The Man family left 'Halstead Hall' toward the end of the nineteenth century. Caroline Man died in 1878 while living with her daughter Eleanor at Carshalton. Afterwards, the family rented the ‘Hall’ out to a number of families among them that of the author E. Nesbit (right). (For details see Nesbit's recollections)

In 1897 she published her childhood memories in the Girls Own Paper. One paragraph recalls the eccentricities of Septimus Man (see picture below), Caroline’s youngest son, who remained behind in the village after the family had left.  Septimus had trained for and passed the bar and had practiced for a while as a barrister in India before becoming an 'eccentric' . Here is Nesbit’s recollection:

It was an uneventful, peaceful, pleasant time. The only really exciting thing was the presence, within a stone's throw of our house [the ‘Hall’], of our landlady's son [Septimus Man] who lived all alone in a little cottage standing in the fields. He was reported mad by the world, eccentric by his friends, but as we found him, perfectly harmless. His one delusion, as far as I know, was that he was the rightful owner, nay more the rightful tenant of our house, and about once in six months he used to terrify the whole household by appearing with a carpet bag at the front door and announcing that he had come to take possession. This used to alarm all of us very much, because if a gentleman is eccentric enough to wish to “take possession” of another person’s house there is no knowing what he may be eccentric enough to do next. But he was always persuaded to go away peaceably, and I don't think we need to have been so frightened. Once while he was in the drawing-room being persuaded by my mother, I peeped into the carpet bag he had left in the hall. It contained three empty bottles that had held mixed pickles, a loaf of bread and a barrister’s wig and gown. Poor gentleman. I am afraid he was very eccentric indeed.