List Price: $10.30

Tags: Literature & Fiction, Contemporary,

Book Description:
Cast Up by the Sea puppies out of ponds to try his hand at restoring them to life, then on the failure of his attempts, burying them with honours. Geography and Natural History were favourite studies with him, and a story is told of experiments with gunpowder, resulting in smashed crockery, broken windows, and severe burns. He went first to school at Rottingdean, and after his fathers removal to Highnam Court, two miles from Gloucester, to the College School at Gloucester. He was after that for about two years with a private tutor at Tottenham, and then for a time he went to Frankfort-on-M ain, attending lectures and studying German. It was intended that he should succeed to his fathers business, his elder brother having died in youth, but a very short experience of ofl ce work was enough to show his unsuitability for a commercial career. In 1842 Baker sfather bought Lypiatt Park in Gloucestershire, and here during that year he and his brother John married two sisters, daughters of a neighbouring clergyman, on the same day. John went out to Mauritius to manage their fathers estate there, and Samuel followed to assist him the next year. Two years in Mauritius was enough for Samuel, and in 1845 the spirit of wandering seized him and was not to be denied. He had heard of the big-game shooting in Ceylon, and had made up his mind to go tliere for the hunting, which he did in 1846, accompanied by his wife. After several months spent in shooting game both big and small, he was stricken down with fever, but quickly recovered after his removal to the mountain health resort of Newera-E liya. This beautiful hill station, standing on a tableland between six and seven thousand feet above sea level, was at that time chiefly used as a sanatorium for the British forces in Ceylon, but Baker saw that it was a desirable land to dwell in and to possess, and after his recovery c(Typographical errors above are due to OCR software and don't occur in the book.)