Bigley Uggleston always said that it was in 1753, because he vowed that was the hot year when we had gone home for the midsummer holidays from Barnstaple Grammar-school. Bob Chowne stuck out, as he always would when he knew he was wrong, that it was in 1755, and when I asked him why he put it then, he held up his left hand with his fingers and thumb spread out, which was always his way, and then pointing with the first finger of his right, he said: "It was in 1755, because that was the year when the French war broke out." Then he pushed down his thumb, and went on: "And because that was the year we had a bonfire in June, because Doctor Stacey was married for the third time, and we burned all the birches."