showed me s. lot of kindness at that school and I love and respect their memory today. There was a little firl near my own age who showed her interest and sympathy towards me, and my feelings responded in a passion of love towards her. Do I hear someone asking why I write such silly nonsence about school children’s love? Why not? To love is the most natural thing on earth and there is nothing higher in heaven or earth than love; for God is love.
There were two churches in the Parish – or a chruch and a chapel. The Parish Church of England was supported by the tithes of ten percent, according to the rents of the farmers. That is to say, that a farmer paying one hundred pounds in rent per annum was levied ten pounds per annum to support the clergymen and the family of the Church of England. The Chapel had no state aid but was supported by voluntary contributions. I would be quite safe in saying that ten persons went to the Chapel for every one that went to the Church of England. My father and mother were amongst the dissenters, or ranters, as the Church people chose to call them, and we children were regular attendants at the Sabbath School in connection with the Chapel from the time we were old enough to walk there. In connection with the Chapel there was a Temperence Society called “The Band of Hope”, which was really a hopeful band of people who joined together for the purpose of chasing from our land the mighty foe of intemperence. The Sabbath School Anniversary and the Band of Hope Festival were annual events – one celebrated in June and the other in July. Those days were looked forward to as being the most wonderful events of our lives. The School Anniversary was the children’s day; The Festival was a day for all ages. There used to be a procession with banners and headed by a brass band, the banners bearing such inscriptions as, “I promise to abstain from all intoxicating drinks and beverages etc”. I joined The Band of Hope when a child and now after sixty years I can look ‘sack with regard to that promise and I can say that I have fought the fight, and kept the Faith, and fervently thank God for that band of workers and its influence.
My father’s duties used to take him sometimes two miles away from home, and my mother used to take him hot lunches sometimes and always took me with her. I remember how I used to dread those journeys. They made me so tired that, I remember how I pleaded with my mother one hot day in the harvest season to be left hone alone. I told her she could lock me in the house until she returned but it was no use, my pleadings were in vain. Whenever my mother went, wither with my father’s lunches or with the weeding iron working in the cornfields, or gleaning in the fields after or during harvest, Tom was always with her when she was away from hone. Changes took place in those days just as they do now, and the time came when Gramfer and Granny G. became fully established in our home, and their daughter and son-in-law in their farm. Mr. and Mrs. H.
James HOOPER
Head M Male 60 Week St Mary, Cornwall, England Agr. Lab.
Jane HOOPER
Wife M Female 52 Whitestone, Cornwall, England
were the newcomers and had three sons and five daughters, the son and three of the daughters being young men and women. The three oldest firls used to come to our home and took a kindly interest in us children and we in turn loved those fine firls, and it was probably the first touch of real sorrow our young hearts had known when one of them became ill and it was announced that the complaint was consumption and that she was going to die. I remember being at their house on the day of the funeral, but what mattered was the passing out of that house of the lifeless form of a girl. She had left behind her that which can never die, love and kindness. Oh! Love and kindness, how much of Heaven dwelleth in thee, and how little of Heaven is left when thou hast departed. My father was a great worker himself and had no time for idleness, and having one daughter and two sons he thought he could embark upon his ambition and become a farmer, so the tine came when we left the village in which I was born and settled on a very small farm, comprising eight acres of land, divided into four fields, two orchards and a vegetable garden, To provide winter food for our two cows my father bought a field of oats from a farmer and I remember arriving at our new home after dark on top of that last load of oats in true home harvest style. Our new home consisted of five rooms; two bedrooms above the two main rooms on the ground floor and a skillion room the whole length of the house was in front and not at the back as usual. There were recesses on each side of the chimney that passed -up through one of the bedrooms, and these were fitted up with shelves and doors in. front, and were used for the storage of apples through the winter. The outhouses consisted of a cow barn, a barn and a pigs house. The little farm was only about a mile and a half from the village we had left, perhaps only a mile as the crow flies and we used to fo to the same day and sabbath school and the Chapel.
In the following spring after our arrival my father hired a team of horses and implements to plough and till the soil. Then my troubles started. At the age of seven or eight boys are usually more fond of play than work and I was no exception to the rule. After the crops were planted the warm days of spring brought the crops forward rapidly and there was abundance of work to be done – hoeing and banking the potatoes, hoeing the cabbages and turnips and then the hay harvest. My father used to spend the summer evenings, in fact the winter ones too, in working like a slave after doing his day’s work elsewhere and he used to alot out so much for us children to do after we came in from school and I was looked upon to see it was done. Sometimes I could not resist the temptation to stop and have a game of play after school. Then my alloted work was not done and the leather girtle was brought into requisition and that remainder of neglected duty used to come often. On one occasion we came home from school late. Our sister met us and told us that father was home and I was going to get it. I got scared and we went into hiding rather than meet the consequences. There was a ditch in one of the fields not far from the house with a good growth of herbage and sheltered by a hedge. We took refuge in that and when father came hone and found that we were not there and nowhere to be found there was a commotion and a search instituted and it was not until midnight we were found and we would not have been found then had not my little brother said that we would not get wet there if it rained and wanted me to confirm that opinion. We happened to be heard. I only got a lash or two with the girtlie that time because my mother got between us, and told my father that he could hit her but he should not hit me. I remember boing put to bed but I cannot recollect getting any supper that night, and all that occurred because my sister had told us a lie.
I said earlier that our little farm was about a mile distant from the village we had left, as the- crow flies. My first boy playmate, J. C., used often to come over and see us and have a game of play and in doing so he used to take the line above mentioned, which meant that he must trepass through meadow and cornfields, as well as considerably reduce the amount of work allotted us to do. He stayed later than usual one summer evening and my father arrived home just when he was passing through a field of wheat on his way home, so father thought he would have a bit of fun at the boy’s expense and he shouted, “I say, farmer H.,
Daniel HAM
Head M Male 62 Kilkhampton, Cornwall, England Farmer Of 70 Acres
there is a boy going through your field of wheat. He’s just about in the middle of the field. If you go along to the gate you will meet him.” The poor boy went down as though he had been shor and was not to be seen for a while, then he raised his head just above the wheat and took a survey before the next rush, and when he took it father shouted again, “He’s not going to the gate, he is taking another direction.” Then he went down again, but finally he got through by taking short rushes in different directions and father watched him and lathed until he nearly dropped. Things seemed to prosper on our little farm and we had a fair amount of fun and pleasure as well as plenty of hard work. In the first year or two we had good crops and another young sister was born and we had to increase our stock to sonsume the crops. I remember going with my father to a fair about six miles away to purchase a cow, and we got a beautiful cow and a heifer calf for £15.10.0 and I can remember how proud we both were of our bargain, and we had just reason to be for her yield of butter per day was one pound ten ounces. With two good cows in profit we used to have a good basket of butter to send to market every Saturday and were beginning to shine as farmers worthy of a bigger farm. Sometimes father used to hire a donkey and cart to do some light work, and we used to have great fun with the donkey, my sister and I. We used to catch it and try to ride it, and it would gallop and kick and throw us off. I remember one morning my sister getting on and the donkey set off down the field and up went its heels and away went one of my sister’s shoes, a few more strides and away went the other shoe and my sister with it. But she would not have it that she fell off, and said that she only went off to get her slipper, and we used to laugh at her and tell her about the polite way she had in getting off to get the slipper. There were no less than four farms with land adjoining our little farm, and there was a great demand on my services, especially by one of the farmers. He used to come and plead with to let me cone and work for him just for a few days, and that menat keeping me away from school. But I was generally allowed to go and was paid with a few coppers in addition to my food , at the end of the two or three days term.
Changes had taken place in the village in which I was born and the farmer and his wife who took charge of me during the first six weeks of infancy, Mr. and Mrs. B.
Henry BADCOCK
Head M Male 56 Whitstone, Cornwall, England Farmer
Jane BADCOCK
Wife M Female 58 Whitstone, Cornwall, England
John BADCOCK
Son U Male 24 Whitstone, Cornwall, England (Farmers Son)
Mary J. BADCOCK
Daur U Female 19 Whitstone, Cornwall, England
Thomas GILBERT
Servant Male 17 Whitstone, Cornwall, England (Farm Servant Indoor)
Louisa COLWILL
Servant Female 14 Whitstone, Cornwall, England (Dom) ((Servant))
and their son and daughter having taken and removed to a bigger farm, again claimed me to their charge, and in the early summer following my ninth birthday in December 1873, I left home and went to live with Mr. and Mrs. B. and their son and daughter. There was also one man and one maid servant. It was the son mentioned earlier who threw the stone and knocked the veneering off the clock and the daughter that was my sister’s playmate who played and fought alternately. At first I felt leaving home very severely and one day I was sent to work in the turnip field, about a half a mile from the house, alone, and after doing a short piece of one row I felt such a desire to just run hone and have a look at my mother, brother and sisters that I dropped the hoe and made a bee line for home. I knew I was doing wrong but my mother did not scold me and hurried me away again. I got back again in time for dinner, but in the meantime the son had passed the turnip field and saw that I was not there so he went to see what I had done. So at dinner I was questioned about the matter and he said that I had not done any work that morning and I said that I had and we both stuck to our ground, and he said, “Alright, to see who is telling the truth we will both go back to the field and you can show me where you were working.” So we went to the field together and I felt very much ashamed to be only able to point out a short piece of a row when I should have been able to show him three or four rows completed. He had failed to notice the piece of row done, or he would not have said that I had not done any work, and had he said that I had only done a very little work I would not have denied it. However, he asked me to explain the matter, and I said that I had been talking with another boy, but not saying where. He told me that if it had been his father instead of him that he would have sent me home. When I review that period I come to the conclusion that sufficient consideration was not given in making allowance for a boy nine years of age leaving home for the first time, and I cannot look back and say that it was a fair deal to send a boy of that age to work alone in a great field of twelve acres, with rows of turnips that looked like the work of a lifetime before him, and if I had been sent hone on that occasion I honestly believe that it would have been for my good. I would at least have had another nine months at school. I do not remember one single complaint of my doings after that.
They used to milk a lot of cows and I learnt to milk and used to help do the milking because the girl left shortly after I went there. I used to take the cows away to the fields and bring them home, help to feed them, clean. out the houses, harness a horse on to a cart and pull and fetch in loads of turnips, feed the pigs, wash potatoes for the house and for the pigs, work in the harvest fields, drive the horses for the thrashing machine, peal potatoes and apples, wash out the floors – in fact, do almost anything that a man or woman should do in their daily routine of farm work. I was treated like one of the family and the daughter treated me as if I were her brother. She was about three years my senior. She liked to see me dressed well when I went to Sunday School or Chapel, and used to help dress me and brush my hair. She did not like my hair parted at the side of my head; she used to part it in the centre as she considered I looked so much better, and I still part it that way. It is wonderful how little acts such as that recall memories of past years, and keeps them evergreen. The son was a crack with the shot gun, and nothing delighted me more than to go shooting with him, and we became fast friends, and that friendship grew with the coming years. On 25 March 1874, I left that place and went home and I was given an uninterrputed education at school.
Our little farm was prospering and we were all working at full speed. Our crops were good and so was the harvest, and my attendance at school fairly regular. During the winter nights after my father had done his days work elsewhere we used to go into the barn and I used to watch him use the flail, as he with long and measured strokes beat out the grain upon the threshing floor. He taught me the art of using that weapon and I became some help in that work. There is a scriptural command that we return good for evil, and on some occasions evil is returned for good, much less good for evil, and cuases restrained feelings between neighbours. Such was the case between my father and an adjoining neighbour for a short time. My father was always prepared to do a good turn to anyone at any time and an opportunity occurred to do a kind act to the farmer. During harvest, the farmer had got in a big stack of wheat and it was late at night when they finsihed, and as there did not appear to be any sign of rain they went to bed and left the stack unprotected. During the night my fahter was awakened by a peal of thunder and his thoughts went out in sympathy towards this farmer with his unprotected stack of wheat, and though under no obligation to do so, he immediately dressed and rushed off to the farm by the shortest distance to help get some thatch on, and make it secure. They had just got it finished when the rain came down in a real deluge and they got soaking wet but saved the stack. I should have mentioned it before and it becomes necessary to do so now. The only good drinking water free from contamination for the use of out house, was obtained from a beautiful sping in the corner of a meadow of this farmer adjoining our orchard. The running water from this spring, with other water of a doubtful quality mixed with it ran through our place close to the house, but that spring inside had been the source from which our place had drawn its supplies for a very long time and as there was proper convenience made for crossing forward and back, without damage to the fence, and as there was a footpath through the meadow that cut off an angle of bad road and shortened the distance, that had been in use for a very long time. It was generally looked upon as a right of way, and that was the route when on his way to help save their stack of wheat. Shortly afterward, for some unexplained reason, the gate on one end of the footpath was locked and the passage over the fence at the other end blocked, which meant that not only was the use of the footpath denied, but also the supply of our drinking water cut off, and that act caused the restrained feelings referred to. But it was not of long duration. I don’t know what means was used to bring it about, but access to the water and footpath were soon available. Mr. G., the farmer,
Thomas GOODMAN
Head M Male 54 Whitstone, Cornwall, England Farmer of 190 acres
was an old man then, and had worked his way up from a labouring man, to a very successful farmer, and he was not the man that would tolerate a wrong and I am doubtful if he himself was responsible. In the spring he and the family removed to another larger and better farm, about eleven miles away and he asked father to allow me to go with him to the new farm, and my father consented to let me go for a few weeks, probably to show that he did not bear any resentment, but It deprived me of eleven weeks schooling. I was with them for that time in the busiest part of the year. I used to look after the cows and do the milking and I had the compliment payed to me of being a very clean milker. I worked hoeing turnips and at hay and corn harvesting. After that it was arranged for me to go home and to school, but when they took me home, they took my sister away. This was the only place I lived where every day was commenced and closed with reading a portion of scripture and family prayer. The autumn of 1895 had arrived and I was back home and to school again and was now my father’s right hand man in work and his companion in going to Chapel. I remember we were going home from Chapel one Saundy night In a terrible wind storm. We could scarcely keep out feet. It was an awfully wild night, just like the night that Jay Bridge went down.
That summer there was a good crop of apples and father decided there was enough to warrant making some sider, so we gathered the wind falls and baged them. I don’t remember it if was a horse and cart, or the donkey and cart we used on this occasion, but I remember going off one night to an adjoining farm with our bags of apples, where there was an apple crusher and a press. After working an hour or two each night for a few nights, we were able to bring back home a small barrel of sider, and after it had fermendte and the dross worked out, it was sealed up and was to remain sealed until Xmas Eve. My father was not a total abstainer; he would take a glass of beer or sider but I never saw him take the second one, but I do know that he looded forward to Xmas Eve when he would open the barrel of sider and have a glass of sider made from apples grown from his own Orchard, and made by ourselves. But we know not what awaits us; God kindly veils our eyes. Autumn glided away and winter was with us again. Our baby sister was three years of age, a real little chatter-box and the delight of the home. Everything seemed promising for a bright and happy Xmas in our home. There was nothing to indicate that the Pale Horse and his Rider was on his way to our home and was to be our Guest for Xmas. On the night of Dec. 16 1875 father come home from work about the usual time, and said he was not feeling well and that he had had a turn or two of cold shivers and did not want any supper. My mother immediately got hot water to put his feet into, gave him something hot and got him to bed. When he put his feet into hot water he went off in a faint and Mother knew what was the matter. Early the next morning I started off on foot with a note to our doctor eight and a half miles away.
Henry J. LUKE
Head M Male 52 Stratton, Cornwall, England Surgeon M.R.C.S.
I arrived back home early in the afternoon with a bottle of medicine and a letter to another doctor living three miles away, to be delivered the following day. On the morning of the 18th I took the letter and delivered it to the doctor. It was a request to the doctor to go at once and see my father. The doctor was there in quick time and after an examination he said he was going to change the medacine. After getting home I must have gone straight back again and got the new medacine. I remember it was water colour and the first bottle was wine colour. On the 19th our own doctor came and be said the other doctor had done quite right in changing the medicine and there would be no need him coming any more; he siad the other doctor would continue to come and to give him chicken borth or anything strengthening. My mother took it as a hopeful sign and sent me to catch a hen and kill it. Father asked the doctor if he could have a glass of sider. The doctor said no, not on any account. I hurried and caught the hen, took a tiny light hoog instead of the heavy one, laid the neck on the block and made a chop at it, and the hen made some sort of a noise, but I couldn’t see any cut or blood, and I felt afraid that I had hurt the poor hen and I held her against her breast and patted her lovingly. Then I remembered she had got to be killed and that I had to be the executioner. I put her head on the block again. I don’t know how many strokes it took, but I did not stop chopping until the head was severed. Had I taken the sharp heavy hook it would have saved much pain to both me and the hen. Some of the neighbours had intercepted the doctor on his way home and enquired about father’s condition. He told them that there was not the slightest hope of his recovery, he had inflammation of the lungs and that this was the fifth time, and that one lung was completely gond and the other so badly affected that he could not live. On the morning of the 21st the doctor told mother that father did not need any more medacine, that she could give him any strengthening food he ‘•”• could take. That gave us great hope that he was out of danger. On his way home he told one of the neighbours that if there were any friends to be got in, it must be done that day, and one of them went for my sister. I was sitting beside the fire after we had tea when two men came in and also took their seats on the other side. They were J.T. and W.S.
William SLEMAN
Head U Male 70 W St Mary, Cornwall, England Farmer of 100 acres
They were the farmers who were always wanting me for a few days, and it was them who had ~ intercepted the doctor a few days earlier. After we had been sitting and talking a while the old nurse came down stairs
Mary COLES
Head W Female 66 Whitstone, Cornwall, England Midwife
and the men enquired how was Bill now? He is dying was the reply. I shall never the shock of those words. I had believed he was better and would recover. Without a word I sprang to my feet, crossed the floor and up the stairs to my father’s room. There I sat in another bed and watched the laboured breathing as the space between each breath grew longer and longer, as the tide of life ebbed out. About 10 o’clock there came in a suppressed voice the words, “He’s gone”. Yes, he had crossed the Bar, leaving the sands of time behind; he had entered the great Ocean of Eternity. How memory now lingers around that spot, as I write this I see and hear it all over again. That rich tenor voice that used so frequently sing his favourite songs, “Come to the Saviour and Make no Delay”, and also that song,
“When we have been there ten thousand years
Bright shiny as the sun
We have no less days to sing God’s praise
Than when we first begun. ”
Oh’. Mortal man, why build castles for the future? Make proper use of today, rather than be over-anxious about tomorrow. Only a few days before, father had looked forward to spending a happy Xmas with his wife and family, and to breaking the seal of that little barrel of sider. How strange that on Xmas Eve about four o’clock, when we were all looking forward to be gathered around a big log fire to start our Xmas celebrations, we should be gathered in the Parish Churchyard, in a drizzling rain, where the wet mould was to seal forever from view the mortal remains of our loving father, and bread winner. During the few days of father’s illness, our little sister who was three years old seemed to have a special knowledge revealed to her. One day during his illness she went into his room, placed her arms around his neck and kissed him and said, “Father will you ever go to work for Bessie any more?”. He replied, “I hope so, my dear”, and she said, “No, father you won’t work for Bessie any more”. She said, “Men dig a great big hole and they are going to put you in it”. It was probably those remarks of our little sister that caused mother to ask father if he had any fear of death, and he replied, “No”. He said that to die for him would be to gain and the only thing he desired to live for was to see his family reared. My father’s brother-in-law, borther and two nieces from Plymouth arrived to attend the funeral, and as was the customary thing, all friends were invited back to the house after the funeral was over, where a good dinner was provided. That foolish custom considerably reduced out small means, and to further reduce that means our two young women cousins stopped with us six or seven weeks, and when they went away, one of our Aunts and three children came and stayed for six weeks, and after those expenses were met our samll capital had gone, and mother found that she was getting into debt. Then she discovered that the world gave kicks as well as kindness. Our neighbour trainers J.T. and W.S. found out that mother was in need of cash, and gave her no peace until she sold them a beautiful heifer that they had taken a fancy to, for probably less than half its value.
The short cold days of winker in due course were succeeded by the lengthening days of spring. The sun rays became stronger and brighter, giving promise of newness of life. So unlike the pale rays of the winter sun when all nature seemed held in the frip of death. As they shone through the small panes of our bedroom window after father’s death it appeared as though the brightness of the sun and the brightness of my life were blotted out. In those days I would go half a mile out of my way rather than meet anyone who would speak about it, because the mention of it, or any sympathy offered, raised a lump in my throat that I wanted to keep back, but could not. Amongst the chaff and stubble of this world, there is also a lot of grain that comes as a friend in a time of need. We found it so that Spring of 1876. Two farmere of the Parish sent along their teams and implements and ploughed our ground, as well as set seeds for our crops. The blades of green soon after appeared that indicated a good harvest. In the pig sty there was a fine fat pig. Its dressed weight was 380 Ibs. It had been intended for our own use but had to be sold to square things up. That winter there also came from the adjoining Parish to that school two young men about sixteen years of age, who brought dogs with them, and they with the big boys in the Sixth Class used to go coursing during the dinner hour, and they were not always above taking the mean advantage of stealing the dinners of two defenceless small boys to feed their hungry dogs. They would only have done ti once had our father been alive. I never hear or see the name of Blatchford or Trenouth, to this day, that it does not recall to my memory two curs who were beneath contempt. At one of the farms adjoining ours there were two boys a year or two older than my brother and myself.
Daniel HAM
Head M Male 62 Kilkhampton, Cornwall, England Farmer Of 70 Acres
Betsy A. HAM
Wife M Female 58 Whitstone, Cornwall, England
Daniel HAM
Son U Male 22 Kilkhampton, Cornwall, England Ag. Lab.
Henry HAM
Son U Male 20 Kilkhampton, Cornwall, England Ag. Lab.
We became great friends and often went to their place or to the field where they were working. They had two brothers who were at that time young men, and they used to take a delight in raising a fight between the two oldest boys and me; I used to drop into some fairly solid thrashings, but they always seemed to be successful in raising a fight and getting their amusement when ever they desired to do so. Our last fight came quite unexpected and in the absence of the two young men brothers to urge it on. In recording the historical event and its importance I musk inform yon that .it took place in a woodland of some hundreds of acers in size, and at some distance from our homes, and the object of our visit to the woods was in quest of hurtleberries. It was a bright summers day. Mrs. H. with her two boys and my mother and her two ,, boys had made the party for the purpose of picking the berries. Me boys were all given coffy or cocoa tins to put the berries into, and when we had filled them we used to empty them into a larger vessel carried by our parents. We had been very successful in obtaining some good patches that day, our respective mothers had their vessels full, and we were on our way home. We four boys taking the lead by some distance. A quarrel arose between us, and from that quarrell our final fight. I knew that I was no match as far as strength was concerned but all is fair in love and war. I slipped my fist into the tin that I had been using to put the berries in and plugged him hard in the face. He bowled like a big kid and that was the last brand of mine that he ever carried. In the valleys in England there are running .streams of water. In heavy rain they are raging torrents, in the Summer mere rivulets but in places they are nasty deep holes washed out quite big enough to drown a person. Our nearest way home that day was by following the bank of the rivulet up the valley, and as we done so we had gone a good distance when suddenly we heard a splash in the water below, and on looking down the bank we saw the young boy H. clinging on to the trunk of a tree that had fallen across the deep water hole, all but his bead submerged In the water and he had just sufficient grip to keep afloat. There was another splash and I was by his side and fortunately for both of us I had jumped clear of the deep water and got a footing and managed to get him onto the top of the trunk which was partly out of the water on that side, and got on top myself and got out on the other side of the hole. Why I done it I cannot tell to this day. It was no act of bracery. I knew the little boy was in danger of being drowned and anything I did was done unconsciously. as we rezched the bank again his big brother was still there crying. When Mrs. H. Came on the scene she smothered us with kisses, and my mother afterward scolded me, and asked why I took the risk of being drowned, when his big brother done nothing but stay on the bank and cry. I could not answer her question because I was not conscious of his presence. I only saw the danger and the action was taken withought thought, and succeeded.
In the spring of 1876 another brother was born,
William BASKERVILLE
Son Male 4 Week St Mary, Cornwall, England
and mother began to show signs of failing health. In the summer of that year I got a situation and went to live with the Rev. R.H.K.
Robert H. KINGDON
Head M Male 49 Whitstone, Cornwall, England Rector of Whitstone M.A.
Jane KINGDON
Wife M Female 47 Bideford, Devon, England
Claude KINGDON
Son U Male 21 Amersham, Buckingham, England Undergraduate Oxford
Reginald KINGDON
Son U Male 12 Whitstone, Cornwall, England Scholar
Emily TONKIN
Serv U Female 20 Stratton, Cornwall, England Housemaid
Bessie ROGERS
Serv U Female 20 Stratton, Cornwall, England Cook
John ROUTLEY
Serv U Male 16 Whitstone, Cornwall, England Farm Servant (Indoor)
at the Rectory of the Parish Church. From that time I was considered to be a particularly lucky fellow. To be allowed to work and shelter under the roof ot the gentry of the Parish, was considered to be the highest honour attainable, so having attained that honourable position I was duely installed in a garret room in that house. The window of the room was about half way up the roof of one side of the gable and afforded standing roo. There was also standing room at the bead of the bed, but the foot of the bed was tucked nicely under the roof. But even at the foot of the bed there was kneeling space for a small boy. Therefore there was no excuse for not kneeling and asking the friend of the friendless for an extention of His mercies and a continuance of his loving care, and not forgetting to render thanks for the very small mercies received at that Reverend gentleman’s house. A partition divided my room from the W .C. where at times there was the annoyance of pulling of plugs and of rushing water. That convenience was not for servants. My food was in keeping with other considerations and my rate of pay was one shilling per week, and for those luxuries and the honour attached to it my duties in return was one horse and one pony to feed and groom, two carriages and two sets of harness, two saddles and bridles to keep clean, milk the cows and feed them, work in the garden, keep the Avenue free from weeds, look after the sheep and feed them in the winter, trim the hedges in the fields, cut thistles, assist in any other work required to be done on a farm, go to church twice every Sunday, go in for pryaers every Sunday night, to be in the house every night by nine o’clock, and not to go th the Chapple under pains of instant dismissal. There were two girls, one of them cook and laundress the other a housemaid, and the cook who from the very start took to me, and used to cut me some nice little pieces of pudding and meat to put in my pocket for a crib while at work. Unfortunately for me our association was all too short. After about twelve months she went away from that place and the next time I saw her was thirty-six years afterwards. Kind words and kind acts never die, the die very hard. I found both at that place. That girl, S.H., and one of the four sons, R.O.K., showed me great kindness and were always good to me. The son I refer to was about my own age and was always willing to help me to do my work, so that I could play a game with him, when Ma and Pa was away, and many a game of crokey we palyed as well as other games. The two oldest sons were at school. They were young men and the young one was made of a different clay. On one occasion we were at the end of the Avenue where it junctions with the main road. A Squire of the adjoining Parish was coming along the main road in his coach drawn by a pair of horses with a coachman perched on the driver’s seat. As soon as the boy saw who was coming he ran and got over a hedge and hid himself until the Aquire had passed. When I asked him why he did it he said it would never do for him to be seen in the clothes that he was wearing, if he was a common boy like me it would not matter and he would not mind it. I never remember one act of kindness shown towards me by the Rev. R.H.V. Soon after I went there he bought a cow from a cattle dealer of the Parish and I was to milk her while he and the dealer looked on. There were no leg ropes used there, or other means to prevent them from kicking. I sat and started to milk and whether he udder was sore, or me being strange, or her bad temper, I cannot tell, but she let out such a kick and caught me in the eye, and sent me spinning, and for a while I was completely helpless, neither could I see, and because I cried he called me a coward. Had I been a man standing looking on and seen a poor kid of twelve hurt as I was that day and never attempted to render any assistance I know who would feel a coward. I returned to the task as soon as I was able and milked the cow to their satisfaction, but I got two hurts that day, one from the kick of the cow and another from the Parson that called me a coward, while claiming to be a Minister of God. The Father of the fatherless. Oh God of love, let thine anger be slow on all who so dishonour thy name by their lives, when they should show forth thy praise. Had I heard a word of fatherly kindness or seen a look of father’s pity, that day when I was really badly hurt, how different would have been my estimate of the value of h-i-s preaching, “Christ said to his deciples, I am the vine, ye are the branches, abide in me, and I in you”. We can only judge by the fruit that a tree bears and I do not think the fruit borne that day was very Christ like, but if I judge harshly I forgive as freely, as I wish to be forgiven freely. One of his counsels to me was, to be always expecting danger, as the best method of avoiding it. I don’t think our cup of joy would ever overflow, while we were forever expecting danger. Mrs. R.H.K. was not generally liked by the Parishioners. She was considered ahughty and proud, and seemingly was only able to tolerate those who were regular attendanta t Church, and as the number at the morning service usually numbered about seven, and the afternoon from twenty to thirty, and as those were regarded with only a certain amount of toleration it is not surprising that she was not popular and yet I came to regard her in a more favourable light than him, because she was real in her pride and haughtiness, but I have seen on a few occasions when a mother’s love has broken through the pride and cast a look of pity on sime thing she thought far beneath her. But even a mother’s gentle look of pity on a youth broken in spirit for the time, was like the falling of an angel’s tear. On one occasion she -ave me sixpence to get her a few sticks for her flower garden, so that she could tie up some flowers. That sixpence represented three and a half days pay for me, and she need not have given it. She could just have told me to go and get them, which was a matter of half an hours work, but the gnetle and kind way in which she asked me to do it made me feel she wanted to show me an act of kindless, and had she not given me the coin I would have felt glad to have done it, for she had struck a cord that vibrated in response. Amongst the special friends of the farming class at the Parsonage and most regular attendants at Church services was J.T. & W. S. family. I can remember many things that occurred about that time, both at the Parsonage and at home, but cannot recollect just the order in which they occurred. From six-thirty1 to nine p.m. was my own time, unless either the horse, or poney were in use and out, in which case I had to stop on the premises and attend to them after they came in even if it was after midnight. As my home was about a mile from the Parsonage I used often to run home for an hour or so. I want you with me to leave the Parsonage for an hour or two to see what had taken place at home.
Gramfer G. had died and Granny G. was established in our home. She brought a legacy with her which consisted of a few pieces of old china ware, one hen, and two shillings and sixpence. Parish relief pay per week, and herself being bed-ridden meant extra work for mother. Our Landlord who was a porter in the Railway service at Plymouth was accidently killed and the new Landlord demanded the rent to be paid up to date. Mother had to employ a man for everything there was to do, so found it ever more difficult to balance the budget, and the ledger showed three pounds ten shillings indebitness to the Miller for flour. The Miller, Mr. H.,
Thomas HEARD
Head M Male 58 Week St Mary, Cornwall, England Miller
Elizabeth HEARD
Wife M Female 59 Trenegolis, Cornwall, England
Samuel HEARD
Son U Male 25 Boyton, Cornwall, England Ag. Lab.
Daniel HEARD
Son U Male 17 Boyton, Cornwall, England Miller
was a local, or lay preacher and considered a most devout man who had prospered wonderfully at business. He used to shout Hall very loud, and always seemed so delightfully happy when preaching in Chappie or taking part in the service. I don’t think the Miller or my mother gave the debit any concern, because hay harvest was over and a nice stack of hay in, but not thatched, and our two fields were whitening into harvest and a good harvest expected, and so it was, but not for us. J.T. & W.S. family reaped the benefit of what should have been our harvest. They had a mob of hungry pigs running at large and they happened to find our fields of grain and went through and through them, and what they did not eat they trampled down and spoilt. Mother pleaded with them to keep their pigs at home, and also against the unfair treatment of her but in vain. What mattered if children went hungry, so long as their pigs grew fat and they were regular at church service? Both mother and the Miller realised that sircumstances had changed and both seemed to have become alarme. The Miller ceased to supply any more flour and my youngest brother informed me that mother sent him for the empty flour bag and the Miller told him that mother had a good cheek to send for the bag while owing him that amount of money. Finally mother had to apply to the Authorities for some relief, and I believe she got an allowance of four and sixpence per week for the two young children from the Parish Poor Rates. Mother still had the cow, and the Miller’s claim was met. I don’t remember how, probably from the earnings of my sister and mysefl, and the efforts of my younger brother for he was the business genius. I mentioned before that when Granny G. came to live with mother that she brought a legacy, and included in that legacy was one hen. It might not have been as old as herself, but it was very anchient, but since her exact age was unknown, let me say she was no chick. However, she laid a few eggs, and sat upon them, and In due course brought forth one chick, which grew to a nice sturdy rooster. So my brother tied their legs together and took them to a poultry dealer who after examination said a nice rooster, and a very nice young pullet, Sam, and he gave a good price for them.
Let us return again to the Parsonage, the place of thou shalt and thou shalt not. Winter drew on and the frost and snow were considerable and I got terrible feet with chilblains. The itching nearly drove me mad, and the broken ones were that painful that I could scarcely walk. I have stated before that a part of my duties was to feed the sheep in the winter. The sheep’s house was nearly a quarter of a mile from the Parsonage and a stack of hay was put near the sheep’s bouse during the summer for the purpose of winter feeding. Taking off the thatch from the hay stack when the frozen snow was on it, and cutting out the benches was a bitter cold job. One day after cutting out some hay from a bench and putting it into the sheep’s rack my feet were itching that much and so painful that I sat down on the bench of hay and took off my boots to try and make my feet more comfortable and while I was doing so the Rev. R. H. K. came on the scene and because I had my boots off he said that I had been to sleep there. I said that I had not, and he persisted that I had, and would not be convinced otherwise and that morning the breach was further widened between us that never closed again, and for my part I never took any pains to care wither I pleased him or not, but just done my work as good as I could, more with an idea of pleasing myself than him. There was a lot of fowls bred and kept there, for the use of their own table, but the Reverend gentleman used to look after them himself. The only part that I had to do with them was when he killed two or three I used to have to take them to an old woman in the village who used to pluck and truss them (for the feathers) and fetch them again after they were done. Amongst the shalt not was: thou shalt not attend any place of worship except the Parish Church of England. That meant that on the Sabbath as well as other nights from 6.30p.m. to 9 p.m. I could wander about the roads and village with groups of other boys and engage in mischief of any or every kind and I was not a bit better than others In that direction. The two sons of Rev. R. H. K. were home for their Xmas holidays from school and they brought home a lot of Chinese crackers. I had never before seen any and don’t think they had ever been seen in the village. They gave me a bracket of squibs and one Sabbath night, that being the time when there was always a good gathering of bad boys fit for any mischief, and amongst them there was myself with a packet of crackers. There was a consultation amongst us as to how we were to get the most fun out of it. I was the boy from the Parsonage so it was decided that we could get the most fun, at the least risk, with the old woman that used to pluck the fowls for the Parsonage, so it was decided that I should go into her house and ask for a stick of fire to light my pipe. Well, yes, the poor innocent old soul consented most graciously, so I let the end of the packet of squibs, thanked her, dropped the packet, and walked out, leaving the door ajar so that we could watch from the outside. The poor old soul, though she must have been 70 years of age, I don’t suppose she had ever heard of such a thing, and what she thought had happened I cannot tell, but I know that she done an exercise round that house that would have done her credit even in her childhood days. The girls were under the same restraint as myself and had no where to go except wander about the roads, and one of the commands to them was; thou shalt not bring any young man within the gates of the Parsonage. Forbidden fruit seems to have a special flavour, or an attractive appearance, which causes a desire to taste it, and notwithstanding the appaling result to the first Adam and Eve, the youpger Adams and Eves: have miserably failed to benefit by the object lesson, and all the girls and their young men during my term and previous seemed to have defied the Reverend gentleman’s command of thou shalt not, and some were caught and encountered the wroth of R. H. K. and were driven out of the garden, not at the point of a flaming sword, but at the point of a gun. During my term there was one young man caught on the premises and both the young man and the girl were driven or turned out of the garden with strict orders never to return under pain of legal proceedings. Since I was considered to have had some part in this I had better explain just what happened. Surrounding the back part of the kitchen was a court-yard and on the outer circle of the yard was the washouse, a house to clean boots and keep potatoes and cetra and a coal house and from the coal house was a door leading into a lane and the fields beyond, also to a path leading into the garden and near the garden door was the Reverend gentleman’s private lavatory where be spent much time in smoking away the hours of bad humour, for even in the home of Parsons there are times of serious disagreements and angry scenes, and a period of sulking. On returning from that place one night he happened to notice the padlock of the coal house was not locked or it might have been missing. Whatever it was it aroused his suspicion so he went into the house and sent Mrs. K. into the kitchen and he returned to the coal house door. When they heard Mrs. K. coming into the kitchen the young man endeavoured to escape through the coal house but he found the Rev. R. H. K. in waiting for him, and instead of him leaving via the coal house, he was marched back into the kitchen, where they received the full force of the wroth of Mr. & Mrs. K., and the young man was dismissed through the main entrance under the penalty referred to. I was in bed but heard angry voices in the kitchen, then footsteps on the stairs and Mrs. K. marched into my room and began to question me as to what I knew about it, or what part I had in it. I never answered her or spoke a word. At last she said, “Tom, are you speechless?” and getting no answer to that she walked away. I mentioned earlier that the cook was so good to me when I went there first. I was anxious to do anything for her in return for her kindness and she confided in me and I sued to take messages to her young man for her. He was a nice young man and I thought the restrictions placed on the girls harsh and cruel, to be allowed out two and a half hours once a week and then not to bring a young man inside the gate, so I thought how I could help them to see more of each other and I noticed that the coal house door had been previously locked with an ordinary lock and key and the keyhole had not been closed up, and that a few minutes with a pneknife to trim the sides of the bole would admit the padlock key being passed In and out, so that by appointment the young man could come to the door and she could pass out the key and admit him and he could lock up and pass back the key on leaving. I told her about It and It was agreed that I should trim the sides of the hole. That was the part I took and the only knowledge I had except that It was adopted by the girls for about two and a half years.
The Rev. Gentleman’s mother and sisters lived about seven miles away, and the old lady’s birthday celebrations must have lasted about three days for every year the family was in the habit of spending that amount of time there. One year they left the son that was about my own age at home. The two girls and we two boys played high jinks alright in their absence. The girls as well as we boys were up to every devilment. I have mentioned that on the outer circle of the backyard was the wash-house. Above the wash tubs there was a little window above the level of the agrden outside. We boys were in the garden and the window of the wash-house being open we could look down on the girls, and we started talking to them through the window. Suddenly they caught up a dipper and before we had time to think what they were up to they had us like drowned rats with soapsuds, then they dropped the window and made it secure from the inside. We viewed each other’s pitifull plight while the girls indulaged in roars of laughter while they thought their position impregnable with the door and the window bolted against us, but it was only a matter of moments before we decided to counter attack, and out plan of attack was soon completed. One got a bucket of water, the other a wet bag, then we climbed upon the roof of the wash-bouse and placed the wet bag over the top of the chimney and kept quiet. As the wash-house began to fill with smoke a violent coughing commenced within and after a while the window lifted and a volume of smoke poured out, and a deluge of water poured in and our debt was paid with very substantial interest. The rout of the enemy was complete. They retreated to their bed- rooms pursued by we two boys. We captured them there and held them prisoners of war. Of course they were too modest to change their clothes with us two boys in their room, so we all viewed each other in the discomfort of our wet clothes until we considered that we had suffered an equal amount of discomfort, then all was as before and there was no unfriendlyness attached to it for we had all shared alike and no one of us could plead not guilty. F.O.K. was a real sport, and I never remember him doing a mean thing, or carrying tales to get anyone into trouble. When his two brothers were home from school for their holidays both the horse and pony would be required occasionally, and in the summer when not in use they were kept in the field. On one of those occasions he went out to the field with me to fetch them in. We caught them at the further end of the field and decided to have a race. He on the pony and me on the bigger horse. We both knew that the borsewas no match for the pony in a gallop and by the time half the distance of the field was reached he was well in the lead, when suddenly to my horror be fell off and lay doubled up on the ground. When I got abreast of him I leaned over to see if he was hurt and the horse I was riding shied at hom lying of the ground, and I over-balanced, fell and lay on the ground by the side of him. You will agree he won the race because he was the first on the spot where we lay. Neither of us was hurt and neither ever disputed the race. That pony was considered the fastest in a gallop of anything in the Parish and was a splendid jumper and we used to get good practice on him. The two sons when home from school used to ride him at the fox hunting and once brought home the head of the fox which meant that he was second in at the death, and there was good horses to compete with there. As I look back over the journey of life I find there are periods that have nothing outstanding that helps us to remember the past, and probably such periods as those were those when life’s stream was flowing most smoothly. While there are other periods which indicate that we cannot forget, such as being accused of wrongfully of having felt hurt in some other way , or elated by some special act of kindness, or generousity. Those are the only the only things endebely stamped on our memory and the periods when our Bark sailed on an even keel and through calm waters are most likely to be forgotten.
If you find in this chronicle more of the stormy side of life it is not because there was no other, but for the reasons above mentioned. The servants’ rations were not always abundant in quantity or special in quality, my brakefast was always the same and consisted of bread and milk or bread with broth, and potato pasty of a leathery character that was made and cooked especially for one and usually lasted from ton to fourteen days. I remember on one occasion things seemed to have reached a climax, and the housemaid went into the dining room to inquire of Mrs. K. what they, the girls, were to have for their lunch. Mrs. K. always gave the orders to the cook what was to be cooked each day and for this particular day she had ordered two pounds of pork to be boiled. The pork was very fat, and when cooked it had shrunk that much of it was scarcely visible to the naked eye. However it went into the dining room and the family of four had their lunch from it, and when the girl went to know what they were to have for lunch, Mrs. K. wanted to know if Tom had eaten the whole two pounds of pork, saying that he must have done so, or there would have been plenty for them. That was only in keeping with the other things Tom was accused of doing.
I cannot close this chapter without making some reference to that command, “Thou shalt not attend any place of Worship except the Established Church of England”. I mentioned before that, from the time I was able to walk so far, in the company of my parents I had been an attendant at the non-conformist Chappie and I wish to express right here and now, that if ever there was a set code of moral principles calculated to make sublime lives and good citizens it was the moral standard code of that non-conformist society. I maintain that a very grave responsibility rests upon a clergyman that would debar a boy from attending such a place of worship and in preference allow him to roan the village ahd highways with a group of other boys to indulge in any mischief and call the boy in for prayers for the once a week routine afterwards. Outside the Parsonage gate where the Avenue junctions with the main road was out meeting place. One Sunday night five of us boys gathered there and the programme for the night was discussed. One suggested that we should go to the Public House, and it was agreed by the majority. Can anything good come out of evil? I for one felt the prick of conscience. That majority was a mementous dicision. Most of us five boys had never been to a public house to drink beer before. It was outside the code of morals I had learnt at the Chappie. Beer was sixpence per quart if drank on the premises and fivepence if drank off the premises, so each one was called on to pay their penny and each one paid and the beer was brought out onto the road and jug passed around. Here I took my stand and was the only one who refused to drink and no persuasion could alter that decision. I could not be called mean because I had paid my share. I cannot answer for the whole five boys, but I can answer for two of those five, and say that night had a great deal to do with shaping their future destinies, one to a premature grave, and the other to spend the greater portion of his life in a distand land. That winter night and the visit to the Public House was past history, the rows of snowdrops on the side of the Avenue heralded the approach of spring, and a little later the violets, primroses, and apple blossom proclaimed summer. As I looked upon those blossoms in all their glorious aspects little did I know that the tiny fruit forming on the petals below the bloom was going to remove me from the high pedistal to which I was considered to have attained, in that I was privileged to live under the roof, and work for such a distinguished family but such was the case. Those tiny fruit had grown to their full size, and were ready to be gathered in, and I was sent to pick apples. In order not to bruise the apples I used to baskets, one large one on the ground and a small one to take up into the tree. I had picked one small basketful and emptied it into the basket on the ground and was up into the tree picking the second lot when the Rev. R.H.K. passed through the orchard. He remarked, “you have picked one basketful I see”, and I replied, “Yes”, and he passed on. There were very few apples on the tree I was working on and after it was finished the large basket was not quite full but I took it up to the apple chamber to empty it, and the Rev. R.H.K. was there. I told him that was the finish of the tree; he said, “Where are the rest of the apples?”. I said, “That is all there was on the tree”. He said, “It is not, and you will have to get the balance”. I said that there was no balance to get, neither could I get any more. He said there was more and that you admitted having filled one basket when he passed/ I said that I admitted having picked the small basketful and having emptied them into the large basket, and he said the large basket was full when he passed and that I had stolen the apples and would have to get them. I said, “I have not stolen any, neither can I get any”. He said, “I wish you would go away and not come back again”, to which I made no reply, but half an hour after the Parsonage was a good distance in the rear. When I arrived home and told Mother she began to talk of being disgraced and cetra, and wanked me to go back. I said rather than go back I would take my own life, and I meant it, and there was no more said about going back. The following day the Rev. R.H.K. came to my home, and was surprised that I had not taken him at his word. He wanted me to be back again to live in the house as usual, but I flatly refused. He asked if I would come back and work for him in the house as usual, but I flatly refused. He asked if I would come back if not to live in the house. He told me that J had done my work well so that I went back to work for a while but never to live in his house again. I had my meals and sletp at home. It was during this period tjat pn arrival home one evening my mother could scarcely refrain from tears, she me that the cow was sick and she was afraid it was milk fever. I tried to get some milk from her but could not, she was staggering like a drunken man and soon after fell down , never to rise again. The following morning the butcher came and killed her and sent her off to London as cats meat. That was the last straw that broke us as farmers. Another boy applied and was successful in obtaining my former position and had taken up his abode at the Parsonage. One morning shortly after His Reverence gave me a letter to take to a very wealthy old gentleman living in the Parish who had been in need of a boy. The old gentleman read the nore and handed it back and informed me that he already had one. The note was to the effect that the bearer had been in his employ for three years and could recommend him. It was signed R.H.K. I knew from that that my services were no longer required and that the above was just a polite way of notifying me. I heard from someone that a farmer, Mr. W.,
Richard WEBB
Head U Male 35 Whitstone, Cornwall, England Farmer of 135 Acres
Elizabeth WEBB
Mother W Female 70 Whitstone, Cornwall, England Annuitant
Elizabeth WEBB
Sister U Female 40 Whitstone, Cornwall, England Annuitant
William PHILP
Serv U Male 24 Plymouth, Devon, England Farm Servant (Indoor)
William HALLOTT
Serv U Male 35 Pyworthy, Devon, England Farm Servant (Indoor)
Thomas BASKERVILLE
Serv U Male 16 Whitstone, Cornwall, England Farm Servant (Indoor)
Elizabeth BERRIMAN
Visitor Female 4 Whitstone, Cornwall, England
Helen POOLEY
Serv U Female 18 Tamerton, Cornwall, England Farm Servant ((Indoor))
was wanting a boy and went with my mother and saw him and agreed to start as soon as possible and I believe it was the following afternoon that with my worldly possessions and outfir, a small pack tied in a red handjerchief that I arrived at Mr. W. to start on my new job.
It was a very lonely place hid amongst trees with a great pons of water and great waterwheel. As I considered the lonliness and general surroundings my heart sank at the thought of the endurance of such a place, and for the first and last time in my life I thought seriously of causing a little splash in that mill pond to put an end to life, and a little ripple on the water to cover the deed. While wavering in that state of mind I realised that what seemed the hardest road was the one to take and I set to work with a will. My first job was gathering apples that had been blown down by the wind/ they were used for making cider, and that afternoon I gathered thirteen bags and when the men came in from the field where they had been working through the day and I had their company, all feeling of lonliness disappeared, and from that time I seemed to enter a new Era and after having earned a good supper, life had a zest in it that made it worth living. Everything in that house was done to the time of the clock and perfect order reigned there. The food was good, and plenty of it, the meals were regular to time and there was no waiting and we were expected to be punctual. The personnel of the house were Mr., Mrs., and Miss W. Mr. & Mrs. W. were nearly 70 years of age and Miss W. was probably 45. Mr. W. was an invalid with both gout and palsy and was unable to get about except in the dog-cart or on a sleigh. If he went out on the farm, which was not often he went in the sleigh because there was no difficulty in getting in or out of it, being only about six inches higher than the ground, if he went to the market or a fair he used to go in the dog-cart and in either case I had to go with him, to lead the pony in case it was the sleigh, and to look after him and the pony in case of going to market. When we went to market Mr. W. seldom left the Hotel until it was time to leave for home and then we bought a gallon jar of gin. The old gentleman used to take half a pint of gin and hot water every night before going to bed. His word and his rules were, like the saws of the Meads and Persians, unalterable. One of his rules was that before presenting yourself for dinner on Sundays everybody must have cleaned themselves and have changed their working clothes as well as being punctual to the time. I disobeyed on one occasion, I had been playing at an adjoining farm and they were nearly through with their dinner when I arrived home. I had to wash and we had to pass-through the dining-room to get upstairs to our bedroom. I was hurrying through to get changed when I got a reminder that I need not hurry. Mr. W. looked across to me and said, “He will get no dinner here today”. I was at fault and knew it and I can only say of him that he was a good old fellow, a real John Bull, about sixteen stone in weight. He had been a very successful farmer and a heavy drinker and it was pitiful to see his great frame tremble and shake as though he had the ague. Although he knew he was killing himself, he still embibed heavily, cider through the day, and gin before going to bed. Mrs. W. was very lame, she had been troubled with a bad leg that made her so, and she was a very kind motherly old person, and tried to help everyone to do right. I never remember her speaking a cross word to me all the six years I was there. Miss W.,I can only describe her in the words of Martin Luther when he said that there was nothing on earth as sweet as a woman’s heart in which piety dwells. I knew her years before I went there to live, as a teacher in the Sabbath School I remember her earnestness in prayer. A few years before I went there to live, she had a long and serious illness froy which she was not expected to recover, but she did recover and strange to say I never knew her to go to church. Chapple or to the Sabbath School. The last two places was where she had been such a zealous worker before her illness but I never remember her leaving the house to go anywhere, or to attend any devine service after. No, she was not what a person would naturally expect her to be, a crochety old maid, but one of those beautiful souls who compels love and respect. I remember how pleased she was when I decided to go to the Sabbath School again, she showed me nothing but kindness and I love and revere her memory. I would be a traitor to all the elements in life if I entertained an unkind thought towards her. The head man was H.S. and he had under his charge the care of the cattle, sheep and the supervision of the farm generally and I was directly in his charge to assist with the cattle, the sheep and to work the farm generally, and the care of the Buggy and pony was in my charge. J. E.
John H. ELLIOTT
Head M Male 23 Whitstone, Cornwall, England Ag. Lab.
Mary J. ELLIOTT
Wife M Female 20 Bridgerule, Devon, England
Eliza A. ELLIOTT
Daur Female 6 m Whitstone, Cornwall, England
had charge of the horses and all connected with the, the pony excepted. The servant girl was M. J. 0. who carried out her domestic duties and included in that was the milking. We had lived and worked together as a happy family for six months and that brings us to Lady’s Day 1879. That was the day on which changes took place if there had been no re-engagement, and the commencement of the year if there had. We had all been re-engaged and everything went like clockwork. The lambing season was good and the sinshine of April caused the lambs to jump and frolic about. Hay and corn harvest came and went without incident. Je. E. and the servant girl M. J. P. had formed an aliance, and the courtship looked like ripening into harvest later on. Autumn came on again bringing coughs and colds. Both the girl M. J. P. and myself had very bad colds and J. E. got some rum and honey and one night he gave both the girl and me a tablespoonful of rum and some honey. We were in the kitchen at the time and the girl was washing the supper things. By the time she had finished her work she felt the effects of the rum in her head and wanted to to to bed, but as I have stated before the way to the bedrooms was through the dining and sitting-room and Mr. W’s son-in-law was in that room and she knew she could not get through the room without staggering and she was ashamed to be seen doing so, so she remained in the kitchen until she went into deleriumtremens and started to bang her head against the wall and tear her hair out by the handfuls and had to be held by force to prevent her doing voilence to herself. The whole household got alarmed, and I think there was a suspicion that she had been given something besides rum and honey. I remember Mr. W. looking at J. E. with a steady gaze and saying, “He will have to take the responsibility if anything happens”, but I assured them that I had taken an equal amount and from the same bottles. It was 2 a.m. before she was sufficiently quiet to leave her alone. Miss W. got a wet towel and smacked her solidly in the face with it, and that had a wonderful steadying effect, and she soon went to bed and quietly slept off her drink. In the morning the result was no more alarming than the usual feeling of the day after the night before.
Mr. W. grew more gouty and shaky every day and his medical adviser was sent for, and on arrival Mr. W. asked the Doctor if he thought he was going to die. “Yes, you have killed yourself” was the reply. He asked the Doctor how long did he think he would live and in reply the answer was, “Not more than six weeks”. A few nights after he got up from his usual place by the fire and went to the foot of the stairs where he paused and called H. S. over to him and taking him by the hand said, “Goodbye Henry, I shall never come down again alive”. We all knew the end was near; he seemed to sleep nearly all the time. A day or two after he went to bed that night, his married daughter was watching over. him when he woke with a startled look and said, “Somebody gave me such a thump in the back” and his daughter replied, “Perhaps its the Lord Jesus calling you”. He went off to sleep again to awaken next on the resurrection morning. Arrangements were made for the funeral, planks of oak sawn from the timber cut on his own farm and long stored away in a loft for the purpose of making his coffin were hauled down. Those unshapened boards that went away but yesterday came back on the morrow, having undergone a transformation so great as to become unrecognisable in polished oak. If the transition of life causes such a change what a glorious thing is that which we call death. The head man, H. S., was sent with a message to those whom they desired to be Pall-bearers, and amongst those to be invited was Mr. H., the miller, •whom I have mentioned previously. When H. S. arrived at the miller’s house Mr. H. had not returned from the Market, but was expected at any minute. H. S. waited for a considerable time, and as he did not arrive by 9 p.m. his own people began to feel some anxiety for him and H. S. and some of the family went along the road they knew he must come along to meet him. While on their way a coach and a pair of horses flashed by, apparently under no control. They heard them tearing along a piece of level road, and they seemed to be gaining in velocity as they rounded a corner and went madly down the hill. Mr. H. the miller, had descended the hill on the other side and was coming in the opposite direction along the valley between the two hills with his load of wheat. He had previously taken the horses and seeing the coach and pair coming madly towards him on the wrong side of the road he endeavoured to get his horse and cart across the other side to avoid a collision, and in doing so he was caught between the wheels of his own cart and the wheels of the coach and killed instantly. The driver of the pair was the Rev. Cannon J. and the driver was a brother of Mr. H. and the Miller’s daughter-in-law. Two leading lights went out, and two big funeral processions bore their remains to the Parish Churchyard in two succeeding days. The tragic amnner in which Mr. H. met his death caused quite a gloom over the Parish. With the death of Mr. W. came the end of cider making on that farm which was a bitter cold job on frosty mornings paring and setting the apple cheese. The funderl of Mr. W. was over and none of us knew what changes were going to take place. We now lived together like one family for one year and three months.
Now let us take a glimpse at some who were not so fortunate in living in the midst of an abundance of good things. An abundance of good things and happiness in ourselves too often causes forgetfulness of others less fortunate. We will have a look at home and see how they have been faring there. Granny G. had died, and mother had been ill nearly the whole time and often times was not able to do anything for herself or the children, and their lot was a hard one. My brother’s lot was particularly hard and he was about eleven years of age when he got a job from Squire M. to help attend to his fat cattle.
Emanuel METHERELL
Head M Male 55 Ashwater, Devon, England Farmer of 130 Acres
He had told me how after doing his work on the Squire’s farm, he gathered firewood to do the cooking, and often mother was too sick to cook anything, and he said to me, “Tom, you never knew what it was to be hungry”. But he did, not because there was nothing to eat, but because there was no one to cook the food. The Squire was a good old fellow and my brother was paid liberally and the few shillings he was bringing in was a great help to the home, and mother began to rally again and do their cooking and make them comfortable, but it seeks as though misfortune dogs to the very end, and once down there is no chance to rise again.
A law had come into operation compelling all children to go to school until they were fourteen years of age, and the National School was built in the Parish and mother received a notice that my brother must go to school until he was fourteen years of age, and the Squire who had been good enough to give him a job was informed of the Decree, also ok the position it created and he said that the boy could assist with feeding the cattle before and after school also on a Saturday and he paid him just the same. The only Publican in the Parish, who was also the man who had charge of the Squire’s fat cattle, took the very earliest opportunity to inform the Squire that he did not need the assistance of the boy at all, that he could well do without any boy at all, but the Squire cut him short by saying it was for him to say whether the boy was to work for him.
About this time my borhter got into trouble with a lad who lived at the J. T. & W. S. farm who was big enough to take charge and work a team of horses. I do not remember what the quarrel was over but he threatened to five Sam, my brother, a good thrashing, and Sam told him that if he touched him he would tell Tom, and he told him in reply, “Trot your brother along and I will thrash the both of you. When I came home from work Sam told me what had occurred, and after having our tea, we went up to the farm In quest of the Goliath, but we did not find him. The following Sunday night after coming out of Chapple, we went for a walk along the main road where we happened to meet and I asked him what the trouble was that he was so anxious to give my brother and myself a good thrashing. He said that he intended to do it and he would do it now. I hold him if that was so then he could give me one first and he said, “So I will”. I had no choice but to take a thrashing or defend myself, and I chose the latter. He took the offensive and came towards me, raising his great sledge hammer fist high above his head intending to knock me out with the first blow; but that slow movement was fatal to him. While his great fist was in the air like a shot out of a gun I sent my right fist to his face and he staggered backwards and when his fist came down I was not within reach, and before he recovered himself and had time to raise it again I had closed up and having slipped my left arm around his neck I hied his head down and landed successive right upper cuts to his face until he asked me to let him go, saying that I had jurt his eye. I let him fo and after giving breathing space, asked him if he wanted any more. To which he replied, no he had had enough. I record that that fight was more pain than pleasure, for although he was so much older and bigger than me, the thing was so unequal I never even got a hit or a scratch and I was sure the whole thing did not last two minutes, and his poor mangled face told too pitiful a tale to call him a coward; it had much the appearance of having passed through a thrashing machine. One eye was totally closed; for two days he could not see at all from it. I went to -Sunday School the following Sunday and the Day School Master
Amos FRY
Head M Male 38 Tresmeer, Cornwall, England Schoolmaster
who was also a teacher in the Sunday School addressed the School before it closed that morning, on the shameful event of the doings of two of the boys who attended that school. He said that the previous Sunday night after Chapple Service two of the scholars were fighting, one of them was there that morning and the other was not there because of injuries to his face and eye. He said that in all his experience he had never seen a boy’s face such a pitiful looking object. The Superintendant inquired who the boys were and on being told he said, “Thomas B, I want to you remain behind after the two others leave the School, but when the others went out Thomas B. walked out too, but the Superintendant followed .me and before I could get through the gate he picked me up in his arms and carried me out. They asked me to explain matters which I did and they gave me good fatherley advice and said how sorry they were that two boys who had received such good teaching should thus forget themselves, as not only did it bring discredit to themselves, but also reflected on their teachers and the School.
He asked me if I could see a way of doing a thing that was a little baffling and in some things he coudl catch an idea from what I said and work it out in his own way; he would always consider an idea wherever it came from. W. H., the new norseman, was the oldest brother of J. H. with whom they used to raise a fight between him and me. So often have I referred previously to our last fight in the woods when the older brothers were not there to witness it, and the younger brother was near getting drowned. W. H. might be classed as a moral Sepor, and a dangerous companion, or company for a young lad. He not only lived a depraved life himself but boasted of his exploits to a lad whose age and youthful passions required wiser council, and at that time the moral code and early grain sown became threatened by a sowing of taxes which grew rapidly, and a desperate struggle for supremacy ensued. A youth is fortunate or unfortunate according to the compnay has has for associates between the ages of fourteen and twenty, ofr in that period character is formed that very largely influences the rest of life, and shapes our future destiny. Right is right and wrong is wrong, what is right is never wrong and what is wrong is never right. There is no affinity between right and wrong, and we cannot live a life of even balance between right and wrong. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and a good understanding have all of those who keep his commandments. That was one of the golden tens we learnt at the Sabbath School and early in life I found out that we could not keep those commandments and parley with wrong. As a boy my desire was to live a good life, and that called for restraint and sacrifice to self and charity to others, while human nature with all its passions and alurements, stimulated by the conversations of the destroying angel. J. W. H. cried out to take the line of least resistance, plunge into the stream and drift. I had been giving serious thoughtas to which of those lines I should take. One morning when working alone in a marsh I came to a decision and suddenly it seemed as though the place whereon I stood was holy, and all the glory of heaven and earth was around me and I was filled with a joy unspeakable and full of glory. How many battles have been fought on that resolve, some ending in victory, others in failure. To parley with temptation has always meant defeat, and defeat brings sorrow and shame and a bitter repentence at that period of my life when I would do good, evil seemed to be ever present, and though the spirit was willing the flesh was weak and I found it hard to live up to the standard of my resolve; but notwithstanding all my failures now I have nearly reached the alloted span of life I look back on that morning with a. great deal of joy and satisfaction at having made that resolve, but I can never explain that revelation of joy and happiness. If it comes to all people I am doubtfull it it is more than once, or twice in a lifetime. In fairness to W. H. J. I must say he was a good workman but unfit company for young lads and calculated only to corrupt or destroy good inspirations that a lad might have received.
During the hay harvest of that year I remember one day in particular. It was when we were carting hay from a field about three quarters of a mile from the house, or farmyard. Two men stayed in the yard and unloaded the waggons and made the stack and two remained in the field and did the loading, and I took command of the horses and took the loads of hay in and brought , back the empty waggon. H. S. said something to me that ruffled my temper and I turned on him and gave him cheek and when he threatened to take direct action I invited him to go his hardest. He laughed the matter off by saying that I had drunk too much cider and was drunk.
About a mile from the farmhouse there stood a cottage belonging to the farm. It was beside the Main Road and the cattages had long been occupied by H. S.’s sister. That was the nearest point to the farm that the Postman used to pass, so the mail for the farm was left there. In the beginning of the year 1880 there was a snow blizzard and the drift was so great that many roads were completely blocked up as well as houses in many instances. The track of the storm was from West to East and the hedges of the fields running North to South became catchments of the snow drift and on the western side the snow was level with the hedges. To those who have never been in England it may be necessary to explain what hedges are. Hedges, here referred to, are the boundaries of the thousands of fields so divided, and consist of an ambankment, probably about eight to ten feet wide at the base and about three feet wide at the top and usually about six to seven feet high. On the top is planked young planks of hazle nuts, ash, oak, willows, birch, beech and sometimes thorns. Those hedges serve at least three useful purposes, a fence and a shelter for stock as well as supplying the farms with fire wood.
I mentioned that the snow was level with those hedges on the western side/ th there was also deep snow on the east side closein to the hedges. Following that snow drift there came heavy frost and the snow on the weather side became frozen hard, so hard that a person going eastward could take a bee line to any given point, and that is the method I adoped on that occasion when I went to the cottage to fetch the mail. I reached the cottage in quick time , got the mail and started on the return journey and soon got into difficulties. The snow on the east side of the hedges that being the bee side, and getting most of the day’s sun was not frozen hard enough to take any weight. I was able to jump over them from the top of the hedge going eastward but going westward I had to climb over three, four and even five feet of soft snow. My progress became so slow that I almost despaired of ever getting back to the house again, and finally I was compelled to seek out the hedges running east and west, got on top and wind my way amongst the bushes and just before dark I reached home, a pitiful looking object, and when I got into my bedroom and took off my clothes my coat and trousers stood up in the room, just as if I had been in them and that day I had an experience, and went nearer to being frozen into a corpse than I ever want to be again.
The twenty-fifth of March 1881 come Ladysday H. S. decided not to be a fool any longer, so he left the service of Mr. R. W. and went back to the people, whom he was continuously saying that if he had not been a fool he would never have left. The people he went to lived about fifteen miles away and he did not find things as he expected and he found out to walk about with a stick in his hand to see that there was no maggots on the sheep was all a delusion. The girl E. G. also left W. P. took the place of H. S. and E. P. came in the place of the girl E. G. W. P. was a verygood companion for W. H. and their conversations were an explanation of their trend of thought which was by no means beneficial to me or edyfing to a young lad with a desire to go straight. For some reason, or perhaps for want of reason, I fell under a spell of their influence for a time and from the education I received from w. H. previously I was able to join in their conversations quite readily. I knocked off going to Sunday School and went to play skittles with them at an adjoining farm. I also indulged with them in loose fast talk and began to enjoy the company of such people as seemed to approve of such. A young man with a religious trend of thought came to the farm to work to assist in making a dam and he was subjected to the most filthy talk, and asked vile questions, only to be taunted and jeered at, because if he replied at all, it would be sensible to reply to the question. He was teased to such an extent that he said,, that he would just as soon walk into hell as work with the three of us and finally he went off his head and became an inmate of a Lunatic Asylum. It is with a feeling of regret and shame that I have to chronicle my own share of the shameful episode. Only about twelve months had passed since my resolve that morning when working alone in that marsh , and my great victory of right’s triumph over wrong. On that morning the evil spirit departed out of the house leaving it clean-swept and garnished, but at this point he returned to the house again bringing seven others with him more vile than himself. It seems to me that those who rise to supreme heights of bliss and happiness, often descend into the deepest valley of humiliation afterwards, for yeilding to some desire, or threat. Elijah after his great victory on Mount Carmal was threatened by Jexable and forgot to trust the giver of that victory, and h-i-d under the juniper tree because he was afraid. I fell because of the fear of the taunts and jeers of my associates. We used to sing at Sunday School,
“Dare be a Daniel, dare to stand alone,
Dare to make it purposeful and dare to make it known”.
How different would have been my position had I dared to be a Daniel. How much sorrow and shame and bitter repentence would have been avoided had I made a purposeful and adred to amke it known. In looking back over life it is not hard to see where we took a wrong turning and hid our purpose under the juniper tree, instead of daring to make it known until we heard the small still voice calling, “Where art thou?” and we acknowledged that we were afraid. I feared the frown of dicing men instead of placing my trust in an Eternal God and making my purpose known to them. Had I done so it might have had a powerful influence over them, but instead I allowed them to influence me, and I plunged into the stream and found it easy drifting down towards the dark abyss. At the farm where we used to go of a Sunday morning to play skittles, one of the farmer’s daughters used to indulge in loose fast talk, and seemed to enjoy it, and I used to listen to her with a good deal of interest, but did not like her much. There was another sister just the reverse and near my own age, and we became friendly, and out regard for each other was nearing the border of love.
One Sunday night quite a number of firls and young men went for a long walk of about four miles, and included in that company were the two sisters mentioned above. I took upon myself the responsibility of looking after the younger sister. The journey we took brought us through a portion of another Parish and it soon became evident that we were in hostile quarters and we were followed by a number of young fellows who evidently objected to the male portion of our company. They made an attempt to get the girls away from us and failing in the endeavour, they tried to force their claims, and myself being the smallest they probably thought to break through at the weakest point, for someone from the crowd planted a tost on the side of my head, and disappeared amongst the others before I recovered sufficiently to see who done ti. It was dark at the time and when I turned and faced the crowd one fellow was talking loud and I heard him say, “I would knock the B…. down”. I walked up to him, swung my fist to his face, and as Ginger Mick said, felt it land. Talk about a hornet’s nest, it is a mild term compared to what I had struck. I would have been pummeled to a mumy by the crowd had not our crowd stuck to me, and explained that I had had done nothing to give offence before I was struck a cowardly blow, by hitting one that had not hit me. I said that if I had hit a person that had not first bit me, then I was sorry for having done so, and although I could not repair the injury done, I sincerely apologised for inflicting it. That was accepted by him, and he explained the fearful mistake. He had seen the other fellow hit me, and resented it, as he thought it was a cowardly thing to hit me from behind without cause, and he was saying to his brother that if he was me, he would knock the B… down at the time that I struck him. I asked if the fellow who struck me was in the crowd and if so I would be pleased to deal with him, but he had cleared. They told me his name. What had seemed like a serious riot a few moments previously became pacific again but it was an object lesson to both of us, for he like myself was straying away from the path of wisdom and virute. The following year, 1882, he came to live in our Parish, we met again at the Sunday School and became bossom friends. E. P., the girl who took the place of E. G., was rather a nice girl and we regarded each other’s company very favourably. We used to walk out together as friends only. She was a year or two older than me, and we had spoken to each other only as friends. One night she went to Chapple alone and another young man saw her home and I don’t know why but I felt a little pang of jealousy, but cut it short and never allowed it to be known until now.
Mr. R. W.’s farm and another farm, or I should say a family of farmers,’ were separated only by a garden wall and a partition wall of the same house. There were three sons, two of them men, and one married daughter. The other son was about my own age and we became very friendly. A girl relative came to live with them and she was about a year younger than me. We also became very fiendly and spent a lot of our spare time in each other’s company, whether her guardians thought we were too much together or not I don’t know, the only thing I know is that she suddenly disappeared without me knowing where or why. Her home was about twenty miles away and it was possibly for the good of both of us. I began to consider the steps that I had taken, and the swiftness of my journey since I took the wrong turning, and started to retrace my steps, but I found it a hard and bitter task to climb up to the summit of ascent from which I had started to slide down. I started to work in ernest by taking an interest in it, and not forgetting to consider the easiest and best methods to adopt to do my work, and unknown to me my endeavours were being watched and appreciated. I went back to Sunday School and was allotted a place in the Second Bible Class where I made fair progress. The time for the Sunday School Anniversary drew near and great preparations were made for that event a month before the Anniversary. Dialogue and recitations were given out. One Beautiful dialogue for five boys entitled, ‘Young Men’s Aspirations’, was allotted to the first Bible Class. On the following Sunday one young man brought back his part and handed it to the Superintendant and said it was too hard and he could not learn it. The Superintendant could not prevail upon him to keep it and make an effort to learn it, neither could he get anyone else in the class to take it, so he said there was only one thing to be done, that was to drop it. He explained that one week had already gone and if it was too much to learn in four weeks they could hardly expect another to make a success of it in three weeks, and at the same time he regarded it as pettiful that they had to drop such a beautiful piece. I told my teacher that if no one would take it, and it was agreeable to entrust it to me, that I would do my best with it, and he told the Superintendant what I had said so it was handed to me, but I know with some doubt on their minds as there were two hundred and fifty odd lines in my part. After one or two rehearsals there were no doubts about the success of the pice. If I give the outline of the dialogue and the last portion you will be able to judge its standard and why it was such a. success. The five characters were each going to do noble deeds for their country and by doing so prove themselves worthy of the highest honours their country could bestow on them. The first to speak was going to win. honour by being a Soldier, the second by being an Orator, the third by being a Philosopher in Chemistry, the fourth by being a Navigator, the fifth by being a Minister. After each one had spoken several times and each setting out their claims as being the best method of winning honour, the Minister addressed each one as follows, turning to each as he spoke,
“And let the warrior prove to be
A Guard to keep his Country free,
But I will battle in the strife,
Where I may win eternal life.
And let the Orator display
His wisdon. Knowledge, win his way,
But I will endeavour to bring in
The outcasts who are still in sin.
The wise Philosopher, be may,
The works of nature, still survey,
But I will contemplate that grace,
Which lands me in that heavenly place.
And let the Navigator sail,
To distant countries, hill and vale,
But I will cross the sea of time,
Till anchored in a fairer clime,
There honoured by my Lord and King,
This is the honour, that I win.
Oh’. How emence the honour given,
To faithful Ministers in heaven,
To be a preacher, now decide,
The work is great, the honour wide,
The shadow only here is given,
The substance is reserved in heaven.
The Diaglgue took over an hour, and a request was made for a repetition on the following Sunday night, instead of the usual Chappie Service, and that request was granted. The lad who took the part of Minister, and done it so well, was the lad that I hit by mistake and gave a terrible black eye the previous year in another Parish but we were the best of friends ever after. Mr. R. W. was responsible for the training of the children’s singing for the Anniversary and every item went off without a hitch. When I arrived home that night I received hearty congratulations from the whole household and especially from Mrs. W., a sister-in-law of Mr. R. W. She had come seven miles to be present at the Anniversary. She said that everyone who took part in the dialogue should be presented with a momento of the occasion, and they should start with Tom. Mrs. W. was a school teacher before she was married and I felt a good deal of encouragement from her remarks. W. H. and W. P. seemed pleased rather than otherwise at my changed attitude, for they had both got themselves and others into trouble. W. H. paid fifty pounds as compensation for his wrong doing and W. P. preferred to work in double harness to paying compensation, so he left the service of Mr. R. W., got married and went to live and work in another Parish. Mr. R. W. told me that he had noticed that I done just the same amount of work as the men, and that he was placing me in charge of the head man’s work and getting a boy to assist me. We had good food and plenty of it, and I felt stron and able and the days were as merry as they were long.
H. S. found it otherwise. He no longer repeated if he had not been a fool that he would only have to walk about with a stick in his hand and look after the sheep. A son of that family had frown up and was in charge. He was of a generation that knew not Henry. H. S. was no longer suffering from delusions of easy time, but from the strain of work beyond his strength, for he had come home to his sister’s cottage to die. I used to visit him, and he said to me one day that Foreign hills look green, but he found his new employer , a young fop, H. S., lingered a few months with that distressing malady, consumption, and then passed away, leaving two sons, one in Canada and the other at home, both men. I was gradually trying to climb out of the slough and endeavouring to get a footing on solid ground again but all my endeavours to climb failed to bring a realisation of my former glory, and fullness of joy. It was only when I ceased to trust in my own endeavours, by making a full surrender of self, and resting on the finished work of Christ, by accepting a full and free salvation, then I was once more in possession of that fullness of joy.
Oh’. Spring time of life, when the sowers did sow,
The wheat, and the taxes, which together did grow,
Did spring showers, and sunshine give youths budding hope,
Or canker and blight cause the young shoots to droop.
I said previously that Mr. R. W. was of a mechanical trend of mind. He had now so far advanced that by pulling a leaver a person could set any of the machinery needed in motion, and I was in full charge of that part needed for my department, which consisted of stone mill for grinding or crushing grain, a chaffcutter and a machine for pulping or slicing roots, and I was able to work those without any assistance. I also had charge of store, and fat cattle, the sheep, and horses not in regular work, and with the assistance of a boy managed to get on Al and was complimented by the cattle dealer who came to buy the fat carrle, on the condition of both fat and store cattle, and the good attention that had been padi to them. I had also taken over the milking of the cows, and was told that there was quite a noticeable change in the quantity of butter per week, and from this time on no one interfered in my work and I done things all my own way. In the lambimg season either Mr. R. W. or myself used to get up to have a look at the sheep between midnight and three o’clock in the moaning. I usually done it and sometimes the sheep would be a quarter of a mile away from the house and it was bitterly cold as a rule at that time of year. I was told by Miss W. that I knew where the food was kept, also the coffee and tea and that I was to help myself to anything that I felt inclined for. I appreciated that token of kindness very much; but my inclination usually was to get back to bed again with the least possible delay. I do not remember much to chronicle about this period. The only outstanding event that I remember was that the workman that was hired to work on the farm was fond of rabbits and thought we might snare some and go halves in the spoil , so we set a few snares and when he was on his way to work one morning he had a look at his snares and there was a ribbit in one, and he was caught taking it our, so he got the name of being a poacher. Mr. R. W. was very much displeased with him but he told Mr. R. W. that he had never set a snare on his farm. A few days afterwards Mr. R. W. took his gun and dog and went out to do a little shooting, and hadn’t been out for long before his dog poked her nose into a snare and got strung up. That caused Mr. R. W. ‘s temperature to rise still higher, so high in fact that he said that he would prosecute the person who done it, if he could find out who it was. I was really sorry for both him and the dog, but nothing serious happened other than the dog having her yap silenced for a short time, which is more beneficial than otherwise in the Cain world sometimes.
I was turning the grindstone for him, Mr. R. W. I mean, while he was pouring out his wroth on the person who done the deed. I did not consider it wise to make any suggestions while his temperature was so high, or afterwards either for that matter, knowing full well that the onus lay on him to find out the person and prove their guilt. How nice to know that the physical law regards a person as innocent until they are proved guilty. Then why should I have said anything that might have been used in evidence against me. Mr. R. W. had felt hurt over the snare, it was my turn to feel hurt shortly after. It was one Wednesday morning that was a market day. I had finished the milking and taken the cows away to the field when I noticed that the sheep had got out of the field that they should be in, and I followed their tracks along the road leading away from the farm. I overtook them about half a mile away and they were marching on at just the rate they would go if driven. I brought them back and made them secure. I was probably near half an hour in doing it and Mr. R. W. went off the handle because I did not leave the sheep and first come back to harness the pony into the trap for him, and then go after the sheep which would have probably been miles aw ay before I got them. While it was not more than five minutes work to put the harness on the pony and put her in the trap, I thought that if that was all the consideration I was to get for the interest that I took in his stock and the welfare of his business, the sooner someone else took control of it the better for both of us. That was the only time we had cross words that I can remember. I felt hurt on that occasion because I believed then as I do now that I acted in his best interest. I told Mr. R. W. that since my service did not seem to give satisfaction I wished him to get someone who would render him better service than I —- from that date. This incident reminds me of those market days when I was always in attendance to take the pony on his arrival home and after attending to the pony I used to join the others around the diningroom fireside and could not help thinking how good Mr. R. W. was to himself while having dinner, especially in dealing out to himself great spoonfuls of apple and cream, and I used to wonder whether a time would come when I would be able to do likewise.
By way of a change come with me for a short time and we will see how things are shaping at home. We get in sight of the house and are seen by a pair of sharp eyes from within, the door flies open and two tiny swift feet scamper over the plot of green grass, two outstretched arms encircle my neck and from a sweet little mouth kisses are planted all over my face. That embrace relaxes when I get into the house and a little boy with an inclination to shyness begins to ask for his turn and receives a warm greeting. Mother has greatly improved in health but liiks a little fatigued and worried. In connection with the dwelling house, there was an outhouse that had formerly been used as a stable. There was an old woman in the Parish who used to go about from place to place and always pleeded poverty to be allowed in that stable. The Landlord told her that if she made a will leaving him her money at her death, that he would guarantee to her twelve shillings per week during the whole of her lifetime, but that did not suit her if she could get the stable to live in for nothing, so she took up her abode there and soon after was taken very ill. Nother could not see her lie there with no one to attend to her, so mother took her into her house and attended her during her illness, until her death which occurred in mother’s house and she was buried from there. She left a will bequeathing 320.00 pounds to a gentleman farmer who did not need her money and was no connection of hers. Mother got 5.00pounds for her trouble and attention. Mother had so far regained her strength as to be able to take a border. The squire’s coachman had resigned his position and he and his family had gone out to Queensland and my brother S. was appointed to the position of coachman and the prospects at home were assuming a brighter aspect than for years past.
Time heals most of our little troubles, and one short month had healed the wounds of both Mr. R. W. and myself and each accepted the position as if nothing had ever ruffled our tempers, and the indicator on the wheel of time was pointing to 25 March1883. The only one to leave was E. P. the girl and the workman, another girl, F. C., took her place. She was a pretty little girl to look at but lamentably lacking in mentality. She used to confide all her secrets or otherwise in the old Mrs. W. and boasted that W.H. was her young man, and that he had cows of his own, and a lot of money too, and that he had been more to her than a borhter. Whither W. H. had taken advantage of her mental deficiency or not I cannot say. Mr. R. W. called him in one morning, paid him his wages and told him thtat his services were no longer required. That was the only time there was a change of servants in the the middle of the year during the six years I , was there. The young man that took the place of W. H. was W. J., my second boy playmate who with J. C. made up my team of horses mentioned in the commencement. W. J. Had grown up to be so near a perfect mongrel as made no difference. He was a liar, a thief and a coward and his cruelty knew no bounds. He took a dislike to the girl’s father, mother and children for some reason, or for no reason, and he wanted me to join him one night to leave out the props of a wall, so as to throw the house down on them while they were asleep. He was so found of using an iron spanner to chastise the horses, he only lasted a few months, the 25th March came again and he got no to stop again, W. C. took his place with Mr. R. W. and Mr. R. W. told me to take my choice if I wished to take the horses for twelve months to gain more experience in plouging and cetra I could do so, but he would rather that I took charge of the cattle and I preferred the cattle at any time. Seed time and harvest, summer and winter, came and went.
I do not remember any outstanding events, byeond that I had decided that that would be my last year of service in the house where I was living. I had decided to go home to live with mother and go out to work, believing that I could help her more by doing so. My brother had mentioned my intentions to the Sqyire and it was practically arranged that I was to start work for him. Mr. R. W. was not pleased at my decision to leave his service and a few farmers had a conversation, and decided to form a deputation for the Squire in protest against his actions in employing single men. They complained that they were being deprived of the services of the best of the young men. The Squire conceded to their request not to employ any more single men, so I can thank Mr. R. W. for defeating my intention and giving me my first set back, but that did not alter my decision to leave his service nor prevent me getting work. It was the gardening season, and I soon became in good demand for that work. I also took some contracts and managed to fill in any spare time at that, and my work proved satisfactory as I afterwards found. The man who took my place only lasted a week or two. I was offered the position again at a big wage as wages were a ruling then for farm work, but I refused arid was engaged to work there by the day, and W. S., the oldest son of H. S., took my former position. He was a good fellow, but caught a cold getting up during the nights to look after the sheep. He was never able to shake it off, it settled on his lungs and after a few months illness he took a fit of coughing, broke a blood vessel and followed his father over the great divide. I used to visit him during his illness. He used to like me to visit him because he said one day, “I can believe in you whatever you say.” I am glad to think that our conversation helped to brighten his last days and gave him renewed hope through the merits of Jesus Christ of an entrance into our Father’s Kingdon.
After working a few months on ordinary farm work, I -was put to the work of cutting a drain about a quarter of a mile long to bring a spring of water into the mill dam. The formation of that part of the country was rocky and all the rocks dipped to the north, so by cutting a drain North and South the rocks would be crossed, but if in cutting a drain to the East and West you struck a rock. you would probably follow the reef for a considerable distance. I was cutting the drain in a North-East direction and when about half the distance was done I had to cut through a rise in the ground and the Drain had to be five to six feet deep. There in that place I struck a reef about eighteen inches from the bottom of the drain, and followed it for several hards. A yard was sixteen and a half feet, and called, a land yard in that district, so you can form some idea of how much work was attached to cutting a trench sixteen and a half feet long, five feet deep, with just room enough to stand in, and the last eighteen inches from the bottom colid rock to break up and lever out with the point of a bar in small pieces. The bottom smoothed even, the pipes laid, and the drain filled in, Mr. R. W. Asked me one morning if I knew how much It was costing per yard, was I aware that it was costing over three shillings per yard. I asked him to what part of it he referred and be said on the part I was then working at. I asked him if he thought it a fair thing to take that part only, while I was working on that rock. I told him the finished part of the drain from the point of commencement to where it was then, and that included some yards of the reef portion, was pne shilling and three pence per land yard. He said I could not be expected to do it as fast as a prictal drainer, and either him or me would have to pay for the experience. I told him that I did not wish or expect him to pay for my experience and if I had to pay for the experience I most certainly should not learn the art of draining. I told Mr. R. W. that he evidently was under the impression that he was doing a charitable act by employing me, but I had no desire or intention of imposing myself upon anyone’s considered generosity. I feelt quite capable of looking after myself independent of any work he might have to offer. He had been the means of preventing me from getting permanent work, and got me to work for him through the summer and harvest, and then used those few yards of drain as an excuse for not wanting to employ me for the short days of winter. I was annoyed at his tactics and refused to do any more work at the drain, and left for good the employ of Mr. R. W. Still I got a good run of work and during the next three years there was only two or three days that I had no work to go to, and on one of those days I was working in the garden at home when Mr. S. rode up to the gate and asked me why I was at home and I told him the reason. He said that he had his regular staff of men but at no time was I to lose a days work if I had no other work to go to, I was to come to him and I would always be found something to do.
Mr. S. was the butcher that I had held the light for on my fourth birthday ~ while he killed out pig. He had become a successful farmer and a good friend of outs in the time of hard up. He was also the Superintendent of the Sunday School who asked me to remain behind after the others had gone out, and followed me, and carried me back becuase I walked out with the rest, after being reassured to stop behind. It came to my knowledge that mother owed him a few pounds, and had done so for some years, but he never asked for it. I contracted to cur and bind fire-wood for him, and he was well pleased, with the work, and so were the women folk who had to use it, because they found no difficulty in separating it into faggots. They said that it was so tangled that it was almost impossible to separate it with the work of some wood- cutters. I got a lot of work from Mr. S., not because I had nowhere else to go, but because he was satisfied. When we came to settle out account he seemed surprised when I mentioned the account that mother had owed him for years, and demanded that it be deducted from my account. He had nearly forgotten and never expected if, at least from me, and would not have asked for it if it was not paid.
With my brother’s monthly wage and mine, we were able to keep quite a comfortable home, but good times and good things don’t last forever. My brother used to to th the Squire Baliff’s place, which was near ours, to clean his and the children’s boots before foing to his work of a morning. It happened that one morning the Squire called around at the stable to see Brother S. but he had not arrived. The Baliff was with the Squire and was asked where S. was, and he answered that he did not know, he should be there. That was a deliberate lie because he was at his place cleaning his and the family’s boots as he did every day. So the next morning S. went straight to his work and the Baliff wanted to know why he did not turn up at his place to clean the boots. S. Asked the Baliff why he told the Squire the previous day that he did not know where he was when asked, when he knew perfectly well where he was and what he was doing and he said that he would not clean any more boots until that point was cleared up, and he was made aware that to clean his and the family’s boots was a part of his duty. The Baliff said they would both interview the Squire the following morning, which they did. The Baliff was the first to be called in. What he said can only be surmised by what followed when S. was called. The Squire told S. that he had no case to put before him. He understood that he was not able to get to his work at the proper time in the mornings and when the Bailiff asked him to clean a pair of boots for him he refused to do it because he considered himself above such work. You can go down to W. G. that was the foreman of a Road Party and he will give you work there and he would not allow S. to give an explanation, so S. could see nothing better for the time being than to report as requested and he soon became a general favourite amongst the men. Strange to say the same Baliff got me to plant his garden after I left Mr. R. W. and as he was often wanting a man for a day or two at a time, no matter who I was wroking for, he used to ask them to let me come to do his work right up to the time I left home. About this time a new farmer with his family came to live in the Parish of W. There were three sons and four daughters at that time, and if evere there was love at first sight I was badly smitten with that complaint towards the oldest daughter, but I knew that love had to remain smothered. The father was a very proud man and there were wealthy and proud relations on all sides that would encircle her with difficulties, it it became known, even if she could return that love, so I let it drop if only for a while.
We will go back seven or eight years to that Sunday night when five boys gathered at the Parsonage gate. Here we pick up a fragment of this story that was left there that night. That night when five boys met and discussed how to spend their idle hours. That fatal night when five boys for the first time in their lives decided to go to a Public House to drink beer. That night that had so much to do with shaping the destinies of two young lives. That night that was the beginning of the end for one of them. Little beginnings have sad endings sometimes, and so it was with one of those five. That night we laid the foundation of a drunkard’s life, and death. But let us bring this fragment of the story over the intervening years and place it where it belongs. Look not upon the wine when it is red, when it givith its colour to the cup, at last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder. An aged mother lay on her bed of pain, which during years of suffering had distorted and twisted every joint in her body and yet her great concern was not about herself, but what would be the end of her boy, for she knew that during those intervening years he was slowly, but surely, being being encircled in the coils of alcohol’s cruel power. Poor mother, notwithstanding your anguish of body and mind you will not long be left to wonder. I came home one evening from work to learn the sad news that R. P., while under the influence of drink, had fallen from the shafts of a furniture van, and that the wheels had passed over his body, and that he had serious internal injuries and that he wished to see me. But death had sealed his lips before I was able to see him, and why he wished to see me, or what his request would have been, will never be known, I can only surmise. I was one of the five who went to the Public House that Sunday night to drink beer for the first time, and I was the only one to refuse to taste it. I had also pleaded with him to give it up, and take a more serious aspect of life, and I believe that the last word he spoke to me was, that he was almost persuaded. Now let me present him to you in this story as he lay stretched out on that bier, in the chamber of death. My school and playmate. My companion in those idle hours which were forced upoj me, because I was not allowed to goto the chapple services. He was of a genial disposition, and a wonderful fine physique though only just out of his teens. There lay one of King Alcohol’s victims, one of England’s 30,000 annuals that go down into a drunkard’s grave. Poor old mother, there was her boy, and the end of’ your suspense as to what his end would be. Strong drink impetis over, sweeps like a rising flood, and downward beareth many that once were wise and good. You may have noticed, in a previous chapter that I had felt a deep interest in the Temperance movement, and the Band of Bope. Like all good movements of the kind, they usually left it to a few good evergetic workers to carry on. In the Parish of W. the Band of Hope, or the Hopeful Band, had ceased to function for a year or two. After I left Mr. R. M. and went home to live in the village one of my first movements was to get in touch with a few that were interested in the Temperence worm, and try to set that Society in motion again. It was announced at the Sunday service that a Band of Hope meeting would be held on a certain night each week, when it was hoped a. good number would be present, but very few responded. However, we held our meeting. The chairman gave us an address and there were recitations and cetra. I gave a recitation, composed by an Inmate Pauper in a Cornish workhouse, fallen so low. At the end of that meeting there was a few enrolments and a few workers added, and it was announced that the meetings would be held monthly. Every month the attendance grew larger until it became packed houses and was a real live concern. The family of newcomers to the Parish became interested and threw their whole weight into the movement. The girl that I had felt such a passion of love for at first sight took charge of the organ and the singing, and we became acquainted through both acting some part and contributing something for the night’s entertainment. Winter months came and one one of our meeting nights snow lay on the ground. Still there was a good attendance. It was made known that an address would be given by T. B., so after spending about three months in preparation, T. B. gave his first address at a public meeting. My great surprise and delight after the meeting came when the girl that I loved so much came to me and congratulated me on the fine address that I had given. She thought I had shown great ability as a public speaker, and sound judgement in reasoning. Near that meeting room was a cross roads leading in four different directions. It being the parting of the ways, a group of people were standing there after the meeting having a chat, before going their respective ways. The group soon broke up, and went each their own way until it seemed as if fatehad decreed it. My lady love and myself were talking alone together, her home was about a mile from there and mine only about one hundred and fifty yards. I ventured to ask her if I might see her home and she said yes, if we can only regard it as friendship. I told her that she could always rely on my friendship and I would do nothing that would cause her embarrasment. We had not gone far before I knew that there was a mutual feeling that friendship could not satisfy, though she pleaded that we must smother our feelings and asked me to try and forget her. I said, that while that was impossible, I would do nothing to cause annoyance, and would appear as a stranger in the presence of others.
It seems strange how often we used to meet quite by accident, or by appointment. Of course, each time must be the last time, but somehow or other the last time did not come until the last night before I left for Australia. It became known to some of her relatives, and kind friends, that we used to meet, and had a liking for each other’s company, and they became quite indignant, and threatened no end of trouble for her, and would disown her because she chose to associate with a young man, whose only crime that could be charged against him was that he loved her more than his own life, but was considered by them below her, and them in social class, or society. It all came back to me waht was being said and done. I was told one night to watch for any injury being done me on my way home at nights, because her good friends had used so much influence over her eldest brother over me, that he threatened he would give me a good thrashing the first night that he met me on the road home. I told her to treat it as I did, not let it cause her a moment’s anxiety. I said your brother knows me too well to sttempt such a thing. That class distinction became a hateful thing to the both of us. She considered me equal to any of them in character, intellect, and if out financial position was not equal, that my life of hard work to support my mother, and younger sister and brother, was a valuable asset against that difference. I told her that I would yet bridge that difference, and meet her, and them, on equal terms if I was spared to do so. She asked me if it had ever occurred to me to migrate to another country, and I informed her, probably that would be the shortest road to achieve my aims. She informed me that she had $120 in the bank, that was left her by her grandfather, and being of age, no one could dictate to her how she should use it.
I have held this little love affair as sacred, and secret, antil now, and would not have referred to it here could I have written the truth without it.But I could not, because it altered the whole course of my life, and the very fact of me being in Australia, today, has its origin in the little love affair, but without the assistance of anyone outside my ledest sister.
I mentioned earlier that the night that five boys decided to go to the Public House to drink beer for the first time had a great deal to do with shaping the destiny of two of them, one by imbibing it too freely and going to a premature grave, the other by spending the greatest part of his life in a destant land. That boy had paid his penny so that he could not be called mean, but refused to taste beer, was the one to migrate and you will have noticed how that his interests in the Temperance Movement brought him into contact with a young lady, and into conflict with society. And love for that young lady and resentment towards society, that would persecute her, because she gave me a share of her love. I pledged myself not to allow her to be prosecuted on account of me and if it was ever >.• my pleasure to claim her as mine, that I would do so on equal terms.
That spring I got permanent work at the place where I first started as a boy for some time. Then my services were divided between two farms, three days per week at each place and as one of the farms was the mono of t the girl that I loved, it did not alter our affections for each other, but gave many opportunities for appointments and meetings that must not often continue. But sonehow or another, instead of diminishing became more often, and more enjoyable, it that was possible. We never tired of each other’s company. It was no reflection on the present, to say what blissful hours I then enjoyed, how sweet their memories still. Those boyish daydreams and ambitions were the connecting link between them and the present, and had it not been for them the present would not be what it is. All the way They hand has led me. Father I have found it true, to They faithfulness and kindness I will set my seal anew. Months came and went bringing clouds and sunshine, July came and out Band of Hope festivie. We had a Brass Band and a procession bearing banners with our mottoes. The whole Parish seemed to have turned out on that florious evening. The procession marched into the Sauire’s grounds and he came out onto the lawn to meet ir. The head circuit Minister, hat in hand, stepped onto the lawn and addressed the Squire in well chosen words, pointing out the vice and miseries caused through intemperance, and that our object was to spare those children from ever becoming victims of those miseries and to try and Influence them to frow up to be respected citizens, and bright ornaments of society. When the Squire surveyed the groop of children and people of all ages, he seemed visably affected. He said that he felt honoured by that procession’s visit that evening. He gave one pound and said that he would make it an annual donation towards the fund of the society. There was a public tea and a Public Meeting after and the whole days proceedings were considered a great success. At the close of the nights entertainment the Circuit Minister came to me and said, “You have shown your abilities here today. I want you to become a preacher. I am going to put your name on the next quarters plan, to go with D. M. (that was a lay preacher)on probation.” I protested against it by saying that I had neither the ability or qualifications necessary or desirable that a preacher should be endowed with, and that I could not submit to the request of having my name appearing on the plan. My protest was ignored, and my name appeared on the plan as above mentioned, which was ignored by me in turn. My brother, tired of his work of road making, went to live with Mr. S. and took charge of a pair of horses,after doing that for a while he got a situation with an Auctioneer and Commission Agent, ten miles away from home. My uoungest sister was able to do many things and was a great help to mother, and my little brother was a fine little fellow. We had plenty to eat and drink and good clothes with a little spending money, and no Banking Account, but a happy little family all the same. But happiness does not reign long unchallenged.
One evening a pair of horses attached to an enclosed carriage pulled up outside our entrance gate, and my brother S. was brought in and put to bed and the doctor sent for. When he (the doctor) arrived he complained in bitter terms of the callousmess of the people where S. had been living. He said that S. should never have been sent home ten miles in such a state as he was in. S. could not speak, his tongue filled his mouth and was hanging outside, a pitiful sight, caused by an absess at the root of his tongue, and for some days his life hung in the balance. My brother that I loved so much. I remember kneeling at his bedside and taking his hand in mine. How I pleaded with our Heavenly Father that his life might be spared, and as I look back upon that night, nearly forty six years ago, and remember bow that life was not only spared for a short time, but that we are still the living monuments of the tender care, and because His goodness and mercy has followed us like an ever rolling stream. Surely Thou hast been to us a Sun, and a Shield, giving us grace and glory and no good thing hast Thou witheld from us. For this and all Thy loving kindness we praise Thee this day. After my brother recovered from his illness he went back to his situation again. The only outstanding event following this was the Queen Victoria Jubilee Celebration in 1887.
The Parish ow W. has the second highest point in Cornwall and from that point on a clear day a person can count twenty-eight Church towers, so the bonfire on that point could be seen far and wide. I should have mentioned that every Parish had its bonfire. It was a Public Holiday with all kinds of sports for both children and adults. The evening was devoted to foot racing and cetra for men and children. My young brother soon became a favourite and won race after race from boys of his own age and from older and bigger boys. The young man who thought himself the champion runner of the Parish and was generally regarded as such, was badly beaten by a young man who made no pretence to be classed as a runner, and he became the favourite of the adults and won most of the prizes. The sports and bonfire were held on the farm of Mr. S. and on him fell the chief expense of the hugh bonfire. When the crowd was gathered around that fire instead of calling for three cheers for Queen Victoria he asked the crowd to sing the Doxology and there was a great response. It was somewhere about this time that the Church of which I was a member was wanting a. young man to volunteer for Missionary work in China. They were prepared to give the necessary education and training for a Doctor and Missionary combined, free to a young man that would accept it. I was about to rise from my from my seat and say, “Here I am, send me”, I hesitated a moment and that hesitation proved fatal. In that moment of undecision I saw the end of my boyish ambitions, and day-dreams of a happy home of perfect order and love. I could no longer afford any monetary assistance to my mother, sister and brother. All of my aims in general seemed to have reached an abrupt end, and now I must decide wither I was failing in my duty by not leaving all to follow Him.
“Oh” Summer time of life, with its blossom and bloom
Giving promise of a bountiful harvest home,
Did the fruit set on its petals or an unkindly blast
Leave only the tares to harvest at last?”
For some time previous to this, I had decided to migrate and as the Queensland Government was offering free Immigration to the Agricultural Labourers to Queensland I made an application to the agent for the District, and got a reply, directing me to see the Govenrment’s Doctor. So one morning I started off the the Railway Station ten miles away, then went about thirty miles by train, passed the medical test and caught another train back to the terminus, and then walked home, arriving home at midnight. I had.walked over twenty miles, and done sisty or more by train and took about eighteen hours to do it, including waiting time for the train. Soon after, I got my contract papers, stating that I had been accepted and was booked to leave Gravesend per S.S. “Quetta” on April fifth 1888 and to be at Blackwall not later than April 2nd. My little sister had taken a situation not far from home and my brother S. came home to live with mother. My oldest sister came home to see me and lent me five pounds. I had a busy time for a few days in preparing for the journey and making some hurried visits to say farewell and quite a number came to see me. The last Sunday came before I left England, it was on 31st of March, and there were two things in connection with that day that I can never forget. First a look that my mother fixed on me that pierced me like an arrow. It seemed to me to be a look of sorrow coming from the very depths of a mother’s love, and fading away in despair behind some black cloud. I knew that in her mind she thought that that was the last Sabbath Day we would spend together on earth, and she could see the grave shutting me out of her sight, and that long steady gaze lingered to catch the last glimpse, and then sank back into the depths of her sorrow. I know what a father’s love is, if a mother’s is greater, should it be called weakness if the thought should cause the dropping of a tear. The second thing I cannot forget in connection with that Sabbath was the sermon preached in the village Chappie that Sabbath evening by one of the Circuit Ministers from the test: Seek ye first the Kingdon of God and his righteousness. It seemed to me that every word was meant for me. I had not left all to follow him for missionary work in China, but now I found myself leaving all to follow my own desires to accomplish my own plans that had been my daydreams, and I felt the selfishness of it, and could not convince myself wither I had done right or wrong, or to put it in other words, wither my journey would be blessed or not. Was I seeking the Kingdom of God first, or the gratification ofmy own desires?
Monday was spent in visiting some friends. My dear little sister, then fourteen years of age came home and slept there that night as I was leaving about seven o’clock on the Tuesday morning. On that morning when Mr. B. came for me and my luggage I kissed my little sister and mother and said aravau for five years, then I went into my little brother of eleven who was asleep in bed, then I felt a big lump in the throat and found that I could not waken him without bursting it, and I left him asleep and hastened away. My brother S. went to the Railway Station with me which was seven miles away, but from my home a person could see the smoking of every train for some miles after they pulled out of the Station. When the train moved out of the Station and I let fo my brother’s hand, it seemed as though I had lost my grasp of everything and that I was slipping into the inknown. Then I felt the lump in my throat burst and there was a little shower of tears. Then an old gentleman became interrested in me, and when he found out where I was going and all alone, a father could not have shown me greater kindness and his kindness made my first days travelling easy. My little sister watched the smoke until she could see it no longer, then collapsed and was very ill for three months after. Dear little sister, she was the only one of the family that I was destined never to meet again on earth, but as I record this she seems to be very near. It may be that she is a ministering spirit. It was about six o’clock when I reached Flackwall and I was givan a pointed stick ans some black liquid and told to print my name on my kit bag. The man looking after that work said he thought I would make more progress with a sbovie than a pen, and I felt the sarcasm but made no reply. We had a good tea and every comfort provided at the Depot. The snow lay on the ground. I went out to see a little of that part of London and to do a little shopping. I missed my way and had to enquire my way back there. There was plenty of writing material supplied there, and we were encouraged to write home to our friends. At night there was a very enjoyable service, and those of the migrants who had accepted Christ as their Saviour and intended to take the name of Jesus with them, were invited to testify to that effect. Many of us were only too glad to do so, we had left every earthly friend behind and we were among people whom we had never met before, and were going into the unknown to meet people we had never seen or heard of. But it was refreshing and a comfort to know that we had a dear friend with whom we dally had sweet communion, to accompany us all the way, and the full assurance that he would never leave us, or forsake us. Can we feel lonely with such a f trend as Jesus, and a bond of fellowship with those who love Him? Jesus the name high over all, in earth or sea or sky. Angels and men before him fall, and devils fear and fly. One of my mess mates felt very uncomfortable at that meeting. He had never known or felt the power of the Divine love of Christ and he said that he did not like those kind of meetings at all. Although he was a regular attendant at Church Services, we knew little at that time how soon our faith in Him would be put to the test, or bow soon those who had never felt their need of Him as a personal saviour would be brought to feel that need.
April 4th 1888, the sun shon out bright and clear, the snow of the previous day had disappeared. I spent most of the day in the Depot, writing and watching the hundreds of vessels on the Terns. April 5th was a typical April morning, the sun was shining brightly. After doing justice to a good breakfast we each took our kit bags and. inarched on to a paddle steamer. The last one having arrived on board, the gangway was hoisted aboard, and having lost our foothold on Old England we found ourselves bliding down the Terns. I cannot answer for the thoughts of that crowd of people on board, but there was one young fellow there, twenty-three years of age, whose thoughts might, or might not, interest the reader if described here. He had just stepped off from England, this England so dear to him, and containing everything of earth that he loved.
“This royal throne of Kings, this sceptered isle,
This other Eden, demi-paradise….
This happy breed of men, this little World,
This precious stone set in the silver sea,
This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England….”
His feet were no longer on solid ground, but being carried away to an unknown place, to him, to be landed on a shore amongst unknown people in a far off land. As he was being propelled towards the unknown and the shores of England were receding, would it be surprising to say that his gaze lingered to catch the last glimpse of all earthly ties? And as they grew dim and faded from sight, would .^t be surprising to know that he should claim the promise. The eternal God is thy refuge and underneath are the everlasting arms. About noon we arrived at Gravesend and went aboard the “Quetta” and were taken to our mess room below and there lined up. The Purser called the names of ten and when they answered to Their names they were given the number of their mess and their berth. There were ten in a mess and one of the ten was appointed Captain of the Mess. HIS duty was to fetch the meals from the Galley and place them on the table, see that good order was kept by his mess, and the mess and utensils were scrubbed every morning with holly stone and kept thoroughly clean. I was Captain of our Mess. It being lunch time I made my way to the Galley and soon returned with a leg of roast mutton and vegetables and we sat down to a real good lunch. After lunch our trouble began. We discovered that to wash greasy mutton dishes with cold salt water was a problem we had not previously considered. We had a shomoise leather to dry our dishes with but it was never seen again after that drying up and neither was roast mutton, unfortunately. When we went on deck we learnt for the first time that she S.S. “Quetta” was ploughing a furrow down the Channel.
Early in the morning of April 6th we saw in the distance the white cliffs of the Isle of Might and we knew that every revolution of the propellers was pushing us farther away from England. We passed Ushent and entered the Bay of Biscay and had a remarkable smooth passage through the Bay. We crossed it in thirty-two hours. I was offered a position in the Cook’s Galley to assist the Cook and accepted it. For a few days I fared well and the Cook was well pleased with my work. Then I got seasick and after that I could not bear the smell of the Galley. I remember passing Cape St. Vincent one evening while acting as assistant cook, also Algiers on the coast of Africa. I do not remember seeing the Rock of Gibralter, we must have passed through the Straits when I was asleep. Nothing eventful happened until the morning of 14 April. On that morning about ten o’clock we were making good headway under steam and sail. Suddenly there was loud orders shouted by the Officers and great activity amongst the Lascar sailors. We were caught in a gale and tremendous seas before they had time to lower the sails and reef them. The Quartermaster went up and cut the sails adrift and they were blown overboard. A shout ran along the deck, “Go below everyone that does not want to be drowned.” We hurried below and the hatches were battened down. The engines broke down, and we were adrift in the trough of the sea with mountainous waves rolling over our ship, making her quiver from stem to stern and some heavy cargo shifting from side to side and threatening to break through either side of the ship. One moment of light showed our ship tossed like a feather on the seething sea, the next moment was darkness, struck by a mountainour wave and engulfed beneath it with a crash like the roar of thunder above, and from men clinging to the railings with a look of consternation on their faces, came the words with every rooo, “This is the last one”, and I believe it was the opinion of everyone that every sway would be the last. One of my mess mates asked me why it was that I showed so little concern. Did I not realise how serious our position was? I replied that I was quite aware of the danger attached to our position but my mind was concentrated on what I believed the next sway would bring – a few moments of grim struggle with death, and then the end of time and the beginning of a Glorious Eternity. To say that I had no fear would be an untruth, but my fear was only of those moments of struggle with death. I had no fear beyond that, and that was a severe test of faith that produced no outward signs of fear and that was noticed by those around who had not accepted Christ as their personal Saviour. What a revelation to know that through the merits of Jesus Christ we can claim that promise. The eternal God is thy refuge and underneath are the everlasting arms. What a resting place for faith. Mbat a stronghold is our refuge. After an hour or two of helplessness in the trough of the sea , • the thud of the engines was heard and the vibration of the propellers was felt and we could see that we were no longer helpless in the tough of the sea, but steering a course. We were allowed on deck again in the afternoon, though very rough sea still. I heard the Cook say, “I wish to God they would push out of this.” He said that he had been to sea for seventeen years, but was never in anything like that before. About four o’clock that evening we arrived in Malta, passing into the Harbour through a narrow channel between two rocky cliffs and before us we beheld the magnificant harbour, the Naval Base of the British Fleet in the Medeterrean.
Having kept a dairy of the voyage, I did not think it necessary to commit to memory a full account of the voyage, and having lost my dairy after arriving in Australia, I am only able to give a few details of the journey after leaving Malta, and one of those items to this day is harder to forget than to remember. I heard the Cook make a boast that he could see three pounds worth of pies out of the Galley of a night and having been assistant in the Galley I knew that he was pinching the Immigrants’s stores to do so, and the more he pinched the more we felt the pinch of hunger and those that had some money to spend felt an ever increasing desire to buy pies made with their own stores, but those without money looked on with ravenous eyes and the smell of savoury pies with hot tea or coffee was their portion, and so it continued to the end of the voyage. That one man should cause so many so much suffering and go free has caused me to think bow lacking we were in our duty towards each other.
