I have wandered through
these Dedham fields by the banks of the Stour. It is Constable's
country, and in its way is not to be matched in England. Although
there is nothing striking in it, its influence, at least upon me, is
greater than that of celebrated mountains and waterfalls. What a
power there is to subdue and calm in those low hills, overtopped, as
you see it from East Bergholt, by the magnificent Dedham half-
cathedral church! It is very probable that Burkitt, as he took his
walks by the Stour, and struggled with his Argument, never saw the
placid, winding stream; nor is it likely that anybody in Bedford,
except my father, had heard of him. For his defence of the schools
my father was presented at a town's meeting with a silver tea-
service.
By degrees, when the battle was over, the bookselling business very
much fell off, and after a short partnership with his brother-in-law
in a tannery, my father was appointed assistant door-keeper of the
House of Commons by Lord Charles Russell. He soon became door-
keeper. While he was at the door he wrote for a weekly paper his
Inner Life of the House of Commons, afterwards collected and
published in book form. He held office for twenty-one years, and on
his retirement, in 1875, 160 members of the House testified in a
very substantial manner their regard for him.
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