HERMIT AT 82

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1005, 23 June 1930, Page 10

HERMIT AT 82

SOLITUDE AFTER ROMANCE For 40 years a man has lived the life of a recluse in a tiny wood at Newtek, Sussex, as happy as he has been lonely. He is 82, and he is sad only because he is growing old, and will soon have to forsake his woodland home and live in a house. Everybody in the district knows old Tom Osborne. Years ago he was one of the smartest men in the village, but a broken romance, followed soon after by the death of his mother, broke his heart, so Tom retii-ed to a wood, where he has lived alone ever since. I saw him today (said a “Daily “Chronicle” representative recently), preparing his midday meal over a fire of twigs. At first he waved me aside, saying he wanted to be alone, but after a while he motioned me to a seat of twigs, and said that I could stay for a few minutes. “This has been my home for the past 40 years,” he said, “but I am getting an old man now, and I can’t stand the strain of sleeping out, so I go down to the Tillage at night. I came here because I wanted happiness, and I knew I could find it only in solitude. There is never anyone to interfere with me here. Ido what I like, eat when I like, and sleep when I like. I cook my own meals, and spend most of my time reading and writing.” He showed me a box which served as his larder, another which contained pots and pans, and a third which he used as a writing-desk. “If I happen to have a cold, I don’t go to a doctor,” he said. “I make my own medicine from the herbs which I grow.”