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

20 MY LIFEhair was of a very light flaxen tint, so that I wasgenerally spoken of among the Welsh-speaking countrypeople as the " little Saxon."My recollections of our leaving Usk and of thejourney to London are very faint, only one incidentof it being clearly visualized—the crossing the Severnat the Old Passage in an open ferry-boat. This isvery clear to me, possibly because it was the firsttime I had ever been in a boat. I remember sittingwith my mother and sisters on a seat at one side ofthe boat, which seemed to me about as wide as asmall room, of its leaning over so that we were closeto the water, and especially of the great boom of themainsail, when our course was changed, requiring usall to stoop our heads for it to swing over us. It wasa little awful to me, and I think we were all gladwhen it was over and we were safe on land again.We must have travelled all day by coach from Uskto the Severn, then on to Bristol, then from Bristolto London, where we stayed at an inn inOf the next few months of my lifeHolborn.I have also butslight recollections, confined to some isolated facts orincidents. On leaving the inn we went to my aunt'sat Dulwich. I remember being much impressed withthe large house, and especially with the beautifulgrounds, with lawns, trees, and shrubs such as I hadnever seen before. There was here also a family ofcousins, some about my own age, and the few dayswe stayed were very bright and enjoyable. ThenceI was sent to a school in Essex, with some ladies whohad about half a dozen boys and girls of my own age.My next recollections are of the town of Hertford,where we lived for eight or nine years, and where Ireceived the whole of my school education. We hada small house, the first of a row of four at the