STRANGE ROMANCE

Hokitika Guardian, 6 September 1927, Page 3

STRANGE ROMANCE

FIFTY YEAHS SOLITUDE. (Australian & N.Z. Cabin Association. LONDON, September o. The “Daily Mail” states: "Fifty years ago James Mason, the sensitive ill-treated son of a Crimean Army Seigeant, living at'Great Clionlkdd, in Essex, was jilted. It was a strange courtship, according to accounts James from the solitude of his fathers garden responded to a girl’s whistle by throwing notes weighted with sixpences over a high hedge hut the rejection of his suit resulted in an impulsive vow by James never to see a human face again except that of his devoted brother Thomas, who also vowed to guard from any intrusion for his lifetime. The same afternoon they purchased -0 acres in a wild part of Essex and at night fall they commenced to build a sort of jungle fortress secure against intercourse with manhind—surely the most extraordinary home in the world”. A representative of the “Daily Mail,” describing his discovery of the Entrance to this retreat, says: “A thousand yards from the roadway, I encountered a marsh deliberately formed by the drainage of the surrounding streams. Then there was a seven feet high barbed wire fence, interwoven among the trunks and branches of trees. Moveable planks are provided for crossing several streams. I then came upon a corrugated iron hut. surrounded hv a year’s accumulation of debris, 'this is Thomas Mason’s home —his sentry-box from which he guards his brother, who is secreted somewhere beyond. Everywhere there is barbed crawled through a brushwood tunnel', which was so dense that the sunlight did not penetrate it. The end of this

tunnel was blocked I>v wire, but nil ingenious entch revealed a two feet square opening. J found a similar trapdoor in another wired fence before wire, representing years of laborious effort. The outer defence consisted of a ]2ft. hedge, liberally wired. I then reached the main fortification, which proved to he a palisade of corrugated iron eighty yards square and from eight to ten feet high. Each sheet of iron was deeply embedded in the ground, and so cleverly knitted that there was not a chink through which the interior could ho seen. A person would search long to discover the entrance which was found by one. of the iron sheets swinging open on concealed hinges. On the inside of these, there was more sheet-iron fencing, and another trap-door, covered by wire Then there was the final, and most remarkable defence, comprising a chain of hives emitting black swarms of wild bees. There were thousands of the bees necessitating one’s covering one’s head to pass their barrage; but; before the front of the hermit’s hut was reached, there was another twofeet trapdoor through an iron fence. It was found open. Failing to get a reply at the door, I tapped a tiny window. A match flickered inside, J and a iatern revealed n man with a long white beard, lying on a luinlc constructed from an orange box and partly screened by a canvas curtain. A tremulous voice said, “Please, go away stranger He refused either to talk or to show himself. Thomas Mason later told me that apart from a’ visit from a clergyman, whom James called in when he believed he was dying from rheumatism, and a pension official, James who is now 70, has seen nobody since lie made his vow in 1877. During In's exclusion James has read only the Hibi'e and a weekly religious journal. There were over 2000 copies of the journal stacked around the wait ns a shield against wind an rain. James ’never once inquired, or was told about his former sweetheart, who is celebrating her golden wedding at Tottenham this venr.