M. P. Grace, Esq., Battle Abbey 340 IN LINE Cruikshank's Autograph 86 Facsimile of a Whistler letter 299 "Smile, damn you, smile!" 334 FORTY YEARS OF 'SPY' CHAPTER I EARLY DAYS I come into the world.--The story of my ancestry.--My mother.--Wilkie Collins.--The Collins family.--Slough and Upton.--The funeral of the Duchess of Kent.--The marriage of the Princess Royal.--Her Majesty Queen Victoria and the Prince Consort.--Their visits to my parents' studios.--The Prince of Wales.--Sir William Ross, R.A.--Westminster Abbey.--My composition.--A visit to Astley's Theatre.--Wilkie Collins and Pigott.--The Panopticon.--The Thames frozen over. --The Comet.--General Sir John Hearsey.--Kent Villa.--My father.--Lady Waterford.--Marcus Stone and Vicat Cole.--The Crystal Palace.--Rev. J. M. Bellew.--Kyrle Bellew.--I go to school.--Wentworth Hope Johnstone. In the course of our lives the monotonous repetition of daily routine and the similarity of the types we meet make our minds less and less susceptible to impressions, with the result that important events and interesting _rencontres_ of last year--or even of last week--pass from our recollection far more readily than the trifling occurrences and casual acquaintanceships of early days. The deep indentations which everything makes upon the memory when the brain is young and receptive, when everything is novel and comes as a surprise, remain with most men and women throughout their lives. I am no exception to this rule; I remember, with extraordinary clearness of vision, innumerable incidents, trivial perhaps in themselves, but infinitely dear to me. They shine back across the years with a vivid outline, the clearer for a background of forgotten and perhaps important events now lost in shadow. I was born at Harewood Square, London, on November 21st, 1851, and I was named after my godfather, C. R. Leslie, R.A., the father of George Leslie, R.A.