When I was ten years old I got a job with Mr. Scott the village newsagent. The papers I delivered took me intomany houses - many a home in Usworth, and into the homes of a little hamlet called Waterloo. Waterloo is reputed to be a very drunken spot—relayes [sic] of beer-carrying men carried their large pails of beer from the outdoor beer place, Longpull, at New Washington […] In this hamlet there were one or two chapel people and I soon noticed that their homes were nicer than my drunken customers’. One of them had a large ornamental oil lamp hanging over his table: he and his brother used to bring me in and I listened to him playing the piano, inspired with the brightness of the home and his music but from mainly hymns. Despite the vice of drink the other inhabitants of Waterloo made me very welcome and showed kindness to me.