Charles Webster Leadbeater was a curate in a parish in Hampshire called Bramshot, and lived with his mother at a cottage called 'Hartford', about a quarter of a mile from the small village of Liphook. The Rector of the parish was the Rev. W.W. Capes, an Oxford double first man; his wife Mrs. Capes was Leadbeater's aunt. The other curate was a Mr. Kidston who was married and lived further along the same road.

I only vaguely remember Mrs. Leadbeater; she had such lovely white hair and a face that one took instinctively. There was also in the parish a lay reader, an old man. When he died, another curate came. Mrs. Leadbeater died before I had much to do with her son, and after her death a Mr. Cartwright came as curate and shared the cottage with Mr. Leadbeater. I must not forget the cat Peter, a noble tabby of great size and a favourite of C.W.L., always kept in his room night and day; he left it with us when he went away.