HILLS : E. G. VARENNE, OF KELVEDON, BOTANIST. 297
limes intentionally) by slapping the saddle with his riding-crop.
My uncle, Mr. Thomas Butler, still remembers the terror its
heels inspired in his mind when he was a child.
In the early days of Varenne's residence at Kelvedon, he
very nearly fell a victim to the failing—referred to locally as
"lifting the elbow"—which had wrecked his predecessor there—
a very prevalent failing in those hospitable days, when it was
an invariable custom to offer a caller wine, whatever hour of day
it might be. However, in Varenne's case, he was able, for-
tunately, to pull himself up in time. There are still current in
the town several versions as to how his reform was brought about.
One says that, on one occasion, he fell off the big black horse and
so injured himself that a neighbouring doctor had to be called
in to attend him. This doctor, seeing how things were going,
talked to him so forcibly on the matter that Varenne (so the
story goes) vowed he would never again make such a fool of
himself, and he never did. Another version is that once, when
in a somewhat hilarious condition, he had occasion to call on a
prim old lady patient. It was a cold winter's day, and he had
been "keeping himself warm" with a good many drops of the
old port of which he had grown so "wonnerful fond" (as the
Essex people say). Rising up in her bed, clad in wrath, ringlets,
and a mob cap, the old lady pointed a long bony finger towards
the door and, in flinty accents, bade him take his contaminating
presence from her dwelling and never to cross her threshold
again, But (runs the story) she forgave him when he "signed
the pledge," as he did soon after. He lived to become an ardent
teetotal advocate and to help in founding the Kelvedon "Band
of Hope," which still exists.
Varenne's local activities, other than medical, were innumer-
able. Thus, in winter time, he often got up "Penny Readings,"
generally in conjunction with Mr. Wiseman, the school-master.
This form of entertainment was very popular in those days, when
few of the poorer people were able to read. He himself was an
exceptionally good reader in public and appeared frequently
on the platform. The older folks in Kelvedon all say that,
whenever he and Mr. Wiseman were "billed" to appear, there
was always a "full house."
In politics, Varenne was a Liberal of the very virulent type
prevalent in his day. He acted, for several years as Secretary