During the summer, with a small band of fellow-assistants, I often arranged pedestrian outings. We frequently started early on Saturday, after business, slept the night out and returned by train on Sunday evening. Two of these outings are still fresh in my memory. On the first occasion, we went by train to Gravesend, then walked to Chatham, where we spent a very uncomfortable night, thence to Rochester Cathedral and the Dickens country, afterwards walking to St. Mary's Cray and staying on the way to inspect Kit's Coty House in Kent, a prehistoric structure which belongs to the Stone or Bronze Age. It consists of a large flat stone supported by two other stones and is a link with the past and well worth a visit. From St. Mary's Cray we reached home by train. Another of our outings was by rail to Hampton Court, then a walk to Staines, where we had to sleep on the floor and on billiard tables, but, not being very comfortable, we got up at three o'clock in the morning and spent our time, until breakfast was ready, rowing on the Thames. From Staines we walked to Windsor, and were in time for service at St. George's Chapel, and I had the pleasure of hearing the then Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Tait; thence home by train. Such outings as these can only be enjoyed at one period of life, and I have always been glad I undertook them when I did, for other things came into my life which made me, I hope, a better and happier man. CHAPTER III Some Recollections of Stationers' Hall Court Although I have referred in another chapter to my early association with bookselling, yet it was not until my entry into the employ of Simpkin, Marshall & Co., on September 23, 1864, that my real bookselling experience commenced. This may not be quite in accord with the title I have chosen of "Sixty Years a Bookman," but, as previously stated, I served seven years' apprenticeship to a bookseller before entering the firm of Simpkin, Marshall & Co., and these two periods extend beyond that implied by the title of this book. As long as my memory lasts, I shall never forget the first few weeks of my experience in this firm, from 8.30 in the morning until the work was finished. Up and down stairs and ladders searching for books made one so tired that sometimes I could scarcely crawl to my home. Even to this I soon became accustomed, and the tiredness to an extent, so far as my body was concerned, became a thing of the past; but it will never be effaced from my memory.