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have been renting space in the next door garden? And
was there a similar shed in the back garden of no.10
Highweek Road? And if so, were both sheds used?

Even if mounting took place entirely within the houses
at no. 5 and no.10 Highweek Road, there was seldom a
large number of people living there until late in Suter’s
mounting career. Daisy was still single in 1911, and
did not marry William Peirce until 1919 (William
previously lived in inner London, married to Daisy’s
sister Elizabeth, who died in the “Spanish Flu”
epidemic of 1919). Exactly when they moved to
Highweek Road is unknown: whatever the case, Suter
had something like three decades’ worth of mounting
time in a relatively uncrowded house (if indeed the

mounting took place indoors at all).

In Microscopical Mounts and Mounters, Bracegirdle
comments on Suter’s mounting activity:

“If one ever saw 10 Highweek Road, it was to
wonder how all this could ever have been
produced and stored, while he was living with
his sister and her family!”

But for around 30 years of Suter’s mounting career, his
sister Daisy had no family, there were not very many
people living at Highweek Road, and in any case back
garden facilities probably supplemented Suter’s

mounting space.

Mounting and money

Helen Reed’s recollection is that there never seemed to
be much money around at Highweek Road. Richard’s
mounting business, despite prolific output over some
decades, cannot therefore have brought riches to the
household. On the other hand, his father’s bookbinding
activities, along with Richard junior’s school teaching,
and later mounting, would not have left them in
poverty: they never employed servants, an economy
compared to many households of the time, and at
various times one or other of Richard junior’s young
brothers also brought income to the household. While
never affluent, no.10 Highweek Road therefore seems