“ON THE MORNING OF HIS SEVENTEENTH BIRTHDAY, in the Jubilee month of June, 1897, Adam Swann, one-time cavalryman, subsequently haulier extraordinary, now landscaper and connoisseur, picked up his Times, turned his back on an erupting household and stumped down the curving drive to his favourite summer vantage point, a knoll sixty feet above the level of the lake overlooking the rustic building entered on the 'Tryst' estate map as 'The Hermitage'.”