The Surprising Experiences of Mr Shuttlebury Cobb by R.Austin Freeman

Author:R.Austin Freeman
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: The Surprising Experiences of Mr Shuttlebury Cobb
ISBN: 9780755128839
Publisher: House of Stratus
Published: 2012-12-22T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Five

A Mermaid and a Red Herring

There is a world of difference as to the resulting knowledge between a cursory observation that notes only generalities and an attentive examination that considers particular details. I realized this with great force when, having strolled out from my lodgings at the Royal George inn to smoke my morning pipe on the little green, I turned to look up at the picturesque house. Between the middle windows, close under the eaves, was a small square of stone in which were cut three initial letters and a date. I had noticed it when I first came to the inn and I had frequently glanced at it since; but if I had been asked to describe the inscription I could have told no more than that it consisted of three initial letters surrounding a heart with the date 1636 underneath. What the letters were I certainly could not have told, though I should have remembered the date.

The explanation of this is perfectly simple. A group of figures forming a date conveys a definite meaning, whereas the initial letters of an unknown person’s name have none; and meaningless things neither stimulate the attention nor impress the memory.

Yet I had often looked, and not without interest, at the little tablet. For these simple memorials illustrate a very pretty old-world custom. The initials – usually set in a triangle about a heart or flower or star – are those of a man and wife and the date below is that on which the house was finished and the young couple entered into possession to begin their married life. The upper letter is the initial of the joint surname and the lower ones represent the Christian names of the husband and wife respectively.

This morning I was in a reflective vein and somewhat at a loose end. Only the previous day I had made that abortive search in the vault. The treasure, deliberately hidden by old Simon over two centuries ago, was still undiscovered. I had been hot on the scent; and though that scent had proved a false one, the search had warmed my blood with the treasure-hunting fever.

I looked up at the tablet and somewhat absently read the brief inscription. The upper letter was G; the lower two S and M. And then I started, suddenly wide awake. For these were the initials of Simon and Margery Glynn.

At first I thought it must be a mere coincidence. Glynn was a man of means who lived in the great house of Elham Manor. How should his name appear on this obscure wayside inn? The initials must be those of some other couple; Solomon and Miriam Gobbler, for instance. But then there was the date, 1636. I made a rapid calculation from the dates on Glynn’s tomb in Bouldersby church. He died in 1692, aged eighty-one. Then in 1636 he was twenty-five years old; a very likely age at which to marry and settle down. Margery Glynn died in 1662, aged forty-five.

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