I wrote this little book for private circulation; and it was actually in type, and ready for printing, before its publication was suggested. I feel some diffidence in inviting strangers to read what I intended only for my personal friends. But it all seems to hang together, and I have not omitted anything.
After that was published I went on writing things down in the same way as before. A second volume was published in 1921. This third (and final) volume has been written in 1922 and 1923.
CECIL TORR.
Yonder Wreyland,
Lustleigh,
Devon.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
| [Laying New Thatch (Yonder Wreyland)] | [Frontispiece] |
| [The Hall House] | [To face p. 32] |
| [The Author’s Desk] | [” 64] |
| [View across Wrey Valley] | [” 96] |
SMALL TALK
AT WREYLAND
THIS slumberous place has had another rude awakening. Five years ago an aeroplane passed over us—the only one that has been seen from here. And now, recently, a cow-boy on a buck-jumper came galloping down the lane here, firing off his pistols in the air. It was for a film; and the rider (as I learned afterwards) was The Thrill-a-Minute Stunt King himself.
The theme was of a cow-boy, born in England, revisiting his early home. Considering the Atlantic, I am not sure he would have come home on a buck-jumper with all his toggery on; but a producer knows exactly what audiences want. A film (I learned) requires ‘love interest’: so a pair of Stars made love outside the Hall House door. And an old inhabitant who came along, was so shamed at their brazenness that he could only gasp out, “Well, Now, There.”