Preserved on a few sheets of paper in the Local Studies section are Richard Tarrant's memories of 'Swindon 80 odd years ago' written shortly before his death in 1926 aged 85. "Before you get to the Hermitage at the back of Mason's, there was a very large house, a brick house. When Kinneir came to Swindon as a solicitor he began his practice there. Very big house pleasant and beautiful gardens ...," writes Tarrant. Documents held at the Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre in Chippenham confirm that Henry Kinneir signed a 14 year lease on a "messuage or dwelling house with Stable Gardens Outbuildings Auction Room called Redville House," owned by John William Browne, an attorney and solicitor. The rent was fixed at £100 a year for the first eleven years dropping to £70 for the last three years of the tenancy. An inventory of fixtures and fittings taken in 1858 before Kinneir moved in, extended to the contents of the greenhouse and garde...