LOVABLE ECCENTRICS

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 1, Issue 14, 22 May 1939, Page 3

LOVABLE ECCENTRICS

INCIDENTS OF OLD CAN TEtlBURY The New Zealand Centennial News, gives some more extracts from that delightful little book, "My Early Days,'' written by the la.to Mrs C. G. Tripp (a daughter of Bishop liar, per the first Bishop of Cbristcluuch) Here are two passages: ''I was afraid to walk far from home (at Mount Peel) alone, as wild pigs were numerous. I remember a great deal of damage had been done by a wild boar, which the men were trying to find. One day a friend, Par, son a very clever but eccentric man, who was staying with us, and on, Sunday holding a service in a tent, suddenly in the middle of his sermon shouted: 'There goes the pig' and (the whole congregation disap. peared from the tent, led by the parson, to give chase. Whether it was caught or not I forget." "Very eccentric but charming people (Sir Thomas Tancred and family) there are many stories told of them. Sir Thomas who was like a pictui-e of one of the Apostles, with his snow white hair and beard, was a quicktempered and very short-si gh\cd man. One evening he mistook a sunflower for a man looking in at ' the window, and fired his gun at it. Another time lie saw what he thought was a swagger creeping nuiul the and went towards the figure, which he saw move slightly when he called out but would not go away; he rushed at it and hit out with his stick, but afterwards found it to be a skint of Lady Tancred's hanging on a clothes line he had torn in half. "Sir Thomas read the church service in the village schoolroom, and often chose sermons written for the East End of London and quite unsuitable in New Zealand. Being deaf, he raised his voice in the wrong part of the making the words often roost ridiculous, and members of the congregation had often to leave the room to prevent laughing aloud. "Sometimes the money bag could not be found, and, after much hunting and whispering among her family, Lady Tancred would lend hei» glove, which, as she was a very untidy person, was generally in so many holes that the fingers had to be held to prevent the monej' falling out.'»