A PRIMITIVE PROCEEDING
The number of birthplaces of famous Englishmen
that we came accidentally upon during the
course of our journey was a notable feature thereof.
Besides the instance just mentioned, there was
Cromwell's at Huntingdon, Jean Ingelow's at
Boston, Sir John Franklin's at Spilsby, Lord
Tennyson's at Somersby, Sir Isaac Newton's at
Woolsthorpe, with others of lesser note, the last
four being all in Lincolnshire.
But to return to Brampton. Pepys makes frequent mention of this place in his notes, and gives some very amusing and interesting experiences of one of his visits there under the date of the 10th and 11th of October 1667, when he came to search for and to recover his buried treasure. It appears, after the Dutch victory in the Thames, and the rumours that they intended to make a descent upon London, Pepys, with many others, became alarmed about the safety of his property, so he sent a quantity of gold coins in bags down to his father's home at Brampton, with instructions that they should be secretly buried in the garden for security! A primitive proceeding truly, giving a curious insight of the state of the times: one would have imagined that the money would really have been safer hidden in London than risked on the road, where robberies were not infrequent.
When all fear of the Dutch invasion had vanished, Pepys journeyed down to Brampton to get back his own, which caused him to moralise upon the obvious thus—"How painful it is sometimes to keep money, as well as to get it." Having
