It's pouring with rain late this Sunday night, but there is light at the end of the tunnel. One more day to put in before a day away from hospital, patients, office, and all things orthopedic. I have been having dreams involving people with the wrong feet at the end of their legs, and Rottweilers being catapulted into my garden from the other side of the fence to harm my Retrievers. Clearly, I am in need of some solitude (in re my own species), working in the spring garden with peaceful dogs.
In spare moments snatched in the hospital library this weekend, I have been escaping from it all by trying to find any reference to a certain "Captain Hyde" relation that A.R. recalls as being famous in the family for being a smuggler. She wrote to me:
He was apparently married to a very religious wife, who prayed for his soul. There is a story that Gangan used to tell about him one time being pursued by the excise men over Bourne Heath (before it became Bournemouth), but, he managed to get home, where he dived into bed with his face covered in flour, so that he looked ill. I expect that the story got bigger and better with each telling... I personally remember him, as I once got good marks for a school project when we had to write about one of our forebears, and Gangan had just told me about the said Captain Hyde.
So far, no joy. But, I hope that somewhere, someone will have made reference to this man, so that we can locate A.R.'s story in time and place.
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