Such immobility seemed strange to me not many years ago, but now I have come down to it myself. I have not been out of Devon since 1914, or rather, I have not been out of Devon ’ceptin’ Axter town, as people used to say. Henry the Eighth took Exeter out of Devon and made it a county by itself. In old conveyances of land in Devon, e.g. of part of Lower Wreyland in 1728, the covenant for Further Assurance often has the words “so as for the doing thereof the persons comprehended within this covenant be not compelled or compellable to travel out of the county of Devon unless it be to the citie of Exon.” When my grandfather went anywhere, it was to London or abroad. Like everybody else, he went up for the Great Exhibition and thoroughly enjoyed it, but he had grave doubts beforehand. He writes to my father, 3 April 1851--“I see both Houses of Parliament are rather uneasy about so many foreigners being in London. They appear to be of the very worst stamp.... Hope all will go off well, but to my mind an ill-judged thing and not likely to answer any good purpose, this Great Exhibition.” There was plenty of such talk just then, and some little reason for it. England was sheltering a good many foreigners who had rebelled against their governments in 1848, and some of these foreigners had a notion of paying for their shelter by organising a rebellion here, beginning with assassinations at the opening of the Exhibition on May Day. With the wisdom that comes after the event, _Punch_ made fun of it, 10 May, but was not so very sure of it three weeks before. As a small boy I read _Punch_ diligently, and thereby stocked my memory with facts that history-books ignore. My brother had read it more diligently still; but my grandfather did not see the value of it, though my father did. In a letter of 12 June 1853 my grandfather explains--“My object in giving him the Bible was to get rid of _Punch_ out of his head. _Punch_ may be well enough for grown people, but surely very improper as a foundation for a young child.” But he found that a young child asked more embarrassing questions after studying the Bible than after studying _Punch_. In a letter of 17 July 1852 he mentions that my sister had just received a present of a doll “nicely dressed in the Bloomer fashion,” that is, short skirts with trousers underneath, and other male things to match. Without those caricatures of it in _Punch_ few people now would know what Bloomerism was.