mere'; I feel it still swelling about me, waiting, I trust, for this new book, to carry it also into prosperous seas. I should be ungrateful indeed were I to show much soreness under criticism, however hostile, however, as I think, unjust. For the world to which they were addressed has sent out kind and welcoming hands to these books of mine; I have in my ears the sound of words that may well stir and quicken and encourage; and in my heart the longing to keep the sympathy gained, and the ambition to deserve it more and more.

Yours always sincerely,

MARY A. WARD.

NOTES ON THE ILLUSTRATIONS

UPPER HOUSE, KINDERSCOUT

Frontispiece

The old part of the house seen on the right of the tower
was for many years known as Marriott's Farm. Mrs.
Ward spent two days at the farm and was shown over
the moorlands by Mr. Marriott. The tower and the left
wing have been added in recent years by the present
owner, a gentleman of Manchester, who now makes
the house his country home.

MILE END, KINDERSCOUT

'Some distance away in front of him, beyond the un-
dulating heather ground at his feet, rose a magnificent
curving front of moor, the steep sides of it crowned
with black edges and cliffs of grit, the outline of the
southwestern end sweeping finely up on the right to
a purple peak, the king of all the moorland round.'

LOWER HOUSE, KINDERSCOUT

This farm, occupied by a family named Needham, now
belongs to the same gentleman who owns Upper House,
and the two are the only residences in the neighbour-
hood. This house no doubt suggested the name Need-
ham Farm, the home of David and Louie, but the
farm itself as described in the book was mostly taken
from Marriott's Farm as it then was.

THE DOWNFALL, KINDERSCOUT

'In ordinary times the Downfall, as the natives called it, only makes itself visible on the mountain-side as a black ravine of tossed and tumbled rocks, but there had been a late snowfall on the high plateau beyond, followed by heavy rain, and the swollen stream was today worthy of its grand setting of cliff and moor. On such occasions it becomes a landmark for all the country round.' (Page 5.) In this photograph, kindly lent by the owner of Upper House, the water is blown back 'by the wind, presenting the curious spectacle of a cascade seeming to disappear in the air before it is halfway down the cliff.

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