ABSTRACT
In the year 1900 I was led to secure a country home that should be within such easy reach of the office as would make it possible to go and come daily, should that seem desirable. Influenced by an advertisement in the Evening Post I went one day in early spring to look at a place, of some historic interest, that was announced to be for sale. The day was sunshiny, the buds were bursting into leaf; a little brook so glistened in the sun that I was impressed that this was the very spot I had in mind and that no other one would do; and it came about that I bought it, and went there to live. It was in a community of millionaires, and I was not a millionaire. I found that I minded the twenty odd miles travel, between house and office, more than I should have done when I was younger; and on the whole my new possession proved so much of an establishment, and cost so much to keep going, that there never seemed to be any money left over for excursions, travel, amusements or charities. If we could afford to have this, and half a dozen other places, and to shut them all up and go away when we liked, this would be delightful, but to live here day in and day out, to the end of life, was a prospect with too much monotony in it for perfection. It was eventually decided that we must part with our acquisition, and as it was an advertisement that had directed my attention to it I depended on another to bring me a buyer, and with this in mind, I prepared a description to be used to tell the story to interested inquirers. I reprint the wording of the leaflet here, partly as a specimen of an effective real estate advertisement of my own construction, and partly because the place advertised did for several years absorb a pretty large proportion of my thoughts and interests.
