We now began to make nature collections, in which he took the keenest interest, many holidays and excursions being arranged to further these engrossing pursuits.  One or two incidents occurred at “Nutwood” which have left clear impressions upon our minds.  One day one of us brought home a beetle, to the great horror of the servant.  Passing at the moment, he picked it up, saying, “Why, it is quite a harmless little creature!” and to demonstrate its inoffensiveness he placed it on the tip of his nose, whereupon it immediately bit him and even drew blood, much to our amusment and his own astonishment.  On another occasion he was sitting with a book on the lawn under the oak tree when suddenly a large creature alighted upon his shoulder.  Looking round, he saw a fine specimen of the ring-tailed lemur, of whose existence in the neighbourhood he had no knowledge, though it belonged to some neighbours about a quarter of a mile away.  It seemed appropriate that the animal should have selected for its attentions the one person in the district who would not be alarmed at the sudden appearance of a strange animal upon his shoulder.  Needless to say, it was quite friendly.

A year or so before we left Godalming he enlarged the house and altered the garden.  But his health not having been very good, causing him a good deal of trouble with his eyes, and having more or less exhausted the possibilities of the garden, he decided to leave Godalming and find a new house in a milder climate.  So in 1889 he finally fixed upon a small house at Parkstone in Dorset.

Planning and constructing houses, gardens, walls, paths, rockeries, etc., were great hobbies of his, and he often spent hours making scale drawings of some new house or of alterations to an existing one, and scheming out the details of construction.  At other times he would devise schemes for new rockeries or waterworks, and he would always talk them over with us and tell us of some splendid new idea he had hit upon.  As Mr. Sharpe has noted, he was always very optimistic, and if a scheme did not come up to his expectations he was not discouraged but always declared he could do it much better next time and overcome the defects.  He was generally in better health and happier when some constructional work was in hand.  He built three houses, “The Dell” at Grays, “Nutwood Cottage” at Godalming, and the “Old Orchard” at Broadstone.  The last he actually built himself, employing the men and buying all the materials, with the assistance of a young clerk of works; but though the enterprise was a source of great pleasure, it was a constant worry.  He also designed and built a concrete garden wall, with which he was very pleased, though it cost considerably more than he anticipated.  He had not been at Parkstone long before he set about the planning of “alterations” with his usual enthusiasm.  We were both away from home at this time, and consequently had many letters from him, of which one is given as