Standing some two miles out of Reigate is the village of Crowswood,
a quiet place and fairly well to do, thanks in no small degree to
Squire Thorndyke, who owned the whole of the, parish, and by whom
and his tenants the greater portion of the village were employed.
Greatly had the closing of the Manor House, after the death of old
Squire Thorndyke, been felt. There were no more jellies, soups, and
other comforts to be looked for in time of sickness, no abatement
of rent when the breadwinner was sick or disabled, no check to
the drunkards, whom the knowledge that they would be turned out of
their cottage at a week's notice kept in some sort of order. When,
therefore, after ten years of absence of all government, John
Thorndyke, after the death of his brother, the Colonel, came down
and took possession, he found the place sadly changed from what
it had been when he had left it twenty years before. His first act
was to dismiss Newman; who, completely unchecked, had, he found,
been sadly mismanaging affairs. It was not long, however, before
his hand made itself felt. Two out of the three public houses were
shut up in six months, a score of their habitual frequenters had,
weeks before, been turned out of their houses, an order had been
issued that unless a cottage was kept in good order and the garden
bright and blooming with flowers in the summer a fresh tenant would
be found for it. Every child must be sent to the village school;
the Squire was ready to do what there was to be done in the way of
thatching and whitewashing, repairing palings and painting doors
and windows, but, as he told the people, the village had to be kept
clean and decent, and anyone who would not conform to the rules
was at liberty to leave without a day's notice.

Many of the villagers grumbled under their breath, but public opinion
was, on the whole, favorable. There was someone to look after them