There were some strange old traditions about the house; it was said to
be haunted, and more than one of his guests had inexplicable experiences
there. It was also said that there was a hidden treasure concealed in or
about it. That treasure Hugh certainly discovered, in the delight which
he took in restoring, adorning, and laying it all out. It was a source
of constant joy to him in his life. And there, in the midst of it all,
his body lies.




II

CHILDHOOD


I very well remember the sudden appearance of Hugh in the nursery world,
and being conducted into a secluded dressing-room, adjacent to the
nursery, where the tiny creature lay, lost in contented dreams, in a
big, white-draped, white-hooded cradle. It was just a rather pleasing
and exciting event to us children, not particularly wonderful or
remarkable. It was at Wellington College that he was born, in the
Master's Lodge, in a sunny bedroom, in the south-east corner of the
house; one of its windows looking to the south front of the college and
the chapel with its slender spire; the other window looking over the
garden and a waste of heather beyond, to the fir-crowned hill of
Ambarrow. My father had been Headmaster for twelve years and was
nearing the end of his time there; and I was myself nine years old, and
shortly to go to a private school, where my elder brother Martin already