On the other hand, he was allowed to read what he liked, and devoured Grimm's Tales, The Seven Champions of Christendom, and The Arabian Nights.

He was an imaginative and reflective child, full of the wonder in which philosophy begins.
The boy felt from the first the romantic beauty of his home.
Dartington Rectory, some two miles from Totnes, is surrounded by woods which overhang precipitously the clear waters of the River Dart.

Dartington Hall, which stood near the rectory, is one of the oldest houses in England, originally built before the Conquest, and completed with great magnificence in the reign of Richard II.

The vast banqueting-room was, in the nineteenth century, a ruin, and open to the sky.

The remains of the old quadrangle were a treasure to local antiquaries, and the whole place was full of charm for an imaginative boy.