J

CHAPTER I

EARLY LIFE

1848-72

OHN CHURTON COLLINS was born on the 26th of March 1848, at Bourton-on-the

Water, Gloucestershire. He was the eldest of three children, all being sons. His father, Henry Ramsay Collins, came of a Devonshire family, and was the son of John Bardin Collins, a Lieutenant in the Navy. Life in the Navy at that time, we may be sure, was full of incident. In one action, it is said, his sloop was blown up, and he with a portion of his men swam to a small vessel of the enemy, and under cover of the dense smoke crept on board, charged along the deck and took the vessel. In 1802, however, after only fourteen years' service, he was invalided, and was afterwards employed in the less exciting task of "raising volunteers."

When he finally retired from the service to his home at Devonport, he interested himself in schemes for the encouragement of education amongst the lower middle class. He had married a Miss Ramsay, a "Ramsay of Kerington," who

3

loyally supported him in this work, and was beloved by all who knew her.

Of their several children, Henry Ramsay Collins is the only one with whom we are concerned. He adopted the medical profession, and at the age of twenty-three met and married Maria Churton at Chester in 1847. The Churton family has been settled in Chester for some generations. The marriage does not appear to have been very popular with the Churtons-but the young doctor at once set up in practice with a Dr Wells at Bourton-on-the-Water. Here on a certain Sunday, John Churton Collins was born. His mother described him as being the brightest, most restless, and energetic babe she had ever beheld, which statement was endorsed by his aunt. His first recorded public appearance took place when he was brought to pay a visit to his uncle. Carried into the dining-room during dessert, he struggled to talk, banged the dinner table with his little hands and feet, and eagerly tried to grip and smash every wine-glass within reach. In his young days he was always full of mischief and most inquisitive-pestering his mother with questions. He was fond of getting up into trees and preaching, and showed much precocity.

In 1849 the second son, Henry Ramsay Collins,

-1872

ANECDOTES OF CHILDHOOD

5

was born, and not long afterward the last child, Kenneth, who was drowned when a boy in trying to save a friend from drowning. Mr Henry Ramsay Collins is now living in South Africa.

The three boys in due course went to a school kept by a Mrs Lodge, and it can readily be imagined that good Mrs Lodge had her hands full, for the younger brothers seemed only too eager to follow their older brother in his mischievous pranks. One evening, when it was dark, they blacked their faces and dressed up as ghosts, and amused themselves by knocking at the doors of the village people and scaring them out of their lives. They even had the temerity to give a thundering rat-tattat on their own school-door, and great must have been the mutual astonishment and dismay when, by some unfortunate mischance, it was opened by no less a person than Mrs Lodge herself!

On another occasion, when the three boys had been put to bed, late in the evening Mrs Collins was startled by the entrance of the servant with the news that "Master Churton" (as he was always called) "cannot be found." The whole house was searched in vain. At length Master Churton was found up the chimney, having nearly succeeded in getting out at the top. As he was clothed only in his night shirt, it can well be imagined what a pretty picture he made!

In their holidays they were joined by their little cousin Carrie, now Mrs T. J. Gordon, and the quartette would ramble when at Chester to one of the Duke of Westminster's Lodges, where they amused themselves by pretending that they were fighting the Russians in the Crimea, or besieging the rebels in the Indian Mutiny. They would erect barricades of wood and bricks, make imitation rifles and bayonets out of branches, and pass an hour or more in wild rushes and dashes upon the imaginary enemy.

Meantime his father's practice was not proving very lucrative, and he and his partner were much hampered by a competing practitioner in a place where there was clearly no room for the three. It is possible that this worry affected his health to some extent-health which had never been robust. At length an agreement was entered into, whereby their rival agreed " to give up his practice and further agreed "not to introduce "not to introduce any other practitioner." This was done, and apparently solved the difficulty, when shortly afterwards the rival reappeared himself and once more set up practice. This barefaced proceeding, which would have roused many men to take action, seemed only to crush him. He is described as of a gentle and kind nature, and with little desire to quarrel. But this may not have been the only