Ernest used to go down to Battersby and stay with his father
for a few days twice a year until Theobald's death, and the pair
continued on excellent terms, in spite of what the neighbouring clergy
call "the atrocious books which Mr. Ernest Pontifex" has written.
Perhaps the harmony, or rather absence of discord, which subsisted
between the pair was due to the fact that Theobald had never looked
into the inside of one of his son's works, and Ernest, of course,
never alluded to them in his father's presence. The pair, as I have
said, got on excellently, but it was doubtless as well that Ernest's
visits were short and not too frequent. Once Theobald wanted Ernest to
bring his children, but Ernest knew they would not like it, so this
was not done.
Sometimes Theobald came up to town on small business matters and
paid a visit to Ernest's chambers; he generally brought with him a
couple of lettuces, or a cabbage, or half-a-dozen turnips done up in a
piece of brown paper, and told Ernest that he knew fresh vegetables
were rather hard to get in London, and he had brought him some. Ernest
had often explained to him that the vegetables were of no use to
him, and that he had rather he would not bring them; but Theobald
persisted, I believe through sheer love of doing something which his
son did not like, but which was too small to take notice of.
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