My life : a record of events and opinions - Wallace-online.org

CHAPTER IIMY EARLIEST MEMORIES, USK AND HERTFORDMy earliest recollections of myself are as a littleboyin short frocks and with bare arms and legs, playingwith my brother and sisters, or sitting in my mother'slap or on a footstool listening to stories, of whichsome fairy-tales, especially "Jack the Giant-Killer,"" Little Red Riding Hood," and " Jack and the Beanstalk,"seem to live in my memory ; and of a morerealistic kind, " Sandford and Merton," which perhapsimpressed me even more deeply than any. I clearlyremember the little house and the room we chieflyoccupied, with a French window opening to thegarden, a steep wooded bank on the right, the road,river, and distant low hills to the left. The houseitself was built close under this bank, which was quiterocky in places.The river in front of our house was the Usk, a finestream on which we often saw men fishing in coracles,the ancient form of boat made of strong wicker-work,somewhat the shape of the deeper half of a cockleshell,and covered with bullock's hide. Each coracleheld one man, and it could be easily carried to andfrom the river on the owner's back. In those days ofscanty population and abundant fish the river was notpreserved, and a number of men got their living, orpart of it, by supplying the towns with salmon and