288 EARLY REMINISCENCES of the caldron-ring. All I had to do was to apply a match. This I did, and away went witches and demons dancing round the vessel. But the vibration of the stage caused by their feet upset the flower-pot outside the caldron. Thereupon one of the witches caught it up and, without thinking that I was in the vessel, threw the roaring, hissing, spluttering and blazing firework upon me. Down went the curtain, and Mrs. Lowe, with admirable presence of mind, rushed on to the stage and enveloped me in the warm woollen mantle she had happily brought with her. I was not hurt, but my dress-suit was riddled, and my smallclothes especially exhibited a point-lace consistency. Dr. Lowe asked me next morning whether I had suffered from serious burns. " Oh, dear me, no," I replied. " My situation last night was very much like that of the Church party. All the devils from hell are showering flower-pots upon us. All we have to do is to stick to our working clothes " I was at Hurst when the Third Grade boys' school at Ardingly was begun. The head master was the Rev. Dirs de Mertens, of German origin, but English born, and a Baron. He had married the sister of R. Lewin Pennell. On the day of stone-laying, a very large concourse of friends attended. The Provost said : " Why, this is just like heaven. One meets here so many that we never expected to see, and misses the presence of so many whom we had calculated on meeting." In 1854, during the Long Vacation, I rode about in the country making sketches in the churches of the screens and bench-ends. I was one morning at Cheriton Bishop and entered the church. I found that a south chapel had been fitted up with scraps of the ruined rood-screen, and with stained glass in the windows. As the panels of the screen were painted with representations of saints, I set to work to copy them. Presently two nice boys came in, and, finding out what I was engaged upon, fetched me water from S. Antony's Holy Well, that I might use my colour-box, and then they invited me in to lunch at their father's house. The old man, a Mr. Richard Lewin Pennell, was typical of " the fine old English gentleman, all of the olden time." He was better than that; he was typical of the English Churchman of the
