It seems likely that Eric was regarded as less academically inclined than his brothers. Certainly in his obituary Mr. Badley commented “He was always devoted to outdoor things.” I haven’t discovered how or why Bedales was chosen for Eric but there were strong connections with Manchester and the German community, 12 year old Eric arrived at “Old” Bedales in Sussex (which already had its first girls), and spent his first year there, moving to the new building in Steep in September 1900. From the beginning Eric was one of the small group of enthusiasts, guided by O. B. Powell, who tended the school’s beehives. For his final years in the school he and his friend E. P .Morgan (who also each had his own private hive) took it in turns to write an account of the bees for The Bedales Record and in 1904 Eric also reported on work in the dairy. His other recorded interest was in photography and some of his work was reproduced in The Record – most notably “hiving a swarm” and “The Plow” (sic) which gives us evidence of the appearance of Plough Cottage in 1905.

The Record and The Bedales Chronicle also recorded Eric’s participation in dramatic events, most noticeably in “The Frogs” in 1904 (when he was the donkey who carried Xanthias, the poet Dionysus’s slave) and “Alkestis” (1905) when he appeared alongside his future wife Winfred Levy and her twin sister Gertrude. From Bedales in 1906 Eric moved on to Wye College of Agriculture and then undertook farming positions in England and abroad.

In 1909 and 1910 Eric travelled extensively. He listed his travels at the front of a volume of poems (“The Open Road” now in possession of his grand-daughter Naomi) recording time spent in Ceylon, Java, Australia, New Zealand, Japan and Canada, finally sailing home from New York to be in Didsbury on 18th August. From there he returned to farming and the 1911 census found him at Ikenham, near Rye, described as a Farming Student.