We gave the Masefields notice that we were leaving the cottage at the end of the June quarter 1921. We had no idea where we were going or what we were going to do. We decided that we must get another cottage somewhere and live very quietly, looking after the children ourselves, and that we must try to make what money we needed by writing and drawing. Nancy, who had taken charge of everything when I was ill, now gave me the task of finding a cottage. It had to be found in about three weeks’ time. I said: ‘But you know that there are no cottages anywhere to be had.’ She said: ‘I know, but we are going to get one.’ I said ironically: ‘Describe it in detail; since there are no cottages we might as well have a no-cottage that we really like.’ She said: ‘Well, it must have six rooms, water in the house, a beamed attic, a walled-in garden, and it must be near the river. It must be in a village with shops and yet a little removed from the village. The village must be five or six miles from Oxford in the opposite direction from Boar’s Hill. The church must have a tower and not a spire. And we can only afford ten shillings a week unfurnished.’ There were other details that I took down about soil, sanitation, windows, stairs and kitchen sinks, and then I went off on my bicycle. I had first laid a ruler across the Oxford ordnance-map and found four or five villages that corresponded in general direction and distance and were on the river. By inquiry I found that two had shops; that, of these two, one had a towered church and the other a spired church. I therefore went to a firm of house-agents in Oxford and said: ‘Have you any cottages to let unfurnished?’ The house-agent laughed politely. So I said: ‘What I want is a cottage at Islip with a walled garden, six rooms, water in the house, just outside the village, with a beamed attic, and rent ten shillings a week.’ The house-agent said: ‘Oh, you mean the World’s End Cottage? But that is for sale, not for renting. It has failed to find a purchaser for two years, and I think that the owner will let it go now at five hundred pounds, which is only half what he originally asked.’ So I went back and next day Nancy came with me; she looked round and said: ‘Yes, this is the cottage all right, but I shall have to cut down those cypress trees and change those window-panes. We’ll move in on quarter-day.’ I said: ‘But the money! We haven’t the money.’ Nancy answered: ‘If we could find the exact house, surely to goodness we can find a mere lump sum of money.’ She was right, for my mother was good enough to buy the cottage and rent it to us at the rate of ten shillings a week.