Two Suffolk Friends | Page 2

way he could
recall the whole plot of a play which he had not seen for half a century.
Holcroft's 'Road to Ruin,' thus, was one that he once described to me.
He was a master of the art, now wellnigh lost, of "capping verses"; and
he had a rare knowledge of the less-known Elizabethan dramatists. In
his first Charge occurs a quotation from an "old play"; and one of his
hearers, Canon "Grundy," inquired what play it might be. "Ford's," said
my father, "''Tis pity she's no better than she should be.'" And the good
man was perfectly satisfied. But stronger than his love of Wordsworth
and music, of the classics and foreign theology, was his love of
Suffolk--its lore, its dialect, its people. As a young man he had driven
through it with Mr D. E. Davy, the antiquary; and as archdeacon he
visited and revisited its three hundred churches in the Norwich diocese
during close on a score of years. I drove with him twice on his rounds,
and there was not a place that did not evoke some memory. If he could
himself have written those memories down! He did make the attempt,
but too late. This was all the result:--
"Oct. 23, 1886.
"I cannot see to read, but as yet I can see to write. That is, I can see the
continuous grey line of writing, and can mechanically write one word
after another. But if I leave off abruptly, I cannot always remember
what was the last word that I wrote, and read it generally I cannot.
{Monk Soham Church: p6.jpg}
"I should be thankful for being able to write at all, and I hope I am; but
I am not enough thankful. The failure of my sight has been very
gradual, but of late it has been more sudden. Three months ago I could

employ myself in reading; now I cannot, save with a book, such as the
Prayer-book, with which I am well acquainted, and which is of clear
large type. So that as yet I can take my duty.
"I was born at Framlingham on January 18, 1810, so that I am now
nearly seventy-seven years old. The house still stands where I was born,
little if at all changed. It is the first house on the left-hand side of the
Market Hill, after ascending a short flight of steps. My father, at the
time of my birth, was curate to his brother-in-law, Mr Wyatt, who was
then rector of Framlingham. I was the younger of two sons, my brother
Hindes being thirteen months older than I was.
"As we left Framlingham in 1813, my recollections of it are very
indistinct. I have an impression of being taken out to see a fire; but as I
have since been told that the fire happened a year before I was born, I
suppose that I have heard it so often spoken of that in the end I came to
believe that I myself had seen it. Yet one thing I can surely remember,
that, being sent to a dame's school to keep me out of mischief, I used to
stand by her side pricking holes in some picture or pattern which had
been drawn upon a piece of paper.
"In 1813, after the death of Mr Wyatt, my father took the curacy of
Rendlesham, where we lived till the year 1815. The rector of
Rendlesham at that time was Dr Henley, {8} who was also principal of
the East India College of Haileybury, so that we lived in the rectory, Dr
Henley rarely coming to the parish. That house remains unchanged, as I
shall have occasion to tell. Lois Dowsing was our cook, and lived
nearly forty years in my father's service--one of those faithful servants
who said little, but cared dearly for us all.
"Of Rendlesham I have clear recollection, and things that happened in
it. It was there I first learnt to read. My mother has told me that I could
not be taught to know the letter H, take all the pains she could. My
father, thinking that the fault lay in the teacher, undertook to
accomplish the task. Accordingly he drew, as he thought, the picture of
a hog, and wrote a capital H under it. But whether it was the fault of the
drawing--I am inclined to think that it was--or whether it was my
obstinacy, but when it was shown me, I persisted in calling it 'papa's

grey mare.'
"There was a high sandbank not far from the house, through which the
small roots of the bushes growing protruded. My brother and I never
touched these. We believed that if we pulled one of them, a bell would
ring and the devil would appear. So we never