It was Richard Cobbold, one of the six sons of the second marriage of John Cobbold, who was the author of this story. When he was born he had ten nephews and nieces awaiting him, the children of his brothers and sisters of the first family, and he was at school with his own nephew, who was just a fortnight younger than himself. The nephew was John Chevallier Cobbold, who for twenty-one years represented Ipswich in Parliament. For this information I am indebted to a grandson[3], who also sends me the following anecdotes:-- When John Cobbold--the father of twenty-two children--was High Sheriff, he once persuaded the Judge to come to dine with him on condition that there should be no one to meet him except his (J. C.'s) own family. When the Judge was shown into a drawing-room full of people, he was very angry, and said loudly before the company, "Mr. Cobbold, you have deceived me." Explanations followed, and the Judge was introduced to the various members of the family. Elizabeth Cobbold was in the habit of saying that when she married her husband she found no books in the house except Bibles and account-books. Brewing was such good business in those days that John Cobbold was able to give to each of his two youngest sons (twenty-first and twenty-second children) a University education, and to buy for each of them a church living worth £1,000 a year. Richard Cobbold was educated at Bury St. Edmunds and at Caius College, Cambridge, was destined for the Church, and when he married he was a curate in Ipswich[4], but his father obtained for him the living of Wortham, near Diss, where he was Rector from 1825 until his death in 1877. He was also rural dean of Hartismere. Several years after celebrating his golden wedding--Dr. Spencer Cobbold informs me--he and his wife died within a day or two of each other; the survivor did not know the other was gone; both were buried at the same time. Of the three sons who survived, one became Rector of Hollesley, another was the father of the well-known amateur footballer, W. N. Cobbold, and the third was the Fellow of the Royal Society, to whom I have already referred, and to whose son I am indebted for so many interesting facts. That Richard Cobbold was not particularly honoured in his own country may be gathered from many quarters. One writer speaks of his "little vanities, his amusing egotisms, and his good natured pomposity". It was clearly not Suffolk that helped to make his fame, if we may accept one of the few printed references to him that I have been able to find:--