The owner thereof was a shrewd, taciturn old man, of the American rather than the English type. He had been a soldier, and had stood guard over Napoleon in St Helena, and was there till the captive emperor died, leaving the island on the day of the funeral. He told me some interesting facts about Bonaparte, but I was more anxious to talk to him about the art he practised.
How he came to be a herbalist was on this wise. When a boy he had suffered so from chilblains in the winter that his hands were of no use to him. One day he saw a herb in the hedge, and wished to pluck it, but his father told him it would "pisin" him. Genius, however, was not to be restrained, so he gathered it, rubbed his blains with the berries, and to his joy they departed, never to trouble him again.
Ever since that time he had been a believer in the wonderful potency of herbs, and had scraped together such knowledge as a shrewd man, who had lived in various countries, must have many opportunities of acquiring. His garden was full of marvellous herbs and ordinary kitchen stuff, growing together in happy confusion. Pointing to one, he told me it was worth its weight in gold. Speaking of what disease each herb was good for, he assured me that he had cured one young man of the King's evil, but it had taken him months to do it.
The house he lived in was the inheritance of his wife, and whether by worm-doctoring, or by his native savoir faire, I cannot say, but the old stocking was so full that he was about to purchase the adjoining plot of ground for £300.
Such characters, perhaps, serve to maintain a spirit of independence and self-reliance among the class to which they belong. "I'm a Hindependent," said one of them to me; and it was true in every sense. He was evidently a man of independent means and independent views. He declared himself an independent in religion, and he was equally so in manners.
But it does not follow that because a few hardy natures flourish on these wastes, the majority can do so. We have seen that where the strict letter of the law is understood and enforced, they can be deprived of their imagined rights, and that when they are permitted and even encouraged to make use of them, their poverty prevents them doing so.
