Plate                                                                                    27.02.23

‘The journey had been a somewhat warm and tiring one and I was glad to arrive at my Bishop’s home in daylight and enjoy his cottage in the fullness of its beautiful setting:

It stood back from the road and was fronted by a small and well maintained garden. The lawn in front flowed to a small pond to the left and the whole surrounded with well maintained beds of Lupin, Iris and other perennial. To the right a Dog Rose tumbled most pleasingly over the small gateway that led to the house, and all was calm and most pretty.

The cottage itself was thatched and in good repair; its half timbered walls and panels of cream were sound and with no sign of the years they must have seen and with bees moving busy among the flowers at the the base, a bucolic air was lent the whole vista.

As I approached I noticed an open window on the first floor and saw a girl’s face appear and assuming it was the housekeeper’s daughter or some such thought nothing of it. It was only later, when I enquired after the child, my friend told me some many years previously a young girl had died in that very room…’

Diary of The Reverend Henry Turnbull  May 1864

attrib: Thomas Bell’s ‘The Turnbull’s of Suffolk’ pub 1949 by David Bell