she told him all about her children--how the eldest was ill with the
small-pox but going on pretty well, and the others running about among
infected people so as to catch the disease and get it over while they
were young. Evelyn quite approved; he had had small-pox in his own
family, and knew something about it.

The house in Bagshot Park was made even more commodious some forty years
ago, as a residence for the Duke of Connaught.

In the Ordnance Maps, Bagshot Heath is placed south of Bagshot; in the
old maps of the county, the Heath lies to the north and north-east, and
would merge into what is now Chobham Common. It must have covered many
more miles than the maps allow it to-day. Chobham Ridges stretch from
its south-west corner, a long, sandy scar of three miles, overlooking
the Bisley rifle ranges and the desert ground behind them. You are sure
to be invited to admire Chobham Ridges, and no doubt twenty years ago it
was fine wild country. But frequent notice-boards observing that when
the red flag is flying it is dangerous to walk any further, barbed wire,
excavations of gravel, and sand trampled by cavalry horses into a paste
like wet coaldust may temper the warmest enthusiasm. A hideous
foreground can do something to spoil even a fine view, and the view from
the Ridges is certainly wide and wild. The finest view I have had from
Chobham Ridges was a thunderstorm driving down over Brookwood. It was a
gusty, rainy day, and the rolling white and grey clouds and the lines of
driven hail rode down the sky like a charge.

I once met, on Chobham Ridges, a pleasantly contented family. In front
of a sort of bivouac of bent poles covered with cloths sat an old,
weatherbeaten man, tailor-fashion, making a straw beehive. Another
beehive, finished, with a straw handle, lay at his side. A wood fire
smoked and sputtered a yard or two away; on a flat wooden barrow near
were rough cooking utensils and a dark tabby cat; two small boys, one of
them with not much more on him than a large pair of trousers, brought
wood and bracken for the fire. It was raining, but I was wished good
afternoon with the utmost cheerfulness. Were those his boys? They were;
they generally went with him. Was there a good sale for beehives round
there? There was a pretty good sale; this one, with a handle, he should
try to sell for two shillings; he might have to take less; a farmer let
him have the straw. Yes, he was known about there. That was the boys'