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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/7415-h.zip b/7415-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..6625c6e --- /dev/null +++ b/7415-h.zip diff --git a/7415-h/7415-h.htm b/7415-h/7415-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7b14fc8 --- /dev/null +++ b/7415-h/7415-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,10604 @@ +<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> +<HTML> +<HEAD> +<TITLE>The Project Gutenberg eBook of A Shepherd's Life, by W. H. Hudson</TITLE> +<META HTTP-EQUIV="content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=us-ascii"> +</HEAD> +<BODY> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Shepherd's Life, by W. H. Hudson + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most +other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions +whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of +the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at +www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have +to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. + +Title: A Shepherd's Life + +Author: W. H. Hudson + +Posting Date: February 12, 2015 [EBook #7415] +Release Date: February, 2005 +First Posted: April 26, 2003 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A SHEPHERD'S LIFE *** + + + + +Produced by Eric Eldred, David Garcia, Charles Franks, and +the Online Distributed Proofreading Team + + + + + + +</pre> + + + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p><br> + <br> + + <h1> + A SHEPHERD'S LIFE + </h1> + <h2> + IMPRESSIONS OF THE SOUTH WILTSHIRE DOWNS + </h2> + <center> + <b>BY W. H. HUDSON</b> + </center> + <p> + + </p> + + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <h2> + NOTE + </h2> + <p> + I an obliged to Messrs. Longmans, Green, & Co. for + permission to make use of an article entitled "A Shepherd of + the Downs," which appeared in the October and November + numbers of <i>Longmans' Magazine</i> in 1902. With the + exception of that article, portions of which I have + incorporated in different chapters, the whole of the matter + contained in this work now appears for the first time. + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <h2> + CONTENTS + </h2> + <p> + Chapter. + </p> + <p> + I. <a href= + "#ch01">SALISBURY PLAIN</a> + </p> + <p> + II. <a href="#ch02">SALISBURY + AS I SEE IT</a> + </p> + <p> + III. <a href="#ch03">WINTERBOURNE + BISHOP</a> + </p> + <p> + IV. <a href="#ch04">A SHEPHERD + OF THE DOWNS</a> + </p> + <p> + V. <a href="#ch05">EARLY + MEMORIES</a> + </p> + <p> + VI. <a href="#ch06">SHEPHERD + ISAAC BAWCOMBE</a> + </p> + <p> + VII. <a href="#ch07">THE + DEER-STEALERS</a> + </p> + <p> + VIII. <a href="#ch08">SHEPHERDS AND + POACHING</a> + </p> + <p> + IX. <a href="#ch09">THE + SHEPHERD ON FOXES</a> + </p> + <p> + X. <a href="#ch10">BIRD + LIFE ON THE DOWNS</a> + </p> + <p> + XI. <a href="#ch11">STARLINGS + AND SHEEP-BELLS</a> + </p> + <p> + XII. <a href="#ch12">THE SHEPHERD + AND THE BIBLE</a> + </p> + <p> + XIII. <a href="#ch13">VALE OF THE + WYLYE</a> + </p> + <p> + XIV. <a href="#ch14">A SHEEP-DOG'S + LIFE</a> + </p> + <p> + XV. <a href="#ch15">THE + ELLERBYS OF DOVETON</a> + </p> + <p> + XVI. <a href="#ch16">OLD WILTSHIRE + DAYS</a> + </p> + <p> + XVII. <a href="#ch17">OLD WILTSHIRE DAYS + (<i>continued</i>)</a> + </p> + <p> + XVIII. <a href="#ch18">THE SHEPHERD'S RETURN</a> + </p> + <p> + XIX. <a href="#ch19">THE DARK PEOPLE + OF THE VILLAGE</a> + </p> + <p> + XX. <a href="#ch20">SOME + SHEEP-DOGS</a> + </p> + <p> + XXI. <a href="#ch21">THE SHEPHERD AS + NATURALIST</a> + </p> + <p> + XXII. <a href="#ch22">THE MASTER OF THE + VILLAGE</a> + </p> + <p> + XXIII. <a href="#ch23">ISAAC'S CHILDREN</a> + </p> + <p> + XXIV. <a href="#ch24">LIVING IN THE + PAST</a> + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <h1> + A SHEPHERD'S LIFE + </h1><a name="ch01"><!--Marker--></a> + <h2> + CHAPTER I + </h2> + <h3> + SALISBURY PLAIN + </h3> + <blockquote> + Introductory remarks—Wiltshire little favoured by + tourists—Aspect of the downs—Bad + weather—Desolate aspect—The + bird-scarer—Fascination of the downs—The larger + Salisbury Plain—Effect of the military + occupation—A century's changes—Birds—Old + Wiltshire sheep—Sheep-horns in a well—Changes + wrought by cultivation—Rabbit-warrens on the + downs—Barrows obliterated by the plough and by rabbits + </blockquote> + <p> + Wiltshire looks large on the map of England, a great green + county, yet it never appears to be a favourite one to those + who go on rambles in the land. At all events I am unable to + bring to mind an instance of a lover of Wiltshire who was not + a native or a resident, or had not been to Marlborough and + loved the country on account of early associations. Nor can I + regard myself as an exception, since, owing to a certain kind + of adaptiveness in me, a sense of being at home wherever + grass grows, I am in a way a native too. Again, listen to any + half-dozen of your friends discussing the places they have + visited, or intend visiting, comparing notes about the + counties, towns, churches, castles, scenery—all that + draws them and satisfies their nature, and the chances are + that they will not even mention Wiltshire. They all know it + "in a way"; they have seen Salisbury Cathedral and + Stonehenge, which everybody must go to look at once in his + life; and they have also viewed the country from the windows + of a railroad carriage as they passed through on their flight + to Bath and to Wales with its mountains, and to the west + country, which many of us love best of all—Somerset, + Devon, and Cornwall. For there is nothing striking in + Wiltshire, at all events to those who love nature first; nor + mountains, nor sea, nor anything to compare with the places + they are hastening to, west or north. The downs! Yes, the + downs are there, full in sight of your window, in their + flowing forms resembling vast, pale green waves, wave beyond + wave, "in fluctuation fixed"; a fine country to walk on in + fine weather for all those who regard the mere exercise of + walking as sufficient pleasure. But to those who wish for + something more, these downs may be neglected, since, if downs + are wanted, there is the higher, nobler Sussex range within + an hour of London. There are others on whom the naked aspect + of the downs has a repelling effect. Like Gilpin they love + not an undecorated earth; and false and ridiculous as + Gilpin's taste may seem to me and to all those who love the + chalk, which "spoils everything" as Gilpin said, he certainly + expresses a feeling common to those who are unaccustomed to + the emptiness and silence of these great spaces. + </p> + <p> + As to walking on the downs, one remembers that the fine days + are not so many, even in the season when they are looked + for—they have certainly been few during this wet and + discomfortable one of 1909. It is indeed only on the chalk + hills that I ever feel disposed to quarrel with this English + climate, for all weathers are good to those who love the open + air, and have their special attractions. What a pleasure it + is to be out in rough weather in October when the equinoctial + gales are on, "the wind Euroclydon," to listen to its roaring + in the bending trees, to watch the dead leaves flying, the + pestilence-stricken multitudes, yellow and black and red, + whirled away in flight on flight before the volleying blast, + and to hear and see and feel the tempests of rain, the big + silver-grey drops that smite you like hail! And what pleasure + too, in the still grey November weather, the time of suspense + and melancholy before winter, a strange quietude, like a + sense of apprehension in nature! And so on through the + revolving year, in all places in all weathers, there is + pleasure in the open air, except on these chalk hills because + of their bleak nakedness. There the wind and driving rain are + not for but against you, and may overcome you with misery. + One feels their loneliness, monotony, and desolation on many + days, sometimes even when it is not wet, and I here recall an + amusing encounter with a bird-scarer during one of these + dreary spells. + </p> + <p> + It was in March, bitterly cold, with an east wind which had + been blowing many days, and overhead the sky was of a hard, + steely grey. I was cycling along the valley of the Ebble, and + finally leaving it pushed up a long steep slope and set off + over the high plain by a dusty road with the wind hard + against me. A more desolate scene than the one before me it + would be hard to imagine, for the land was all ploughed and + stretched away before me, an endless succession of vast grey + fields, divided by wire fences. On all that space there was + but one living thing in sight, a human form, a boy, far away + on the left side, standing in the middle of a big field with + something which looked like a gun in his hand. Immediately + after I saw him he, too, appeared to have caught sight of me, + for turning he set off running as fast as he could over the + ploughed ground towards the road, as if intending to speak to + me. The distance he would have to run was about a quarter of + a mile and I doubted that he would be there in time to catch + me, but he ran fast and the wind was against me, and he + arrived at the road just as I got to that point. There by the + side of the fence he stood, panting from his race, his + handsome face glowing with colour, a boy about twelve or + thirteen, with a fine strong figure, remarkably well dressed + for a bird-scarer. For that was what he was, and he carried a + queer, heavy-looking old gun. I got off my wheel and waited + for him to speak, but he was silent, and continued regarding + me with the smiling countenance of one well pleased with + himself. "Well?" I said, but there was no answer; he only + kept on smiling. + </p> + <p> + "What did you want?" I demanded impatiently. + </p> + <p> + "I didn't want anything." + </p> + <p> + "But you started running here as fast as you could the moment + you caught sight of me." + </p> + <p> + "Yes, I did." + </p> + <p> + "Well, what did you do it for—what was your object in + running here?" + </p> + <p> + "Just to see you pass," he answered. + </p> + <p> + It was a little ridiculous and vexed me at first, but by and + by when I left him, after some more conversation, I felt + rather pleased; for it was a new and somewhat flattering + experience to have any person run a long distance over a + ploughed field, burdened with a heavy gun, "just to see me + pass." + </p> + <p> + But it was not strange in the circumstances; his hours in + that grey, windy desolation must have seemed like days, and + it was a break in the monotony, a little joyful excitement in + getting to the road in time to see a passer-by more closely, + and for a few moments gave him a sense of human + companionship. I began even to feel a little sorry for him, + alone there in his high, dreary world, but presently thought + he was better off and better employed than most of his + fellows poring over miserable books in school, and I wished + we had a more rational system of education for the + agricultural districts, one which would not keep the children + shut up in a room during all the best hours of the day, when + to be out of doors, seeing, hearing, and doing, would fit + them so much better for the life-work before them. Squeers' + method was a wiser one. We think less of it than of the + delightful caricature, which makes Squeers "a joy for ever," + as Mr. Lang has said of Pecksniff. But Dickens was a + Londoner, and incapable of looking at this or any other + question from any other than the Londoner's standpoint. Can + you have a better system for the children of all England than + this one which will turn out the most perfect draper's + assistant in Oxford Street, or, to go higher, the most + efficient Mr. Guppy in a solicitor's office? It is true that + we have Nature's unconscious intelligence against us; that by + and by, when at the age of fourteen the boy is finally + released, she will set to work to undo the wrong by + discharging from his mind its accumulations of useless + knowledge as soon as he begins the work of life. But what a + waste of time and energy and money! One can only hope that + the slow intellect of the country will wake to this question + some day, that the countryman will say to the townsman, Go on + making your laws and systems of education for your own + children, who will live as you do indoors; while I shall + devise a different one for mine, one which will give them + hard muscles and teach them to raise the mutton and pork and + cultivate the potatoes and cabbages on which we all feed. + </p> + <p> + To return to the downs. Their very emptiness and desolation, + which frightens the stranger from them, only serves to make + them more fascinating to those who are intimate with and have + learned to love them. That dreary aspect brings to mind the + other one, when, on waking with the early sunlight in the + room, you look out on a blue sky, cloudless or with white + clouds. It may be fancy, or the effect of contrast, but it + has always seemed to me that just as the air is purer and + fresher on these chalk heights than on the earth below, and + as the water is of a more crystal purity, and the sky perhaps + bluer, so do all colours and all sounds have a purity and + vividness and intensity beyond that of other places. I see it + in the yellows of hawkweed, rock-rose, and + birds'-foot-trefoil, in the innumerable specks of brilliant + colour—blue and white and rose—of milk-wort and + squinancy-wort, and in the large flowers of the dwarf + thistle, glowing purple in its green setting; and I hear it + in every bird-sound, in the trivial songs of yellow-hammer + and corn-bunting, and of dunnock and wren and whitethroat. + </p> + <p> + The pleasure of walking on the downs is not, however, a + subject which concerns me now; it is one I have written about + in a former work, "Nature in Downland," descriptive of the + South Downs. The theme of the present work is the life, human + and other, of the South Wiltshire Downs, or of Salisbury + Plain. It is the part of Wiltshire which has most attracted + me. Most persons would say that the Marlborough Downs are + greater, more like the great Sussex range as it appears from + the Weald: but chance brought me farther south, and the + character and life of the village people when I came to know + them made this appear the best place to be in. + </p> + <p> + The Plain itself is not a precisely denned area, and may be + made to include as much or little as will suit the writer's + purpose. If you want a continuous plain, with no dividing + valley cutting through it, you must place it between the Avon + and Wylye Rivers, a distance about fifteen miles broad and as + many long, with the village of Tilshead in its centure; or, + if you don't mind the valleys, you can say it extends from + Downton and Tollard Royal south of Salisbury to the Pewsey + vale in the north, and from the Hampshire border on the east + side to Dorset and Somerset on the west, about twenty-five to + thirty miles each way. My own range is over this larger + Salisbury Plain, which includes the River Ebble, or Ebele, + with its numerous interesting villages, from Odstock and + Combe Bisset, near Salisbury and "the Chalks," to pretty + Alvediston near the Dorset line, and all those in the Nadder + valley, and westward to White Sheet Hill above Mere. You can + picture this high chalk country as an open hand, the left + hand, with Salisbury in the hollow of the palm, placed + nearest the wrist, and the five valleys which cut through it + as the five spread fingers, from the Bourne (the little + finger) succeeded by Avon, Wylye, and Nadder, to the Ebble, + which comes in lower down as the thumb and has its junction + with the main stream below Salisbury. + </p> + <p> + A very large portion of this high country is now in a + transitional state, that was once a sheep-walk and is now a + training ground for the army. Where the sheep are taken away + the turf loses the smooth, elastic character which makes it + better to walk on than the most perfect lawn. The sheep fed + closely, and everything that grew on the down—grasses, + clovers, and numerous small creeping herbs—had acquired + the habit of growing and flowering close to the ground, every + species and each individual plant striving, with the + unconscious intelligence that is in all growing things, to + hide its leaves and pushing sprays under the others, to + escape the nibbling teeth by keeping closer to the surface. + There are grasses and some herbs, the plantain among them, + which keep down very close but must throw up a tall stem to + flower and seed. Look at the plantain when its flowering time + comes; each particular plant growing with its leaves so close + down on the surface as to be safe from the busy, searching + mouths, then all at once throwing up tall, straight stems to + flower and ripen its seeds quickly. Watch a flock at this + time, and you will see a sheep walking about, rapidly + plucking the flowering spikes, cutting them from the stalk + with a sharp snap, taking them off at the rate of a dozen or + so in twenty seconds. But the sheep cannot be all over the + downs at the same time, and the time is short, myriads of + plants throwing up their stems at once, so that many escape, + and it has besides a deep perennial root so that the plant + keeps its own life though it may be unable to sow any seeds + for many seasons. So with other species which must send up a + tall flower stem; and by and by, the flowering over and the + seeds ripened or lost, the dead, scattered stems remain like + long hairs growing out of a close fur. The turf remains + unchanged; but take the sheep away and it is like the removal + of a pressure, or a danger: the plant recovers liberty and + confidence and casts off the old habit; it springs and + presses up to get the better of its fellows—to get all + the dew and rain and sunshine that it can—and the + result is a rough surface. + </p> + <p> + Another effect of the military occupation is the destruction + of the wild life of the Plain, but that is a matter I have + written about in my last book, "Afoot in England," in a + chapter on Stonehenge, and need not dwell on here. To the + lover of Salisbury Plain as it was, the sight of military + camps, with white tents or zinc houses, and of bodies of men + in khaki marching and drilling, and the sound of guns, now + informs him that he is in a district which has lost its + attraction, where nature has been dispossessed. + </p> + <p> + Meanwhile, there is a corresponding change going on in the + human life of the district. Let anyone describe it as he + thinks best, as an improvement or a deterioration, it is a + great change nevertheless, which in my case and probably that + of many others is as disagreeable to contemplate as that + which we are beginning to see in the down, which was once a + sheep-walk and is so no longer. On this account I have ceased + to frequent that portion of the Plain where the War Office is + in possession of the land, and to keep to the southern side + in my rambles, out of sight and hearing of the "white-tented + camps" and mimic warfare. Here is Salisbury Plain as it has + been these thousand years past, or ever since sheep were + pastured here more than in any other district in England, and + that may well date even more than ten centuries back. + </p> + <p> + Undoubtedly changes have taken place even here, some very + great, chiefly during the last, or from the late eighteenth + century. Changes both in the land and the animal life, wild + and domestic. Of the losses in wild bird life there will be + something to say in another chapter; they relate chiefly to + the extermination of the finest species, the big bird, + especially the soaring bird, which is now gone out of all + this wide Wiltshire sky. As a naturalist I must also lament + the loss of the old Wiltshire breed of sheep, although so + long gone. Once it was the only breed known in Wilts, and + extended over the entire county; it was a big animal, the + largest of the fine-woolled sheep in England, but for looks + it certainly compared badly with modern downland breeds and + possessed, it was said, all the points which the breeder, or + improver, was against. Thus, its head was big and clumsy, + with a round nose, its legs were long and thick, its belly + without wool, and both sexes were horned. Horns, even in a + ram, are an abomination to the modern sheep-farmer in + Southern England. Finally, it was hard to fatten. On the + other hand it was a sheep which had been from of old on the + bare open downs and was modified to suit the conditions, the + scanty feed, the bleak, bare country, and the long distances + it had to travel to and from the pasture ground. It was a + strong, healthy, intelligent animal, in appearance and + character like the old original breed of sheep on the pampas + of South America, which I knew as a boy, a coarse-woolled + sheep with naked belly, tall and hardy, a greatly modified + variety of the sheep introduced by the Spanish colonist three + centuries ago. At all events the old Wiltshire sheep had its + merits, and when the Southdown breed was introduced during + the late eighteenth century the farmer viewed it with + disfavour; they liked their old native animal, and did not + want to lose it. But it had to go in time, just as in later + times the Southdown had to go when the Hampshire Down took + its place—the breed which is now universal, in South + Wilts at all events. + </p> + <p> + A solitary flock of the pure-bred old Wiltshire sheep existed + in the county as late as 1840, but the breed has now so + entirely disappeared from the country that you find many + shepherds who have never even heard of it. Not many days ago + I met with a curious instance of this ignorance of the past. + I was talking to a shepherd, a fine intelligent fellow, + keenly interested in the subjects of sheep and sheep-dogs, on + the high down above the village of Broad Chalk on the Ebble, + and he told me that his dog was of mixed breed, but on its + mother's side came from a Welsh sheep-dog, that his father + had always had the Welsh dog, once common in Wiltshire, and + he wondered why it had gone out as it was so good an animal. + This led me to say something about the old sheep having gone + out too, and as he had never heard of the old breed I + described the animal to him. + </p> + <p> + What I told him, he said, explained something which had been + a puzzle to him for some years. There was a deep hollow in + the down near the spot where we were standing, and at the + bottom he said there was an old well which had been used in + former times to water the sheep, but masses of earth had + fallen down from the sides, and in that condition it had + remained for no one knew how long—perhaps fifty, + perhaps a hundred years. Some years ago it came into his + master's head to have this old well cleaned out, and this was + done with a good deal of labour, the sides having first been + boarded over to make it safe for the workmen below. At the + bottom of the well a vast store of rams' horns was discovered + and brought out; and it was a mystery to the fanner and the + men how so large a number of sheep's horns had been got + together; for rams are few and do not die often, and here + there were hundreds of horns. He understood it now, for if + all the sheep, ewes as well as rams, were horned in the old + breed, a collection like this might easily have been made. + </p> + <p> + The greatest change of the last hundred years is no doubt + that which the plough has wrought in the aspect of the downs. + There is a certain pleasure to the eye in the wide fields of + golden corn, especially of wheat, in July and August; but a + ploughed down is a down made ugly, and it strikes one as a + mistake, even from a purely economic point of view, that this + old rich turf, the slow product of centuries, should be + ruined for ever as sheep-pasture when so great an extent of + uncultivated land exists elsewhere, especially the heavy + clays of the Midlands, better suited for corn. The effect of + breaking up the turf on the high downs is often disastrous; + the thin soil which was preserved by the close, hard turf is + blown or washed away, and the soil becomes poorer year by + year, in spite of dressing, until it is hardly worth + cultivating. Clover may be grown on it but it continues to + deteriorate; or the tenant or landlord may turn it into a + rabbit-warren, the most fatal policy of all. How hideous they + are—those great stretches of downland, enclosed in big + wire fences and rabbit netting, with little but wiry weeds, + moss, and lichen growing on them, the earth dug up everywhere + by the disorderly little beasts! For a while there is a + profit—"it will serve me my time," the owner + says—but the end is utter barrenness. + </p> + <p> + One must lament, too, the destruction of the ancient + earth-works, especially of the barrows, which is going on all + over the downs, most rapidly where the land is broken up by + the plough. One wonders if the ever-increasing curiosity of + our day with regard to the history of the human race in the + land continues to grow, what our descendants of the next half + of the century, to go no farther, will say of us and our + incredible carelessness in the matter! So small a matter to + us, but one which will, perhaps, be immensely important to + them! It is, perhaps, better for our peace that we do not + know; it would not be pleasant to have our children's and + children's children's contemptuous expressions sounding in + our prophetic ears. Perhaps we have no right to complain of + the obliteration of these memorials of antiquity by the + plough; the living are more than the dead, and in this case + it may be said that we are only following the Artemisian + example in consuming (in our daily bread) minute portions of + the ashes of our old relations, albeit untearfully, with a + cheerful countenance. Still one cannot but experience a shock + on seeing the plough driven through an ancient, smooth turf, + curiously marked with barrows, lynchetts, and other + mysterious mounds and depressions, where sheep have been + pastured for a thousand years, without obscuring these chance + hieroglyphs scored by men on the surface of the hills. + </p> + <p> + It is not, however, only on the cultivated ground that the + destruction is going on; the rabbit, too, is an active agent + in demolishing the barrows and other earth-works. He burrows + into the mound and throws out bushels of chalk and clay, + which is soon washed down by the rains; he tunnels it through + and through and sometimes makes it his village; then one day + the farmer or keeper, who is not an archaeologist, comes + along and puts his ferrets into the holes, and one of them, + after drinking his fill of blood, falls asleep by the side of + his victim, and the keeper sets to work with pick and shovel + to dig him out, and demolishes half the barrow to recover his + vile little beast. + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p><a name="ch02"><!--Marker--></a> + <h2> + CHAPTER II + </h2> + <h3> + SALISBURY AS I SEE IT + </h3> + <blockquote> + The Salisbury of the villager—The cathedral from the + meadows—Walks to Wilton and Old Sarum—The spire + and a rainbow—Charm of Old Sarum—The + devastation—Salisbury from Old Sarum—Leland's + description—Salisbury and the village + mind—Market-day—The infirmary—The + cathedral—The lesson of a child's desire—In the + streets again—An Apollo of the downs + </blockquote> + <p> + To the dwellers on the Plain, Salisbury itself is an + exceedingly important place—the most important in the + world. For if they have seen a greater—London, let us + say—it has left but a confused, a phantasmagoric image + on the mind, an impression of endless thoroughfares and of + innumerable people all apparently in a desperate hurry to do + something, yet doing nothing; a labyrinth of streets and + wilderness of houses, swarming with beings who have no + definite object and no more to do with realities than so many + lunatics, and are unconfined because they are so numerous + that all the asylums in the world could not contain them. But + of Salisbury they have a very clear image: inexpressibly rich + as it is in sights, in wonders, full of people—hundreds + of people in the streets and market-place—they can take + it all in and know its meaning. Every man and woman, of all + classes, in all that concourse, is there for some definite + purpose which they can guess and understand; and the busy + street and market, and red houses and soaring spire, are all + one, and part and parcel too of their own lives in their own + distant little village by the Avon or Wylye, or anywhere on + the Plain. And that soaring spire which, rising so high above + the red town, first catches the eye, the one object which + gives unity and distinction to the whole picture, is not more + distinct in the mind than the entire Salisbury with its + manifold interests and activities. + </p> + <p> + There is nothing in the architecture of England more + beautiful than that same spire. I have seen it many times, + far and near, from all points of view, and am never in or + near the place but I go to some spot where I look at and + enjoy the sight; but I will speak here of the two best points + of view. + </p> + <p> + The nearest, which is the artist's favourite point, is from + the meadows; there, from the waterside, you have the + cathedral not too far away nor too near for a picture, + whether on canvas or in the mind, standing amidst its great + old trees, with nothing but the moist green meadows and the + river between. One evening, during the late summer of this + wettest season, when the rain was beginning to cease, I went + out this way for my stroll, the pleasantest if not the only + "walk" there is in Salisbury. It is true, there are two + others: one to Wilton by its long, shady avenue; the other to + Old Sarum; but these are now motor-roads, and until the + loathed hooting and dusting engines are thrust away into + roads of their own there is little pleasure in them for the + man on foot. The rain ceased, but the sky was still stormy, + with a great blackness beyond the cathedral and still other + black clouds coming up from the west behind me. Then the sun, + near its setting, broke out, sending a flame of orange colour + through the dark masses around it, and at the same time + flinging a magnificent rainbow on that black cloud against + which the immense spire stood wet with rain and flushed with + light, so that it looked like a spire built of a stone + impregnated with silver. Never had Nature so glorified man's + work! It was indeed a marvellous thing to see, an effect so + rare that in all the years I had known Salisbury, and the + many times I had taken that stroll in all weathers, it was my + first experience of such a thing. How lucky, then, was + Constable to have seen it, when he set himself to paint his + famous picture! And how brave he was and even wise to have + attempted such a subject, one which, I am informed by artists + with the brush, only a madman would undertake, however great + a genius he might be. It was impossible, we know, even to a + Constable, but we admire his failure nevertheless, even as we + admire Turner's many failures; but when we go back to Nature + we are only too glad to forget all about the picture. + </p> + <p> + The view from the meadows will not, in the future, I fear, + seem so interesting to me; I shall miss the rainbow, and + shall never see again except in that treasured image the + great spire as Constable saw and tried to paint it. In like + manner, though for a different reason, my future visits to + Old Sarum will no longer give me the same pleasure + experienced on former occasions. + </p> + <p> + Old Sarum stands over the Avon, a mile and a half from + Salisbury; a round chalk hill about 300 feet high, in its + round shape and isolation resembling a stupendous tumulus in + which the giants of antiquity were buried, its steeply + sloping, green sides ringed about with vast, concentric + earth-works and ditches, the work of the "old people," as + they say on the Plain, when referring to the ancient Britons, + but how ancient, whether invading Celts or + Aborigines—the true Britons, who possessed the land + from neolithic times—even the anthropologists, the wise + men of to-day, are unable to tell us. Later, it was a Roman + station, one of the most important, and in after ages a great + Norman castle and cathedral city, until early in the + thirteenth century, when the old church was pulled down and a + new and better one to last for ever was built in the green + plain by many running waters. Church and people gone, the + castle fell into ruin, though some believe it existed down to + the fifteenth century; but from that time onwards the site + has been a place of historical memories and a wilderness. + Nature had made it a sweet and beautiful spot; the earth over + the old buried ruins was covered with an elastic turf, + jewelled with the bright little flowers of the chalk, the + ramparts and ditches being all overgrown with a dense thicket + of thorn, holly, elder, bramble, and ash, tangled up with + ivy, briony, and traveller's-joy. Once only during the last + five or six centuries some slight excavations were made when, + in 1834, as the result of an excessively dry summer, the + lines of the cathedral foundations were discernible on the + surface. But it will no longer be the place it was, the + Society of Antiquaries having received permission from the + Dean and Chapter of Salisbury to work their sweet will on the + site. That ancient, beautiful carcass, which had long made + their mouths water, on which they have now fallen like a pack + of hungry hyenas to tear off the old hide of green turf and + burrow down to open to the light or drag out the deep, stony + framework. The beautiful surrounding thickets, too, must go, + they tell me, since you cannot turn the hill inside out + without destroying the trees and bushes that crown it. What + person who has known it and has often sought that spot for + the sake of its ancient associations, and of the sweet solace + they have found in the solitude, or for the noble view of the + sacred city from its summit, will not deplore this fatal + amiability of the authorities, this weak desire to please + every one and inability to say no to such a proposal! + </p> + <p> + But let me now return to the object which brings me to this + spot; it was not to lament the loss of the beautiful, which + cannot be preserved in our age—even this best one of + all which Salisbury possessed cannot be preserved—but + to look at Salisbury from this point of view. It is not as + from "the meadows" a view of the cathedral only, but of the + whole town, amidst its circle of vast green downs. It has a + beautiful aspect from that point: a red-brick and red-tiled + town, set low on that circumscribed space, whose soft, + brilliant green is in lovely contrast with the paler hue of + the downs beyond, the perennial moist green of its + water-meadows. For many swift, clear currents flow around and + through Salisbury, and doubtless in former days there were + many more channels in the town itself. Leland's description + is worth quoting: "There be many fair streates in the Cite + Saresbyri, and especially the High Streate and Castle + Streate.... Al the Streates in a maner, in New Saresbyri, + hath little streamlettes and arms derivyd out of Avon that + runneth through them. The site of the very town of Saresbyri + and much ground thereabout is playne and low, and as a pan or + receyvor of most part of the waters of Wiltshire." + </p> + <p> + On this scene, this red town with the great spire, set down + among water-meadows, encircled by paler green chalk hills, I + look from the top of the inner and highest rampart or + earth-work; or going a little distance down sit at ease on + the turf to gaze at it by the hour. Nor could a sweeter + resting-place be found, especially at the time of ripe + elder-berries, when the thickets are purple with their + clusters and the starlings come in flocks to feed on them, + and feeding keep up a perpetual, low musical jangle about me. + </p> + <p> + It is not, however, of "New Saresbyri" as seen by the + tourist, with a mind full of history, archaeology, and the + aesthetic delight in cathedrals, that I desire to write, but + of Salisbury as it appears to the dweller on the Plain. For + Salisbury is the capital of the Plain, the head and heart of + all those villages, too many to count, scattered far and wide + over the surrounding country. It is the villager's own + peculiar city, and even as the spot it stands upon is the + "pan or receyvor of most part of the waters of Wiltshire," so + is it the receyvor of all he accomplishes in his laborious + life, and thitherward flow all his thoughts and ambitions. + Perhaps it is not so difficult for me as it would be for most + persons who are not natives to identify myself with him and + see it as he sees it. That greater place we have been in, + that mighty, monstrous London, is ever present to the mind + and is like a mist before the sight when we look at other + places; but for me there is no such mist, no image so immense + and persistent as to cover and obscure all others, and no + such mental habit as that of regarding people as a mere + crowd, a mass, a monstrous organism, in and on which each + individual is but a cell, a scale. This feeling troubles and + confuses my mind when I am in London, where we live "too + thick"; but quitting it I am absolutely free; it has not + entered my soul and coloured me with its colour or shut me + out from those who have never known it, even of the simplest + dwellers on the soil who, to our sophisticated minds, may + seem like beings of another species. This is my + happiness—to feel, in all places, that I am one with + them. To say, for instance, that I am going to Salisbury + to-morrow, and catch the gleam in the children's eye and + watch them, furtively watching me, whisper to one another + that there will be something for them, too, on the morrow. To + set out betimes and overtake the early carriers' carts on the + road, each with its little cargo of packages and women with + baskets and an old man or two, to recognize acquaintances + among those who sit in front, and as I go on overtaking and + passing carriers and the half-gipsy, little "general dealer" + in his dirty, ramshackle, little cart drawn by a rough, + fast-trotting pony, all of us intent on business and + pleasure, bound for Salisbury—the great market and + emporium and place of all delights for all the great Plain. I + remember that on my very last expedition, when I had come + twelve miles in the rain and was standing at a street corner, + wet to the skin, waiting for my carrier, a man in a hurry + said to me, "I say, just keep an eye on my cart for a minute + or two while I run round to see somebody. I've got some fowls + in it, and if you see anyone come poking round just ask them + what they want—you can't trust every one. I'll be back + in a minute." And he was gone, and I was very pleased to + watch his cart and fowls till he came back. + </p> + <p> + Business is business and must be attended to, in fair or foul + weather, but for business with pleasure we prefer it fine on + market-day. The one great and chief pleasure, in which all + participate, is just to be there, to be in the crowd—a + joyful occasion which gives a festive look to every face. The + mere sight of it exhilarates like wine. The numbers—the + people and the animals! The carriers' carts drawn up in rows + on rows—carriers from a hundred little villages on the + Bourne, the Avon, the Wylye, the Nadder, the Ebble, and from + all over the Plain, each bringing its little contingent. + Hundreds and hundreds more coming by train; you see them + pouring down Fisherton Street in a continuous procession, all + hurrying market-wards. And what a lively scene the market + presents now, full of cattle and sheep and pigs and crowds of + people standing round the shouting auctioneers! And horses, + too, the beribboned hacks, and ponderous draught horses with + manes and tails decorated with golden straw, thundering over + the stone pavement as they are trotted up and down! And what + a profusion of fruit and vegetables, fish and meat, and all + kinds of provisions on the stalls, where women with baskets + on their arms are jostling and bargaining! The Corn Exchange + is like a huge beehive, humming with the noise of talk, full + of brown-faced farmers in their riding and driving clothes + and leggings, standing in knots or thrusting their hands into + sacks of oats and barley. You would think that all the + farmers from all the Plain were congregated there. There is a + joyful contagion in it all. Even the depressed young lover, + the forlornest of beings, repairs his wasted spirits and + takes heart again. Why, if I've seen a girl with a pretty + face to-day I've seen a hundred—and more. And she + thinks they be so few she can treat me like that and barely + give me a pleasant word in a month! Let her come to Salisbury + and see how many there be! + </p> + <p> + And so with every one in that vast assemblage—vast to + the dweller in the Plain. Each one is present as it were in + two places, since each has in his or her heart the constant + image of home—the little, peaceful village in the + remote valley; of father and mother and neighbours and + children, in school just now, or at play, or home to + dinner—home cares and concerns and the business in + Salisbury. The selling and buying; friends and relations to + visit or to meet in the market-place, and—how + often!—the sick one to be seen at the Infirmary. This + home of the injured and ailing, which is in the mind of so + many of the people gathered together, is indeed the cord that + draws and binds the city and the village closest together and + makes the two like one. + </p> + <p> + That great, comely building of warm, red brick in Fisherton + Street, set well back so that you can see it as a whole, + behind its cedar and beech-trees—how familiar it is to + the villagers! In numberless humble homes, in hundreds of + villages of the Plain, and all over the surrounding country, + the "Infirmary" is a name of the deepest meaning, and a place + of many gad and tender and beautiful associations. I heard it + spoken of in a manner which surprised me at first, for I know + some of the London poor and am accustomed to their attitude + towards the metropolitan hospitals. The Londoner uses them + very freely; they have come to be as necessary to him as the + grocer's shop and the public-house, but for all the benefits + he receives from them he has no faintest sense of gratitude, + and it is my experience that if you speak to him of this he + is roused to anger and demands, "What are they for?" So far + is he from having any thankful thoughts for all that has been + given him for nothing and done for him and for his, if he has + anything to say at all on the matter it is to find fault with + the hospitals and cast blame on them for not having healed + him more quickly or thoroughly. + </p> + <p> + This country town hospital and infirmary is differently + regarded by the villagers of the Plain. It is curious to find + how many among them are personally acquainted with it; + perhaps it is not easy for anyone, even in this most healthy + district, to get through life without sickness, and all are + liable to accidents. The injured or afflicted youth, taken + straight from his rough, hard life and poor cottage, wonders + at the place he finds himself in—the wide, clean, airy + room and white, easy bed, the care and skill of the doctors, + the tender nursing by women, and comforts and luxuries, all + without payment, but given as it seems to him out of pure + divine love and compassion—all this comes to him as + something strange, almost incredible. He suffers much + perhaps, but can bear pain stoically and forget it when it is + past, but the loving kindness he has experienced is + remembered. + </p> + <p> + That is one of the very great things Salisbury has for the + villagers, and there are many more which may not be spoken + of, since we do not want to lose sight of the wood on account + of the trees; only one must be mentioned for a special + reason, and that is the cathedral. The villager is extremely + familiar with it as he sees it from the market and the street + and from a distance, from all the roads which lead him to + Salisbury. Seeing it he sees everything beneath it—all + the familiar places and objects, all the streets—High + and Castle and Crane Streets, and many others, including + Endless Street, which reminds one of Sydney Smith's last + flicker of fun before that candle went out; and the "White + Hart" and the "Angel" and "Old George," and the humbler + "Goat" and "Green Man" and "Shoulder of Mutton," with many + besides; and the great, red building with its cedar-tree, and + the knot of men and boys standing on the bridge gazing down + on the trout in the swift river below; and the market-place + and its busy crowds—all the familiar sights and scenes + that come under the spire like a flock of sheep on a burning + day in summer, grouped about a great tree growing in the + pasture-land. But he is not familiar with the interior of the + great fane; it fails to draw him, doubtless because he has no + time in his busy, practical life for the cultivation of the + aesthetic faculties. There is a crust over that part of his + mind; but it need not always and ever be so; the crust is not + on the mind of the child. + </p> + <p> + Before a stall in the market-place a child is standing with + her mother—a commonplace-looking, little girl of about + twelve, blue-eyed, light-haired, with thin arms and legs, + dressed, poorly enough, for her holiday. The mother, + stoutish, in her best but much-worn black gown and a brown + straw, out-of-shape hat, decorated with bits of ribbon and a + few soiled and frayed artificial flowers. Probably she is the + wife of a labourer who works hard to keep himself and family + on fourteen shillings a week; and she, too, shows, in her + hard hands and sunburnt face, with little wrinkles appearing, + that she is a hard worker; but she is very jolly, for she is + in Salisbury on market-day, in fine weather, with several + shillings in her purse—a shilling for the fares, and + perhaps eightpence for refreshments, and the rest to be + expended in necessaries for the house. And now to increase + the pleasure of the day she has unexpectedly run against a + friend! There they stand, the two friends, basket on arm, + right in the midst of the jostling crowd, talking in their + loud, tinny voices at a tremendous rate; while the girl, with + a half-eager, half-listless expression, stands by with her + hand on her mother's dress, and every time there is a + second's pause in the eager talk she gives a little tug at + the gown and ejaculates "Mother!" The woman impatiently + shakes off the hand and says sharply, "What now, Marty! Can't + 'ee let me say just a word without bothering!" and on the + talk runs again; then another tug and "Mother!" and then, + "You promised, mother," and by and by, "Mother, you said + you'd take me to the cathedral next time." + </p> + <p> + Having heard so much I wanted to hear more, and addressing + the woman I asked her why her child wanted to go. She + answered me with a good-humoured laugh, "'Tis all because she + heard 'em talking about it last winter, and she'd never been, + and I says to her, 'Never you mind, Marty, I'll take you + there the next time I go to Salisbury.'" + </p> + <p> + "And she's never forgot it," said the other woman. + </p> + <p> + "Not she—Marty ain't one to forget." + </p> + <p> + "And you been four times, mother," put in the girl. + </p> + <p> + "Have I now! Well, 'tis too late now—half-past two, and + we must be't' Goat' at four." + </p> + <p> + "Oh, mother, you promised!" + </p> + <p> + "Well, then, come along, you worriting child, and let's have + it over or you'll give me no peace"; and away they went. And + I would have followed to know the result if it had been in my + power to look into that young brain and see the thoughts and + feelings there as the crystal-gazer sees things in a crystal. + In a vague way, with some very early memories to help me, I + can imagine it—the shock of pleased wonder at the sight + of that immense interior, that far-extending nave with + pillars that stand like the tall trunks of pines and beeches, + and at the end the light screen which allows the eye to + travel on through the rich choir, to see, with fresh wonder + and delight, high up and far off, that glory of coloured + glass as of a window half-open to an unimaginable place + beyond—a heavenly cathedral to which all this is but a + dim porch or passage! + </p> + <p> + We do not properly appreciate the educational value of such + early experiences; and I use that dismal word not because it + is perfectly right or for want of a better one, but because + it is in everybody's mouth and understood by all. For all I + know to the contrary, village schools may be bundled in and + out of the cathedral from time to time, but that is not the + right way, seeing that the child's mind is not the + crowd-of-children's mind. But I can imagine that when we have + a wiser, better system of education in the villages, in which + books will not be everything, and to be shut up six or seven + hours every day to prevent the children from learning the + things that matter most—I can imagine at such a time + that the schoolmaster or mistress will say to the village + woman, "I hear you are going to Salisbury to-morrow, or next + Tuesday, and I want you to take Janie or little Dan or Peter, + and leave him for an hour to play about on the cathedral + green and watch the daws flying round the spire, and take a + peep inside while you are doing your marketing." + </p> + <p> + Back from the cathedral once more, from the infirmary, and + from shops and refreshment-houses, out in the sun among the + busy people, let us delay a little longer for the sake of our + last scene. + </p> + <p> + It was past noon on a hot, brilliant day in August, and that + splendid weather had brought in more people than I had ever + before seen congregated in Salisbury, and never had the + people seemed so talkative and merry and full of life as on + that day. I was standing at a busy spot by a row of carriers' + carts drawn up at the side of the pavement, just where there + are three public-houses close together, when I caught sight + of a young man of about twenty-two or twenty-three, a + shepherd in a grey suit and thick, iron-shod, old boots and + brown leggings, with a soft felt hat thrust jauntily on the + back of his head, coming along towards me with that + half-slouching, half-swinging gait peculiar to the men of the + downs, especially when they are in the town on pleasure bent. + Decidedly he was there on pleasure and had been indulging in + a glass or two of beer (perhaps three) and was very happy, + trolling out a song in a pleasant, musical voice as he swung + along, taking no notice of the people stopping and turning + round to stare after him, or of those of his own party who + were following and trying to keep up with him, calling to him + all the time to stop, to wait, to go slow, and give them a + chance. There were seven following him: a stout, middle-aged + woman, then a grey-haired old woman and two girls, and last a + youngish, married woman with a small boy by the hand; and the + stout woman, with a red, laughing face, cried out, "Oh, Dave, + do stop, can't 'ee! Where be going so fast, man—don't + 'ee see we can't keep up with 'ee?" But he would not stop nor + listen. It was his day out, his great day in Salisbury, a + very rare occasion, and he was very happy. Then she would + turn back to the others and cry, "'Tisn't no use, he won't + bide for us—did 'ee ever see such a boy!" and laughing + and perspiring she would start on after him again. + </p> + <p> + Now this incident would have been too trivial to relate had + it not been for the appearance of the man himself—his + powerful and perfect physique and marvellously handsome + face—such a face as the old Greek sculptors have left + to the world to be universally regarded and admired for all + time as the most perfect. I do not think that this was my + feeling only; I imagine that the others in that street who + were standing still and staring after him had something of + the same sense of surprise and admiration he excited in me. + Just then it happened that there was a great commotion + outside one of the public-houses, where a considerable party + of gipsies in their little carts had drawn up, and were all + engaged in a violent, confused altercation. Probably they, or + one of them, had just disposed of a couple of stolen ducks, + or a sheepskin, or a few rabbits, and they were quarrelling + over the division of the spoil. At all events they were + violently excited, scowling at each other and one or two in a + dancing rage, and had collected a crowd of amused lookers-on; + but when the young man came singing by they all turned to + stare at him. + </p> + <p> + As he came on I placed myself directly in his path and stared + straight into his eyes—grey eyes and very beautiful; + but he refused to see me; he stared through me like an animal + when you try to catch its eyes, and went by still trolling + out his song, with all the others streaming after him. + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p><a name="ch03"><!--Marker--></a> + <h2> + CHAPTER III + </h2> + <h3> + WINTERBOURNE BISHOP + </h3> + <blockquote> + A favourite village—Isolated situation—Appearance + of the village—Hedge-fruit—The + winterbourne—Human interest—The home + feeling—Man in harmony with nature—Human bones + thrown out by a rabbit—A spot unspoiled and unchanged + </blockquote> + <p> + Of the few widely separated villages, hidden away among the + lonely downs in the large, blank spaces between the rivers, + the one I love best is Winterbourne Bishop. Yet of the entire + number—I know them all intimately—I daresay it + would be pronounced by most persons the least attractive. It + has less shade from trees in summer and is more exposed in + winter to the bleak winds of this high country, from + whichever quarter they may blow. Placed high itself on a + wide, unwooded valley or depression, with the low, sloping + downs at some distance away, the village is about as cold a + place to pass a winter in as one could find in this district. + And, it may be added, the most inconvenient to live in at any + time, the nearest town, or the easiest to get to, being + Salisbury, twelve miles distant by a hilly road. The only + means of getting to that great centre of life which the + inhabitants possess is by the carrier's cart, which makes the + weary four-hours' journey once a week, on market-day. + Naturally, not many of them see that place of delights + oftener than once a year, and some but once in five or more + years. + </p> + <p> + Then, as to the village itself, when you have got down into + its one long, rather winding street, or road. This has a + green bank, five or six feet high, on either side, on which + stand the cottages, mostly facing the road. Real houses there + are none—buildings worthy of being called houses in + these great days—unless the three small farm-houses are + considered better than cottages, and the rather mean-looking + rectory—the rector, poor man, is very poor. Just in the + middle part, where the church stands in its green churchyard, + the shadiest spot in the village, a few of the cottages are + close together, almost touching, then farther apart, twenty + yards or so, then farther still, forty or fifty yards. They + are small, old cottages; a few have seventeenth-century dates + cut on stone tablets on their fronts, but the undated ones + look equally old; some thatched, others tiled, but none + particularly attractive. Certainly they are without the added + charm of a green drapery—creeper or ivy rose, clematis, + and honeysuckle; and they are also mostly without the + cottage-garden flowers, unprofitably gay like the blossoming + furze, but dear to the soul: the flowers we find in so many + of the villages along the rivers, especially in those of the + Wylye valley to be described in a later chapter. + </p> + <p> + The trees, I have said, are few, though the churchyard is + shady, where you can refresh yourself beneath its ancient + beeches and its one wide-branching yew, or sit on a tomb in + the sun when you wish for warmth and brightness. The trees + growing by or near the street are mostly ash or beech, with a + pine or two, old but not large; and there are small or dwarf + yew-, holly-, and thorn-trees. Very little fruit is grown; + two or three to half a dozen apple- and damson-trees are + called an orchard, and one is sorry for the children. But in + late summer and autumn they get their fruit from the hedges. + These run up towards the downs on either side of the village, + at right angles with its street; long, unkept hedges, + beautiful with scarlet haws and traveller's-joy, rich in + bramble and elder berries and purple sloes and nuts—a + thousand times more nuts than the little dormice require for + their own modest wants. + </p> + <p> + Finally, to go back to its disadvantages, the village is + waterless; at all events in summer, when water is most + wanted. Water is such a blessing and joy in a village—a + joy for ever when it flows throughout the year, as at Nether + Stowey and Winsford and Bourton-on-the-Water, to mention but + three of all those happy villages in the land which are known + to most of us! What man on coming to such places and watching + the rushing, sparkling, foaming torrent by day and listening + to its splashing, gurgling sounds by night, does not resolve + that he will live in no village that has not a perennial + stream in it! This unblessed, high and dry village has + nothing but the winter bourne which gives it its name; a sort + of surname common to a score or two of villages in Wiltshire, + Dorset, Somerset, and Hants. Here the bed of the stream lies + by the bank on one side of the village street, and when the + autumn and early winter rains have fallen abundantly, the + hidden reservoirs within the chalk hills are filled to + overflowing; then the water finds its way out and fills the + dry old channel and sometimes turns the whole street into a + rushing river, to the immense joy of the village children. + They are like ducks, hatched and reared at some upland farm + where there was not even a muddy pool to dibble in. For a + season (the wet one) the village women have water at their + own doors and can go out and dip pails in it as often as they + want. When spring comes it is still flowing merrily, trying + to make you believe that it is going to flow for ever; + beautiful, green water-loving plants and grasses spring up + and flourish along the roadside, and you may see comfrey and + water forget-me-not in flower. Pools, too, have been formed + in some deep, hollow places; they are fringed with tall + grasses, whitened over with bloom of water-crowfoot, and poa + grass grows up from the bottom to spread its green tresses + over the surface. Better still, by and by a couple of stray + moorhens make their appearance in the pool—strange + birds, coloured glossy olive-brown, slashed with white, with + splendid scarlet and yellow beaks! If by some strange chance + a shining blue kingfisher were to appear it could not create + a greater excitement. So much attention do they receive that + the poor strangers have no peace of their lives. It is a + happy time for the children, and a good time for the busy + housewife, who has all the water she wants for cooking and + washing and cleaning—she may now dash as many pailfuls + over her brick floors as she likes. Then the clear, swift + current begins to diminish, and scarcely have you had time to + notice the change than it is altogether gone! The women must + go back to the well and let the bucket down, and laboriously + turn and turn the handle of the windlass till it mounts to + the top again. The pretty moist, green herbage, the graceful + grasses, quickly wither away; dust and straws and rubbish + from the road lie in the dry channel, and by and by it is + filled with a summer growth of dock and loveless nettles + which no child may touch with impunity. + </p> + <p> + No, I cannot think that any person for whom it had no + association, no secret interest, would, after looking at this + village with its dried-up winterbourne, care to make his home + in it. And no person, I imagine, wants to see it; for it has + no special attraction and is away from any road, at a + distance from everywhere. I knew a great many villages in + Salisbury Plain, and was always adding to their number, but + there was no intention of visiting this one. Perhaps there is + not a village on the Plain, or anywhere in Wiltshire for that + matter, which sees fewer strangers. Then I fell in with the + old shepherd whose life will be related in the succeeding + chapters, and who, away from his native place, had no story + about his past life and the lives of those he had + known—no thought in his mind, I might almost say, which + was not connected with the village of Winterbourne Bishop. + And many of his anecdotes and reflections proved so + interesting that I fell into the habit of putting them down + in my notebook; until in the end the place itself, where he + had followed his "homely trade" so long, seeing and feeling + so much, drew me to it. I knew there was "nothing to see" in + it, that it was without the usual attractions; that there + was, in fact, nothing but the human interest, but that was + enough. So I came to it to satisfy an idle + curiosity—just to see how it would accord with the + mental picture produced by his description of it. I came, I + may say, prepared to like the place for the sole but + sufficient reason that it had been his home. Had it not been + for this feeling he had produced in me I should not, I + imagine, have cared to stay long in it. As it was, I did + stay, then came again and found that it was growing on me. I + wondered why; for the mere interest in the old shepherd's + life memories did not seem enough to account for this + deepening attachment. It began to seem to me that I liked it + more and more because of its very barrenness—the entire + absence of all the features which make a place attractive, + noble scenery, woods, and waters; deer parks and old houses, + Tudor, Elizabethan, Jacobean, stately and beautiful, full of + art treasures; ancient monuments and historical associations. + There were none of these things; there was nothing here but + that wide, vacant expanse, very thinly populated with humble, + rural folk—farmers, shepherds, labourers—living + in very humble houses. England is so full of riches in + ancient monuments and grand and interesting and lovely + buildings and objects and scenes, that it is perhaps too + rich. For we may get into the habit of looking for such + things, expecting them at every turn, every mile of the way. + </p> + <p> + I found it a relief, at Winterbourne Bishop, to be in a + country which had nothing to draw a man out of a town. A + wide, empty land, with nothing on it to look at but a + furze-bush; or when I had gained the summit of the down, and + to get a little higher still stood on the top of one of its + many barrows, a sight of the distant village, its low, grey + or reddish-brown cottages half hidden among its few trees, + the square, stone tower of its little church looking at a + distance no taller than a milestone. That emptiness seemed + good for both mind and body: I could spend long hours idly + sauntering or sitting or lying on the turf, thinking of + nothing, or only of one thing—that it was a relief to + have no thought about anything. + </p> + <p> + But no, something was secretly saying to me all the time, + that it was more than what I have said which continued to + draw me to this vacant place—more than the mere relief + experienced on coming back to nature and solitude, and the + freedom of a wide earth and sky. I was not fully conscious of + what the something more was until after repeated visits. On + each occasion it was a pleasure to leave Salisbury behind and + set out on that long, hilly road, and the feeling would keep + with me all the journey, even in bad weather, sultry or cold, + or with the wind hard against me, blowing the white chalk + dust into my eyes. From the time I left the turnpike to go + the last two and a half to three miles by the side-road I + would gaze eagerly ahead for a sight of my destination long + before it could possibly be seen; until, on gaining the + summit of a low, intervening down, the wished scene would be + disclosed—the vale-like, wide depression, with its line + of trees, blue-green in the distance, flecks of red and grey + colour of the houses among them—and at that sight there + would come a sense of elation, like that of coming home. + </p> + <p> + This in fact was the secret! This empty place was, in its + aspect, despite the difference in configuration between down + and undulating plain, more like the home of my early years + than any other place known to me in the country. I can note + many differences, but they do not deprive me of this home + feeling; it is the likenesses that hold me, the spirit of the + place, one which is not a desert with the desert's melancholy + or sense of desolation, but inhabited, although thinly and by + humble-minded men whose work and dwellings are unobtrusive. + The final effect of this wide, green space with signs of + human life and labour on it, and sight of animals—sheep + and cattle—at various distances, is that we are not + aliens here, intruders or invaders on the earth, living in it + but apart, perhaps hating and spoiling it, but with the other + animals are children of Nature, like them living and seeking + our subsistence under her sky, familiar with her sun and wind + and rain. + </p> + <p> + If some ostentatious person had come to this strangely quiet + spot and raised a staring, big house, the sight of it in the + landscape would have made it impossible to have such a + feeling as I have described—this sense of man's harmony + and oneness with nature. From how much of England has this + expression which nature has for the spirit, which is so much + more to us than beauty of scenery, been blotted out! This + quiet spot in Wiltshire has been inhabited from of old, how + far back in time the barrows raised by an ancient, barbarous + people are there to tell us, and to show us how long it is + possible for the race of men, in all stages of culture, to + exist on the earth without spoiling it. + </p> + <p> + One afternoon when walking on Bishop Down I noticed at a + distance of a hundred yards or more that a rabbit had started + making a burrow in a new place and had thrown out a vast + quantity of earth. Going to the spot to see what kind of + chalk or soil he was digging so deeply in, I found that he + had thrown out a human thigh-bone and a rib or two. They were + of a reddish-white colour and had been embedded in a hard + mixture of chalk and red earth. The following day I went + again, and there were more bones, and every day after that + the number increased until it seemed to me that he had + brought out the entire skeleton, minus the skull, which I had + been curious to see. Then the bones disappeared. The man who + looked after the game had seen them, and recognizing that + they were human remains had judiciously taken them away to + destroy or stow them away in some safe place. For if the + village constable had discovered them, or heard of their + presence, he would perhaps have made a fuss and even thought + it necessary to communicate with the coroner of the district. + Such things occasionally happen, even in Wiltshire where the + chalk hills are full of the bones of dead men, and a solemn + Crowner's quest is held on the remains of a Saxon or Dane or + an ancient Briton. When some important person—a Sir + Richard Colt Hoare, for example, who dug up 379 barrows in + Wiltshire, or a General Pitt Rivers throws out human remains + nobody minds, but if an unauthorized rabbit kicks out a lot + of bones the matter should be inquired into. + </p> + <p> + But the man whose bones had been thus thrown out into the + sunlight after lying so long at that spot, which commanded a + view of the distant, little village looking so small in that + immense, green space—who and what was he, and how long + ago did he live on the earth—at Winterbourne Bishop, + let us say? There were two barrows in that part of the down, + but quite a stone's-throw away from the spot where the rabbit + was working, so that he may not have been one of the people + of that period. Still, it is probable that he was buried a + very long time ago, centuries back, perhaps a thousand years, + perhaps longer, and by chance there was a slope there which + prevented the water from percolating, and the soil in which + he had been deposited, under that close-knit turf which + looked as if it had never been disturbed, was one in which + bones might keep uncrumbled for ever. + </p> + <p> + The thought that occurred to me at the time was that if the + man himself had come back to life after so long a period, to + stand once more on that down surveying the scene, he would + have noticed little change in it, certainly nothing of a + startling description. The village itself, looking so small + at that distance, in the centre of the vast depression, would + probably not be strange to him. It was doubtless there as far + back as history goes and probably still farther back in time. + For at that point, just where the winterbourne gushes out + from the low hills, is the spot man would naturally select to + make his home. And he would see no mansion or big building, + no puff of white steam and sight of a long, black train + creeping over the earth, nor any other strange thing. It + would appear to him even as he knew it before he fell + asleep—the same familiar scene, with furze and bramble + and bracken on the slope, the wide expanse with sheep and + cattle grazing in the distance, and the dark green of trees + in the hollows, and fold on fold of the low down beyond, + stretching away to the dim, farthest horizon. + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p><a name="ch04"><!--Marker--></a> + <h2> + CHAPTER IV + </h2> + <h3> + A SHEPHERD OF THE DOWNS + </h3> + <blockquote> + Caleb Bawcombe—An old shepherd's love of his + home—Fifty years' shepherding—Bawcombe's singular + appearance—A tale of a titlark—Caleb Bawcombe's + father—Father and son—A grateful sportsman and + Isaac Bawcombe's pension—Death following death in old + married couples—In a village churchyard—A + farm-labourer's gravestone and his story + </blockquote> + <p> + It is now several years since I first met Caleb Bawcombe, a + shepherd of the South Wiltshire Downs, but already old and + infirm and past work. I met him at a distance from his native + village, and it was only after I had known him a long time + and had spent many afternoons and evenings in his company, + listening to his anecdotes of his shepherding days, that I + went to see his own old home for myself—the village of + Winterbourne Bishop already described, to find it a place + after my own heart. But as I have said, if I had never known + Caleb and heard so much from him about his own life and the + lives of many of his fellow-villagers, I should probably + never have seen this village. + </p> + <p> + One of his memories was of an old shepherd named John, whose + acquaintance he made when a very young man—John being + at that time seventy-eight years old—on the + Winterbourne Bishop farm, where he had served for an unbroken + period of close on sixty years. Though so aged he was still + head shepherd, and he continued to hold that place seven + years longer—until his master, who had taken over old + John with the place, finally gave up the farm and farming at + the same time. He, too, was getting past work and wished to + spend his declining years in his native village in an + adjoining parish, where he owned some house and cottage + property. And now what was to become of the old shepherd, + since the new tenant had brought his own men with + him?—and he, moreover, considered that John, at + eighty-five, was too old to tend a flock on the hills, even + of tegs. His old master, anxious to help him, tried to get + him some employment in the village where he wished to stay; + and failing in this, he at last offered him a cottage rent + free in the village where he was going to live himself, and, + in addition, twelve shillings a week for the rest of his + life. It was in those days an exceedingly generous offer, but + John refused it. "Master," he said, "I be going to stay in my + own native village, and if I can't make a living the + parish'll have to keep I; but keep or not keep, here I be and + here I be going to stay, where I were borned." + </p> + <p> + From this position the stubborn old man refused to be moved, + and there at Winterbourne Bishop his master had to leave him, + although not without having first made him a sufficient + provision. + </p> + <p> + The way in which my old friend, Caleb Bawcombe, told the + story plainly revealed his own feeling in the matter. He + understood and had the keenest sympathy with old John, dead + now over half a century; or rather, let us say, resting very + peacefully in that green spot under the old grey tower of + Winterbourne Bishop church where as a small boy he had played + among the old gravestones as far back in time as the middle + of the eighteenth century. But old John had long survived + wife and children, and having no one but himself to think of + was at liberty to end his days where he pleased. Not so with + Caleb, for, although his undying passion for home and his + love of the shepherd's calling were as great as John's, he + was not so free, and he was compelled at last to leave his + native downs, which he may never see again, to settle for the + remainder of his days in another part of the country. + </p> + <p> + Early in life he "caught a chill" through long exposure to + wet and cold in winter; this brought on rheumatic fever and a + malady of the thigh, which finally affected the whole limb + and made him lame for life. Thus handicapped he had continued + as shepherd for close on fifty years, during which time his + sons and daughters had grown up, married, and gone away, + mostly to a considerable distance, leaving their aged parents + alone once more. Then the wife, who was a strong woman and of + an enterprising temper, found an opening for herself at a + distance from home where she could start a little business. + Caleb indignantly refused to give up shepherding in his place + to take part in so unheard-of an adventure; but after a year + or more of life in his lonely hut among the hills and cold, + empty cottage in the village, he at length tore himself away + from that beloved spot and set forth on the longest journey + of his life—about forty-five miles—to join her + and help in the work of her new home. Here a few years later + I found him, aged seventy-two, but owing to his increasing + infirmities looking considerably more. When he considered + that his father, a shepherd before him on those same + Wiltshire Downs, lived to eighty-six, and his mother to + eighty-four, and that both were vigorous and led active lives + almost to the end, he thought it strange that his own work + should be so soon done. For in heart and mind he was still + young; he did not want to rest yet. + </p> + <p> + Since that first meeting nine years have passed, and as he is + actually better in health to-day than he was then, there is + good reason to hope that his staying power will equal that of + his father. + </p> + <p> + I was at first struck with the singularity of Caleb's + appearance, and later by the expression of his eyes. A very + tall, big-boned, lean, round-shouldered man, he was uncouth + almost to the verge of grotesqueness, and walked painfully + with the aid of a stick, dragging his shrunken and shortened + bad leg. His head was long and narrow, and his high forehead, + long nose, long chin, and long, coarse, grey whiskers, worn + like a beard on his throat, produced a goat-like effect. This + was heightened by the ears and eyes. The big ears stood out + from his head, and owing to a peculiar bend or curl in the + membrane at the top they looked at certain angles almost + pointed. The hazel eyes were wonderfully clear, but that + quality was less remarkable than the unhuman intelligence in + them—fawn-like eyes that gazed steadily at you as one + may gaze through the window, open back and front, of a house + at the landscape beyond. This peculiarity was a little + disconcerting at first, when, after making his acquaintance + out of doors, I went in uninvited and sat down with him at + his own fireside. The busy old wife talked of this and that, + and hinted as politely as she knew how that I was in her way. + To her practical, peasant mind there was no sense in my being + there. "He be a stranger to we, and we be strangers to he." + Caleb was silent, and his clear eyes showed neither annoyance + nor pleasure but only their native, wild alertness, but the + caste feeling is always less strong in the hill shepherd than + in other men who are on the land; in some cases it will + vanish at a touch, and it was so in this one. A canary in a + cage hanging in the kitchen served to introduce the subject + of birds captive and birds free. I said that I liked the + little yellow bird, and was not vexed to see him in a cage, + since he was cage-born; but I considered that those who + caught wild birds and kept them prisoners did not properly + understand things. This happened to be Caleb's view. He had a + curiously tender feeling about the little wild birds, and one + amusing incident of his boyhood which he remembered came out + during our talk. He was out on the down one summer day in + charge of his father's flock, when two boys of the village on + a ramble in the hills came and sat down on the turf by his + side. One of them had a titlark, or meadow pipit, which he + had just caught, in his hand, and there was a hot argument as + to which of the two was the lawful owner of the poor little + captive. The facts were as follows. One of the boys having + found the nest became possessed with the desire to get the + bird. His companion at once offered to catch it for him, and + together they withdrew to a distance and sat down and waited + until the bird returned to sit on the eggs. Then the young + birdcatcher returned to the spot, and creeping quietly up to + within five or six feet of the nest threw his hat so that it + fell over the sitting titlark; but after having thus secured + it he refused to give it up. The dispute waxed hotter as they + sat there, and at last when it got to the point of threats of + cuffs on the ear and slaps on the face they agreed to fight + it out, the victor to have the titlark. The bird was then put + under a hat for safety on the smooth turf a few feet away, + and the boys proceeded to take off their jackets and roll up + their shirt-sleeves, after which they faced one another, and + were just about to begin when Caleb, thrusting out his crook, + turned the hat over and away flew the titlark. + </p> + <p> + The boys, deprived of their bird and of an excuse for a + fight, would gladly have discharged their fury on Caleb, but + they durst not, seeing that his dog was lying at his side; + they could only threaten and abuse him, call him bad names, + and finally put on their coats and walk off. + </p> + <p> + That pretty little tale of a titlark was but the first of a + long succession of memories of his early years, with half a + century of shepherding life on the downs, which came out + during our talks on many autumn and winter evenings as we sat + by his kitchen fire. The earlier of these memories were + always the best to me, because they took one back sixty years + or more, to a time when there was more wildness in the earth + than now, and a nobler wild animal life. Even more + interesting were some of the memories of his father, Isaac + Bawcombe, whose time went back to the early years of the + nineteenth century. Caleb cherished an admiration and + reverence for his father's memory which were almost a + worship, and he loved to describe him as he appeared in his + old age, when upwards of eighty. He was erect and tall, + standing six feet two in height, well proportioned, with a + clean-shaved, florid face, clear, dark eyes, and silver-white + hair; and at this later period of his life he always wore the + dress of an old order of pensioners to which he had been + admitted—a soft, broad, white felt hat, thick boots and + brown leather leggings, and a long, grey cloth overcoat with + red collar and brass buttons. + </p> + <p> + According to Caleb, he must have been an exceedingly fine + specimen of a man, both physically and morally. Born in 1800, + he began following a flock as a boy, and continued as + shepherd on the same farm until he was sixty, never rising to + more than seven shillings a week and nothing found, since he + lived in the cottage where he was born and which he inherited + from his father. That a man of his fine powers, a + head-shepherd on a large hill-farm, should have had no better + pay than that down to the year 1860, after nearly half a + century of work in one place, seems almost incredible. Even + his sons, as they grew up to man's estate, advised him to ask + for an increase, but he would not. Seven shillings a week he + had always had; and that small sum, with something his wife + earned by making highly finished smock-frocks, had been + sufficient to keep them all in a decent way; and his sons + were now all earning their own living. But Caleb got married, + and resolved to leave the old farm at Bishop to take a better + place at a distance from home, at Warminster, which had been + offered him. He would there have a cottage to live in, nine + shillings a week, and a sack of barley for his dog. At that + time the shepherd had to keep his own dog—no small + expense to him when his wages were no more than six to eight + shillings a week. But Caleb was his father's favourite son, + and the old man could not endure the thought of losing sight + of him; and at last, finding that he could not persuade him + not to leave the old home, he became angry, and told him that + if he went away to Warminster for the sake of the higher + wages and barley for the dog he would disown him! This was a + serious matter to Caleb, in spite of the fact that a shepherd + has no money to leave to his children when he passes away. He + went nevertheless, for, though he loved and reverenced his + father, he had a young wife who pulled the other way; and he + was absent for years, and when he returned the old man's + heart had softened, so that he was glad to welcome him back + to the old home. + </p> + <p> + Meanwhile at that humble cottage at Winterbourne Bishop great + things had happened; old Isaac was no longer shepherding on + the downs, but living very comfortably in his own cottage in + the village. The change came about in this way. + </p> + <p> + The downland shepherds, Caleb said, were as a rule clever + poachers; and it is really not surprising, when one considers + the temptation to a man with a wife and several hungry + children, besides himself and a dog, to feed out of about + seven shillings a week. But old Bawcombe was an exception: he + would take no game, furred or feathered, nor, if he could + prevent it, allow another to take anything from the land fed + by his flock. Caleb and his brothers, when as boys and youths + they began their shepherding, sometimes caught a rabbit, or + their dog caught and killed one without their encouragement; + but, however the thing came into their hands, they could not + take it home on account of their father. Now it happened that + an elderly gentleman who had the shooting was a keen + sportsman, and that in several successive years he found a + wonderful difference in the amount of game at one spot among + the hills and in all the rest of his hill property. The only + explanation the keeper could give was that Isaac Bawcombe + tended his flock on that down where rabbits, hares, and + partridges were so plentiful. One autumn day the gentleman + was shooting over that down, and seeing a big man in a + smock-frock standing motionless, crook in hand, regarding + him, he called out to his keeper, who was with him, "Who is + that big man?" and was told that it was Shepherd Bawcombe. + The old gentleman pulled some money out of his pocket and + said, "Give him this half-crown, and thank him for the good + sport I've had to-day." But after the coin had been given the + giver still remained standing there, thinking, perhaps, that + he had not yet sufficiently rewarded the man; and at last, + before turning away, he shouted, "Bawcombe, that's not all. + You'll get something more by and by." + </p> + <p> + Isaac had not long to wait for the something more, and it + turned out not to be the hare or brace of birds he had half + expected. It happened that the sportsman was one of the + trustees of an ancient charity which provided for six of the + most deserving old men of the parish of Bishop; now, one of + the six had recently died, and on this gentleman's + recommendation Bawcombe had been elected to fill the vacant + place. The letter from Salisbury informing him of his + election and commanding his presence in that city filled him + with astonishment; for, though he was sixty years old and the + father of three sons now out in the world, he could not yet + regard himself as an old man, for he had never known a day's + illness, nor an ache, and was famed in all that neighbourhood + for his great physical strength and endurance. And now, with + his own cottage to live in, eight shillings a week, and his + pensioners' garments, with certain other benefits, and a + shilling a day besides which his old master paid him for some + services at the farm-house in the village, Isaac found + himself very well off indeed, and he enjoyed his prosperous + state for twenty-six years. Then, in 1886, his old wife fell + ill and died, and no sooner was she in her grave than he, + too, began to droop; and soon, before the year was out, he + followed her, because, as the neighbours said, they had + always been a loving pair and one could not 'bide without the + other. + </p> + <p> + This chapter has already had its proper ending and there was + no intention of adding to it, but now for a special reason, + which I trust the reader will pardon when he hears it, I must + go on to say something about that strange phenomenon of death + succeeding death in old married couples, one dying for no + other reason than that the other has died. For it is our + instinct to hold fast to life, and the older a man gets if he + be sane the more he becomes like a newborn child in the + impulse to grip tightly. A strange and a rare thing among + people generally (the people we know), it is nevertheless + quite common among persons of the labouring class in the + rural districts. I have sometimes marvelled at the number of + such cases to be met with in the villages; but when one comes + to think about it one ceases to wonder that it should be so. + For the labourer on the land goes on from boyhood to the end + of life in the same everlasting round, the changes from task + to task, according to the seasons, being no greater than in + the case of the animals that alter their actions and habits + to suit the varying conditions of the year. March and August + and December, and every month, will bring about the changes + in the atmosphere and earth and vegetation and in the + animals, which have been from of old, which he knows how to + meet, and the old, familiar task, lambing-time, + shearing-time, root and seed crops hoeing, haymaking, + harvesting. It is a life of the extremest simplicity, without + all those interests outside the home and the daily task, the + innumerable distractions, common to all persons in other + classes and to the workmen in towns as well. Incidentally it + may be said that it is also the healthiest, that, speaking + generally, the agricultural labourer is the healthiest and + sanest man in the land, if not also the happiest, as some + believe. + </p> + <p> + It is this life of simple, unchanging actions and of habits + that are like instincts, of hard labour in sun and wind and + rain from day to day, with its weekly break and rest, and of + but few comforts and no luxuries, which serves to bind man + and wife so closely. And the longer their life goes on + together the closer and more unbreakable the union grows. + They are growing old: old friends and companions have died or + left them; their children have married and gone away and have + their own families and affairs, so that the old folks at home + are little remembered, and to all others they have become of + little consequence in the world. But they do not know it, for + they are together, cherishing the same memories, speaking of + the same old, familiar things, and their lost friends and + companions, their absent, perhaps estranged, children, are + with them still in mind as in the old days. The past is with + them more than the present, to give an undying interest to + life; for they share it, and it is only when one goes, when + the old wife gets the tea ready and goes mechanically to the + door to gaze out, knowing that her tired man will come in no + more to take his customary place and listen to all the things + she has stored up in her mind during the day to tell him; and + when the tired labourer comes in at dusk to find no old wife + waiting to give him his tea and talk to him while he + refreshes himself, he all at once realizes his position; he + finds himself cut off from the entire world, from all of his + kind. Where are they all? The enduring sympathy of that one + soul that was with him till now had kept him in touch with + life, had made it seem unchanged and unchangeable, and with + that soul has vanished the old, sweet illusion as well as all + ties, all common, human affection. He is desolate, indeed, + alone in a desert world, and it is not strange that in many + and many a case, even in that of a man still strong, + untouched by disease and good for another decade or two, the + loss, the awful solitude, has proved too much for him. + </p> + <p> + Such cases, I have said, are common, but they are not + recorded, though it is possible with labour to pick them out + in the church registers; but in the churchyards you do not + find them, since the farm-labourer has only a green mound to + mark the spot where he lies. Nevertheless, he is sometimes + honoured with a gravestone, and last August I came by chance + on one on which was recorded a case like that of Isaac + Bawcombe and his life-mate. + </p> + <p> + The churchyard is in one of the prettiest and most secluded + villages in the downland country described in this book. The + church is ancient and beautiful and interesting in many ways, + and the churchyard, too, is one of the most interesting I + know, a beautiful, green, tree-shaded spot, with an + extraordinary number of tombs and gravestones, many of them + dated in the eighteenth and seventeenth centuries, inscribed + with names of families which have long died out. + </p> + <p> + I went on that afternoon to pass an hour in the churchyard, + and finding an old man in labourer's clothes resting on a + tomb, I sat down and entered into conversation with him. He + was seventy-nine, he told me, and past work, and he had three + shillings a week from the parish; but he was very deaf and it + fatigued me to talk to him, and seeing the church open I went + in. On previous visits I had had a good deal of trouble to + get the key, and to find it open now was a pleasant surprise. + An old woman was there dusting the seats, and by and by, + while I was talking with her, the old labourer came stumping + in with his ponderous, iron-shod boots and without taking off + his old, rusty hat, and began shouting at the church-cleaner + about a pair of trousers he had given her to mend, which he + wanted badly. Leaving them to their arguing I went out and + began studying the inscriptions on the stones, so hard to + make out in some instances; the old man followed and went his + way; then the church-cleaner came out to where I was + standing. "A tiresome old man!" she said. "He's that deaf he + has to shout to hear himself speak, then you've got to shout + back—and all about his old trousers!" + </p> + <p> + "I suppose he wants them," I returned, "and you promised to + do them, so he has some reason for going at you about it." + </p> + <p> + "Oh no, he hasn't," she replied. "The girl brought them for + me to mend, and I said, 'Leave them and I'll do them when + I've time'—how did I know he wanted them in a hurry? A + troublesome old man!" + </p> + <p> + By and by, taking a pair of spectacles out of her pocket, she + put them on, and going down on her knees she began + industriously picking the old, brown, dead moss out of the + lettering on one side of the tomb. "I'd like to know what it + says on this stone," she said. + </p> + <p> + "Well, you can read it for yourself, now you've got your + glasses on." + </p> + <p> + "I can't read. You see, I'm old—seventy-six years, and + when I were little we were very poor and I couldn't get no + schooling. I've got these glasses to do my sewing, and only + put them on to get this stuff out so's you could read it. I'd + like to hear you read it." + </p> + <p> + I began to get interested in the old dame who talked to me so + freely. She was small and weak-looking, and appeared very + thin in her limp, old, faded gown; she had a meek, patient + expression on her face, and her voice, too, like her face, + expressed weariness and resignation. + </p> + <p> + "But if you have always lived here you must know what is said + on this stone?" + </p> + <p> + "No, I don't; nobody never read it to me, and I couldn't read + it because I wasn't taught to read. But I'd like to hear you + read it." + </p> + <p> + It was a long inscription to a person named Ash, gentleman, + of this parish, who departed this life over a century ago, + and was a man of a noble and generous disposition, good as a + husband, a father, a friend, and charitable to the poor. + Under all were some lines of verse, scarcely legible in spite + of the trouble she had taken to remove the old moss from the + letters. + </p> + <p> + She listened with profound interest, then said, "I never + heard all that before; I didn't know the name, though I've + known this stone since I was a child. I used to climb on to + it then. Can you read me another?" + </p> + <p> + I read her another and several more, then came to one which + she said she knew—every word of it, for this was the + grave of the sweetest, kindest woman that ever lived. Oh, how + good this dear woman had been to her in her young married + life more'n fifty years ago! If that dear lady had only lived + it would not have been so hard for her when her trouble come! + </p> + <p> + "And what was your trouble?" + </p> + <p> + "It was the loss of my poor man. He was such a good man, a + thatcher; and he fell from a rick and injured his spine, and + he died, poor fellow, and left me with our five little + children." Then, having told me her own tragedy, to my + surprise she brightened up and begged me to read other + inscriptions to her. + </p> + <p> + I went on reading, and presently she said, "No, that's wrong. + There wasn't ever a Lampard in this parish. That I know." + </p> + <p> + "You don't know! There certainly was a Lampard or it would + not be stated here, cut in deep letters on this stone." + </p> + <p> + "No, there wasn't a Lampard. I've never known such a name and + I've lived here all my life." + </p> + <p> + "But there were people living here before you came on the + scene. He died a long time ago, this Lampard—in 1714, + it says. And you are only seventy-six, you tell me; that is + to say, you were born in 1835, and that would be one hundred + and twenty-one years after he died." + </p> + <p> + "That's a long time! It must be very old, this stone. And the + church too. I've heard say it was once a Roman Catholic + church. Is that true?" + </p> + <p> + "Why, of course it's true—all the old churches were, + and we were all of that faith until a King of England had a + quarrel with the Pope and determined he would be Pope himself + as well as king in his own country. So he turned all the + priests and monks out, and took their property and churches + and had his own men put in. That was Henry VIII." + </p> + <p> + "I've heard something about that king and his wives. But + about Lampard, it do seem strange I've never heard that name + before." + </p> + <p> + "Not strange at all; it was a common name in this part of + Wiltshire in former days; you find it in dozens of + churchyards, but you'll find very few Lampards living in the + villages. Why, I could tell you a dozen or twenty surnames, + some queer, funny names, that were common in these parts not + more than a century ago which seem to have quite died out." + </p> + <p> + "I should like to hear some of them if you'll tell me." + </p> + <p> + "Let me think a moment: there was Thorr, Pizzie, Gee, Every, + Pottle, Kiddle, Toomer, Shergold, and—" + </p> + <p> + Here she interrupted to say that she knew three of the names + I had mentioned. Then, pointing to a small, upright + gravestone about twenty feet away, she added, "And there's + one." + </p> + <p> + "Very well," I said, "but don't keep putting me + out—I've got more names in my mind to tell you. + Maidment, Marchmont, Velvin, Burpitt, Winzur, Rideout, + Cullurne." + </p> + <p> + Of these she only knew one—Rideout. + </p> + <p> + Then I went over to the stone she had pointed to and read the + inscription to John Toomer and his wife Rebecca. She died + first, in March 1877, aged 72; he in July the same year, aged + 75. + </p> + <p> + "You knew them, I suppose?" + </p> + <p> + "Yes, they belonged here, both of them." + </p> + <p> + "Tell me about them." + </p> + <p> + "There's nothing to tell; he was only a labourer and worked + on the same farm all his life." + </p> + <p> + "Who put a stone over them—their children?" + </p> + <p> + "No, they're all poor and live away. I think it was a lady + who lived here; she'd been good to them, and she came and + stood here when they put old John in the ground." + </p> + <p> + "But I want to hear more." + </p> + <p> + "There's no more, I've said; he was a labourer, and after she + died he died." + </p> + <p> + "Yes? go on." + </p> + <p> + "How can I go on? There's no more. I knew them so well; they + lived in the little thatched cottage over there, where the + Millards live now." + </p> + <p> + "Did they fall ill at the same time?" + </p> + <p> + "Oh no, he was as well as could be, still at work, till she + died, then he went on in a strange way. He would come in of + an evening and call his wife. 'Mother! Mother, where are + you?' you'd hear him call, 'Mother, be you upstairs? Mother, + ain't you coming down for a bit of bread and cheese before + you go to bed?' And then in a little while he just died." + </p> + <p> + "And you said there was nothing to tell!" + </p> + <p> + "No, there wasn't anything. He was just one of us, a labourer + on the farm." + </p> + <p> + I then gave her something, and to my surprise after taking it + she made me an elaborate curtsy. It rather upset me, for I + had thought we had got on very well together and were quite + free and easy in our talk, very much on a level. But she was + not done with me yet. She followed to the gate, and holding + out her open hand with that small gift in it, she said in a + pathetic voice, "Did you think, sir, I was expecting this? I + had no such thought and didn't want it." + </p> + <p> + And I had no thought of saying or writing a word about her. + But since that day she has haunted me—she and her old + John Toomer, and it has just now occurred to me that by + putting her in my book I may be able to get her out of my + mind. + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p><a name="ch05"><!--Marker--></a> + <h2> + CHAPTER V + </h2> + <h3> + EARLY MEMORIES + </h3> + <blockquote> + A child shepherd—Isaac and his + children—Shepherding in boyhood—Two notable + sheep-dogs—Jack, the adder-killer—Sitting on an + adder—Rough and the drovers—The Salisbury + coach—A sheep-dog suckling a lamb + </blockquote> + <p> + Caleb's shepherding began in childhood; at all events he had + his first experience of it at that time. Many an old + shepherd, whose father was shepherd before him, has told me + that he began to go with the flock very early in life, when + he was no more than ten to twelve years of age. Caleb + remembered being put in charge of his father's flock at the + tender age of six. It was a new and wonderful experience, and + made so vivid and lasting an impression on his mind that now, + when he is past eighty, he speaks of it very feelingly as of + something which happened yesterday. + </p> + <p> + It was harvesting time, and Isaac, who was a good reaper, was + wanted in the field, but he could find no one, not even a + boy, to take charge of his flock in the meantime, and so to + be able to reap and keep an eye on the flock at the same time + he brought his sheep down to the part of the down adjoining + the field. It was on his "liberty," or that part of the down + where he was entitled to have his flock. He then took his + very small boy, Caleb, and placing him with the sheep told + him they were now in his charge; that he was not to lose + sight of them, and at the same time not to run about among + the furze-bushes for fear of treading on an adder. By and by + the sheep began straying off among the furze-bushes, and no + sooner would they disappear from sight than he imagined they + were lost for ever, or would be unless he quickly found them, + and to find them he had to run about among the bushes with + the terror of adders in his mind, and the two troubles + together kept him crying with misery all the time. Then, at + intervals, Isaac would leave his reaping and come to see how + he was getting on, and the tears would vanish from his eyes, + and he would feel very brave again, and to his father's + question he would reply that he was getting on very well. + </p> + <p> + Finally his father came and took him to the field, to his + great relief; but he did not carry him in his arms; he strode + along at his usual pace and let the little fellow run after + him, stumbling and falling and picking himself up again and + running on. And by and by one of the women in the field cried + out, "Be you not ashamed, Isaac, to go that pace and not bide + for the little child! I do b'lieve he's no more'n seven + year—poor mite!" + </p> + <p> + "No more'n six," answered Isaac proudly, with a laugh. + </p> + <p> + But though not soft or tender with his children he was very + fond of them, and when he came home early in the evening he + would get them round him and talk to them, and sing old songs + and ballads he had learnt in his young years—"Down in + the Village," "The Days of Queen Elizabeth," "The + Blacksmith," "The Gown of Green," "The Dawning of the Day," + and many others, which Caleb in the end got by heart and used + to sing, too, when he was grown up. + </p> + <p> + Caleb was about nine when he began to help regularly with the + flock; that was in the summer-time, when the flock was put + every day on the down and when Isaac's services were required + for the haymaking and later for harvesting and other work. + His best memories of this period relate to his mother and to + two sheepdogs, Jack at first and afterwards Rough, both + animals of original character. Jack was a great favourite of + his master, who considered him a "tarrable good dog." He was + rather short-haired, like the old Welsh sheepdog once common + in Wiltshire, but entirely black instead of the usual + colour—blue with a sprinkling of black spots. This dog + had an intense hatred of adders and never failed to kill + every one he discovered. At the same time he knew that they + were dangerous enemies to tackle, and on catching sight of + one his hair would instantly bristle up, and he would stand + as if paralysed for some moments, glaring at it and gnashing + his teeth, then springing like a cat upon it he would seize + it in his mouth, only to hurl it from him to a distance. This + action he would repeat until the adder was dead, and Isaac + would then put it under a furze-bush to take it home and hang + it on a certain gate. The farmer, too, like the dog, hated + adders, and paid his shepherd sixpence for every one his dog + killed. + </p> + <p> + One day Caleb, with one of his brothers, was out with the + flock, amusing themselves in their usual way on the turf with + nine morris-men and the shepherd's puzzle, when all at once + their mother appeared unexpectedly on the scene. It was her + custom, when the boys were sent out with the flock, to make + expeditions to the down just to see what they were up to; and + hiding her approach by keeping to a hedge-side or by means of + the furze-bushes, she would sometimes come upon them with + disconcerting suddenness. On this occasion just where the + boys had been playing there was a low, stout furze-bush, so + dense and flat-topped that one could use it as a seat, and + his mother taking off and folding her shawl placed it on the + bush, and sat down on it to rest herself after her long walk. + "I can see her now," said Caleb, "sitting on that furze-bush, + in her smock and leggings, with a big hat like a man's on her + head—for that's how she dressed." But in a few moments + she jumped up, crying out that she felt a snake under her, + and snatched off the shawl, and there, sure enough, out of + the middle of the flat bush-top appeared the head of an + adder, flicking out its tongue. The dog, too, saw it, dashed + at the bush, forcing his muzzle and head into the middle of + it, seized the serpent by its body and plucked it out and + threw it from him, only to follow it up and kill it in the + usual way. + </p> + <p> + Rough was a large, shaggy, grey-blue bobtail bitch with a + white collar. She was a clever, good all-round dog, but had + originally been trained for the road, and one of the + shepherd's stories about her relates of her intelligence in + her own special line—the driving of sheep. + </p> + <p> + One day he and his smaller brother were in charge of the + flock on the down, and were on the side where it dips down to + the turnpike-road about a mile and a half from the village, + where a large flock, driven by two men and two dogs, came by. + They were going to the Britford sheep-fair and were behind + time; Isaac had started at daylight that morning with sheep + for the same fair, and that was the reason of the boys being + with the flock. As the flock on the down was feeding quietly + the boys determined to go to the road to watch the sheep and + men pass, and arriving at the roadside they saw that the dogs + were too tired to work and the men were getting on with great + difficulty. One of them, looking intently at Rough, asked if + she would work. "Oh, yes, she'll work," said the boy proudly, + and calling Rough he pointed to the flock moving very slowly + along the road and over the turf on either side of it. Rough + knew what was wanted; she had been looking on and had taken + the situation in with her professional eye; away she dashed, + and running up and down, first on one side then on the other, + quickly put the whole flock, numbering 800, into the road and + gave them a good start. + </p> + <p> + "Why, she be a road dog!" exclaimed the drover delightedly. + "She's better for me on the road than for you on the down; + I'll buy her of you." + </p> + <p> + "No, I mustn't sell her," said Caleb. + </p> + <p> + "Look here, boy," said the other, "I'll give 'ee a sovran and + this young dog, an' he'll be a good one with a little more + training." + </p> + <p> + "No, I mustn't," said Caleb, distressed at the other's + persistence. + </p> + <p> + "Well, will you come a little way on the road with us?" asked + the drover. + </p> + <p> + This the boys agreed to and went on for about a quarter of a + mile, when all at once the Salisbury coach appeared on the + road, coming to meet them. This new trouble was pointed out + to Rough, and at once when her little master had given the + order she dashed barking into the midst of the mass of sheep + and drove them furiously to the side from end to end of the + extended flock, making a clear passage for the coach, which + was not delayed a minute. And no sooner was the coach gone + than the sheep were put back into the road. + </p> + <p> + Then the drover pulled out his sovereign once more and tried + to make the boy take it. + </p> + <p> + "I mustn't," he repeated, almost in tears. "What would father + say?" + </p> + <p> + "Say! He won't say nothing. He'll think you've done well." + </p> + <p> + But Caleb thought that perhaps his father would say + something, and when he remembered certain whippings he had + experienced in the past he had an uncomfortable sensation + about his back. "No, I mustn't," was all he could say, and + then the drovers with a laugh went on with their sheep. + </p> + <p> + When Isaac came home and the adventure was told to him he + laughed and said that he meant to sell Rough some day. He + used to say this occasionally to tease his wife because of + the dog's intense devotion to her; and she, being without a + sense of humour and half thinking that he meant it, would get + up out of her seat and solemnly declare that if he ever sold + Rough she would never again go out to the down to see what + the boys were up to. + </p> + <p> + One day she visited the boys when they had the flock near the + turnpike, and seating herself on the turf a few yards from + the road got out her work and began sewing. Presently they + spied a big, singular-looking man coming at a swinging pace + along the road. He was in shirt-sleeves, barefooted, and wore + a straw hat without a rim. Rough eyed the strange being's + approach with suspicion, and going to her mistress placed + herself at her side. The man came up and sat down at a + distance of three or four yards from the group, and Rough, + looking dangerous, started up and put her forepaws on her + mistress's lap and began uttering a low growl. + </p> + <p> + "Will that dog bite, missus?" said the man. + </p> + <p> + "Maybe he will," said she. "I won't answer for he if you come + any nearer." + </p> + <p> + The two boys had been occupied cutting a faggot from a + furze-bush with a bill-hook, and now held a whispered + consultation as to what they would do if the man tried to + "hurt mother," and agreed that as soon as Rough had got her + teeth in his leg they would attack him about the head with + the bill-hook. They were not required to go into action; the + stranger could not long endure Rough's savage aspect, and + very soon he got up and resumed his travels. + </p> + <p> + The shepherd remembered another curious incident in Rough's + career. At one time when she had a litter of pups at home she + was yet compelled to be a great part of the day with the + flock of ewes as they could not do without her. The boys just + then were bringing up a motherless lamb by hand and they + would put it with the sheep, and to feed it during the day + were obliged to catch a ewe with milk. The lamb trotted at + Caleb's heels like a dog, and one day when it was hungry and + crying to be fed, when Rough happened to be sitting on her + haunches close by, it occurred to him that Rough's milk might + serve as well as a sheep's. The lamb was put to her and took + very kindly to its canine foster-mother, wriggling its tail + and pushing vigorously with its nose. Rough submitted + patiently to the trial, and the result was that the lamb + adopted the sheep-dog as its mother and sucked her milk + several times every day, to the great admiration of all who + witnessed it. + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p><a name="ch06"><!--Marker--></a> + <h2> + CHAPTER VI + </h2> + <h3> + SHEPHERD ISAAC BAWCOMBE + </h3> + <blockquote> + A noble shepherd—A fighting village + blacksmith—Old Joe the collier—A story of his + strength—Donkeys poisoned by yew—The shepherd + without his sheep—How the shepherd killed a deer + </blockquote> + <p> + To me the most interesting of Caleb's old memories were those + relating to his father, partly on account of the man's fine + character, and partly because they went so far back, + beginning in the early years of the last century. + </p> + <p> + Altogether he must have been a very fine specimen of a man, + both physically and morally. In Caleb's mind he was + undoubtedly the first among men morally, but there were two + other men supposed to be his equals in bodily strength, one a + native of the village, the other a periodical visitor. The + first was Jarvis the blacksmith, a man of an immense chest + and big arms, one of Isaac's greatest friends, and very + good-tempered except when in his cups, for he did + occasionally get drunk, and then he quarrelled with anyone + and every one. + </p> + <p> + One afternoon he had made himself quite tipsy at the inn, and + when going home, swaying about and walking all over the road, + he all at once caught sight of the big shepherd coming + soberly on behind. No sooner did he see him than it occurred + to his wild and muddled mind that he had a quarrel with this + very man, Shepherd Isaac, a quarrel of so pressing a nature + that there was nothing to do but to fight it out there and + then. He planted himself before the shepherd and challenged + him to fight. Isaac smiled and said nothing. + </p> + <p> + "I'll fight thee about this," he repeated, and began tugging + at his coat, and after getting it off again made up to Isaac, + who still smiled and said no word. Then he pulled his + waistcoat off, and finally his shirt, and with nothing but + his boots and breeches on once more squared up to Isaac and + threw himself into his best fighting attitude. + </p> + <p> + "I doan't want to fight thee," said Isaac at length, "but I + be thinking 'twould be best to take thee home." And suddenly + dashing in he seized Jarvis round the waist with one arm, + grasped him round the legs with the other, and flung the big + man across his shoulder, and carried him off, struggling and + shouting, to his cottage. There at the door, pale and + distressed, stood the poor wife waiting for her lord, when + Isaac arrived, and going straight in dropped the smith down + on his own floor, and with the remark, "Here be your man," + walked off to his cottage and his tea. + </p> + <p> + The other powerful man was Old Joe the collier, who + flourished and was known in every village in the Salisbury + Plain district during the first thirty-five years of the last + century. I first heard of this once famous man from Caleb, + whose boyish imagination had been affected by his gigantic + figure, mighty voice, and his wandering life over all that + wide world of Salisbury Plain. Afterwards when I became + acquainted with a good many old men, aged from 75 to 90 and + upwards, I found that Old Joe's memory is still green in a + good many villages of the district, from the upper waters of + the Avon to the borders of Dorset. But it is only these + ancients who knew him that keep it green; by and by when they + are gone Old Joe and his neddies will be remembered no more. + </p> + <p> + In those days—down to about 1840, it was customary to + burn peat in the cottages, the first cost of which was about + four and sixpence the wagon-load—as much as I should + require to keep me warm for a month in winter; but the cost + of its conveyance to the villages of the Plain was about five + to six shillings per load, as it came from a considerable + distance, mostly from the New Forest. How the labourers at + that time, when they were paid seven or eight shillings a + week, could afford to buy fuel at such prices to bake their + rye bread and keep the frost out of their bones is a marvel + to us. Isaac was a good deal better off than most of the + villagers in this respect, as his master—for he never + had but one—allowed him the use of a wagon and the + driver's services for the conveyance of one load of peat each + year. The wagon-load of peat and another of faggots lasted + him the year with the furze obtained from his "liberty" on + the down. Coal at that time was only used by the blacksmiths + in the villages, and was conveyed in sacks on ponies or + donkeys, and of those who were engaged in this business the + best known was Old Joe. He appeared periodically in the + villages with his eight donkeys, or neddies as he called + them, with jingling bells on their headstalls and their + burdens of two sacks of small coal on each. In stature he was + a giant of about six feet three, very broad-chested, and + invariably wore a broad-brimmed hat, a slate-coloured + smock-frock, and blue worsted stockings to his knees. He + walked behind the donkeys, a very long staff in his hand, + shouting at them from time to time, and occasionally swinging + his long staff and bringing it down on the back of a donkey + who was not keeping up the pace. In this way he wandered from + village to village from end to end of the Plain, getting rid + of his small coal and loading his animals with scrap iron + which the blacksmiths would keep for him, and as he continued + his rounds for nearly forty years he was a familiar figure to + every inhabitant throughout the district. + </p> + <p> + There are some stories still told of his great strength, one + of which is worth giving. He was a man of iron constitution + and gave himself a hard life, and he was hard on his neddies, + but he had to feed them well, and this he often contrived to + do at some one else's expense. One night at a village on the + Wylye it was discovered that he had put his eight donkeys in + a meadow in which the grass was just ripe for mowing. The + enraged farmer took them to the village pound and locked them + up, but in the morning the donkeys and Joe with them had + vanished and the whole village wondered how he had done it. + The stone wall of the pound was four feet and a half high and + the iron gate was locked, yet he had lifted the donkeys up + and put them over and had loaded them and gone before anyone + was up. + </p> + <p> + Once Joe met with a very great misfortune. He arrived late at + a village, and finding there was good feed in the churchyard + and that everybody was in bed, he put his donkeys in and + stretched himself out among the gravestones to sleep. He had + no nerves and no imagination; and was tired, and slept very + soundly until it was light and time to put his neddies out + before any person came by and discovered that he had been + making free with the rector's grass. Glancing round he could + see no donkeys, and only when he stood up he found they had + not made their escape but were there all about him, lying + among the gravestones, stone dead every one! He had forgotten + that a churchyard was a dangerous place to put hungry animals + in. They had browsed on the luxuriant yew that grew there, + and this was the result. + </p> + <p> + In time he recovered from his loss and replaced his dead + neddies with others, and continued for many years longer on + his rounds. + </p> + <p> + To return to Isaac Bawcombe. He was born, we have seen, in + 1800, and began following a flock as a boy and continued as + shepherd on the same farm for a period of fifty-five years. + The care of sheep was the one all-absorbing occupation of his + life, and how much it was to him appears in this anecdote of + his state of mind when he was deprived of it for a time. The + flock was sold and Isaac was left without sheep, and with + little to do except to wait from Michaelmas to Candlemas, + when there would be sheep again at the farm. It was a long + time to Isaac, and he found his enforced holiday so tedious + that he made himself a nuisance to his wife in the house. + Forty times a day he would throw off his hat and sit down, + resolved to be happy at his own fireside, but after a few + minutes the desire to be up and doing would return, and up he + would get and out he would go again. One dark cloudy evening + a man from the farm put his head in at the door. "Isaac," he + said, "there be sheep for 'ee up't the farm—two hunderd + ewes and a hunderd more to come in dree days. Master, he sent + I to say you be wanted." And away the man went. + </p> + <p> + Isaac jumped up and hurried forth without taking his crook + from the corner and actually without putting on his hat! His + wife called out after him, and getting no response sent the + boy with his hat to overtake him. But the little fellow soon + returned with the hat—he could not overtake his father! + </p> + <p> + He was away three or four hours at the farm, then returned, + his hair very wet, his face beaming, and sat down with a + great sigh of pleasure. "Two hunderd ewes," he said, "and a + hunderd more to come—what d'you think of that?" + </p> + <p> + "Well, Isaac," said she, "I hope thee'll be happy now and let + I alone." + </p> + <p> + After all that had been told to me about the elder Bawcombe's + life and character, it came somewhat as a shock to learn that + at one period during his early manhood he had indulged in one + form of poaching—a sport which had a marvellous + fascination for the people of England in former times, but + was pretty well extinguished during the first quarter of the + last century. Deer he had taken; and the whole tale of the + deer-stealing, which was a common offence in that part of + Wiltshire down to about 1834, sounds strange at the present + day. + </p> + <p> + Large herds of deer were kept at that time at an estate a few + miles from Winterbourne Bishop, and it often happened that + many of the animals broke bounds and roamed singly and in + small bands over the hills. When deer were observed in the + open, certain of the villagers would settle on some plan of + action; watchers would be sent out not only to keep an eye on + the deer but on the keepers too. Much depended on the state + of the weather and the moon, as some light was necessary; + then, when the conditions were favourable and the keepers had + been watched to their cottages, the gang would go out for a + night's hunting. But it was a dangerous sport, as the keepers + also knew that deer were out of bounds, and they would form + some counter-plan, and one peculiarly nasty plan they had was + to go out about three or four o'clock in the morning and + secrete themselves somewhere close to the village to + intercept the poachers on their return. + </p> + <p> + Bawcombe, who never in his life associated with the village + idlers and frequenters of the alehouse, had no connexion with + these men. His expeditions were made alone on some dark, + unpromising night, when the regular poachers were in bed and + asleep. He would steal away after bedtime, or would go out + ostensibly to look after the sheep, and, if fortunate, would + return in the small hours with a deer on his back. Then, + helped by his mother, with whom he lived (for this was when + he was a young unmarried man, about 1820), he would quickly + skin and cut up the carcass, stow the meat away in some + secret place, and bury the head, hide, and offal deep in the + earth; and when morning came it would find Isaac out + following his flock as usual, with no trace of guilt or + fatigue in his rosy cheeks and clear, honest eyes. + </p> + <p> + This was a very astonishing story to hear from Caleb, but to + suspect him of inventing or of exaggerating was impossible to + anyone who knew him. And we have seen that Isaac Bawcombe was + an exceptional man—physically a kind of Alexander + Selkirk of the Wiltshire Downs. And he, moreover, had a dog + to help him—one as superior in speed and strength to + the ordinary sheep-dog as he himself was to the rack of his + fellow-men. It was only after much questioning on my part + that Caleb brought himself to tell me of these ancient + adventures, and finally to give a detailed account of how his + father came to take his first deer. It was in the depth of + winter—bitterly cold, with a strong north wind blowing + on the snow-covered downs—when one evening Isaac caught + sight of two deer out on his sheep-walk. In that part of + Wiltshire there is a famous monument of antiquity, a vast + mound-like wall, with a deep depression or fosse running at + its side. Now it happened that on the highest part of the + down, where the wall or mound was most exposed to the blast, + the snow had been blown clean off the top, and the deer were + feeding here on the short turf, keeping to the ridge, so + that, outlined against the sky, they had become visible to + Isaac at a great distance. + </p> + <p> + He saw and pondered. These deer, just now, while out of + bounds, were no man's property, and it would be no sin to + kill and eat one—if he could catch it!—and it was + a season of bitter want. For many many days he had eaten his + barley bread, and on some days barley-flour dumplings, and + had been content with this poor fare; but now the sight of + these animals made him crave for meat with an intolerable + craving, and he determined to do something to satisfy it. + </p> + <p> + He went home and had his poor supper, and when it was dark + set forth again with his dog. He found the deer still feeding + on the mound. Stealing softly along among the furze-bushes, + he got the black line of the mound against the starry sky, + and by and by, as he moved along, the black figures of the + deer, with their heads down, came into view. He then doubled + back and, proceeding some distance, got down into the fosse + and stole forward to them again under the wall. His idea was + that on taking alarm they would immediately make for the + forest which was their home, and would probably pass near + him. They did not hear him until he was within sixty yards, + and then bounded down from the wall, over the dyke, and away, + but in almost opposite directions—one alone making for + the forest; and on this one the dog was set. Out he shot like + an arrow from the bow, and after him ran Isaac "as he had + never runned afore in all his life." For a short space deer + and dog in hot pursuit were visible on the snow, then the + darkness swallowed them up as they rushed down the slope; but + in less than half a minute a sound came back to Isaac, + flying, too, down the incline—the long, wailing cry of + a deer in distress. The dog had seized his quarry by one of + the front legs, a little above the hoof, and held it fast, + and they were struggling on the snow when Isaac came up and + flung himself upon his victim, then thrust his knife through + its windpipe "to stop its noise." Having killed it, he threw + it on his back and went home, not by the turnpike, nor by any + road or path, but over fields and through copses until he got + to the back of his mother's cottage. There was no door on + that side, but there was a window, and when he had rapped at + it and his mother opened it, without speaking a word he + thrust the dead deer through, then made his way round to the + front. + </p> + <p> + That was how he killed his first deer. How the others were + taken I do not know; I wish I did, since this one exploit of + a Wiltshire shepherd has more interest for me than I find in + fifty narratives of elephants slaughtered wholesale with + explosive bullets, written for the delight and astonishment + of the reading public by our most glorious Nimrods. + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p><a name="ch07"><!--Marker--></a> + <h2> + CHAPTER VII + </h2> + <h3> + THE DEER-STEALERS + </h3> + <blockquote> + Deer-stealing on Salisbury Plain—The head-keeper + Harbutt—Strange story of a baby—Found as a + surname—John Barter the village carpenter—How the + keeper was fooled—A poaching attack planned—The + fight—Head-keeper and carpenter—The carpenter + hides his son—The arrest—Barter's sons forsake + the village + </blockquote> + <p> + There were other memories of deer-taking handed down to Caleb + by his parents, and the one best worth preserving relates to + the head-keeper of the preserves, or chase, and to a great + fight in which he was engaged with two brothers of the girl + who was afterwards to be Isaac's wife. + </p> + <p> + Here it may be necessary to explain that formerly the owner + of Cranbourne Chase, at that time Lord Rivers, claimed the + deer and the right to preserve and hunt deer over a + considerable extent of country outside of his own lands. On + the Wiltshire side these rights extended from Cranbourne + Chase over the South Wiltshire Downs to Salisbury, and the + whole territory, about thirty miles broad, was divided into + beats or walks, six or eight in number, each beat provided + with a keeper's lodge. This state of things continued to the + year 1834, when the chase was "disfranchised" by Act of + Parliament. + </p> + <p> + The incident I am going to relate occurred about 1815 or + perhaps two or three years later. The border of one of the + deer walks was at a spot known as Three Downs Place, two + miles and a half from Winterbourne Bishop. Here in a hollow + of the downs there was an extensive wood, and just within the + wood a large stone house, said to be centuries old but long + pulled down, called Rollston House, in which the head-keeper + lived with two under-keepers. He had a wife but no children, + and was a middle-aged, thick-set, very dark man, powerful and + vigilant, a "tarrable" hater and persecutor of poachers, + feared and hated by them in turn, and his name was Harbutt. + </p> + <p> + It happened that one morning, when he had unbarred the front + door to go out, he found a great difficulty in opening it, + caused by a heavy object having been fastened to the + door-handle. It proved to be a basket or box, in which a + well-nourished, nice-looking boy baby was sleeping, well + wrapped up and covered with a cloth. On the cloth a scrap of + paper was pinned with the following lines written on it: + </p> + <p> + Take me in and treat me well,<br> + For in this house my father dwell. + </p> + <p> + Harbutt read the lines and didn't even smile at the grammar; + on the contrary, he appeared very much upset, and was still + standing holding the paper, staring stupidly at it, when his + wife came on the scene. "What be this?" she exclaimed, and + looked first at the paper, then at him, then at the rosy + child fast asleep in its cradle; and instantly, with a great + cry, she fell on it and snatched it up in her arms, and + holding it clasped to her bosom, began lavishing caresses and + endearing expressions on it, tears of rapture in her eyes! + Not one word of inquiry or bitter, jealous reproach—all + that part of her was swallowed up and annihilated in the joy + of a woman who had been denied a child of her own to love and + nourish and worship. And now one had come to her and it + mattered little how. Two or three days later the infant was + baptized at the village church with the quaint name of Moses + Found. + </p> + <p> + Caleb was a little surprised at my thinking it a laughable + name. It was to his mind a singularly appropriate one; he + assured me it was not the only case he knew of in which the + surname Found had been bestowed on a child of unknown + parentage, and he told me the story of one of the Founds who + had gone to Salisbury as a boy and worked and saved and + eventually become quite a prosperous and important person. + There was really nothing funny in it. + </p> + <p> + The story of Moses Found had been told him by his old mother; + she, he remarked significantly, had good cause to remember + it. She was herself a native of the village, born two or + three years later than the mysterious Moses; her father, John + Barter by name was a carpenter and lived in an old, thatched + house which still exists and is very familiar to me. He had + five sons; then, after an interval of some years, a daughter + was born, who in due time was to be Isaac's wife. When she + was a little girl her brothers were all grown up or on the + verge of manhood, and Moses, too, was a young man—"the + spit of his father" people said, meaning the + head-keeper—and he was now one of Harbutt's + under-keepers. + </p> + <p> + About this time some of the more ardent spirits in the + village, not satisfied with an occasional hunt when a deer + broke out and roamed over the downs, took to poaching them in + the woods. One night, a hunt having been arranged, one of the + most daring of the men secreted himself close to the keeper's + house, and having watched the keepers go in and the lights + put out, he actually succeeded in fastening up the doors from + the outside with screws and pieces of wood without creating + an alarm. He then met his confederates at an agreed spot and + the hunting began, during which one deer was chased to the + house and actually pulled down and killed on the lawn. + </p> + <p> + Meanwhile the inmates were in a state of great excitement; + the under-keepers feared that a force it would be dangerous + to oppose had taken possession of the woods, while Harbutt + raved and roared like a maddened wild beast in a cage, and + put forth all his strength to pull the doors open. Finally he + smashed a window and leaped out, gun in hand, and calling the + others to follow rushed into the wood. But he was too late; + the hunt was over and the poachers had made good their + escape, taking the carcasses of two or three deer they had + succeeded in killing. + </p> + <p> + The keeper was not to be fooled in the same way a second + time, and before very long he had his revenge. A fresh raid + was planned, and on this occasion two of the five brothers + were in it, and there were four more, the blacksmith of + Winterbourne Bishop, their best man, two famous shearers, + father and son, from a neighbouring village, and a young farm + labourer. + </p> + <p> + They knew very well that with the head-keeper in his present + frame of mind it was a risky affair, and they made a solemn + compact that if caught they would stand by one another to the + end. And caught they were, and on this occasion the keepers + were four. + </p> + <p> + At the very beginning the blacksmith, their ablest man and + virtual leader, was knocked down senseless with a blow on his + head with the butt end of a gun. Immediately on seeing this + the two famous shearers took to their heels and the young + labourer followed their example. The brothers were left but + refused to be taken, although Harbutt roared at them in his + bull's voice that he would shoot them unless they + surrendered. They made light of his threats and fought + against the four, and eventually were separated. By and by + the younger of the two was driven into a brambly thicket + where his opponents imagined that it would be impossible for + him to escape. But he was a youth of indomitable spirit, + strong and agile as a wild cat; and returning blow for blow + he succeeded in tearing himself from them, then after a + running fight through the darkest part of the wood for a + distance of two or three hundred yards they at length lost + him or gave him up and went back to assist Harbutt and Moses + against the other man. Left to himself he got out of the wood + and made his way back to the village. It was long past + midnight when he turned up at his father's cottage, a + pitiable object covered with mud and blood, hatless, his + clothes torn to shreds, his face and whole body covered with + bruises and bleeding wounds. + </p> + <p> + The old man was in a great state of distress about his other + son, and early in the morning went to examine the ground + where the fight had been. It was only too easily found; the + sod was trampled down and branches broken as though a score + of men had been engaged. Then he found his eldest son's cap, + and a little farther away a sleeve of his coat; shreds and + rags were numerous on the bramble bushes, and by and by he + came on a pool of blood. "They've kill 'n!" he cried in + despair, "they've killed my poor boy!" and straight to + Rollston House he went to inquire, and was met by Harbutt + himself, who came out limping, one boot on, the other foot + bound up with rags, one arm in a sling and a cloth tied round + his head. He was told that his son was alive and safe indoors + and that he would be taken to Salisbury later in the day. + "His clothes be all torn to pieces," added the keeper. "You + can just go home at once and git him others before the + constable comes to take him." + </p> + <p> + "You've tored them to pieces yourself and you can git him + others," retorted the old man in a rage. + </p> + <p> + "Very well," said the keeper. "But bide a moment—I've + something more to say to you. When your son comes out of jail + in a year or so you tell him from me that if he'll just step + up this way I'll give him five shillings and as much beer as + he likes to drink. I never see'd a better fighter!" + </p> + <p> + It was a great compliment to his son, but the old men was + troubled in his mind. "What dost mean, keeper, by a year or + so?" he asked. + </p> + <p> + "When I said that," returned the other, with a grin, "I was + just thinking what 'twould be he deserves to git." + </p> + <p> + "And you'd agot your deserts, by God," cried the angry + father, "if that boy of mine hadn't a-been left alone to + fight ye!" + </p> + <p> + Harbutt regarded him with a smile of gratified malice. + </p> + <p> + "You can go home now," he said. "If you'd see your son you'll + find'n in Salisbury jail. Maybe you'll be wanting new locks + on your doors; you can git they in Salisbury too—you've + no blacksmith in your village now. No, your boy weren't alone + and you know that damned well." + </p> + <p> + "I know naught about that," he returned, and started to walk + home with a heavy heart. Until now he had been clinging to + the hope that the other son had not been identified in the + dark wood. And now what could he do to save one of the two + from hateful imprisonment? The boy was not in a fit condition + to make his escape; he could hardly get across the room and + could not sit or lie down without groaning. He could only try + to hide him in the cottage and pray that they would not + discover him. The cottage was in the middle of the village + and had but little ground to it, but there was a small, + boarded-up cavity or cell at one end of an attic, and it + might be possible to save him by putting him in there. Here, + then, in a bed placed for him on the floor, his bruised son + was obliged to lie, in the close, dark hole, for some days. + </p> + <p> + One day, about a week later, when he was recovering from his + hurts, he crawled out of his box and climbed down the narrow + stairs to the ground floor to see the light and breathe a + better air for a short time, and while down he was tempted to + take a peep at the street through the small, latticed window. + But he quickly withdrew his head and by and by said to his + father, "I'm feared Moses has seen me. Just now when I was at + the window he came by and looked up and see'd me with my head + all tied up, and I'm feared he knew 'twas I." + </p> + <p> + After that they could only wait in fear and trembling, and on + the next day quite early there came a loud rap at the door, + and on its being opened by the old man the constable and two + keepers appeared standing before him. + </p> + <p> + "I've come to take your son," said the constable. + </p> + <p> + The old man stepped back without a word and took down his gun + from its place on the wall, then spoke: "It you've got a + search-warrant you may come in; if you haven't got 'n I'll + blow the brains out of the first man that puts a foot inside + my door." + </p> + <p> + They hesitated a few moments then silently withdrew. After + consulting together the constable went off to the nearest + magistrate, leaving the two keepers to keep watch on the + house: Moses Found was one of them. Later in the day the + constable returned armed with a warrant and was thereupon + admitted, with the result that the poor youth was soon + discovered in his hiding-place and carried off. And that was + the last he saw of his home, his young sister crying bitterly + and his old father white and trembling with grief and + impotent rage. + </p> + <p> + A month or two later the two brothers were tried and + sentenced each to six months' imprisonment. They never came + home. On their release they went to Woolwich, where men were + wanted and the pay was good. And by and by the accounts they + sent home induced first one then the other brother to go and + join them, and the poor old father, who had been very proud + of his five sons, was left alone with his young + daughter—Isaac's destined wife. + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p><a name="ch08"><!--Marker--></a> + <h2> + CHAPTER VIII + </h2> + <h3> + SHEPHERDS AND POACHING + </h3> + <blockquote> + General remarks on poaching—Farmer, shepherd, and + dog—A sheep-dog that would not hunt—Taking a + partridge from a hawk—Old Gaarge and Young + Gaarge—Partridge-poaching—The shepherd robbed of + his rabbits—Wisdom of Shepherd + Gathergood—Hare-trapping on the down—Hare-taking + with a crook + </blockquote> + <p> + When Caleb was at length free from his father's tutelage, and + as an under-shepherd practically independent, he did not + follow Isaac's strict example with regard to wild animals, + good for the pot, which came by chance in his way; he even + allowed himself to go a little out of his way on occasion to + get them. + </p> + <p> + We know that about this matter the law of the land does not + square with the moral law as it is written in the heart of + the peasant. A wounded partridge or other bird which he finds + in his walks abroad or which comes by chance to him is his by + a natural right, and he will take and eat or dispose of it + without scruple. With rabbits he is very free—he + doesn't wait to find a distressed one with a stoat on its + track—stoats are not sufficiently abundant; and a hare, + too, may be picked up at any moment; only in this case he + must be very sure that no one is looking. Knowing the law, + and being perhaps a respectable, religious person, he is + anxious to abstain from all appearance of evil. This taking a + hare or rabbit or wounded partridge is in his mind a very + different thing from systematic poaching; but he is aware + that to the classes above him it is not so—the law has + made them one. It is a hard, arbitrary, unnatural law, made + by and for them, his betters, and outwardly he must conform + to it. Thus you will find the best of men among the shepherds + and labourers freely helping themselves to any wild creature + that falls in their way, yet sharing the game-preserver's + hatred of the real poacher. The village poacher as a rule is + an idle, dissolute fellow, and the sober, industrious, + righteous shepherd or ploughman or carter does not like to be + put on a level with such a person. But there is no escape + from the hard and fast rule in such things, and however open + and truthful he may be in everything else, in this one matter + he is obliged to practise a certain amount of deception. Here + is a case to serve as an illustration; I have only just heard + it, after putting together the material I had collected for + this chapter, in conversation with an old shepherd friend of + mine. + </p> + <p> + He is a fine old man who has followed a flock these fifty + years, and will, I have no doubt, carry his crook for yet + another ten. Not only is he a "good shepherd," in the sense + in which Caleb uses that phrase, with a more intimate + knowledge of sheep and all the ailments they are subject to + than I have found in any other, but he is also a truly + religious man, one that "walks with God." He told me this + story of a sheep-dog he owned when head-shepherd on a large + farm on the Dorsetshire border with a master whose chief + delight in life was in coursing hares. They abounded on his + land, and he naturally wanted the men employed on the farm to + regard them as sacred animals. One day he came out to the + shepherd to complain that some one had seen his dog hunting a + hare. + </p> + <p> + The shepherd indignantly asked who had said such a thing. + </p> + <p> + "Never mind about that," said the farmer. "Is it true?" + </p> + <p> + "It is a lie," said the shepherd. "My dog never hunts a hare + or anything else. 'Tis my belief the one that said that has + got a dog himself that hunts the hares and he wants to put + the blame on some one else." + </p> + <p> + "May be so," said the farmer, unconvinced. + </p> + <p> + Just then a hare made its appearance, coming across the field + directly towards them, and either because they never moved or + it did not smell them it came on and on, stopping at + intervals to sit for a minute or so on its haunches, then on + again until it was within forty yards of where they were + standing. The farmer watched it approach and at the same time + kept an eye on the dog sitting at their feet and watching the + hare too, very steadily. "Now, shepherd," said the farmer, + "don't you say one word to the dog and I'll see for myself." + Not a word did he say, and the hare came and sat for some + seconds near them, then limped away out of sight, and the dog + made not the slightest movement. "That's all right," said the + farmer, well pleased. "I know now 'twas a lie I heard about + your dog. I've seen for myself and I'll just keep a sharp eye + on the man that told me." + </p> + <p> + My comment on this story was that the farmer had displayed an + almost incredible ignorance of a sheepdog—and a + shepherd. "How would it have been if you had said, 'Catch + him, Bob,' or whatever his name was?" I asked. + </p> + <p> + He looked at me with a twinkle in his eye and replied, "I do + b'lieve he'd ha' got 'n, but he'd never move till I told 'n." + </p> + <p> + It comes to this: the shepherd refuses to believe that by + taking a hare he is robbing any man of his property, and if + he is obliged to tell a lie to save himself from the + consequences he does not consider that it is a lie. + </p> + <p> + When he understood that I was on his side in this question, + he told me about a good sheep-dog he once possessed which he + had to get rid of because he would not take a hare! + </p> + <p> + A dog when broken is made to distinguish between the things + he must and must not do. He is "feelingly persuaded" by kind + words and caresses in one case and hard words and hard blows + in the other. He learns that if he hunts hares and rabbits it + will be very bad for him, and in due time, after some + suffering, he is able to overcome this strongest instinct of + a dog. He acquires an artificial conscience. Then, when his + education is finished, he must be made to understand that it + is not quite finished after all—that he must partially + unlearn one of the saddest of the lessons instilled in him. + He must hunt a hare or rabbit when told by his master to do + so. It is a compact between man and dog. Thus, they have got + a law which the dog has sworn to obey; but the man who made + it is above the law and can when he thinks proper command his + servant to break it. The dog, as a rule, takes it all in very + readily and often allows himself more liberty than his master + gives him; the most highly accomplished animal is one that, + like my shepherd's dog in the former instance, will not stir + till he is told. In the other case the poor brute could not + rise to the position; it was too complex for him, and when + ordered to catch a rabbit he could only put his tail between + his legs and look in a puzzled way at his master. "Why do you + tell me to do a thing for which I shall be thrashed?" + </p> + <p> + It was only after Caleb had known me some time, when we were + fast friends, that he talked with perfect freedom of these + things and told me of his own small, illicit takings without + excuse or explanation. + </p> + <p> + One day he saw a sparrowhawk dash down upon a running + partridge and struggle with it on the ground. It was in a + grass field, divided from the one he was walking in by a + large, unkept hedge without a gap in it to let him through. + Presently the hawk rose up with the partridge still violently + struggling in its talons, and flew over the hedge to Caleb's + side, but was no sooner over than it came down again and the + struggle went on once more on the ground. On Caleb running to + the spot the hawk flew off, leaving his prey behind. He had + grasped it in its sides, driving his sharp claws well in, and + the partridge, though unable to fly, was still alive. The + shepherd killed it and put it in his pocket, and enjoyed it + very much when he came to eat it. + </p> + <p> + From this case, a most innocent form of poaching, he went on + to relate how he had once been able to deprive a cunning + poacher and bad man, a human sparrowhawk, of his quarry. + </p> + <p> + There were two persons in the village, father and son, he + very heartily detested, known respectively as Old Gaarge and + Young Gaarge, inveterate poachers both. They were worse than + the real reprobate who haunted the public-house and did no + work and was not ashamed of his evil ways, for these two were + hypocrites and were outwardly sober, righteous men, who kept + themselves a little apart from their neighbours and were very + severe in their condemnation of other people's faults. + </p> + <p> + One Sunday morning Caleb was on his way to his ewes folded at + a distance from the village, walking by a hedgerow at the + foot of the down, when he heard a shot fired some way ahead, + and after a minute or two a second shot. This greatly excited + his curiosity and caused him to keep a sharp look-out in the + direction the sounds had come from, and by and by he caught + sight of a man walking towards him. It was Old Gaarge in his + long smock-frock, proceeding in a leisurely way towards the + village, but catching sight of the shepherd he turned aside + through a gap in the hedge and went off in another direction + to avoid meeting him. No doubt, thought Caleb, he has got his + gun in two pieces hidden under his smock. He went on until he + came to a small field of oats which had grown badly and had + only been half reaped, and here he discovered that Old Gaarge + had been lying in hiding to shoot at the partridges that came + to feed. He had been screened from the sight of the birds by + a couple of hurdles and some straw, and there were feathers + of the birds he had shot scattered about. He had finished his + Sunday morning's sport and was going back, a little too late + on this occasion as it turned out. + </p> + <p> + Caleb went on to his flock, but before getting to it his dog + discovered a dead partridge in the hedge; it had flown that + far and then dropped, and there was fresh blood on its + feathers. He put it in his pocket and carried it about most + of the day while with his sheep on the down. Late in the + afternoon he spied two magpies pecking at something out in + the middle of a field and went to see what they had found. It + was a second partridge which Old Gaarge had shot in the + morning and had lost, the bird having flown to some distance + before dropping. The magpies had probably found it already + dead, as it was cold; they had begun tearing the skin at the + neck and had opened it down to the breast-bone. Caleb took + this bird, too, and by and by, sitting down to examine it, he + thought he would try to mend the torn skin with the needle + and thread he always carried inside his cap. He succeeded in + stitching it neatly up, and putting back the feathers in + their place the rent was quite concealed. That evening he + took the two birds to a man in the village who made a + livelihood by collecting bones, rags, and things of that + kind; the man took the birds in his hand, held them up, felt + their weight, examined them carefully, and pronounced them to + be two good, fat birds, and agreed to pay two shillings for + them. + </p> + <p> + Such a man may be found in most villages; he calls himself a + "general dealer," and keeps a trap and pony—in some + cases he keeps the ale-house—and is a useful member of + the small, rural community—a sort of human + carrion-crow. + </p> + <p> + The two shillings were very welcome, but more than the money + was the pleasing thought that he had got the bird shot by the + hypocritical old poacher for his own profit. Caleb had good + cause to hate him. He, Caleb, was one of the shepherds who + had his master's permission to take rabbits on the land, and + having found his snares broken on many occasions he came to + the conclusion that they were visited in the night time by + some very cunning person who kept a watch on his movements. + One evening he set five snares in a turnip field and went + just before daylight next morning in a dense fog to visit + them. Every one was broken! He had just started on his way + back, feeling angry and much puzzled at such a thing, when + the fog all at once passed away and revealed the figures of + two men walking hurriedly off over the down. They were at a + considerable distance, but the light was now strong enough to + enable him to identify Old Gaarge and Young Gaarge. In a few + moments they vanished over the brow. Caleb was mad at being + deprived of his rabbits in this mean way, but pleased at the + same time in having discovered who the culprits were; but + what to do about it he did not know. + </p> + <p> + On the following day he was with his flock on the down and + found himself near another shepherd, also with his sheep, one + he knew very well, a quiet but knowing old man named Joseph + Gathergood. He was known to be a skilful rabbit-catcher, and + Caleb thought he would go over to him and tell him about how + he was being tricked by the two Gaarges and ask him what to + do in the matter. + </p> + <p> + The old man was very friendly and at once told him what to + do. "Don't you set no more snares by the hedges and in the + turmots," he said. "Set them out on the open down where no + one would go after rabbits and they'll not find the snares." + And this was how it had to be done. First he was to scrape + the ground with the heel of his boot until the fresh earth + could be seen through the broken turf; then he was to + sprinkle a little rabbit scent on the scraped spot, and plant + his snare. The scent and smell of the fresh earth combined + would draw the rabbits to the spot; they would go there to + scratch and would inevitably get caught if the snare was + properly placed. + </p> + <p> + Caleb tried this plan with one snare, and on the following + morning found that he had a rabbit. He set it again that + evening, then again, until he had caught five rabbits on five + consecutive nights, all with the same snare. That convinced + him that he had been taught a valuable lesson and that old + Gathergood was a very wise man about rabbits; and he was very + happy to think that he had got the better of his two sneaking + enemies. + </p> + <p> + But Shepherd Gathergood was just as wise about hares, and, as + in the other case, he took them out on the down in the most + open places. His success was due to his knowledge of the + hare's taste for blackthorn twigs. He would take a good, + strong blackthorn stem or shoot with twigs on it, and stick + it firmly down in the middle of a large grass field or on the + open down, and place the steel trap tied to the stick at a + distance of a foot or so from it, the trap concealed under + grass or moss and dead leaves. The smell of the blackthorn + would draw the hare to the spot, and he would move round and + round nibbling the twigs until caught. + </p> + <p> + Caleb never tried this plan, but was convinced that + Gathergood was right about it. + </p> + <p> + He told me of another shepherd who was clever at taking hares + in another way, and who was often chaffed by his + acquaintances on account of the extraordinary length of his + shepherd's crook. It was like a lance or pole, being twice + the usual length. But he had a use for it. This shepherd used + to make hares' forms on the downs in all suitable places, + forming them so cunningly that no one seeing them by chance + would have believed they were the work of human hands. The + hares certainly made use of them. When out with his flock he + would visit these forms, walking quietly past them at a + distance of twenty to thirty feet, his dog following at his + heels. On catching sight of a hare crouching in a form he + would drop a word, and the dog would instantly stand still + and remain fixed and motionless, while the shepherd went on + but in a circle so as gradually to approach the form. + Meanwhile the hare would keep his eyes fixed on the dog, + paying no attention to the man, until by and by the long + staff would be swung round and a blow descend on the poor, + silly head from the opposite side, and if the blow was not + powerful enough to stun or disable the hare, the dog would + have it before it got many yards from the cosy nest prepared + for its destruction. + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p><a name="ch09"><!--Marker--></a> + <h2> + CHAPTER IX + </h2> + <h3> + THE SHEPHERD ON FOXES + </h3> + <blockquote> + A fox-trapping shepherd—Gamekeepers and foxes—Fox + and stoat—A gamekeeper off his guard—Pheasants + and foxes—Caleb kills a fox—A fox-hunting + sheep-dog—Two varieties of foxes—Rabbits playing + with little foxes—How to expel foxes—A playful + spirit in the fox—Fox-hunting a danger to sheep + </blockquote> + <p> + Caleb related that his friend Shepherd Gathergood was a great + fox-killer and, as with hares, he took them in a way of his + own. He said that the fox will always go to a heap of ashes + in any open place, and his plan was to place a steel trap + concealed among the ashes, made fast to a stick about three + feet high, firmly planted in the middle of the heap, with a + piece of strong-smelling cheese tied to the top. The two + attractions of an ash-heap and the smell of strong cheese was + more than any fox could resist. When he caught a fox he + killed and buried it on the down and said "nothing to nobody" + about it. He killed them to protect himself from their + depredations; foxes, like Old Gaarge and his son in Caleb's + case, went round at night to rob him of the rabbits he took + in his snares. + </p> + <p> + Caleb never blamed him for this; on the contrary, he greatly + admired him for his courage, seeing that if it had been found + out he would have been a marked man. It was perhaps + intelligence or cunning rather than courage; he did not + believe that he would be found out, and he never was; he told + Caleb of these things because he was sure of his man. Those + who were interested in the hunt never suspected him, and as + to gamekeepers, they hardly counted. He was helping them; no + one hates a fox more than they do. The farmer gets + compensation for damage, and the hen-wife is paid for her + stolen chickens by the hunt, The keeper is required to look + after the game, and at the same time to spare his chief + enemy, the fox. Indeed, the keeper's state of mind with + regard to foxes has always been a source of amusement to me, + and by long practice I am able to talk to him on that + delicate subject in a way to make him uncomfortable and + self-contradictory. There are various, quite innocent + questions which the student of wild life may put to a keeper + about foxes which have a disturbing effect on his brain. How + to expel foxes from a covert, for example; and here is + another: Is it true that the fox listens for the distressed + cries of a rabbit pursued by a stoat and that he will deprive + the stoat of his captive? Perhaps; Yes; No, I don't think so, + because one hunts by night, the other by day, he will answer, + but you see that the question troubles him. One keeper, off + his guard, promptly answered, "I've no doubt of it; I can + always bring a fox to me by imitating the cry of a rabbit + hunted by a stoat." But he did not say what his object was in + attracting the fox. + </p> + <p> + I say that the keeper was off his guard in this instance, + because the fiction that foxes were preserved on the estate + was kept up, though as a fact they were systematically + destroyed by the keepers. As the pheasant-breeding craze + appears to increase rather than diminish, notwithstanding the + disastrous effect it has had in alienating the people from + their lords and masters, the conflict of interest between + fox-hunter and pheasant-breeder will tend to become more and + more acute, and the probable end will be that fox-hunting + will have to go. A melancholy outlook to those who love the + country and old country sports, and who do not regard + pheasant-shooting as now followed as sport at all. It is a + delusion of the landlords that the country people think most + highly of the great pheasant-preserver who has two or three + big shoots in a season, during which vast numbers of birds + are slaughtered—every bird "costing a guinea," as the + saying is. It brings money into the country, he or his + apologist tells you, and provides employment for the village + poor in October and November, when there is little doing. He + does not know the truth of the matter. A certain number of + the poorer people of the village are employed as beaters for + the big shoots at a shilling a day or so, and occasionally a + labourer, going to or from his work, finds a pheasant's nest + and informs the keeper and receives some slight reward. If he + "keeps his eyes open" and shows himself anxious at all times + to serve the keeper he will sometimes get a rabbit for his + Sunday dinner. + </p> + <p> + This is not a sufficient return for the freedom to walk on + the land and in woods, which the villager possessed formerly, + even in his worst days of his oppression, a liberty which has + now been taken from him. The keeper is there now to prevent + him; he was there before, and from of old, but the pheasant + was not yet a sacred bird, and it didn't matter that a man + walked on the turf or picked up a few fallen sticks in a + wood. The keeper is there to tell him to keep to the road and + sometimes to ask him, even when he is on the road, what is he + looking over the hedge for. He slinks obediently away; he is + only a poor labourer with his living to get, and he cannot + afford to offend the man who stands between him and the lord + and the lord's tenant. And he is inarticulate; but the + insolence and injustice rankle in his heart, for he is not + altogether a helot in soul; and the result is that the + sedition-mongers, the Socialists, the furious denouncers of + all landlords, who are now quartering the country, and whose + vans I meet in the remotest villages, are listened to, and + their words—wild and whirling words they may + be—are sinking into the hearts of the agricultural + labourers of the new generation. + </p> + <p> + To return to foxes and gamekeepers. There are other estates + where the fiction of fox-preserving is kept up no longer, + where it is notorious that the landlord is devoted + exclusively to the gun and to pheasant-breeding. On one of + the big estates I am familiar with in Wiltshire the keepers + openly say they will not suffer a fox, and every villager + knows it and will give information of a fox to the keepers, + and looks to be rewarded with a rabbit. All this is + undoubtedly known to the lord of the manor; his servants are + only carrying out his own wishes, although he still + subscribes to the hunt and occasionally attends the meet. The + entire hunt may unite in cursing him, but they must do so + below their breath; it would have a disastrous effect to + spread it abroad that he is a persecutor of foxes. + </p> + <p> + Caleb disliked foxes, too, but not to the extent of killing + them. He did once actually kill one, when a young + under-shepherd, but it was accident rather than intention. + </p> + <p> + One day he found a small gap in a hedge, which had been made + or was being used by a hare, and, thinking to take it, he set + a trap at the spot, tying it securely to a root and covering + it over with dead leaves. On going to the place the next + morning he could see nothing until his feet were on the very + edge of the ditch, when with startling suddenness a big dog + fox sprang up at him with a savage snarl. It was caught by a + hind-leg, and had been lying concealed among the dead leaves + close under the bank. Caleb, angered at finding a fox when he + had looked for a hare, and at the attack the creature had + made on him, dealt it a blow on the head with his heavy + stick—just one blow given on the impulse of the moment, + but it killed the fox! He felt very bad at what he had done + and began to think of consequences. He took it from the trap + and hid it away under the dead leaves beneath the hedge some + yards from the gap, and then went to his work. During the day + one of the farm hands went out to speak to him. He was a + small, quiet old man, a discreet friend, and Caleb confided + to him what he had done. "Leave it to me," said his old + friend, and went back to the farm. In the afternoon Caleb was + standing on the top of the down looking towards the village, + when he spied at a great distance the old man coming out to + the hills, and by and by he could make out that he had a sack + on his back and a spade in his hand. When half-way up the + side of the hill he put his burden down and set to work + digging a deep pit. Into this he put the dead fox, and threw + in and trod down the earth, then carefully put back the turf + in its place, then, his task done, shouldered the spade and + departed. Caleb felt greatly relieved, for now the fox was + buried out on the downs, and no one would ever know that he + had wickedly killed it. + </p> + <p> + Subsequently he had other foxes caught in traps set for + hares, but was always able to release them. About one he had + the following story. The dog he had at that time, named Monk, + hated foxes as Jack hated adders, and would hunt them + savagely whenever he got a chance. One morning Caleb visited + a trap he had set in a gap in a hedge and found a fox in it. + The fox jumped up, snarling and displaying his teeth, ready + to fight for dear life, and it was hard to restrain Monk from + flying at him. So excited was he that only when his master + threatened him with his crook did he draw back and, sitting + on his haunches, left him to deal with the difficult business + in his own way. The difficulty was to open the steel trap + without putting himself in the way of a bite from those + "tarrable sharp teeth." After a good deal of manoeuvring he + managed to set the butt end of his crook on the handle of the + gin, and forcing it down until the iron teeth relaxed their + grip, the fox pulled his foot out, and darting away along the + hedge side vanished into the adjoining copse. Away went Monk + after him, in spite of his master's angry commands to him to + come back, and fox and dog disappeared almost together among + the trees. Sounds of yelping and of crashing through the + undergrowth came back fainter and fainter, and then there was + silence. Caleb waited at the spot full twenty minutes before + the disobedient dog came back, looking very pleased. He had + probably succeeded in overtaking and killing his enemy. + </p> + <p> + About that same Monk a sad story will have to be told in + another chapter. + </p> + <p> + When speaking of foxes Caleb always maintained that in his + part of the country there were two sorts: one small and very + red, the larger one of a lighter colour with some grey in it. + And it is possible that the hill foxes differed somewhat in + size and colour from those of the lower country. He related + that one year two vixens littered at one spot, a deep bottom + among the downs, so near together that when the cubs were big + enough to come out they mixed and played in company; the + vixens happened to be of the different sorts, and the + difference in colour appeared in the little ones as well. + </p> + <p> + Caleb was so taken with the pretty sight of all these little + foxes, neighbours and playmates, that he went evening after + evening to sit for an hour or longer watching them. One thing + he witnessed which will perhaps be disbelieved by those who + have not closely observed animals for themselves, and who + still hold to the fable that all wild creatures are born with + an inherited and instinctive knowledge and dread of their + enemies. Rabbits swarmed at that spot, and he observed that + when the old foxes were not about the young, half-grown + rabbits would freely mix and play with the little foxes. He + was so surprised at this, never having heard of such a thing, + that he told his master of it, and the farmer went with him + on a moonlight night and the two sat for a long time + together, and saw rabbits and foxes playing, pursuing one + another round and round, the rabbits when pursued often + turning very suddenly and jumping clean over their pursuer. + </p> + <p> + The rabbits at this place belonged to the tenant, and the + farmer, after enjoying the sight of the little ones playing + together, determined to get rid of the foxes in the usual way + by exploding a small quantity of gunpowder in the burrows. + Four old foxes with nine cubs were too many for him to have. + The powder was duly burned, and the very next day the foxes + had vanished. + </p> + <p> + In Berkshire I once met with that rare being, an intelligent + gamekeeper who took an interest in wild animals and knew from + observation a great deal about their habits. During an + after-supper talk, kept up till past midnight, we discussed + the subject of strange, erratic actions in animals, which in + some cases appear contrary to their own natures. He gave an + instance of such behaviour in a fox that had its earth at a + spot on the border of a wood where rabbits were abundant. One + evening he was at this spot, standing among the trees and + watching a number of rabbits feeding and gambolling on the + green turf, when the fox came trotting by and the rabbits + paid no attention. Suddenly he stopped and made a dart at a + rabbit; the rabbit ran from him a distance of twenty to + thirty yards, then suddenly turning round went for the fox + and chased it back some distance, after which the fox again + chased the rabbit, and so they went on, turn and turn about, + half a dozen times. It was evident, he said, that the fox had + no wish to catch and kill a rabbit, that it was nothing but + play on his part, and that the rabbits responded in the same + spirit, knowing that there was nothing to fear. + </p> + <p> + Another instance of this playful spirit of the fox with an + enemy, which I heard recently, is of a gentleman who was out + with his dog, a fox-terrier, for an evening walk in some + woods near his house. On his way back he discovered on coming + out of the woods that a fox was following him, at a distance + of about forty yards. When he stood still the fox sat down + and watched the dog. The dog appeared indifferent to its + presence until his master ordered him to go for the fox, + whereupon he charged him and drove him back to the edge of + the wood, but at that point the fox turned and chased the dog + right back to its master, then once more sat down and + appeared very much at his ease. Again the dog was encouraged + to go for him and hunted him again back to the wood, and was + then in turn chased back to its master, After several + repetitions of this performance, the gentleman went home, the + fox still following, and on going in closed the gate behind + him, leaving the fox outside, sitting in the road as if + waiting for him to come out again to have some more fun. + </p> + <p> + This incident serves to remind me of an experience I had one + evening in King's Copse, an immense wood of oak and pine in + the New Forest near Exbury. It was growing dark when I heard + on or close to the ground, some twenty to thirty yards before + me, a low, wailing cry, resembling the hunger-cry of the + young, long-eared owl. I began cautiously advancing, trying + to see it, but as I advanced the cry receded, as if the bird + was flitting from me. Now, just after I had begun following + the sound, a fox uttered his sudden, startlingly loud scream + about forty yards away on my right hand, and the next moment + a second fox screamed on my left, and from that time I was + accompanied, or shadowed, by the two foxes, always keeping + abreast of me, always at the same distance, one screaming and + the other replying about every half-minute. The distressful + bird-sound ceased, and I turned and went off in another + direction, to get out of the wood on the side nearest the + place where I was staying, the foxes keeping with me until I + was out. + </p> + <p> + What moved them to act in such a way is a mystery, but it was + perhaps play to them. + </p> + <p> + Another curious instance of foxes playing was related to me + by a gentleman at the little village of Inkpen, near the + Beacon, in Berkshire. He told me that when it happened, a + good many years ago, he sent an account of it to the "Field." + His gamekeeper took him one day "to see a strange thing," to + a spot in the woods where a fox had a litter of four cubs, + near a long, smooth, green slope. A little distance from the + edge of the slope three round swedes were lying on the turf. + "How do you think these swedes came here?" said the keeper, + and then proceeded to say that the old fox must have brought + them there from the field a long distance away, for her cubs + to play with. He had watched them of an evening, and wanted + his master to come and see too. Accordingly they went in the + evening, and hiding themselves among the bushes near waited + till the young foxes came out and began rolling the swedes + about and jumping at and tumbling over them. By and by one + rolled down the slope, and the young foxes went after it all + the way down, and then, when they had worried it + sufficiently, they returned to the top and played with + another swede until that was rolled down, then with the third + one in the same way. Every morning, the keeper said, the + swedes were found back on top of the ground, and he had no + doubt that they were taken up by the old fox again and left + there for her cubs to play with. + </p> + <p> + Caleb was not so eager after rabbits as Shepherd Gathergood, + but he disliked the fox for another reason. He considered + that the hunted fox was a great danger to sheep when the ewes + were heavy with lambs and when the chase brought the animal + near if not right into the flock. He had one dreadful memory + of a hunted fox trying to lose itself in his flock of + heavy-sided ewes and the hounds following it and driving the + poor sheep mad with terror. The result was that a large + number of lambs were cast before their time and many others + were poor, sickly things; many of the sheep also suffered in + health. He had no extra money from the lambs that year. He + received but a shilling (half a crown is often paid now) for + every lamb above the number of ewes, and as a rule received + from three to six pounds a year from this source. + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p><a name="ch10"><!--Marker--></a> + <h2> + CHAPTER X + </h2> + <h3> + BIRD LIFE ON THE DOWNS + </h3> + <blockquote> + Great bustard—Stone curlew—Big hawks—Former + abundance of the raven—Dogs fed on carrion—Ravens + fighting—Ravens' breeding-places in Wilts—Great + Ridge Wood ravens—Field-fare breeding in + Wilts—Pewit—Mistle-thrush—Magpie and + turtledove—Gamekeepers and magpies—Rooks and + farmers—Starling, the shepherd's favourite + bird—Sparrowhawk and "brown thrush" + </blockquote> + <p> + Wiltshire, like other places in England, has long been + deprived of its most interesting birds—the species that + were best worth preserving. Its great bustard, once our + greatest bird—even greater than the golden and sea + eagles and the "giant crane" with its "trumpet sound" once + heard in the land—is now but a memory. Or a place name: + Bustard Inn, no longer an inn, is well known to the many + thousands who now go to the mimic wars on Salisbury Plain; + and there is a Trappist monastery in a village on the + southernmost border of the county, which was once called, and + is still known to old men as, "Bustard Farm." All that Caleb + Bawcombe knew of this grandest bird is what his father had + told him; and Isaac knew of it only from hearsay, although it + was still met with in South Wilts when he was a young man. + </p> + <p> + The stone curlew, our little bustard with the long wings, + big, yellow eyes, and wild voice, still frequents the + uncultivated downs, unhappily in diminishing numbers. For the + private collector's desire to possess British-taken birds' + eggs does not diminish; I doubt if more than one clutch in + ten escapes the searching eyes of the poor shepherds and + labourers who are hired to supply the cabinets. One pair + haunted a flinty spot at Winterbourne Bishop until a year or + two ago; at other points a few miles away I watched other + pairs during the summer of 1909, but in every instance their + eggs were taken. + </p> + <p> + The larger hawks and the raven, which bred in all the woods + and forests of Wiltshire, have, of course, been extirpated by + the gamekeepers. The biggest forest in the county now affords + no refuge to any hawk above the size of a kestrel. Savernake + is extensive enough, one would imagine, for condors to hide + in, but it is not so. A few years ago a buzzard made its + appearance there—just a common buzzard, and the entire + surrounding population went mad with excitement about it, and + every man who possessed a gun flew to the forest to join in + the hunt until the wretched bird, after being blazed at for + two or three days, was brought down. I heard of another case + at Fonthill Abbey. Nobody could say what this wandering hawk + was—it was very big, blue above with a white breast + barred with black—a "tarrable" fierce-looking bird with + fierce, yellow eyes. All the gamekeepers and several other + men with guns were in hot pursuit of it for several days, + until some one fatally wounded it, but it could not be found + where it was supposed to have fallen. A fortnight later its + carcass was discovered by an old shepherd, who told me the + story. It was not in a fit state to be preserved, but he + described it to me, and I have no doubt that it was a + goshawk. + </p> + <p> + The raven survived longer, and the Shepherd Bawcombe talks + about its abundance when he was a boy, seventy or more years + ago. His way of accounting for its numbers at that time and + its subsequent, somewhat rapid disappearance greatly + interested me. + </p> + <p> + We have seen his account of deer-stealing, by the villagers + in those brave, old, starvation days when Lord Rivers owned + the deer and hunting rights over a large part of Wiltshire, + extending from Cranborne Chase to Salisbury, and when even so + righteous a man as Isaac Bawcombe was tempted by hunger to + take an occasional deer, discovered out of bounds. At that + time, Caleb said, a good many dogs used for hunting the deer + were kept a few miles from Winterbourne Bishop and were fed + by the keepers in a very primitive manner. Old, worn-out + horses were bought and slaughtered for the dogs. A horse + would be killed and stripped of his hide somewhere away in + the woods, and left for the hounds to batten on its flesh, + tearing at and fighting over it like so many jackals. When + only partially consumed the carcass would become putrid; then + another horse would be killed and skinned at another spot + perhaps a mile away, and the pack would start feeding afresh + there. The result of so much carrion lying about was that + ravens were attracted in numbers to the place and were so + numerous as to be seen in scores together. Later, when the + deer-hunting sport declined in the neighbourhood, and dogs + were no longer fed on carrion, the birds decreased year by + year, and when Caleb was a boy of nine or ten their former + great abundance was but a memory. But he remembers that they + were still fairly common, and he had much to say about the + old belief that the raven "smells death," and when seen + hovering over a flock, uttering its croak, it is a sure sign + that a sheep is in a bad way and will shortly die. + </p> + <p> + One of his recollections of the bird may be given here. It + was one of those things seen in boyhood which had very deeply + impressed him. One fine day he was on the down with an elder + brother, when they heard the familiar croak and spied three + birds at a distance engaged in a fight in the air. Two of the + birds were in pursuit of the third, and rose alternately to + rush upon and strike at their victim from above. They were + coming down from a considerable height, and at last were + directly over the boys, not more than forty or fifty feet + from the ground; and the youngsters were amazed at their + fury, the loud, rushing sound of their wings, as of a + torrent, and of their deep, hoarse croaks and savage, barking + cries. Then they began to rise again, the hunted bird trying + to keep above his enemies, they in their turn striving to + rise higher still so as to rush down upon him from overhead; + and in this way they towered higher and higher, their barking + cries coming fainter and fainter back to earth, until the + boys, not to lose sight of them, cast themselves down flat on + their backs, and, continuing to gaze up, saw them at last no + bigger than three "leetle blackbirds." Then they vanished; + but the boys, still lying on their backs, kept their eyes + fixed on the same spot, and by and by first one black speck + reappeared, then a second, and they soon saw that two birds + were swiftly coming down to earth. They fell swiftly and + silently, and finally pitched upon the down not more than a + couple of hundred yards from the boys. The hunted bird had + evidently succeeded in throwing them off and escaping. + Probably it was one of their own young, for the ravens' habit + is when their young are fully grown to hunt them out of the + neighbourhood, or, when they cannot drive them off, to kill + them. + </p> + <p> + There is no doubt that the carrion did attract ravens in + numbers to this part of Wiltshire, but it is a fact that up + to that date—about 1830—the bird had many + well-known, old breeding-places in the county. The Rev. A. C. + Smith, in his "Birds of Wiltshire," names twenty-three + breeding-places, no fewer than nine of them on Salisbury + Plain; but at the date of the publication of his work, 1887, + only three of all these nesting-places were still in use: + South Tidworth, Wilton Park, and Compton Park, Compton + Chamberlain. Doubtless there were other ancient + breeding-places which the author had not heard of: one was at + the Great Ridge Wood, overlooking the Wylye valley, where + ravens bred down to about thirty-five or forty years ago. I + have found many old men in that neighbourhood who remember + the birds, and they tell that the raven tree was a great oak + which was cut down about sixty years ago, after which the + birds built their nest in another tree not far away. A London + friend of mine, who was born in the neighbourhood of the + Great Ridge Wood, remembers the ravens as one of the common + sights of the place when he was a boy. He tells of an unlucky + farmer in those parts whose sheep fell sick and died in + numbers, year after year, bringing him down to the brink of + ruin, and how his old head-shepherd would say, solemnly + shaking his head, "'Tis not strange—master, he shot a + raven." + </p> + <p> + There was no ravens' breeding-place very near Winterbourne + Bishop. Caleb had "never heared tell of a nestie"; but he had + once seen the nest of another species which is supposed never + to breed in this country. He was a small boy at the time, + when one day an old shepherd of the place going out from the + village saw Caleb, and calling to him said, "You're the boy + that likes birds; if you'll come with me, I'll show 'ee what + no man ever seed afore"; and Caleb, fired with curiosity, + followed him away to a distance from home, out from the + downs, into the woods and to a place where he had never been, + where there were bracken and heath with birch and thorn-trees + scattered about. On cautiously approaching a clump of birches + they saw a big, thrush-like bird fly out of a large nest + about ten feet from the ground, and settle on a tree close + by, where it was joined by its mate. The old man pointed out + that it was a felt or fieldfare, a thrush nearly as big as + the mistle-thrush but different in colour, and he said that + it was a bird that came to England in flocks in winter from + no man knows where, far off in the north, and always went + away before breeding-time. This was the only felt he had ever + seen breeding in this country, and he "didn't believe that no + man had ever seed such a thing before." He would not climb + the tree to see the eggs, or even go very near it, for fear + of disturbing the birds. + </p> + <p> + This man, Caleb said, was a great one for birds: he knew them + all, but seldom said anything about them; he watched and + found out a good deal about them just for his private + pleasure. + </p> + <p> + The characteristic species of this part of the down country, + comprising the parish of Winterbourne Bishop, are the pewit, + magpie, turtledove, mistle-thrush, and starling. The pewit is + universal on the hills, but will inevitably be driven away + from all that portion of Salisbury Plain used for military + purposes. The mistle-thrush becomes common in summer after + its early breeding season is ended, when the birds in small + flocks resort to the downs, where they continue until cold + weather drives them away to the shelter of the wooded, low + country. + </p> + <p> + In this neighbourhood there are thickets of thorn, holly, + bramble, and birch growing over hundreds of acres of down, + and here the hill-magpie, as it is called, has its chief + breeding-ground, and is so common that you can always get a + sight of at least twenty birds in an afternoon's walk. Here, + too, is the metropolis of the turtledove, and the low sound + of its crooning is heard all day in summer, the other most + common sound being that of magpies—their subdued, + conversational chatter and their solo-singing, the chant or + call which a bird will go on repeating for a hundred times. + The wonder is how the doves succeed in such a place in + hatching any couple of chalk-white eggs, placed on a small + platform of sticks, or of rearing any pair of young, + conspicuous in their blue skins and bright yellow down! + </p> + <p> + The keepers tell me they get even with these kill-birds later + in the year, when they take to roosting in the woods, a mile + away in the valley. The birds are waited for at some point + where they are accustomed to slip in at dark, and one keeper + told me that on one evening alone assisted by a friend he had + succeeded in shooting thirty birds. + </p> + <p> + On Winterbourne Bishop Down and round the village the magpies + are not persecuted, probably because the gamekeepers, the + professional bird-killers, have lost heart in this place. It + is a curious and rather pretty story. There is no squire, as + we have seen; the farmers have the rabbits, and for game the + shooting is let, or to let, by some one who claims to be lord + of the manor, who lives at a distance or abroad. At all + events he is not known personally to the people, and all they + know about the overlordship is that, whereas in years gone by + every villager had certain rights in the down—to cut + furze and keep a cow, or pony, or donkey, or half a dozen + sheep or goats—now they have none; but how and why and + when these rights were lost nobody knows. Naturally there is + no sympathy between the villagers and the keepers sent from a + distance to protect the game, so that the shooting may be let + to some other stranger. On the contrary, they religiously + destroy every nest they can find, with the result that there + are too few birds for anyone to take the shooting, and it + remains year after year unlet. + </p> + <p> + This unsettled state of things is all to the advantage of the + black and white bird with the ornamental tail, and he + flourishes accordingly and builds his big, thorny nests in + the roadside trees about the village. + </p> + <p> + The one big bird on these downs, as in so many other places + in England, is the rook, and let us humbly thank the gods who + own this green earth and all the creatures which inhabit it + that they have in their goodness left us this one. For it is + something to have a rook, although he is not a great bird + compared with the great ones lost—bustard and kite and + raven and goshawk, and many others. His abundance on the + cultivated downs is rather strange when one remembers the + outcry made against him in some parts on account of his + injurious habits; but here it appears the sentiment in his + favour is just as strong in the farmer, or in a good many + farmers, as in the great landlord. The biggest rookery I know + on Salisbury Plain is at a farm-house where the farmer owns + the land himself and cultivates about nine hundred acres. One + would imagine that he would keep his rooks down in these days + when a boy cannot be hired to scare the birds from the crops. + </p> + <p> + One day, near West Knoyle, I came upon a vast company of + rooks busily engaged on a ploughed field where everything + short of placing a bird-scarer on the ground had been done to + keep the birds off. A score of rooks had been shot and + suspended to long sticks planted about the field, and there + were three formidable-looking men of straw and rags with hats + on their heads and wooden guns under their arms. But the + rooks were there all the same; I counted seven at one spot, + prodding the earth close to the feet of one of the + scarecrows. I went into the field to see what they were + doing, and found that it was sown with vetches, just + beginning to come up, and the birds were digging the seed up. + </p> + <p> + Three months later, near the same spot, on Mere Down, I found + these birds feasting on the corn, when it had been long cut + but could not be carried on account of the wet weather. It + was a large field of fifty to sixty acres, and as I walked by + it the birds came flying leisurely over my head to settle + with loud cawings on the stocks. It was a magnificent + sight—the great, blue-black bird-forms on the golden + wheat, an animated group of three or four to half a dozen on + every stock, while others walked about the ground to pick up + the scattered grain, and others were flying over them, for + just then the sun was shining on the field and beyond it the + sky was blue. Never had I witnessed birds so manifestly + rejoicing at their good fortune, with happy, loud caw-caw. Or + rather haw-haw! what a harvest, what abundance! was there + ever a more perfect August and September! Rain, rain, by + night and in the morning; then sun and wind to dry our + feathers and make us glad, but never enough to dry the corn + to enable them to carry it and build it up in stacks where it + would be so much harder to get at. Could anything be better! + </p> + <p> + But the commonest bird, the one which vastly outnumbers all + the others I have named together, is the starling. It was + Caleb Bawcombe's favourite bird, and I believe it is regarded + with peculiar affection by all shepherds on the downs on + account of its constant association with sheep in the + pasture. The dog, the sheep, and the crowd of + starlings—these are the lonely man's companions during + his long days on the hills from April or May to November. And + what a wise bird he is, and how well he knows his friends and + his enemies! There was nothing more beautiful to see, Caleb + would say, than the behaviour of a flock of starlings when a + hawk was about. If it was a kestrel they took little or no + notice of it, but if a sparrowhawk made its appearance, + instantly the crowd of birds could be seen flying at furious + speed towards the nearest flock of sheep, and down into the + flock they would fall like a shower of stones and instantly + disappear from sight. There they would remain on the ground, + among the legs of the grazing sheep, until the hawk had gone + on his way and passed out of sight. + </p> + <p> + The sparrowhawk's victims are mostly made among the young + birds that flock together in summer and live apart from the + adults during the summer months after the breeding season is + over. + </p> + <p> + When I find a dead starling on the downs ranged over by + sparrowhawks, it is almost always a young bird—a "brown + thrush" as it used to be called by the old naturalists. You + may know that the slayer was a sparrowhawk by the appearance + of the bird, its body untouched, but the flesh picked neatly + from the neck and the head gone. That was swallowed whole, + after the beak had been cut off. You will find the beak lying + by the side of the body. In summertime, when birds are most + abundant, after the breeding season, the sparrowhawk is a + fastidious feeder. + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p><a name="ch11"><!--Marker--></a> + <h2> + CHAPTER XI + </h2> + <h3> + STARLINGS AND SHEEP-BELLS + </h3> + <blockquote> + Starlings' singing—Native and borrowed + sounds—Imitations of sheep-bells—The shepherd on + sheep-bells—The bells for pleasure, not use—A dog + in charge of the flock—Shepherd calling his + sheep—Richard Warner of Bath—Ploughmen singing to + their oxen in Cornwall—A shepherd's loud singing + </blockquote> + <p> + The subject of starlings associating with sheep has served to + remind me of something I have often thought when listening to + their music. It happens that I am writing this chapter in a + small village on Salisbury Plain, the time being + mid-September 1909, and that just outside my door there is a + group of old elder-bushes laden just now with clusters of + ripe berries on which the starlings come to feed, filling the + room all day with that never-ending medley of sounds which is + their song. They sing in this way not only when they + sing—that is to say, when they make a serious business + of it, standing motionless and a-shiver on the tiles, wings + drooping and open beak pointing upwards, but also when they + are feasting on fruit—singing and talking and + swallowing elderberries between whiles to wet their whistles. + If the weather is not too cold you will hear this music + daily, wet or dry, all the year round. We may say that of all + singing birds they are most vocal, yet have no set song. I + doubt if they have more than half a dozen to a dozen sounds + or notes which are the same in every individual and their + very own. One of them is a clear, soft, musical whistle, + slightly inflected; another a kissing sound, usually repeated + two or three times or oftener, a somewhat percussive smack; + still another, a sharp, prolonged hissing or sibilant but at + the same time metallic note, compared by some one to the + sound produced by milking a cow into a tin pail—a very + good description. There are other lesser notes: a musical, + thrush-like chirp, repeated slowly, and sometimes rapidly + till it runs to a bubbling sound; also there is a horny + sound, which is perhaps produced by striking upon the edges + of the lower mandible with those of the upper. But it is + quite unlike the loud, hard noise made by the stork; the poor + stork being a dumb bird has made a sort of policeman's rattle + of his huge beak. These sounds do not follow each other; they + come from time to time, the intervals being filled up with + others in such endless variety, each bird producing its own + notes, that one can but suppose that they are imitations. We + know, in fact, that the starling is our greatest mimic, and + that he often succeeds in recognizable reproductions of + single notes, of phrases, and occasionally of entire songs, + as, for instance, that of the blackbird. But in listening to + him we are conscious of his imitations; even when at his best + he amuses rather than delights—he is not like the + mocking-bird. His common starling pipe cannot produce sounds + of pure and beautiful quality, like the blackbird's + "oboe-voice," to quote Davidson's apt phrase: he emits this + song in a strangely subdued tone, producing the effect of a + blackbird heard singing at a considerable distance. And so + with innumerable other notes, calls, and songs—they are + often to their originals what a man's voice heard on a + telephone is to his natural voice. He succeeds best, as a + rule, in imitations of the coarser, metallic sounds, and as + his medley abounds in a variety of little, measured, + tinkling, and clinking notes, as of tappings on a metal + plate, it has struck me at times that these are probably + borrowed from the sheep-bells of which the bird hears so much + in his feeding-grounds. It is, however, not necessary to + suppose that every starling gets these sounds directly from + the bells; the birds undoubtedly mimic one another, as is the + case with mocking-birds, and the young might easily acquire + this part of their song language from the old birds without + visiting the flocks in the pastures. + </p> + <p> + The sheep-bell, in its half-muffled strokes, as of a small + hammer tapping on an iron or copper plate, is, one would + imagine, a sound well within the starling's range, easily + imitated, therefore specially attractive to him. + </p> + <p> + But—to pass to another subject—what does the + shepherd himself think or feel about it; and why does he have + bells on his sheep? + </p> + <p> + He thinks a great deal of his bells. He pipes not like the + shepherd of fable or of the pastoral poets, nor plays upon + any musical instrument, and seldom sings, or even + whistles—that sorry substitute for song; he loves music + nevertheless, and gets it in his sheep-bells; and he likes it + in quantity. "How many bells have you got on your + sheep—it sounds as if you had a great many?" I asked of + a shepherd the other day, feeding his flock near Old Sarum, + and he replied, "Just forty, and I wish there were eighty." + Twenty-five or thirty is a more usual number, but only + because of their cost, for the shepherd has very little money + for bells or anything else. Another told me that he had "only + thirty," but he intended getting more. The sound cheers him; + it is not exactly monotonous, owing to the bells being of + various sizes and also greatly varying in thickness, so that + they produce different tones, from the sharp tinkle-tinkle of + the smallest to the sonorous klonk-klonk of the big, copper + bell. Then, too, they are differently agitated, some quietly + when the sheep are grazing with heads down, others rapidly as + the animal walks or trots on; and there are little bursts or + peals when a sheep shakes its head, all together producing a + kind of rude harmony—a music which, like that of + bagpipes or of chiming church-bells, heard from a distance, + is akin to natural music and accords with rural scenes. + </p> + <p> + As to use, there is little or none. A shepherd will sometimes + say, when questioned on the subject, that the bells tell him + just where the flock is or in which direction they are + travelling; but he knows better. The one who is not afraid to + confess the simple truth of the matter to a stranger will + tell you that he does not need the bells to tell him where + the sheep are or in which direction they are grazing. His + eyes are good enough for that. The bells are for his solace + or pleasure alone. It may be that the sheep like the tinkling + too—it is his belief that they do like it. A shepherd + said to me a few days ago: "It is lonesome with the flock on + the downs; more so in cold, wet weather, when you perhaps + don't see a person all day—on some days not even at a + distance, much less to speak to. The bells keep us from + feeling it too much. We know what we have them for, and the + more we have the better we like it. They are company to us." + </p> + <p> + Even in fair weather he seldom has anyone to speak to. A + visit from an idle man who will sit down and have a pipe and + talk with him is a day to be long remembered and even to date + events from. "'Twas the month—May, June, or + October—when the stranger came out to the down and + talked to I." + </p> + <p> + One day, in September, when sauntering over Mere Down, one of + the most extensive and loneliest-looking sheep-walks in South + Wilts—a vast, elevated plain or table-land, a portion + of which is known as White Sheet Hill—I passed three + flocks of sheep, all with many bells, and noticed that each + flock produced a distinctly different sound or effect, owing + doubtless to a different number of big and little bells in + each; and it struck me that any shepherd on a dark night, or + if taken blindfolded over the downs, would be able to + identify his own flock by the sound. At the last of the three + flocks a curious thing occurred. There was no shepherd with + it or anywhere in sight, but a dog was in charge; I found him + lying apparently asleep in a hollow, by the side of a stick + and an old sack. I called to him, but instead of jumping up + and coming to me, as he would have done if his master had + been there, he only raised his head, looked at me, then put + his nose down on his paws again. I am on duty—in sole + charge—and you must not speak to me, was what he said. + After walking a little distance on, I spied the shepherd with + a second dog at his heels, coming over the down straight to + the flock, and I stayed to watch. When still over a hundred + yards from the hollow the dog flew ahead, and the other + jumping up ran to meet him, and they stood together, wagging + their tails as if conversing. When the shepherd had got up to + them he stood and began uttering a curious call, a somewhat + musical cry in two notes, and instantly the sheep, now at a + considerable distance, stopped feeding and turned, then all + together began running towards him, and when within thirty + yards stood still, massed together, and all gazing at him. He + then uttered a different call, and turning walked away, the + dogs keeping with him and the sheep closely following. It was + late in the day, and he was going to fold them down at the + foot of the slope in some fields half a mile away. + </p> + <p> + As the scene I had witnessed appeared unusual I related it to + the very next shepherd I talked with. + </p> + <p> + "Oh, there was nothing in that," he said. "Of course the dog + was behind the flock." + </p> + <p> + I said, "No, the peculiar thing was that both dogs were with + their master, and the flock followed." + </p> + <p> + "Well, my sheep would do the same," he returned. "That is, + they'll do it if they know there's something good for + them—something they like in the fold. They are very + knowing." And other shepherds to whom I related the incident + said pretty much the same, but they apparently did not quite + like to hear that any shepherd could control his sheep with + his voice alone; their way of receiving the story confirmed + me in the belief that I had witnessed something unusual. + </p> + <p> + Before concluding this short chapter I will leave the subject + of the Wiltshire shepherd and his sheep to quote a remarkable + passage about men singing to their cattle in Cornwall, from a + work on that county by Richard Warner of Bath, once a + well-known and prolific writer of topographical and other + books. They are little known now, I fancy, but he was great + in his day, which lasted from about the middle of the + eighteenth to about the middle of the nineteenth + century—at all events, he died in 1857, aged + ninety-four. But he was not great at first, and finding when + nearing middle age that he was not prospering, he took to the + Church and had several livings, some of them running + concurrently, as was the fashion in those dark days. His + topographical work included Walks in Wales, in Somerset, in + Devon, Walks in many places, usually taken in a stage-coach + or on horseback, containing nothing worth remembering except + perhaps the one passage I have mentioned, which is as + follows:— + </p> + <p> + "We had scarcely entered Cornwall before our attention was + agreeably arrested by a practice connected with the + agriculture of the people, which to us was entirely novel. + The farmers judiciously employ the fine oxen of the country + in ploughing, and other processes of husbandry, to which the + strength of this useful animal can be employed"—the + Rev. Richard Warner is tedious, but let us be patient and see + what follows—"to which the strength of this useful + animal can be employed; and while the hinds are thus driving + their patient slaves along the furrows, they continually + cheer them with conversation, denoting approbation and + pleasure. This encouragement is conveyed to them in a sort of + chaunt, of very agreeable modulation, which, floating through + the air from different distances, produces a striking effect + both on the ear and imagination. The notes are few and + simple, and when delivered by a clear, melodious voice, have + something expressive of that tenderness and affection which + man naturally entertains for the companions of his labours, + in a <i>pastoral state</i> of society, when, feeling more + forcibly his dependence upon domesticated animals for + support, he gladly reciprocates with them kindness and + protection for comfort and subsistence. This wild melody was + to me, I confess, peculiarly affecting. It seemed to draw + more closely the link of friendship between man and the + humbler tribes of <i>fellow mortals</i>. It solaced my heart + with the appearance of humanity, in a world of violence and + in times of universal hostile rage; and it gladdened my fancy + with the contemplation of those days of heavenly harmony, + promised in the predictions of eternal truth, when man, freed + at length from prejudice and passion, shall seek his + happiness in cultivating the mild, the benevolent, and the + merciful sensibilities of his nature; and when the animal + world, catching the virtues of its lord and master, shall + soften into gentleness and love; when the wolf".... + </p> + <p> + And so on, clause after clause, with others to be added, + until the whole sentence becomes as long as a fishing-rod. + But apart from the fiddlededee, is the thing he states + believable? It is a charming picture, and one would like to + know more about that "chaunt," that "wild melody." The + passage aroused my curiosity when in Cornwall, as it had + appeared to me that in no part of England are the domestic + animals so little considered by their masters. The R.S.P.C.A. + is practically unknown there, and when watching the doings of + shepherds or drovers with their sheep the question has + occurred to me, What would my Wiltshire shepherd friends say + of such a scene if they had witnessed it? There is nothing in + print which I can find to confirm Warner's observations, and + if you inquire of very old men who have been all their lives + on the soil they will tell you that there has never been such + a custom in their time, nor have they ever heard of it as + existing formerly. Warner's Tour through Cornwall is dated + 1808. + </p> + <p> + I take it that he described a scene he actually witnessed, + and that he jumped to the conclusion that it was a common + custom for the ploughman to sing to his oxen. It is not + unusual to find a man anywhere singing to his oxen, or + horses, or sheep, if he has a voice and is fond of exercising + it. I remember that in a former book—"Nature in + Downland"—I described the sweet singing of a cow-boy + when tending his cows on a heath near Trotton, in West + Sussex; and here in Wiltshire it amused me to listen, at a + vast distance, to the robust singing of a shepherd while + following his flock on the great lonely downs above + Chitterne. He was a sort of Tamagno of the downs, with a + tremendous voice audible a mile away. + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p><a name="ch12"><!--Marker--></a> + <h2> + CHAPTER XII + </h2> + <h3> + THE SHEPHERD AND THE BIBLE + </h3> + <blockquote> + Dan'l Burdon, the treasure-seeker—The shepherd's + feeling for the Bible—Effect of the pastoral + life—The shepherd's story of Isaac's boyhood—The + village on the Wylye + </blockquote> + <p> + One of the shepherd's early memories was of Dan'l Burdon, a + labourer on the farm where Isaac Bawcombe was head-shepherd. + He retained a vivid recollection of this person, who had a + profound gravity and was the most silent man in the parish. + He was always thinking about hidden treasure, and all his + spare time was spent in seeking for it. On a Sunday morning, + or in the evening after working hours, he would take a spade + or pick and go away over the hills on his endless search + after "something he could not find." He opened some of the + largest barrows, making trenches six to ten feet deep through + them, but found nothing to reward him. One day he took Caleb + with him, and they went to a part of the down where there + were certain depressions in the turf of a circular form and + six to seven feet in circumference. Burdon had observed these + basin-like depressions and had thought it possible they + marked the place where things of value had been buried in + long-past ages. To begin he cut the turf all round and + carefully removed it, then dug and found a thick layer of + flints. These removed, he came upon a deposit of ashes and + charred wood. And that was all. Burdon without a word set to + work to put it all back in its place again—ashes and + wood, and earth and flints—and having trod it firmly + down he carefully replaced the turf, then leaning on his + spade gazed silently at the spot for a space of several + minutes. At last he spoke. "Maybe, Caleb, you've beared tell + about what the Bible says of burnt sacrifice. Well now, I be + of opinion that it were here. They people the Bible says + about, they come up here to sacrifice on White Bustard Down, + and these be the places where they made their fires." + </p> + <p> + Then he shouldered his spade and started home, the boy + following. Caleb's comment was: "I didn't say nothing to un + because I were only a leetel boy and he were a old man; but I + knowed better than that all the time, because them people in + the Bible they was never in England at all, so how could they + sacrifice on White Bustard Down in Wiltsheer?" + </p> + <p> + It was no idle boast on his part. Caleb and his brothers had + been taught their letters when small, and the Bible was their + one book, which they read not only in the evenings at home + but out on the downs during the day when they were with the + flock. His extreme familiarity with the whole Scripture + narrative was a marvel to me; it was also strange, + considering how intelligent a man he was, that his lifelong + reading of that one book had made no change in his rude + "Wiltsheer" speech. + </p> + <p> + Apart from the feeling which old, religious country people, + who know nothing about the Higher Criticism, have for the + Bible, taken literally as the Word of God, there is that in + the old Scriptures which appeals in a special way to the + solitary man who feeds his flock on the downs. I remember + well in the days of my boyhood and youth, when living in a + purely pastoral country among a semi-civilized and very + simple people, how understandable and eloquent many of the + ancient stories were to me. The life, the outlook, the rude + customs, and the vivid faith in the Unseen, were much the + same in that different race in a far-distant age, in a remote + region of the earth, and in the people I mixed with in my own + home. That country has been changed now; it has been improved + and civilized and brought up to the European standard; I + remember it when it was as it had existed for upwards of two + centuries before it had caught the contagion. The people I + knew were the descendants of the Spanish colonists of the + seventeenth century, who had taken kindly to the life of the + plains, and had easily shed the traditions and ways of + thought of Europe and of towns. Their philosophy of life, + their ideals, their morality, were the result of the + conditions they existed in, and wholly unlike ours; and the + conditions were like those of the ancient people of which the + Bible tells us. Their very phraseology was strongly + reminiscent of that of the sacred writings, and their + character in the best specimens was like that of the men of + the far past who lived nearer to God, as we say, and + certainly nearer to nature than it is possible for us in this + artificial state. Among these sometimes grand old men who + were large landowners, rich in flocks and herds, these fine + old, dignified "natives," the substantial and leading men of + the district who could not spell their own names, there were + those who reminded you of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and + Esau and Joseph and his brethren, and even of David the + passionate psalmist, with perhaps a guitar for a harp. + </p> + <p> + No doubt the Scripture lessons read in the thousand churches + on every Sunday of the year are practically meaningless to + the hearers. These old men, with their sheep and goats and + wives, and their talk about God, are altogether out of our + ways of thought, in fact as far from us—as incredible + or unimaginable, we may say—as the neolithic men or the + inhabitants of another planet. They are of the order of + mythical heroes and the giants of antiquity. To read about + them is an ancient custom, but we do not listen. + </p> + <p> + Even to myself the memories of my young days came to be + regarded as very little more than mere imaginations, and I + almost ceased to believe in them until, after years of mixing + with modern men, mostly in towns, I fell in with the downland + shepherds, and discovered that even here, in densely + populated and ultra-civilized England, something of the + ancient spirit had survived. In Caleb, and a dozen old men + more or less like him, I seemed to find myself among the + people of the past, and sometimes they were so much like some + of the remembered, old, sober, and slow-minded herders of the + plains that I could not help saying to myself, Why, how this + man reminds me of Tio Isidoro, or of Don Pascual of the + "Three Poplar Trees," or of Marcos who would always have + three black sheep in a flock. And just as they reminded me of + these men I had actually known, so did they bring back the + older men of the Bible history—Abraham and Jacob and + the rest. + </p> + <p> + The point here is that these old Bible stories have a reality + and significance for the shepherd of the down country which + they have lost for modern minds; that they recognize their + own spiritual lineaments in these antique portraits, and that + all these strange events might have happened a few years ago + and not far away. + </p> + <p> + One day I said to Caleb Bawcombe that his knowledge of the + Bible, especially of the old part, was greater than that of + the other shepherds I knew on the downs, and I would like to + hear why it was so. This led to the telling of a fresh story + about his father's boyhood, which he had heard in later years + from his mother. Isaac was an only child and not the son of a + shepherd; his father was a rather worthless if not a wholly + bad man; he was idle and dissolute, and being remarkably + dexterous with his fists he was persuaded by certain sporting + persons to make a business of fighting—quite a common + thing in those days. He wanted nothing better, and spent the + greater part of the time in wandering about the country; the + money he made was spent away from home, mostly in drink, + while his wife was left to keep herself and child in the best + way she could at home or in the fields. By and by a poor + stranger came to the village in search of work and was + engaged for very little pay by a small farmer, for the + stranger confessed that he was without experience of farm + work of any description. The cheapest lodging he could find + was in the poor woman's cottage, and then Isaac's mother, who + pitied him because he was so poor and a stranger alone in the + world, a very silent, melancholy man, formed the opinion that + he had belonged to another rank in life. His speech and hands + and personal habits betrayed it. Undoubtedly he was a + gentleman; and then from something in his manner, his voice, + and his words whenever he addressed her, and his attention to + religion, she further concluded that he had been in the + Church; that, owing to some trouble or disaster, he had + abandoned his place in the world to live away from all who + had known him, as a labourer. + </p> + <p> + One day he spoke to her about Isaac; he said he had been + observing him and thought it a great pity that such a fine, + intelligent boy should be allowed to grow up without learning + his letters. She agreed that it was, but what could she do? + The village school was kept by an old woman, and though she + taught the children very little it had to be paid for, and + she could not afford it. He then offered to teach Isaac + himself and she gladly consented, and from that day he taught + Isaac for a couple of hours every evening until the boy was + able to read very well, after which they read the Bible + through together, the poor man explaining everything, + especially the historical parts, so clearly and beautifully, + with such an intimate knowledge of the countries and peoples + and customs of the remote East, that it was all more + interesting than a fairy tale. Finally he gave his copy of + the Bible to Isaac, and told him to carry it in his pocket + every day when he went out on the downs, and when he sat down + to take it out and read in it. For by this time Isaac, who + was now ten years old, had been engaged as a shepherd-boy to + his great happiness, for to be a shepherd was his ambition. + </p> + <p> + Then one day the stranger rolled up his few belongings in a + bundle and put them on a stick which he placed on his + shoulder, said good-bye, and went away, never to return, + taking his sad secret with him. + </p> + <p> + Isaac followed the stranger's counsel, and when he had sons + of his own made them do as he had done from early boyhood. + Caleb had never gone with his flock on the down without the + book, and had never passed a day without reading a portion. + </p> + <p> + The incidents and observations gathered in many talks with + the old shepherd, which I have woven into the foregoing + chapters, relate mainly to the earlier part of his life, up + to the time when, a married man and father of three small + children, he migrated to Warminster. There he was in, to him, + a strange land, far away from friends and home and the old + familiar surroundings, amid new scenes and new people, But + the few years he spent at that place had furnished him with + many interesting memories, some of which will be narrated in + the following chapters. + </p> + <p> + I have told in the account of Winterbourne Bishop how I first + went to that village just to see his native place, and later + I visited Doveton for no other reason than that he had lived + there, to find it one of the most charming of the numerous + pretty villages in the vale. I looked for the cottage in + which he had lived and thought it as perfect a home as a + quiet, contemplative man who loved nature could have had: a + small, thatched cottage, very old looking, perhaps + inconvenient to live in, but situated in the prettiest spot, + away from other houses, near and within sight of the old + church with old elms and beech-trees growing close to it, and + the land about it green meadow. The clear river, fringed with + a luxuriant growth of sedges, flag, and reeds, was less than + a stone's-throw away. + </p> + <p> + So much did I like the vale of the Wylye when I grew to know + it well that I wish to describe it fully in the chapter that + follows. + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p><a name="ch13"><!--Marker--></a> + <h2> + CHAPTER XIII + </h2> + <h3> + VALE OF THE WYLYE + </h3> + <blockquote> + Warminster—Vale of the Wylye—Counting the + villages—A lost church—Character of the + villages—Tytherington church—Story of the + dog—Lord Lovell—Monuments in + churches—Manor-houses—Knook—The + cottages—Yellow stonecrop—Cottage + gardens—Marigolds—Golden-rod—Wild flowers + of the water-side—Seeking for the characteristic + expression + </blockquote> + <p> + The prettily-named Wylye is a little river not above twenty + miles in length from its rise to Salisbury, where, after + mixing with the Nadder at Wilton, it joins the Avon. At or + near its source stands Warminster, a small, unimportant town + with a nobler-sounding name than any other in Wiltshire. + Trowbridge, Devizes, Marlborough, Salisbury, do not stir the + mind in the same degree; and as for Chippenham, Melksham, + Mere, Calne, and Corsham, these all are of no more account + than so many villages in comparison. Yet Warminster has no + associations—no place in our mental geography; at all + events one remembers nothing about it. Its name, which after + all may mean nothing more than the monastery on the + Were—one of the three streamlets which flow into the + Wylye at its source—is its only glory. It is not + surprising that Caleb Bawcombe invariably speaks of his + migration to, and of the time he passed at Warminster, when, + as a fact, he was not there at all, but at Doveton, a little + village on the Wylye a few miles below the town with the + great name. + </p> + <p> + It is a green valley—the greenness strikes one sharply + on account of the pale colour of the smooth, high downs on + either side—half a mile to a mile in width, its crystal + current showing like a bright serpent for a brief space in + the green, flat meadows, then vanishing again among the + trees. So many are the great shade trees, beeches and ashes + and elms, that from some points the valley has the appearance + of a continuous wood—a contiguity of shade. And the + wood hides the villages, at some points so effectually that + looking down from the hills you may not catch a glimpse of + one and imagine it to be a valley where no man dwells. As a + rule you do see something of human occupancy—the red or + yellow roofs of two or three cottages, a half-hidden grey + church tower, or column of blue smoke, but to see the + villages you must go down and look closely, and even so you + will find it difficult to count them all. I have tried, going + up and down the valley several times, walking or cycling, and + have never succeeded in getting the same number on two + occasions. There are certainly more then twenty, without + counting the hamlets, and the right number is probably + something between twenty-five and thirty, but I do not want + to find out by studying books and maps. I prefer to let the + matter remain unsettled so as to have the pleasure of + counting or trying to count them again at some future time. + But I doubt that I shall ever succeed. On one occasion I + caught sight of a quaint, pretty little church standing by + itself in the middle of a green meadow, where it looked very + solitary with no houses in sight and not even a cow grazing + near it. The river was between me and the church, so I went + up-stream, a mile and a half, to cross by the bridge, then + doubled back to look for the church, and couldn't find it! + Yet it was no illusory church; I have seen it again on two + occasions, but again from the other side of the river, and I + must certainly go back some day in search of that lost + church, where there may be effigies, brasses, sad, eloquent + inscriptions, and other memorials of ancient tragedies and + great families now extinct in the land. + </p> + <p> + This is perhaps one of the principal charms of the + Wylye—the sense of beautiful human things hidden from + sight among the masses of foliage. Yet another lies in the + character of the villages. Twenty-five or twenty-eight of + them in a space of twenty miles; yet the impression, left on + the mind is that these small centres of population are really + few and far between. For not only are they small, but of the + old, quiet, now almost obsolete type of village, so + unobtrusive as to affect the mind soothingly, like the sight + of trees and flowery banks and grazing cattle. The churches, + too, as is fit, are mostly small and ancient and beautiful, + half-hidden in their tree-shaded churchyards, rich in + associations which go back to a time when history fades into + myth and legend. Not all, however, are of this description; a + few are naked, dreary little buildings, and of these I will + mention one which, albeit ancient, has no monuments and no + burial-ground. This is the church of Tytherington, a small, + rustic village, which has for neighbours Codford St. Peter + one one side and Sutton Veny and Norton Bavant on the other. + To get into this church, where there was nothing but naked + walls to look at, I had to procure the key from the clerk, a + nearly blind old man of eighty. He told me that he was + shoemaker but could no longer see to make or mend shoes; that + as a boy he was a weak, sickly creature, and his father, a + farm bailiff, made him learn shoemaking because he was unfit + to work out of doors. "I remember this church," he said, + "when there was only one service each quarter," but, strange + to say, he forgot to tell me the story of the dog! "What, + didn't he tell you about the dog?" exclaimed everybody. There + was really nothing else to tell. + </p> + <p> + It happened about a hundred years ago that once, after the + quarterly service had been held, a dog was missed, a small + terrier owned by the young wife of a farmer of Tytherington + named Case. She was fond of her dog, and lamented its loss + for a little while, then forgot all about it. But after three + months, when the key was once more put into the rusty lock + and the door thrown open, there was the dog, a living + "skelington" it was said, dazed by the light of day, but + still able to walk! It was supposed that he had kept himself + alive by "licking the moisture from the walls." The walls, + they said, were dripping with wet and covered with a thick + growth of mould. I went back to interrogate the ancient + clerk, and he said that the dog died shortly after its + deliverance; Mrs. Case herself told him all about it. She was + an old woman then, but was always willing to relate the sad + story of her pet. + </p> + <p> + That picture of the starving dog coming out, a living + skeleton, from the wet, mouldy church, reminds us sharply of + the changed times we live in and of the days when the Church + was still sleeping very peacefully, not yet turning uneasily + in its bed before opening its eyes; and when a comfortable + rector of Codford thought it quite enough that the people of + Tytherington, a mile away, should have one service every + three months. + </p> + <p> + As a fact, the Tytherington dog interested me as much as the + story of the last Lord Lovell's self-incarceration in his own + house in the neighbouring little village of Upton Lovell. He + took refuge there from his enemies who were seeking his life, + and concealed himself so effectually that he was never seen + again. Centuries later, when excavations were made on the + site of the ruined mansion, a secret chamber was discovered, + containing a human skeleton seated in a chair at a table, on + which were books and papers crumbling into dust. + </p> + <p> + A volume might be filled with such strange and romantic + happenings in the little villages of the Wylye, and for the + natural man they have a lasting fascination; but they + invariably relate to great people of their day—warriors + and statesmen and landowners of old and noble lineage, the + smallest and meanest you will find being clothiers, or + merchants, who amassed large fortunes and built mansions for + themselves and almshouses for the aged poor, and, when dead, + had memorials placed to them in the churches. But of the + humble cottagers, the true people of the vale who were rooted + in the soil, and nourished and died like trees in the same + place—of these no memory exists. We only know that they + lived and laboured; that when they died, three or four a + year, three or four hundred in a century, they were buried in + the little shady churchyard, each with a green mound over him + to mark the spot. But in time these "mouldering heaps" + subsided, the bodies turned to dust, and another and yet + other generations were laid in the same place among the + forgotten dead, to be themselves in turn forgotten. Yet I + would rather know the histories of these humble, unremembered + lives than of the great ones of the vale who have left us a + memory. + </p> + <p> + It may be for this reason that I was little interested in the + manor-houses of the vale. They are plentiful enough, some + gone to decay or put to various uses; others still the homes + of luxury, beauty, culture: stately rooms, rich fabrics; + pictures, books, and manuscripts, gold and silver ware, china + and glass, expensive curios, suits of armour, ivory and + antlers, tiger-skins, stuffed goshawks and peacocks' + feathers. Houses, in some cases built centuries ago, standing + half-hidden in beautiful wooded grounds, isolated from the + village; and even as they thus stand apart, sacred from + intrusion, so the life that is in them does not mix with or + form part of the true native life. They are to the cottagers + of to-day what the Roman villas were to the native population + of some eighteen centuries ago. This will seem incredible to + some: to me, an untrammelled person, familiar in both hall + and cottage, the distance between them appears immense. + </p> + <p> + A reader well acquainted with the valley will probably laugh + to be told that the manor-house which most interested me was + that of Knook, a poor little village between Heytesbury and + Upton Lovell. Its ancient and towerless little church with + rough, grey walls is, if possible, even more desolate-looking + than that of Tytherington. In my hunt for the key to open it + I disturbed a quaint old man, another octogenarian, + picturesque in a vast white beard, who told me he was a + thatcher, or had been one before the evil days came when he + could work no more and was compelled to seek parish relief. + "You must go to the manor-house for the key," he told me. A + strange place in which to look for the key, and it was + stranger still to see the house, close to the church, and so + like it that but for the small cross on the roof of the + latter one could not have known which was the sacred + building. First a monks' house, it fell at the Reformation to + some greedy gentleman who made it his dwelling, and doubtless + in later times it was used as a farm-house. Now a house most + desolate, dirty, and neglected, with cracks in the walls + which threaten ruin, standing in a wilderness of weeds, + tenanted by a poor working-man whose wages are twelve + shillings a week, and his wife and eight small children. The + rent is eighteen-pence a week—probably the + lowest-rented manor-house in England, though it is not very + rare to find such places tenanted by labourers. + </p> + <p> + But let us look at the true cottages. There are, I imagine, + few places in England where the humble homes of the people + have so great a charm. Undoubtedly they are darker inside, + and not so convenient to live in as the modern box-shaped, + red-brick, slate-roofed cottages, which have spread a wave of + ugliness over the country; but they do not offend—they + please the eye. They are smaller than the modern-built + habitations; they are weathered and coloured by sun and wind + and rain and many lowly vegetable forms to a harmony with + nature. They appear related to the trees amid which they + stand, to the river and meadows, to the sloping downs at the + side, and to the sky and clouds over all. And, most + delightful feature, they stand among, and are wrapped in, + flowers as in a garment—rose and vine and creeper and + clematis. They are mostly thatched, but some have tiled + roofs, their deep, dark red clouded and stained with lichen + and moss; and these roofs, too, have their flowers in summer. + They are grown over with yellow stonecrop, that bright + cheerful flower that smiles down at you from the lowly roof + above the door, with such an inviting expression, so + delighted to see you no matter how poor and worthless a + person you may be or what mischief you may have been at, that + you begin to understand the significance of a strange + vernacular name of this + plant—Welcome-home-husband-though-never-so-drunk. + </p> + <p> + But its garden flowers, clustering and nestling round it, + amid which its feet are set—they are to me the best of + all flowers. These are the flowers we know and remember for + ever. The old, homely, cottage-garden blooms, so old that + they have entered the soul. The big house garden, or + gardener's garden, with everything growing in it I hate, but + these I love—fragrant gillyflower and pink and + clove-smelling carnation; wallflower, abundant periwinkle, + sweet-william, larkspur, love-in-a-mist, and + love-lies-bleeding, old-woman's-nightcap, and + kiss-me-John-at-the-garden-gate, some times called pansy. And + best of all and in greatest profusion, that flower of + flowers, the marigold. + </p> + <p> + How the townsman, town born and bred, regards this flower, I + do not know. He is, in spite of all the time I have spent in + his company, a comparative stranger to me—the one + living creature on the earth who does not greatly interest + me. Some over-populated planet in our system discovered a way + to relieve itself by discharging its superfluous millions on + our globe—a pale people with hurrying feet and eager, + restless minds, who live apart in monstrous, crowded camps, + like wood ants that go not out to forage for + themselves—six millions of them crowded together in one + camp alone! I have lived in these colonies, years and years, + never losing the sense of captivity, of exile, ever conscious + of my burden, taking no interest in the doings of that + innumerable multitude, its manifold interests, its ideals and + philosophy, its arts and pleasures. What, then, does it + matter how they regard this common orange-coloured flower + with a strong smell? For me it has an atmosphere, a sense or + suggestion of something immeasurably remote and very + beautiful—an event, a place, a dream perhaps, which has + left no distinct image, but only this feeling unlike all + others, imperishable, and not to be described except by the + one word Marigold. + </p> + <p> + But when my sight wanders away from the flower to others + blooming with it—to all those which I have named and to + the taller ones, so tall that they reach half-way up, and + some even quite up, to the eaves of the lowly houses they + stand against—hollyhocks and peonies and crystalline + white lilies with powdery gold inside, and the common + sunflower—I begin to perceive that they all possess + something of that same magical quality. + </p> + <p> + These taller blooms remind me that the evening primrose, long + naturalized in our hearts, is another common and very + delightful cottage-garden flower; also that here, on the + Wylye, there is yet another stranger from the same western + world which is fast winning our affections. This is the + golden-rod, grandly beautiful in its great, yellow, + plume-like tufts. But it is not quite right to call the tufts + yellow: they are green, thickly powdered with the minute + golden florets. There is no flower in England like it, and it + is a happiness to know that it promises to establish itself + with us as a wild flower. + </p> + <p> + Where the village lies low in the valley and the cottage is + near the water, there are wild blooms, too, which almost + rival those of the garden in beauty—water agrimony and + comfrey with ivory-white and dim purple blossoms, purple and + yellow loosestrife and gem-like, water forget-me-not; all + these mixed with reeds and sedges and water-grasses, forming + a fringe or border to the potato or cabbage patch, dividing + it from the stream. + </p> + <p> + But now I have exhausted the subject of the flowers, and + enumerated and dwelt upon the various other components of the + scene, it comes to me that I have not yet said the right + thing and given the Wylye its characteristic expression. In + considering the flowers we lose sight of the downs, and so in + occupying ourselves with the details we miss the general + effect. Let me then, once more, before concluding this + chapter, try to capture the secret of this little river. + </p> + <p> + There are other chalk streams in Wiltshire and Hampshire and + Dorset—swift crystal currents that play all summer long + with the floating poa grass fast held in their pebbly beds, + flowing through smooth downs, with small ancient churches in + their green villages, and pretty thatched cottages smothered + in flowers—which yet do not produce the same effect as + the Wylye. Not Avon for all its beauty, nor Itchen, nor Test. + Wherein, then, does the "Wylye bourne" differ from these + others, and what is its special attraction? It was only when + I set myself to think about it, to analyse the feeling in my + own mind, that I discovered the secret—that is, in my + own case, for of its effect on others I cannot say anything. + What I discovered was that the various elements of interest, + all of which may be found in other chalk-stream valleys, are + here concentrated, or comprised in a limited space, and seen + together produce a combined effect on the mind. It is the + narrowness of the valley and the nearness of the high downs + standing over it on either side, with, at some points, the + memorials of antiquity carved on their smooth surfaces, the + barrows and lynchetts or terraces, and the vast green + earth-works crowning their summit. Up here on the turf, even + with the lark singing his shrill music in the blue heavens, + you are with the prehistoric dead, yourself for the time one + of that innumerable, unsubstantial multitude, invisible in + the sun, so that the sheep travelling as they graze, and the + shepherd following them, pass through their ranks without + suspecting their presence. And from that elevation you look + down upon the life of to-day—the visible life, so brief + in the individual, which, like the swift silver stream + beneath, yet flows on continuously from age to age and for + ever. And even as you look down you hear, at that distance, + the bell of the little hidden church tower telling the hour + of noon, and quickly following, a shout of freedom and joy + from many shrill voices of children just released from + school. Woke to life by those sounds, and drawn down by them, + you may sit to rest or sun yourself on the stone table of a + tomb overgrown on its sides with moss, the two-century-old + inscription well-nigh obliterated, in the little grass-grown, + flowery churchyard which serves as village green and + playground in that small centre of life, where the living and + the dead exist in a neighbourly way together. For it is not + here as in towns, where the dead are away and out of mind and + the past cut off. And if after basking too long in the sun in + that tree-sheltered spot you go into the little church to + cool yourself, you will probably find in a dim corner not far + from the altar a stone effigy of one of an older time; a + knight in armour, perhaps a crusader with legs crossed, lying + on his back, dimly seen in the dim light, with perhaps a + coloured sunbeam on his upturned face. For this little church + where the villagers worship is very old; Norman on Saxon + foundations; and before they were ever laid there may have + been a temple to some ancient god at that spot, or a Roman + villa perhaps. For older than Saxon foundations are found in + the vale, and mosaic floors, still beautiful after lying + buried so long. + </p> + <p> + All this—the far-removed events and periods in + time—are not in the conscious mind when we are in the + vale or when we are looking down on it from above: the mind + is occupied with nothing but visible nature. Thus, when I am + sitting on the tomb, listening to the various sounds of life + about me, attentive to the flowers and bees and butterflies, + to man or woman or child taking a short cut through the + churchyard, exchanging a few words with them; or when I am by + the water close by, watching a little company of graylings, + their delicately-shaded, silver-grey scales distinctly seen + as they lie in the crystal current watching for flies; or + when I listen to the perpetual musical talk and song combined + of a family of green-finches in the alders or willows, my + mind is engaged with these things. But if one is familiar + with the vale; if one has looked with interest and been + deeply impressed with the signs and memorials of past life + and of antiquity everywhere present and forming part of the + scene, something of it and of all that it represents remains + in the subconscious mind to give a significance and feeling + to the scene, which affects us here more than in most places; + and that, I take it, is the special charm of this little + valley. + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p><a name="ch14"><!--Marker--></a> + <h2> + CHAPTER XIV + </h2> + <h3> + A SHEEP-DOG'S LIFE + </h3> + <blockquote> + Watch—His visits to a dew-pond—David and his dog + Monk—Watch goes to David's assistance—Caleb's new + master objects to his dog—Watch and the + corn-crake—Watch plays with rabbits and + guinea-pigs—Old Nance the rook-scarer—The lost + pair of spectacles—Watch in decline—Grey hairs in + animals—A grey mole—Last days of Watch—A + shepherd on old sheep-dogs + </blockquote> + <p> + Perhaps the most interesting of the many sheep-dog histories + the shepherd related was that of Watch, a dog he had at + Winterbourne Bishop for three years before he migrated to + Warminster. Watch, he said, was more "like a Christian," + otherwise a reasonable being, than any other dog he had + owned. He was exceedingly active, and in hot weather suffered + more from heat than most dogs. Now the only accessible water + when they were out on the down was in the mist-pond about a + quarter of a mile from his "liberty," as he called that + portion of the down on which he was entitled to pasture his + sheep. When Watch could stand his sufferings no longer, he + would run to his master, and sitting at his feet look up at + his face and emit a low, pleading whine. + </p> + <p> + "What be you wanting, Watch—a drink or a swim?" the + shepherd would say, and Watch, cocking up his ears, would + repeat the whine. + </p> + <p> + "Very well, go to the pond," Bawcombe would say, and off + Watch would rush, never pausing until he got to the water, + and dashing in he would swim round and round, lapping the + water as he bathed. + </p> + <p> + At the side of the pond there was a large, round + sarsen-stone, and invariably on coming out of his bath Watch + would jump upon it, and with his four feet drawn up close + together would turn round and round, surveying the country + from that elevation; then jumping down he would return in all + haste to his duties. + </p> + <p> + Another anecdote, which relates to the Winterbourne Bishop + period, is a somewhat painful one, and is partly about Monk, + the sheep-dog already described as a hunter of foxes, and his + tragic end. Caleb had worked him for a time, but when he came + into possession of Watch he gave Monk to his younger brother + David, who was under-shepherd on the same farm. + </p> + <p> + One morning Caleb was with the ewes in a field, when David, + who was in charge of the lambs two or three fields away, came + to him looking very strange—very much put out. + </p> + <p> + "What are you here for—what's wrong with 'ee?" demanded + Caleb. + </p> + <p> + "Nothing's wrong," returned the other. + </p> + <p> + "Where's Monk then?" asked Caleb. + </p> + <p> + "Dead," said David. + </p> + <p> + "Dead! How's he dead?" + </p> + <p> + "I killed'n. He wouldn't mind me and made me mad, and I up + with my stick and gave him one crack on the head and it + killed'n." + </p> + <p> + "You killed 'n!" exclaimed Caleb. "An' you come here an' tell + I nothing's wrong! Is that a right way to speak of such a + thing as that? What be you thinking of? And what be you going + to do with the lambs?" + </p> + <p> + "I'm just going back to them—I'm going to do without a + dog. I'm going to put them in the rape and they'll be all + right." + </p> + <p> + "What! put them in the rape and no dog to help 'ee?" cried + the other. "You are not doing things right, but master + mustn't pay for it. Take Watch to help 'ee—I must do + without'n this morning." + </p> + <p> + "No, I'll not take'n," he said, for he was angry because he + had done an evil thing and he would have no one, man or dog, + to help him. "I'll do better without a dog," he said, and + marched off. + </p> + <p> + Caleb cried after him: "If you won't have the dog don't let + the lambs suffer but do as I tell 'ee. Don't you let 'em bide + in the rape more 'n ten minutes; then chase them out, and let + 'em stand twenty minutes to half an hour; then let them in + another ten minutes and out again for twenty minutes, then + let them go back and feed in it quietly, for the danger 'll + be over. If you don't do as I tell 'ee you'll have many + blown." + </p> + <p> + David listened, then without a word went his way. But Caleb + was still much troubled in his mind. How would he get that + flock of hungry lambs out of the rape without a dog? And + presently he determined to send Watch, or try to send him, to + save the situation. David had been gone half an hour when he + called the dog, and pointing in the direction he had taken he + cried, "Dave wants 'ee—go to Dave." + </p> + <p> + Watch looked at him and listened, then bounded away, and + after running full speed about fifty yards stopped to look + back to make sure he was doing the right thing. "Go to Dave," + shouted Caleb once more; and away went Watch again, and + arriving at a very high gate at the end of the field dashed + at and tried two or three times to get over it, first by + jumping, then by climbing, and falling back each time. But by + and by he managed to force his way through the thick hedge + and was gone from sight. + </p> + <p> + When David came back that evening he was in a different mood, + and said that Watch had saved him from a great misfortune: he + could never have got the lambs out by himself, as they were + mad for the rape. For some days after this Watch served two + masters. Caleb would take him to his ewes, and after a while + would say, "Go—Dave wants 'ee," and away Watch would go + to the other shepherd and flock. + </p> + <p> + When Bawcombe had taken up his new place at Doveton, his + master, Mr. Ellerby, watched him for a while with sharp eyes, + but he was soon convinced that he had not made a mistake in + engaging a head-shepherd twenty-five miles away without + making the usual inquiries but merely on the strength of + something heard casually in conversation about this man. But + while more than satisfied with the man he remained suspicious + of the dog. "I'm afraid that dog of yours must hurt the + sheep," he would say, and he even advised him to change him + for one that worked in a quieter manner. Watch was too + excitable, too impetuous—he could not go after the + sheep in that violent way and grab them as he did without + injuring them with his teeth. + </p> + <p> + "He did never bite a sheep in his life," Bawcombe assured + him, and eventually he was able to convince his master that + Watch could make a great show of biting the sheep without + doing them the least hurt—that it was actually against + his nature to bite or injure anything. + </p> + <p> + One day in the late summer, when the corn had been cut but + not carried, Bawcombe was with his flock on the edge of a + newly reaped cornfield in a continuous, heavy rain, when he + spied his master coming to him. He was in a very light summer + suit and straw hat, and had no umbrella or other protection + from the pouring rain. "What be wrong with master to-day?" + said Bawcombe. "He's tarrably upset to be out like this in + such a rain in a straw hat and no coat." + </p> + <p> + Mr. Ellerby had by that time got into the habit when troubled + in his mind of going out to his shepherd to have a long talk + with him. Not a talk about his trouble—that was some + secret bitterness in his heart—but just about the sheep + and other ordinary topics, and the talk, Caleb said, would + seem to do him good. But this habit he had got into was + observed by others, and the farm-men would say, "Something's + wrong to-day—the master's gone off to the + head-shepherd." + </p> + <p> + When he came to where Bawcombe was standing, in a poor + shelter by the side of a fence, he at once started talking on + indifferent subjects, standing there quite unconcerned, as if + he didn't even know that it was raining, though his thin + clothes were wet through, and the water coming through his + straw hat was running in streaks down his face. By and by he + became interested in the dog's movements, playing about in + the rain among the stocks. "What has he got in his mouth?" he + asked presently. + </p> + <p> + "Come here, Watch," the shepherd called, and when Watch came + he bent down and took a corncrake from his mouth. He had + found the bird hiding in one of the stocks and had captured + without injuring it. + </p> + <p> + "Why, it's alive—the dog hasn't hurt it," said the + farmer, taking it in his hands to examine it. + </p> + <p> + "Watch never hurted any creature yet," said Bawcombe. He + caught things just for his own amusement, but never injured + them—he always let them go again. He would hunt mice in + the fields, and when he captured one he would play with it + like a cat, tossing it from him, then dashing after and + recapturing it. Finally, he would let it go. He played with + rabbits in the same way, and if you took a rabbit from him + and examined it you would find it quite uninjured. + </p> + <p> + The farmer said it was wonderful—he had never heard of + a case like it before; and talking of Watch he succeeded in + forgetting the trouble in his mind which had sent him out in + the rain in his thin clothes and straw hat, and he went away + in a cheerful mood. + </p> + <p> + Caleb probably forgot to mention during this conversation + with his master that in most cases when Watch captured a + rabbit he took it to his master and gave it into his hands, + as much as to say, Here is a very big sort of field-mouse I + have caught, rather difficult to manage—perhaps + <i>you</i> can do something with it? + </p> + <p> + The shepherd had many other stories about this curious + disposition of his dog. When he had been some months in his + new place his brother David followed him to the Wylye, having + obtained a place as shepherd on a farm adjoining Mr. + Ellerby's. His cottage was a little out of the village and + had some ground to it, with a nice lawn or green patch. David + was fond of keeping animal pets—birds in cages, and + rabbits and guinea-pigs in hutches, the last so tame that he + would release them on the grass to see them play with one + another. When Watch first saw these pets he was very much + attracted, and wanted to get to them, and after a good deal + of persuasion on the part of Caleb, David one day consented + to take them out and put them on the grass in the dog's + presence. They were a little alarmed at first, but in a + surprisingly short time made the discovery that this + particular dog was not their enemy but a playmate. He rolled + on the grass among them, and chased them round and round, and + sometimes caught and pretended to worry them, and they + appeared to think it very good fun. + </p> + <p> + "Watch," said Bawcombe, "in the fifteen years I had 'n, never + killed and never hurt a creature, no, not even a leetel + mouse, and when he caught anything 'twere only to play with + it." + </p> + <p> + Watch comes into a story of an old woman employed at the farm + at this period. She had been in the Warminster workhouse for + a short time, and had there heard that a daughter of a former + mistress in another part of the county had long been married + and was now the mistress of Doveton Farm, close by. Old Nance + thereupon obtained her release and trudged to Doveton, and + one very rough, cold day presented herself at the farm to beg + for something to do which would enable her to keep herself. + If there was nothing for her she must, she said, go back and + end her days in the Warminster workhouse. Mrs. Ellerby + remembered and pitied her, and going in to her husband begged + him earnestly to find some place on the farm for the forlorn + old creature. He did not see what could be done for her: they + already had one old woman on their hands, who mended sacks + and did a few other trifling things, but for another old + woman there would be nothing to do. Then he went in and had a + good long look at her, revolving the matter in his mind, + anxious to please his wife, and finally, he asked her if she + could scare the crows. He could think of nothing else. Of + course she could scare crows—it was the very thing for + her! Well, he said, she could go and look after the swedes; + the rooks had just taken a liking to them, and even if she + was not very active perhaps she would be able to keep them + off. + </p> + <p> + Old Nance got up to go and begin her duties at once. Then the + farmer, looking at her clothes, said he would give her + something more to protect her from the weather on such a + bleak day. He got her an old felt hat, a big old frieze + overcoat, and a pair of old leather leggings. When she had + put on these somewhat cumbrous things, and had tied her hat + firmly on with a strip of cloth, and fastened the coat at the + waist with a cord, she was told to go to the head-shepherd + and ask him to direct her to the field where the rooks were + troublesome. Then when she was setting out the farmer called + her back and gave her an ancient, rusty gun to scare the + birds. "It isn't loaded," he said, with a grim smile. "I + don't allow powder and shot, but if you'll point it at them + they'll fly fast enough." + </p> + <p> + Thus arrayed and armed she set forth, and Caleb seeing her + approach at a distance was amazed at her grotesque + appearance, and even more amazed still when she explained who + and what she was and asked him to direct her to the field of + swedes. + </p> + <p> + Some hours later the farmer came to him and asked him + casually if he had seen an old gallus-crow about. + </p> + <p> + "Well," replied the shepherd, "I seen an old woman in man's + coat and things, with an old gun, and I did tell she where to + bide." + </p> + <p> + "I think it will be rather cold for the old body in that + field," said the farmer. "I'd like you to get a couple of + padded hurdles and put them up for a shelter for her." + </p> + <p> + And in the shelter of the padded or thatched hurdles, by the + hedge-side, old Nance spent her days keeping guard over the + turnips, and afterwards something else was found for her to + do, and in the meanwhile she lodged in Caleb's cottage and + became like one of the family. She was fond of the children + and of the dog, and Watch became so much attached to her that + had it not been for his duties with the flock he would have + attended her all day in the fields to help her with the + crows. + </p> + <p> + Old Nance had two possessions she greatly prized—a book + and a pair of spectacles, and it was her custom to spend the + day sitting, spectacles on nose and book in hand, reading + among the turnips. Her spectacles were so "tarrable" good + that they suited all old eyes, and when this was discovered + they were in great request in the village, and every person + who wanted to do a bit of fine sewing or anything requiring + young vision in old eyes would borrow them for the purpose. + One day the old woman returned full of trouble from the + fields—she had lost her spectacles; she must, she + thought, have lent them to some one in the village on the + previous evening and then forgotten all about it. But no one + had them, and the mysterious loss of the spectacles was + discussed and lamented by everybody. A day or two later Caleb + came through the turnips on his way home, the dog at his + heels, and when he got to his cottage Watch came round and + placed himself square before his master and deposited the + lost spectacles at his feet. He had found them in the + turnip-field over a mile from home, and though but a dog he + remembered that he had seen them on people's noses and in + their hands, and knew that they must therefore be + valuable—not to himself, but to that larger and more + important kind of dog that goes about on its hind legs. + </p> + <p> + There is always a sad chapter in the life-history of a dog; + it is the last one, which tells of his decline; and it is + ever saddest in the case of the sheep-dog, because he has + lived closer to man and has served him every day of his life + with all his powers, all his intelligence, in the one useful + and necessary work he is fitted for or which we have found + for him to do. The hunting and the pet, or parasite, + dogs—the "dogs for sport and pleasure"—though one + in species with him are not like beings of the same order; + they are like professional athletes and performers, and smart + or fashionable people compared to those who do the work of + the world—who feed us and clothe us. We are accustomed + to speak of dogs generally as the servants and the friends of + man; it is only of the sheep-dog that this can be said with + absolute truth. Not only is he the faithful servant of the + solitary man who shepherds his flock, but the dog's + companionship is as much to him as that of a fellow-being + would be. + </p> + <p> + Before his long and strenuous life was finished. Watch, + originally jet-black without a spot, became quite grey, the + greyness being most marked on the head, which became at last + almost white. + </p> + <p> + It is undoubtedly the case that some animals, like men, turn + grey with age, and Watch when fifteen was relatively as old + as a man at sixty-five or seventy. But grey hairs do not + invariably come with age, even in our domestic animals, which + are more subject to this change than those in a state of + nature. But we are never so well able to judge of this in the + case of wild animals, as in most cases their lives end + prematurely. + </p> + <p> + The shepherd related a curious instance in a mole. He once + noticed mole-heaps of a peculiar kind in a field of sainfoin, + and it looked to him as if this mole worked in a way of his + own, quite unlike the others. The hills he threw up were a + good distance apart, and so large that you could fill a + bushel measure with the mould from any one of them. He + noticed that this mole went on burrowing every day in the + same manner; every morning there were new chains or ranges of + the huge mounds. The runs were very deep, as he found when + setting a mole-trap—over two feet beneath the surface. + He set his trap, filling the deep hole he had made with sods, + and on opening it next day he found his mole and was + astonished at its great size. He took no measurements, but it + was bigger, he affirmed, than he could have believed it + possible for a mole to be. And it was grey instead of black, + the grey hairs being so abundant on the head as to make it + almost white, as in the case of old Watch. He supposed that + it was a very old mole, that it was a more powerful digger + than most of its kind, and had perhaps escaped death so long + on account of its strength and of its habit of feeding deeper + in the earth than the others. + </p> + <p> + To return to Watch. His hearing and eyesight failed as he + grew older until he was practically blind and too deaf to + hear any word given in the ordinary way. But he continued + strong as ever on his legs, and his mind was not decayed, nor + was he in the least tired. On the contrary, he was always + eager to work, and as his blindness and deafness had made him + sharper in other ways he was still able to make himself + useful with the sheep. Whenever the hurdles were shifted to a + fresh place and the sheep had to be kept in a corner of the + enclosure until the new place was ready for them, it was old + Watch's duty to keep them from breaking away. He could not + see nor hear, but in some mysterious way he knew when they + tried to get out, even if it was but one. Possibly the slight + vibration of the ground informed him of the movement and the + direction as well. He would make a dash and drive the sheep + back, then run up and down before the flock until all was + quiet again. But at last it became painful to witness his + efforts, especially when the sheep were very restless, and + incessantly trying to break away; and Watch finding them so + hard to restrain would grow angry and rush at them with such + fury that he would come violently against the hurdles at one + side, then getting up, howling with pain, he would dash to + the other side, when he would strike the hurdles there and + cry out with pain once more. + </p> + <p> + It could not be allowed to go on; yet Watch could not endure + to be deprived of his work; if left at home he would spend + the time whining and moaning, praying to be allowed to go to + the flock, until at last his master with a very heavy heart + was compelled to have him put to death. + </p> + <p> + This is indeed almost invariably the end of a sheepdog; + however zealous and faithful he may have been, and however + much valued and loved, he must at last be put to death. I + related the story of this dog to a shepherd in the very + district where Watch had lived and served his master so + well—one who had been head-shepherd for upwards of + forty years at Imber Court, the principal farm at the small + downland village of Imber. He told me that during all his + shepherding years he had never owned a dog which had passed + out of his hands to another; every dog had been acquired as a + pup and trained by himself; and he had been very fond of his + dogs, but had always been compelled to have them shot in the + end. Not because he would have found them too great a burden + when they had become too old and their senses decayed, but + because it was painful to see them in their decline, + perpetually craving to be at their old work with the sheep, + incapable of doing it any longer, yet miserable if kept from + it. + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p><a name="ch15"><!--Marker--></a> + <h2> + CHAPTER XV + </h2> + <h3> + THE ELLERBYS OF DOVETON + </h3> + <blockquote> + The Bawcombes at Doveton Farm—Caleb finds favour with + his master—Mrs. Ellerby and the shepherd's + wife—The passion of a childless wife—The + curse—A story of the "mob"—The attack on the + farm—A man transported for life—The hundred and + ninth Psalm—The end of the Ellerbys + </blockquote> + <p> + Caleb and his wife invariably spoke of their time at Doveton + Farm in a way which gave one the idea that they regarded it + as the most important period of their lives. It had deeply + impressed them, and doubtless it was a great change for them + to leave their native village for the first time in their + lives and go long miles from home among strangers to serve a + new master. Above everything they felt leaving the old father + who was angry with them, and had gone to the length of + disowning them for taking such a step. But there was + something besides all this which had served to give Doveton + an enduring place in their memories, and after many talks + with the old couple about their Warminster days I formed the + idea that it was more to them than any other place where they + had lived, because of a personal feeling they cherished for + their master and mistress there. + </p> + <p> + Hitherto Caleb had been in the service of men who were but a + little way removed in thought and feeling from those they + employed. They were mostly small men, born and bred in the + parish, some wholly self-made, with no interest or knowledge + of anything outside their own affairs, and almost as far + removed as the labourers themselves from the ranks above. The + Ellerbys were of another stamp, or a different class. If not + a gentleman, Mr. Ellerby was very like one and was accustomed + to associate with gentlemen. He was a farmer, descended from + a long line of farmers; but he owned his own land, and was an + educated and travelled man, considered wealthy for a farmer; + at all events he was able to keep his carriage and riding and + hunting horses in his stables, and he was regarded as the + best breeder of sheep in the district. He lived in a good + house, which with its pictures and books and beautiful + decorations and furniture appeared to their simple minds + extremely luxurious. This atmosphere was somewhat + disconcerting to them at first, for although he knew his own + value, priding himself on being a "good shepherd," Caleb had + up till now served with farmers who were in a sense on an + equality with him, and they understood him and he them. But + in a short time the feeling of strangeness vanished: + personally, as a fellow-man, his master soon grew to be more + to him than any farmer he had yet been with. And he saw a + good deal of his master. Mr. Ellerby cultivated his + acquaintance, and, as we have seen, got into the habit of + seeking him out and talking to him even when he was at a + distance out on the down with his flock. And Caleb could not + but see that in this respect he was preferred above the other + men employed on the farm—that he had "found favour" in + his master's eyes. + </p> + <p> + When he had told me that story about Watch and the + corn-crake, it stuck in my mind, and on the first opportunity + I went back to that subject to ask what it really was that + made his master act in such an extraordinary manner—to + go out on a pouring wet day in a summer suit and straw hat, + and walk a mile or two just to stand there in the rain + talking to him about nothing in particular. What secret + trouble had he—was it that his affairs were in a bad + way, or was he quarrelling with his wife? No, nothing of the + kind; it was a long story—this secret trouble of the + Ellerbys, and with his unconquerable reticence in regard to + other people's private affairs he would have passed it off + with a few general remarks. + </p> + <p> + But there was his old wife listening to us, and, woman-like, + eager to discuss such a subject, she would not let it pass. + She would tell it and would not be silenced by him: they were + all dead and gone—why should I not be told if I wanted + to hear it? And so with a word put in here and there by him + when she talked, and with a good many words interposed by her + when he took up the tale, they unfolded the story, which was + very long as they told it and must be given briefly here. + </p> + <p> + It happened that when the Bawcombes settled at Doveton, just + as Mr. Ellerby had taken to the shepherd, making a friend of + him, so Mrs. Ellerby took to the shepherd's wife, and fell + into the habit of paying frequent visits to her in her + cottage. She was a very handsome woman, of a somewhat stately + presence, dignified in manner, and she wore her abundant hair + in curls hanging on each side to her shoulders—a + fashion common at that time. From the first she appeared to + take a particular interest in the Bawcombes, and they could + not but notice that she was more gracious and friendly + towards them than to the others of their station on the farm. + The Bawcombes had three children then, aged six, four, and + two years respectively, all remarkably healthy, with rosy + cheeks and black eyes, and they were merry-tempered little + things. Mrs. Ellerby appeared much taken with the children; + praised their mother for always keeping them so clean and + nicely dressed, and wondered how she could manage it on their + small earnings. The carter and his wife lived in a cottage + close by, and they, too, had three little children, and next + to the carter's was the bailiff's cottage, and he, too, was + married and had children; but Mrs. Ellerby never went into + their cottages, and the shepherd and his wife concluded that + it was because in both cases the children were rather puny, + sickly-looking little things and were never very clean. The + carter's wife, too, was a slatternly woman. One day when Mrs. + Ellerby came in to see Mrs. Bawcombe the carter's wife was + just going out of the door, and Mrs. Ellerby appeared + displeased, and before leaving she said, "I hope, Mrs. + Bawcombe, you are not going to mix too freely with your + neighbours or let your children go too much with them and + fall into their ways." They also observed that when she + passed their neighbours' children in the lane she spoke no + word and appeared not to see them. Yet she was kind to them + too, and whenever she brought a big parcel of cakes, fruit, + and sweets for the children, which she often did, she would + tell the shepherd's wife to divide it into three lots, one + for her own children and the others for those of her two + neighbours. It was clear to see that Mrs. Ellerby had grown + fond of her children, especially of the eldest, the little + rosy-cheeked six-year-old boy. Sitting in the cottage she + would call him to her side and would hold his hand while + conversing with his mother; she would also bare the child's + arm just for the pleasure of rubbing it with her hand and + clasping it round with her fingers, and sometimes when + caressing the child in this way she would turn her face aside + to hide the tears that dropped from her eyes. + </p> + <p> + She had no child of her own—the one happiness which she + and her husband desired above all things. Six times in their + ten married years they had hoped and rejoiced, although with + fear and trembling, that their prayer would be answered, but + in vain—every child born to them came lifeless into the + world. "And so 'twould always be, for sure," said the + villagers, "because of the curse." + </p> + <p> + For it was a cause of wonder to the shepherd and his wife + that this couple, so strong and healthy, so noble-looking, so + anxious to have children, should have been so unfortunate, + and still the villagers repeated that it was the curse that + was on them. + </p> + <p> + This made the shepherd angry. "What be you saying about a + curse that is on them?—a good man and a good woman!" he + would exclaim, and taking up his crook go out and leave them + to their gossip. He would not ask them what they meant; he + refused to listen when they tried to tell him; but in the end + he could not help knowing, since the idea had become a fixed + one in the minds of all the villagers, and he could not keep + it out. "Look at them," the gossipers would say, "as fine a + couple as you ever saw, and no child; and look at his two + brothers, fine, big, strong, well-set-up men, both married to + fine healthy women, and never a child living to any of them. + And the sisters unmarried! 'Tis the curse and nothing else." + </p> + <p> + The curse had been uttered against Mr. Ellerby's father, who + was in his prime in the year 1831 at the time of the "mob," + when the introduction of labour-saving machinery in + agriculture sent the poor farm-labourers mad all over + England. Wheat was at a high price at that time, and the + farmers were exceedingly prosperous, but they paid no more + than seven shillings a week to their miserable labourers. And + if they were half-starved when there was work for all, when + the corn was reaped with sickles, what would their condition + be when reaping machines and other new implements of + husbandry came into use? They would not suffer it; they would + gather in bands everywhere and destroy the machinery, and + being united they would be irresistible; and so it came about + that there were risings or "mobs" all over the land. + </p> + <p> + Mr. Ellerby, the most prosperous and enterprising farmer in + the parish, had been the first to introduce the new methods. + He did not believe that the people would rise against him, + for he well knew that he was regarded as a just and kind man + and was even loved by his own labourers, but even if it had + not been so he would not have hesitated to carry out his + resolution, as he was a high-spirited man. But one day the + villagers got together and came unexpectedly to his barns, + where they set to work to destroy his new thrashing machine. + When he was told he rushed out and went in hot haste to the + scene, and as he drew near some person in the crowd threw a + heavy hammer at him, which struck him on the head and brought + him senseless to the ground. + </p> + <p> + He was not seriously injured, but when he recovered the work + of destruction had been done and the men had gone back to + their homes, and no one could say who had led them and who + had thrown the hammer. But by and by the police discovered + that the hammer was the property of a shoemaker in the + village, and he was arrested and charged with injuring with + intent to murder. Tried with many others from other villages + in the district at the Salisbury Assizes, he was found guilty + and sentenced to transportation for life. Yet the Doveton + shoemaker was known to every one as a quiet, inoffensive + young man, and to the last he protested his innocence, for + although he had gone with the others to the farm he had not + taken the hammer and was guiltless of having thrown it. + </p> + <p> + Two years after he had been sent away Mr. Ellerby received a + letter with an Australian postmark on it, but on opening it + found nothing but a long denunciatory passage from the Bible + enclosed, with no name or address. Mr. Ellerby was much + disturbed in his mind, and instead of burning the paper and + holding his peace, he kept it and spoke about it to this + person and that, and every one went to his Bible to find out + what message the poor shoemaker had sent, for it had been + discovered that it was the one hundred and ninth Psalm, or a + great portion of it, and this is what they read:— + </p> + <p> + "Let the iniquity of his fathers be remembered with the Lord; + and let not the sin of his mother be blotted out. + </p> + <p> + "Let them be before the Lord continually, that he may cut off + the memory of them from the earth. + </p> + <p> + "Because that he remembered not to show mercy, but persecuted + the poor and needy man, that he might even slay the broken in + heart. + </p> + <p> + "As he loved cursing, so let it come unto him; as he + delighted not in blessing, so let it be far from him. + </p> + <p> + "As he clothed himself with cursing like as with a garment, + so let it come into his bowels like water, and like oil into + his bones. + </p> + <p> + "Let it be unto him as a garment which covereth him, and for + a girdle wherewith he is girded continually. + </p> + <p> + "But do Thou for me, O God the Lord, for Thy name's sake. For + I am poor and needy, and my heart is wounded within me. + </p> + <p> + "I am come like the shadow when it declineth: I am tossed up + and down as the locust. + </p> + <p> + "My knees are weak through fasting; and my flesh faileth of + fatness." + </p> + <p> + From that time the hundred and ninth Psalm became familiar to + the villagers, and there were probably not many who did not + get it by heart. There was no doubt in their minds of the + poor shoemaker's innocence. Every one knew that he was + incapable of hurting a fly. The crowd had gone into his shop + and swept him away with them—all were in it; and some + person seeing the hammer had taken it to help in smashing the + machinery. And Mr. Ellerby had known in his heart that he was + innocent, and if he had spoken a word for him in court he + would have got the benefit of the doubt and been discharged. + But no, he wanted to have his revenge on some one, and he + held his peace and allowed this poor fellow to be made the + victim. Then, when he died, and his eldest son succeeded him + at Doveton Farm, and he and the other sons got married, and + there were no children, or none born alive, they went back to + the Psalm again and read and re-read and quoted the words: + "Let his posterity be cut off; and in the generation + following let their name be blotted out." Undoubtedly the + curse was on them! + </p> + <p> + Alas! it was; the curse was their belief in the curse, and + the dreadful effect of the knowledge of it on a woman's + mind—all the result of Mr. Ellerby the father's fatal + mistake in not having thrown the scrap of paper that came to + him from the other side of the world into the fire. All the + unhappiness of the "generation following" came about in this + way, and the family came to an end; for when the last of the + Ellerbys died at a great age there was not one person of the + name left in that part of Wiltshire. + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p><a name="ch16"><!--Marker--></a> + <h2> + CHAPTER XVI + </h2> + <h3> + OLD WILTSHIRE DAYS + </h3> + <blockquote> + Old memories—Hindon as a borough and as a + village—The Lamb Inn and its birds—The "mob" at + Hindon—The blind smuggler—Rawlings of Lower + Pertwood Farm—Reed, the thresher and + deer-stealer—He leaves a fortune—Devotion to + work—Old Father Time—Groveley Wood and the + people's rights—Grace Reed and the Earl of + Pembroke—An illusion of the very + aged—Sedan-chairs in Bath—Stick-gathering by the + poor—Game-preserving + </blockquote> + <p> + The incident of the unhappy young man who was transported to + Australia or Tasmania, which came out in the shepherd's + history of the Ellerby family, put it in my mind to look up + some of the very aged people of the downland villages, whose + memories could go back to the events of eighty years ago. I + found a few, "still lingering here," who were able to recall + that miserable and memorable year of 1830 and had witnessed + the doings of the "mobs." One was a woman, my old friend of + Fonthill Bishop, now aged ninety-four, who was in her teens + when the poor labourers, "a thousand strong," some say, armed + with cudgels, hammers, and axes, visited her village and + broke up the thrashing machines they found there. + </p> + <p> + Another person who remembered that time was an old but + remarkably well-preserved man of eighty-nine at Hindon, a + village a couple of miles distant from Fonthill Bishop. + Hindon is a delightful little village, so rustic and pretty + amidst its green, swelling downs, with great woods crowning + the heights beyond, that one can hardly credit the fact that + it was formerly an important market and session town and a + Parliamentary borough returning two members; also that it + boasted among other greatnesses thirteen public-houses. Now + it has two, and not flourishing in these tea- and + mineral-water drinking days. Naturally it was an exceeedingly + corrupt little borough, where free beer for all was the order + of the day for a period of four to six weeks before an + election, and where every householder with a vote looked to + receive twenty guineas from the candidate of his choice. It + is still remembered that when a householder in those days was + very hard up, owing, perhaps, to his too frequent visits to + the thirteen public-houses, he would go to some substantial + tradesman in the place and pledge his twenty guineas, due at + the next election! In due time, after the Reform Bill, it was + deprived of its glory, and later when the South-Western + Railway built their line from Salisbury to Yeovil and left + Hindon some miles away, making their station at Tisbury, it + fell into decay, dwindling to the small village it now is; + and its last state, sober and purified, is very much better + than the old. For although sober, it is contented and even + merry, and exhibits such a sweet friendliness toward the + stranger within its gates as to make him remember it with + pleasure and gratitude. + </p> + <p> + What a quiet little place Hindon has become, after its old + noisy period, the following little bird story will show. For + several weeks during the spring and summer of 1909 my home + was at the Lamb Inn, a famous posting-house of the great old + days, and we had three pairs of birds—throstle, pied + wagtail, and flycatcher—breeding in the ivy covering + the wall facing the village street, just over my window. I + watched them when building, incubating, feeding their young, + and bringing their young off. The villagers, too, were + interested in the sight, and sometimes a dozen or more men + and boys would gather and stand for half an hour watching the + birds flying in and out of their nests when feeding their + young. The last to come off were the flycatchers, on 18th + June. It was on the morning of the day I left, and one of the + little things flitted into the room where I was having my + breakfast. I succeeded in capturing it before the cats found + out, and put it back on the ivy. There were three young + birds; I had watched them from the time they hatched, and + when I returned a fortnight later, there were the three, + still being fed by their parents in the trees and on the + roof, their favourite perching-place being on the swinging + sign of the "Lamb." Whenever an old bird darted at and + captured a fly the three young would flutter round it like + three butterflies to get the fly. This continued until 18th + July, after which date I could not detect their feeding the + young, although the hunger-call was occasionally heard. + </p> + <p> + If the flycatcher takes a month to teach its young to catch + their own flies, it is not strange that it breeds but once in + the year. It is a delicate art the bird practises and takes + long to learn, but how different with the martin, which + dismisses its young in a few days and begins breeding again, + even to the third time! + </p> + <p> + These three broods over my window were not the only ones in + the place; there were at least twenty other pairs in the + garden and outhouses of the inn—sparrows, thrushes, + blackbirds, dunnocks, wrens, starlings, and swallows. Yet the + inn was in the very centre of the village, and being an inn + was the most frequented and noisiest spot. + </p> + <p> + To return to my old friend of eighty-nine. He was but a small + boy, attending the Hindon school, when the rioters appeared + on the scene, and he watched their entry from the schoolhouse + window. It was market-day, and the market was stopped by the + invaders, and the agricultural machines brought for sale and + exhibition were broken up. The picture that remains in his + mind is of a great excited crowd in which men and cattle and + sheep were mixed together in the wide street, which was the + market-place, and of shouting and noise of smashing + machinery, and finally of the mob pouring forth over the down + on its way to the next village, he and other little boys + following their march. + </p> + <p> + The smuggling trade flourished greatly at that period, and + there were receivers and distributors of smuggled wine, + spirits, and other commodities in every town and in very many + villages throughout the county in spite of its distance from + the sea-coast. One of his memories is of a blind man of the + village, or town as it was then, who was used as an assistant + in this business. He had lost his sight in childhood, one eye + having been destroyed by a ferret which got into his cradle; + then, when he was about six years old he was running across + the room one day with a fork it his hand when he stumbled, + and falling on the floor had the other eye pierced by the + prongs. But in spite of his blindness he became a good + worker, and could make a fence, reap, trim hedges, feed the + animals, and drive a horse as well as any man. His father had + a small farm and was a carrier as well, a quiet, sober, + industrious man who was never suspected by his neighbours of + being a smuggler, for he never left his house and work, but + from time to time he had little consignments of rum and + brandy in casks received on a dark night and carefully stowed + away in his manure heap and in a pit under the floor of his + pigsty. Then the blind son would drive his old mother in the + carrier's cart to Bath and call at a dozen or twenty private + houses, leaving parcels which had been already ordered and + paid for—a gallon of brandy at one, two or four gallons + of rum at another, and so on, until all was got rid of, and + on the following day they would return with goods to Hindon. + This quiet little business went on satisfactorily for some + years, during which the officers of the excise had stared a + thousand times with their eagle's eyes at the quaint old + woman in her poke bonnet and shawl, driven by a blind man + with a vacant face, and had suspected nothing, when a little + mistake was made and a jar of brandy delivered at a wrong + address. The recipient was an honest gentleman, and in his + anxiety to find the rightful owner of the brandy made + extensive inquiries in his neighbourhood, and eventually the + excisemen got wind of the affair, and on the very next visit + of the old woman and her son to Bath they were captured. + After an examination before a magistrate the son was + discharged on account of his blindness, but the cart and + horses, as well as the smuggled spirits, were confiscated, + and the poor blind man had to make his way on foot to Hindon. + </p> + <p> + Another of his recollections is of a family named Rawlings, + tenants of Lower Pertwood Farm, near Hindon, a lonely, + desolate-looking house hidden away in a deep hollow among the + high downs. The Farmer Rawlings of seventy or eighty years + ago was a man of singular ideas, and that he was permitted to + put them in practice shows that severe as was the law in + those days, and dreadful the punishments inflicted on + offenders, there was a kind of liberty which does not exist + now—the liberty a man had of doing just what he thought + proper in his own house. This Rawlings had a numerous family, + and some died at home and others lived to grow up and go out + into the world under strange names—Faith, Hope, and + Charity were three of his daughters, and Justice, Morality, + and Fortitude three of his sons. Now, for some reason + Rawlings objected to the burial of his dead in the churchyard + of the nearest village—Monkton Deverill, and the story + is that he quarrelled with the rector over the question of + the church bell being tolled for the funeral. He would have + no bell tolled, he swore, and the rector would bury no one + without the bell. Thereupon Rawlings had the coffined corpse + deposited on a table in an outhouse and the door made fast. + Later there was another death, then a third, and all three + were kept in the same place for several years, and although + it was known to the whole countryside no action was taken by + the local authorities. + </p> + <p> + My old informant says that he was often at the farm when he + was a young man, and he used to steal round to the "Dead + House," as it was called, to peep through a crack in the door + and see the three coffins resting on the table in the dim + interior. + </p> + <p> + Eventually the dead disappeared a little while before the + Rawlings gave up the farm, and it was supposed that the old + farmer had buried them in the night-time in one of the + neighbouring chalk-pits, but the spot has never been + discovered. + </p> + <p> + One of the stories of the old Wiltshire days I picked up was + from an old woman, aged eighty-seven, in the Wilton + workhouse. She has a vivid recollection of a labourer named + Reed, in Odstock, a village on the Ebble near Salisbury, a + stern, silent man, who was a marvel of strength and + endurance. The work in which he most delighted was precisely + that which most labourers hated, before threshing machines + came in despite the action of the "mobs"—threshing out + corn with the flail. From earliest dawn till after dark he + would sit or stand in a dim, dusty barn, monotonously + pounding away, without an interval to rest, and without + dinner, and with no food but a piece of bread and a pinch of + salt. Without the salt he would not eat the bread. An hour + after all others had ceased from work he would put on his + coat and trudge home to his wife and family. + </p> + <p> + The woman in the workhouse remembers that once, when Reed was + a very old man past work, he came to their cottage for + something, and while he stood waiting at the entrance, a + little boy ran in and asked his mother for a piece of bread + and butter with sugar on it. Old Reed glared at him, and + shaking his big stick, exclaimed, "I'd give you sugar with + this if you were my boy!" and so terrible did he look in his + anger at the luxury of the times, that the little boy burst + out crying and ran away! + </p> + <p> + What chiefly interested me about this old man was that he was + a deer-stealer of the days when that offence was common in + the country. It was not so great a crime as sheep-stealing, + for which men were hanged; taking a deer was punished with + nothing worse than hard labour, as a rule. But Reed was never + caught; he would labour his full time and steal away after + dark over the downs, to return in the small hours with a deer + on his back. It was not for his own consumption; he wanted + the money for which he sold it in Salisbury; and it is + probable that he was in league with other poachers, as it is + hard to believe that he could capture the animals + single-handed. + </p> + <p> + After his death it was found that old Reed had left a hundred + pounds to each of his two surviving daughters, and it was a + wonder to everybody how he had managed not only to bring up a + family and keep himself out of the workhouse to the end of + his long life, but to leave so large a sum of money. One can + only suppose that he was a rigid economist and never had a + week's illness, and that by abstaining from beer and tobacco + he was able to save a couple of shillings each week out of + his wages of seven or eight shillings; this, in forty years, + would make the two hundred pounds with something over. + </p> + <p> + It is not a very rare thing to find a farm-labourer like old + Reed of Odstock, with not only a strong preference for a + particular kind of work, but a love of it as compelling as + that of an artist for his art. Some friends of mine whom I + went to visit over the border in Dorset told me of an + enthusiast of this description who had recently died in the + village. "What a pity you did not come sooner," they said. + Alas! it is nearly always so; on first coming to stay at a + village one is told that it has but just lost its oldest and + most interesting inhabitant—a relic of the olden time. + </p> + <p> + This man had taken to the scythe as Reed had to the flail, + and was never happy unless he had a field to mow. He was a + very tall old man, so lean that he looked like a skeleton, + the bones covered with a skin as brown as old leather, and he + wore his thin grey hair and snow-white beard very long. He + rode on a white donkey, and was usually seen mounted + galloping down the village street, hatless, his old brown, + bare feet and legs drawn up to keep them from the ground, his + scythe over his shoulder. "Here comes old Father Time," they + would cry, as they called him, and run to the door to gaze + with ever fresh delight at the wonderful old man as he rushed + by, kicking and shouting at his donkey to make him go faster. + He was always in a hurry, hunting for work with furious zeal, + and when he got a field to mow so eager was he that he would + not sleep at home, even if it was close by, but would lie + down on the grass at the side of the field and start working + at dawn, between two and three o'clock, quite three hours + before the world woke up to its daily toil. + </p> + <p> + The name of Reed, the zealous thresher with the flail, serves + to remind me of yet another Reed, a woman who died a few + years ago aged ninety-four, and whose name should be + cherished in one of the downland villages. She was a native + of Barford St. Martin on the Nadder, one of two villages, the + other being Wishford, on the Wylye river, the inhabitants of + which have the right to go into Groveley Wood, an immense + forest on the Wilton estate, to obtain wood for burning, each + person being entitled to take home as much wood as he or she + can carry. The people of Wishford take green wood, but those + of Barford only dead, they having bartered their right at a + remote period to cut growing trees for a yearly sum of five + pounds, which the lord of the manor still pays to the + village, and, in addition, the right to take dead wood. + </p> + <p> + It will be readily understood that this right possessed by + the people of two villages, both situated within a mile of + the forest, has been a perpetual source of annoyance to the + noble owners in modern times, since the strict preservation + of game, especially of pheasants, has grown to be almost a + religion to the landowners. Now it came to pass that about + half a century or longer ago, the Pembroke of that time made + the happy discovery, as he imagined, that there was nothing + to show that the Barford people had any right to the dead + wood. They had been graciously allowed to take it, as was the + case all over the country at that time, and that was all. At + once he issued an edict prohibiting the taking of dead wood + from the forest by the villagers, and great as the loss was + to them they acquiesced; not a man of Barford St. Martin + dared to disobey the prohibition or raise his voice against + it. Grace Reed then determined to oppose the mighty earl, and + accompanied by four other women of the village boldly went to + the wood and gathered their sticks and brought them home. + They were summoned before the magistrates and fined, and on + their refusal to pay were sent to prison; but the very next + day they were liberated and told that a mistake had been + made, that the matter had been inquired into, and it had been + found that the people of Barford did really have the right + they had exercised so long to take dead wood from the forest. + </p> + <p> + As a result of the action of these women the right has not + been challenged since, and on my last visit to Barford, a few + days before writing this chapter, I saw three women coming + down from the forest with as much dead wood as they could + carry on their heads and backs. But how near they came to + losing their right! It was a bold, an unheard-of thing which + they did, and if there had not been a poor cottage woman with + the spirit to do it at the proper moment the right could + never have been revived. + </p> + <p> + Grace Reed's children's children are living at Barford now; + they say that to the very end of her long life she preserved + a very clear memory of the people and events of the village + in the old days early in the last century. They say, too, + that in recalling the far past, the old people and scenes + would present themselves so vividly to her mind that she + would speak of them as of recent things, and would say to + some one fifty years younger than herself, "Can't you + remember it? Surely you haven't forgotten it when 'twas the + talk of the village!" + </p> + <p> + It is a common illusion of the very aged, and I had an + amusing instance of it in my old Hindon friend when he gave + me his first impressions of Bath as he saw it about the year + 1835. What astonished him most were the sedan-chairs, for he + had never even heard of such a conveyance, but here in this + city of wonders you met them in every street. Then he added, + "But you've been to Bath and of course you've seen them, and + know all about it." + </p> + <p> + About firewood-gathering by the poor in woods and forests, my + old friend of Fonthill Bishop says that the people of the + villages adjacent to the Fonthill and Great Ridge Woods were + allowed to take as much dead wood as they wanted from those + places. She was accustomed to go to the Great Ridge Wood, + which was even wilder and more like a natural forest in those + days than it is now. It was fully two miles from her village, + a longish distance to carry a heavy load, and it was her + custom after getting the wood out to bind it firmly in a + large barrel-shaped bundle or faggot, as in that way she + could roll it down the smooth steep slopes of the down and so + get her burden home without so much groaning and sweating. + The great wood was then full of hazel-trees, and produced + such an abundance of nuts that from mid-July to September + people flocked to it for the nutting from all the country + round, coming even from Bath and Bristol to load their carts + with nuts in sacks for the market. Later, when the wood began + to be more strictly preserved for sporting purposes, the + rabbits were allowed to increase excessively, and during the + hard winters they attacked the hazel-trees, gnawing off the + bark, until this most useful and profitable wood the forest + produced—the scrubby oaks having little value—was + well-nigh extirpated. By and by pheasants as well as rabbits + were strictly preserved, and the firewood-gatherers were + excluded altogether. At present you find dead wood lying + about all over the place, abundantly as in any primitive + forest, where trees die of old age or disease, or are blown + down or broken off by the winds and are left to rot on the + ground, overgrown with ivy and brambles. But of all this dead + wood not a stick to boil a kettle may be taken by the + neighbouring poor lest the pheasants should be disturbed or a + rabbit be picked up. + </p> + <p> + Some more of the old dame's recollections will be given in + the next chapter, showing what the condition of the people + was in this district about the year 1830, when the poor + farm-labourers were driven by hunger and misery to revolt + against their masters—the farmers who were everywhere + breaking up the downs with the plough to sow more and still + more corn, who were growing very fat and paying higher and + higher rents to their fat landlords, while the wretched men + that drove the plough had hardly enough to satisfy their + hunger. + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p><a name="ch17"><!--Marker--></a> + <h2> + CHAPTER XVII + </h2> + <h3> + OLD WILTSHIRE DAYS—<i>CONTINUED</i> + </h3> + <blockquote> + An old Wiltshire woman's memories—Her home—Work + on a farm—A little + bird-scarer—Housekeeping—The agricultural + labourers' rising—Villagers out of work—Relief + work—A game of ball with barley + bannocks—Sheep-stealing—A poor man + hanged—Temptations to steal—A sheep-stealing + shepherd—A sheep-stealing farmer—Story of + Ebenezer Garlick—A sheep-stealer at Chitterne—The + law and the judges—A "human devil" in a black + cap—How the revolting labourers were punished—A + last scene at Salisbury Court House—Inquest on a + murdered man—Policy of the farmers + </blockquote> + <p> + The story of her early life told by my old friend Joan, aged + ninety-four, will serve to give some idea of the extreme + poverty and hard suffering life of the agricultural labourers + during the thirties of last century, at a time when farmers + were exceedingly prosperous and landlords drawing high rents. + </p> + <p> + She was three years old when her mother died, after the birth + of a boy, the last of eleven children. There was a dame's + school in their little village of Fonthill Abbey, but the + poverty of the family would have made it impossible for Joan + to attend had it not been for an unselfish person residing + there, a Mr. King, who was anxious that every child should be + taught its letters. He paid for little Joan's schooling from + the age of four to eight; and now, in the evening of her + life, when she sits by the fire with her book, she blesses + the memory of the man, dead these seventy or eighty years, + who made this solace possible for her. + </p> + <p> + After the age of eight there could be no more school, for now + all the older children had gone out into the world to make + their own poor living, the boys to work on distant farms, the + girls to service or to be wives, and Joan was wanted at home + to keep house for her father, to do the washing, mending, + cleaning, cooking, and to be mother to her little brother as + well. + </p> + <p> + Her father was a ploughman, at seven shillings a week; but + when Joan was ten he met with a dreadful accident when + ploughing with a couple of young or intractable oxen; in + trying to stop them he got entangled in the ropes and one of + his legs badly broken by the plough. As a result it was six + months before he could leave his cottage. The overseer of the + parish, a prosperous farmer who had a large farm a couple of + miles away, came to inquire into the matter and see what was + to be done. His decision was that the man would receive three + shillings a week until able to start work again, and as that + would just serve to keep him, the children must go out to + work. Meanwhile, one of the married daughters had come to + look after her father in the cottage, and that set the little + ones free. + </p> + <p> + The overseer said he would give them work on his farm and pay + them a few pence apiece and give them their meals; so to his + farm they went, returning each evening home. That was her + first place, and from that time on she was a toiler, indoors + and out, but mainly in the fields, till she was past + eighty-five;—seventy-five years of hard work—then + less and less as her wonderful strength diminished, and her + sons and daughters were getting grey, until now at the age of + ninety-four she does very little—practically nothing. + </p> + <p> + In that first place she had a very hard master in the farmer + and overseer. He was known in all the neighbourhood as "Devil + Turner," and even at that time, when farmers had their men + under their heel as it were, he was noted for his savage + tyrannical disposition; also for a curious sardonic humour, + which displayed itself in the forms of punishment he + inflicted on the workmen who had the ill-luck to offend him. + The man had to take the punishment, however painful or + disgraceful, without a murmur, or go and starve. Every + morning thereafter Joan and her little brother, aged seven, + had to be up in time to get to the farm at five o'clock in + the morning, and if it was raining or snowing or bitterly + cold, so much the worse for them, but they had to be there, + for Devil Turner's bad temper was harder to bear than bad + weather. Joan was a girl of all work, in and out of doors, + and, in severe weather, when there was nothing else for her + to do, she would be sent into the fields to gather flints, + the coldest of all tasks for her little hands. + </p> + <p> + "But what could your little brother, a child of seven, do in + such a place?" I asked. + </p> + <p> + She laughed when she told me of her little brother's very + first day at the farm. The farmer was, for a devil, + considerate, and gave him something very light for a + beginning, which was to scare the birds from the ricks. "And + if they will come back you must catch them," he said, and + left the little fellow to obey the difficult command as he + could. The birds that worried him most were the fowls, for + however often he hunted them away they would come back again. + Eventually, he found some string, with which he made some + little loops fastened to sticks, and these he arranged on a + spot of ground he had cleared, scattering a few grains of + corn on it to attract the "birds." By this means he succeeded + in capturing three of the robbers, and when the farmer came + round at noon to see how he was getting on, the little fellow + showed him his captures. "These are not birds," said the + farmer, "they are fowls, and don't you trouble yourself any + more about them, but keep your eye on the sparrows and little + birds and rooks and jackdaws that come to pull the straws + out." + </p> + <p> + That was how he started; then from the ricks to bird-scaring + in the fields and to other tasks suited to one of his age, + not without much suffering and many tears. The worst + experience was the punishment of standing motionless for long + hours at a time on a chair placed out in the yard, full in + sight of the windows of the house, so that he could be seen + by the inmates; the hardest, the cruellest task that could be + imposed on him would come as a relief after this. Joan + suffered no punishment of that kind; she was very anxious to + please her master and worked hard; but she was an intelligent + and spirited child, and as the sole result of her best + efforts was that more and more work was put on her, she + revolted against such injustice, and eventually, tried beyond + endurance, she ran away home and refused to go back to the + farm any more. She found some work in the village; for now + her sister had to go back to her husband, and Joan had to + take her place and look after her father and the house as + well as earn something to supplement the three shillings a + week they had to live on. + </p> + <p> + After about nine months her father was up and out again and + went back to the plough; for just then a great deal of down + was being broken up and brought under cultivation on account + of the high price of wheat and good ploughmen were in + request. He was lame, the injured limb being now considerably + shorter than the other, and when ploughing he could only + manage to keep on his legs by walking with the longer one in + the furrow and the other on the higher ground. But after + struggling on for some months in this way, suffering much + pain and his strength declining, he met with a fresh accident + and was laid up once more in his cottage, and from that time + until his death he did no more farm work. Joan and her little + brother lived or slept at home and worked to keep themselves + and him. + </p> + <p> + Now in this, her own little story, and in her account of the + condition of the people at that time; also in the histories + of other old men and women whose memories go back as far as + hers, supplemented by a little reading in the newspapers of + that day, I can understand how it came about that these poor + labourers, poor, spiritless slaves as they had been made by + long years of extremest poverty and systematic oppression, + rose at last against their hard masters and smashed the + agricultural machines, and burnt ricks and broke into houses + to destroy and plunder their contents. It was a desperate, a + mad adventure—these gatherings of half-starved yokels, + armed with sticks and axes, and they were quickly put down + and punished in a way that even William the Bastard would not + have considered as too lenient. But oppression had made them + mad; the introduction of thrashing machines was but the last + straw, the culminating act of the hideous system followed by + landlords and their tenants—the former to get the + highest possible rent for his land, the other to get his + labour at the lowest possible rate. It was a compact between + landlord and tenant aimed against the labourer. It was not + merely the fact that the wages of a strong man were only + seven shillings a week at the outside, a sum barely + sufficient to keep him and his family from starvation and + rags (as a fact it was not enough, and but for a little + poaching and stealing he could not have lived), but it was + customary, especially on the small farms, to get rid of the + men after the harvest and leave them to exist the best way + they could during the bitter winter months. Thus every + village, as a rule, had its dozen or twenty or more men + thrown out each year—good steady men, with families + dependent on them; and besides these there were the aged and + weaklings and the lads who had not yet got a place. The + misery of these out-of-work labourers was extreme. They would + go to the woods and gather faggots of dead wood, which they + would try to sell in the villages; but there were few who + could afford to buy of them; and at night they would skulk + about the fields to rob a swede or two to satisfy the + cravings of hunger. + </p> + <p> + In some parishes the farmer overseers were allowed to give + relief work—out of the rates, it goes without + saying—to these unemployed men of the village who had + been discharged in October or November and would be wanted + again when the winter was over. They would be put to + flint-gathering in the fields, their wages being four + shillings a week. Some of the very old people of Winterbourne + Bishop, when speaking of the principal food of the labourers + at that time, the barley bannock and its exceeding toughness, + gave me an amusing account of a game of balls invented by the + flint-gatherers, just for the sake of a little fun during + their long weary day in the fields, especially in cold, + frosty weather. The men would take their dinners with them, + consisting of a few barley balls or cakes, in their coat + pockets, and at noon they would gather at one spot to enjoy + their meal, and seat themselves on the ground in a very wide + circle, the men about ten yards apart, then each one would + produce his bannocks and start throwing, aiming at some other + man's face; there were hits and misses and great excitement + and hilarity for twenty or thirty minutes, after which the + earth and gravel adhering to the balls would be wiped off, + and they would set themselves to the hard task of masticating + and swallowing the heavy stuff. + </p> + <p> + At sunset they would go home to a supper of more barley + bannocks, washed down with hot water flavoured with some + aromatic herb or weed, and then straight to bed to get warm, + for there was little firing. + </p> + <p> + It was not strange that sheep-stealing was one of the + commonest offences against the law at that time, in spite of + the dreadful penalty. Hunger made the people reckless. My old + friend Joan, and other old persons, have said to me that it + appeared in those days that the men were strangely + indifferent and did not seem to care whether they were hanged + or not. It is true they did not hang very many of + them—the judge, as a rule, after putting on his black + cap and ordering them to the gallows, would send in a + recommendation to mercy for most of them; but the mercy of + that time was like that of the wicked, exceedingly cruel. + Instead of swinging, it was transportation for life, or for + fourteen, and, at the very least, seven years. Those who have + read Clarke's terrible book "For the Term of His Natural + Life" know (in a way) what these poor Wiltshire labourers, + who in most cases were never more heard of by their wives and + children, were sent to endure in Australia and Tasmania. + </p> + <p> + And some were hanged; my friend Joan named some people she + knows in the neighbourhood who are the grandchildren of a + young man with a wife and family of small children who was + hanged at Salisbury. She had a vivid recollection of this + case because it had seemed so hard, the man having been + maddened by want when he took a sheep; also because when he + was hanged his poor young wife travelled to the place of + slaughter to beg for his body, and had it brought home and + buried decently in the village churchyard. + </p> + <p> + How great the temptation to steal sheep must have been, + anyone may know now by merely walking about among the fields + in this part of the country to see how the sheep are folded + and left by night unguarded, often at long distances from the + village, in distant fields and on the downs. Even in the + worst times it was never customary, never thought necessary, + to guard the flock by night. Many cases could be given to + show how easy it was to steal sheep. One quite recent, about + twenty years ago, is of a shepherd who was frequently sent + with sheep to the fairs, and who on his way to Wilton fair + with a flock one night turned aside to open a fold and let + out nineteen sheep. On arriving at the fair he took out the + stolen sheep and sold them to a butcher of his acquaintance + who sent them up to London. But he had taken too many from + one flock; they were quickly missed, and by some lucky chance + it was found out and the shepherd arrested. He was sentenced + to eight months' hard labour, and it came out during the + trial that this poor shepherd, whose wages were fourteen + shillings a week, had a sum of L400 to his credit in a + Salisbury bank! + </p> + <p> + Another case which dates far back is that of a farmer named + Day, who employed a shepherd or drover to take sheep to the + fairs and markets and steal sheep for him on the way. It is + said that he went on at this game for years before it was + discovered. Eventually master and man quarrelled and the + drover gave information, whereupon Day was arrested and + lodged in Fisherton Jail at Salisbury. Later he was sent to + take his trial at Devizes, on horseback, accompanied by two + constables. At the "Druid's Head," a public-house on the way, + the three travellers alighted for refreshments, and there Day + succeeded in giving them the slip, and jumping on a fast + horse, standing ready saddled for him, made his escape. + Farmer Day never returned to the Plain and was never heard of + again. + </p> + <p> + There is an element of humour in some of the sheep-stealing + stories of the old days. At one village where I often stayed, + I heard about a certain Ebenezer Garlick, who was commonly + called, in allusion no doubt to his surname, "Sweet Vi'lets." + He was a sober, hard-working man, an example to most, but + there was this against him, that he cherished a very close + friendship with a poor, disreputable, drunken loafer + nicknamed "Flittermouse," who spent most of his time hanging + about the old coaching inn at the place for the sake of tips. + Sweet Vi'lets was always giving coppers and sixpences to this + man, but one day they fell out when Flittermouse begged for a + shilling. He must, he said, have a shilling, he couldn't do + with less, and when the other refused he followed him, + demanding the money with abusive words, to everybody's + astonishment. Finally Sweet Vi'lets turned on him and told + him to go to the devil. Flittermouse in a rage went straight + to the constable and denounced his patron as a sheep-stealer. + He, Flittermouse, had been his servant and helper, and on the + very last occasion of stealing a sheep he had got rid of the + skin and offal by throwing them down an old disused well at + the top of the village street. To the well the constable went + with ropes and hooks, and succeeded in fishing up the remains + described, and he thereupon arrested Garlick and took him + before a magistrate, who committed him for trial. + Flittermouse was the only witness for the prosecution, and + the judge in his summing up said that, taking into + consideration Garlick's known character in the village as a + sober, diligent, honest man, it would be a little too much to + hang him on the unsupported testimony of a creature like + Flittermouse, who was half fool and half scoundrel. The jury, + pleased and very much surprised at being directed to let a + man off, obediently returned a verdict of Not Guilty, and + Sweet Vi'lets returned from Salisbury triumphant, to be + congratulated on his escape by all the villagers, who, + however, slyly winked and smiled at one another. + </p> + <p> + Of sheep-stealing stories I will relate one more—a case + which never came into court and was never discovered. It was + related to me by a middle-aged man, a shepherd of Warminster, + who had it from his father, a shepherd of Chitterne, one of + the lonely, isolated villages on Salisbury Plain, between the + Avon and the Wylye. His father had it from the person who + committed the crime and was anxious to tell it to some one, + and knew that the shepherd was his true friend, a silent, + safe man. He was a farm-labourer, named Shergold—one of + the South Wiltshire surnames very common in the early part of + last century, which now appear to be dying + out—described as a very big, powerful man, full of life + and energy. He had a wife and several young children to keep, + and the time was near mid-winter; Shergold was out of work, + having been discharged from the farm at the end of the + harvest; it was an exceptionally cold season and there was no + food and no firing in the house. + </p> + <p> + One evening in late December a drover arrived at Chitterne + with a flock of sheep which he was driving to Tilshead, + another downland village several miles away. He was anxious + to get to Tilshead that night and wanted a man to help him. + Shergold was on the spot and undertook to go with him for the + sum of fourpence. They set out when it was getting dark; the + sheep were put on the road, the drover going before the flock + and Shergold following at the tail. It was a cold, cloudy + night, threatening snow, and so dark that he could hardly + distinguish the dim forms of even the hindmost sheep, and by + and by the temptation to steal one assailed him. For how easy + it would be for him to do it! With his tremendous strength he + could kill and hide a sheep very quickly without making any + sound whatever to alarm the drover. He was very far ahead; + Shergold could judge the distance by the sound of his voice + when he uttered a call or shout from time to time, and by the + barking of the dog, as he flew up and down, first on one side + of the road, then on the other, to keep the flock well on it. + And he thought of what a sheep would be to him and to his + hungry ones at home until the temptation was too strong, and + suddenly lifting his big, heavy stick he brought it down with + such force on the head of a sheep as to drop it with its + skull crushed, dead as a stone. Hastily picking it up he ran + a few yards away, and placed it among the furze-bushes, + intending to take it home on his way back, and then returned + to the flock. + </p> + <p> + They arrived at Tilshead in the small hours, and after + receiving his fourpence he started for home, walking rapidly + and then running to be in time, but when he got back to where + the sheep was lying the dawn was coming, and he knew that + before he could get to Chitterne with that heavy burden on + his back people would be getting up in the village and he + would perhaps be seen. The only thing to do was to hide the + sheep and return for it on the following night. Accordingly + he carried it away a couple of hundred yards to a pit or + small hollow in the down full of bramble and furze-bushes, + and here he concealed it, covering it with a mass of dead + bracken and herbage, and left it. That afternoon the + long-threatening snow began to fall, and with snow on the + ground he dared not go to recover his sheep, since his + footprints would betray him; he must wait once more for the + snow to melt. But the snow fell all night, and what must his + feelings have been when he looked at it still falling in the + morning and knew that he could have gone for the sheep with + safety, since all traces would have been quickly obliterated! + </p> + <p> + Once more there was nothing to do but wait patiently for the + snow to cease falling and for the thaw. But how intolerable + it was; for the weather continued bitterly cold for many + days, and the whole country was white. During those hungry + days even that poor comfort of sleeping or dozing away the + time was denied him, for the danger of discovery was ever + present to his mind, and Shergold was not one of the callous + men who had become indifferent to their fate; it was his + first crime, and he loved his own life and his wife and + children, crying to him for food. And the food for them was + lying there on the down, close by, and he could not get it! + Roast mutton, boiled mutton—mutton in a dozen delicious + forms—the thought of it was as distressing, as + maddening, as that of the peril he was in. + </p> + <p> + It was a full fortnight before the wished thaw came; then + with fear and trembling he went for his sheep, only to find + that it had been pulled to pieces and the flesh devoured by + dogs and foxes! + </p> + <p> + From these memories of the old villagers I turn to the + newspapers of the day to make a few citations. + </p> + <p> + The law as it was did not distinguish between a case of the + kind just related, of the starving, sorely tempted Shergold, + and that of the systematic thief: sheep-stealing was a + capital offence and the man must hang, unless recommended to + mercy, and we know what was meant by "mercy" in those days. + That so barbarous a law existed within memory of people to be + found living in most villages appears almost incredible to + us; but despite the recommendations to "mercy" usual in a + large majority of cases, the law of that time was not more + horrible than the temper of the men who administered it. + There are good and bad among all, and in all professions, but + there is also a black spot in most, possibly in all hearts, + which may be developed to almost any extent, and change the + justest, wisest, most moral men into "human devils"—the + phrase invented by Canon Wilberforce in another connexion. In + reading the old reports and the expressions used by the + judges in their summings up and sentences, it is impossible + not to believe that the awful power they possessed, and its + constant exercise, had not only produced the inevitable + hardening effect, but had made them cruel in the true sense + of the word. Their pleasure in passing dreadful sentences was + very thinly disguised, indeed, by certain lofty conventional + phrases as to the necessity of upholding the law, morality, + and religion; they were, indeed, as familiar with the name of + the Deity as any ranter in a conventicle, and the "enormity + of the crime" was an expression as constantly used in the + case of the theft of a loaf of bread, or of an old coat left + hanging on a hedge, by some ill-clad, half-starved wretch, as + in cases of burglary, arson, rape, and murder. + </p> + <p> + It is surprising to find how very few the real crimes were in + those days, despite the misery of the people; that nearly all + the "crimes" for which men were sentenced to the gallows and + to transportation for life, or for long terms, were offences + which would now be sufficiently punished by a few weeks', or + even a few days', imprisonment. Thus in April 1825, I note + that Mr. Justice Park commented on the heavy appearance of + the calendar. It was not so much the number (170) of the + offenders that excited his concern as it was the nature of + the crimes with which they were charged. The worst crime in + this instance was sheep-stealing! + </p> + <p> + Again, this same Mr. Justice Park, at the Spring Assizes at + Salisbury 1827, said that though the calendar was a heavy + one, he was happy to find on looking at the depositions of + the principal cases, that they were not of a very serious + character. Nevertheless he passed sentence of death on + twenty-eight persons, among them being one for stealing half + a crown! + </p> + <p> + Of the twenty-eight all but three were eventually reprieved, + one of the fated three being a youth of nineteen, who was + charged with stealing a mare and pleaded guilty in spite of a + warning from the judge not to do so. This irritated the great + man who had the power of life and death in his hand. In + passing sentence the judge "expatiated on the prevalence of + the crime of horse-stealing and the necessity of making an + example. The enormity of Read's crime rendered him a proper + example, and he would therefore hold out no hope of mercy + towards him." As to the plea of guilty, he remarked that + nowadays too many persons pleaded guilty, deluded with the + hope that it would be taken into consideration and they would + escape the severer penalty. He was determined to put a stop + to that sort of thing; if Read had not pleaded guilty no + doubt some extenuating circumstance would have come up during + the trial and he would have saved his life. + </p> + <p> + There, if ever, spoke the "human devil" in a black cap! + </p> + <p> + I find another case of a sentence of transportation for life + on a youth of eighteen, named Edward Baker, for stealing a + pocket-handkerchief. Had he pleaded guilty it might have been + worse for him. + </p> + <p> + At the Salisbury Spring Assizes, 1830, Mr. Justice Gazalee, + addressing the grand jury, said that none of the crimes + appeared to be marked with circumstances of great moral + turpitude. The prisoners numbered one hundred and thirty; he + passed sentences of death on twenty-nine, life + transportations on five, fourteen years on five, seven years + on eleven, and various terms of hard labour on the others. + </p> + <p> + The severity of the magistrates at the quarter-sessions was + equally revolting. I notice in one case, where the leading + magistrate on the bench was a great local magnate, an M.P. + for Salisbury, etc., a poor fellow with the unfortunate name + of Moses Snook was charged with stealing a plank ten feet + long, the property of the aforesaid local magnate, M.P., + etc., and sentenced to fourteen years' transportation. + Sentenced by the man who owned the plank, worth perhaps a + shilling or two! + </p> + <p> + When such was the law of the land and the temper of those who + administered it—judges and magistrates or + landlords—what must the misery of the people have been + to cause them to rise in revolt against their masters! They + did nothing outrageous even in the height of their frenzy; + they smashed the thrashing machines, burnt some ricks, while + the maddest of them broke into a few houses and destroyed + their contents; but they injured no man; yet they knew what + they were facing—the gallows or transportation to the + penal settlements ready for their reception at the Antipodes. + It is a pity that the history of this rising of the + agricultural labourer, the most patient and submissive of + men, has never been written. Nothing, in fact, has ever been + said of it except from the point of view of landowners and + farmers, but there is ample material for a truer and a moving + narrative, not only in the brief reports in the papers of the + time, but also in the memories of many persons still living, + and of their children and children's children, preserved in + many a cottage throughout the south of England. + </p> + <p> + Hopeless as the revolt was and quickly suppressed, it had + served to alarm the landlords and their tenants, and taken in + conjunction with other outbreaks, notably at Bristol, it + produced a sense of anxiety in the mind of the country + generally. The feeling found a somewhat amusing expression in + the House of Commons, in a motion of Mr. Perceval, on 14th + February 1831. This was to move an address to His Majesty to + appoint a day for a general fast throughout the United + Kingdom. He said that "the state of the country called for a + measure like this—that it was a state of political and + religious disorganization—that the elements of the + Constitution were being hourly loosened—that in this + land there was no attachment, no control, no humility of + spirit, no mutual confidence between the poor man and the + rich, the employer and the employed; but fear and mistrust + and aversion, where, in the time of our fathers, there was + nothing but brotherly love and rejoicing before the Lord." + </p> + <p> + The House was cynical and smilingly put the matter by, but + the anxiety was manifested plainly enough in the treatment + meted out to the poor men who had been arrested and were + tried before the Special Commissions sent down to Salisbury, + Winchester, and other towns. No doubt it was a pleasant time + for the judges; at Salisbury thirty-four poor fellows were + sentenced to death; thirty-three to be transported for life, + ten for fourteen years, and so on. + </p> + <p> + And here is one last little scene about which the reports in + the newspapers of the time say nothing, but which I have from + one who witnessed and clearly remembers it, a woman of + ninety-five, whose whole life has been passed at a village + within sound of the Salisbury Cathedral bells. + </p> + <p> + It was when the trial was ended, when those who were found + guilty and had been sentenced were brought out of the + court-house to be taken back to prison, and from all over the + Plain and from all parts of Wiltshire their womenfolk had + come to learn their fate, and were gathered, a pale, anxious, + weeping crowd, outside the gates. The sentenced men came out + looking eagerly at the people until they recognized their own + and cried out to them to be of good cheer. "'Tis hanging for + me," one would say, "but there'll perhaps be a recommendation + to mercy, so don't you fret till you know." Then another: + "Don't go on so, old mother, 'tis only for life I'm sent." + And yet another: "Don't you cry, old girl, 'tis only fourteen + years I've got, and maybe I'll live to see you all again." + And so on, as they filed out past their weeping women on + their way to Fisherton Jail, to be taken thence to the + transports in Portsmouth and Plymouth harbours waiting to + convey their living freights to that hell on earth so far + from home. Not criminals but good, brave men were + these!—Wiltshiremen of that strong, enduring, patient + class, who not only as labourers on the land but on many a + hard-fought field in many parts of the world from of old down + to our war of a few years ago in Africa, have shown the stuff + that was in them! + </p> + <p> + But, alas! for the poor women who were left—for the old + mother who could never hope to see her boy again, and for the + wife and her children who waited and hoped against hope + through long toiling years, + </p> + <p> + And dreamed and started as they slept<br> + For joy that he was come, + </p> + <p> + but waking saw his face no more. Very few, so far as I can + make out, not more than one in five or six, ever returned. + </p> + <p> + This, it may be said, was only what they might have expected, + the law being what it was—just the ordinary thing. The + hideous part of the business was that, as an effect of the + alarm created in the minds of those who feared injury to + their property and loss of power to oppress the poor + labourers, there was money in plenty subscribed to hire + witnesses for the prosecution. It was necessary to strike + terror into the people. The smell of blood-money brought out + a number of scoundrels who for a few pounds were only too + ready to swear away the life of any man, and it was notorious + that numbers of poor fellows were condemned in this way. + </p> + <p> + One incident as to this point may be given in conclusion of + this chapter about old unhappy things. It relates not to one + of those who were sentenced to the gallows or to + transportation, but to an inquest and the treatment of the + dead. + </p> + <p> + I have spoken in the last chapter of the mob that visited + Hindon, Fonthill, and other villages. They ended their round + at Pytt House, near Tisbury, where they broke up the + machinery. On that occasion a body of yeomanry came on the + scene, but arrived only after the mob had accomplished its + purpose of breaking up the thrashing machines. When the + troops appeared the "rioters," as they were called, made off + into the woods and escaped; but before they fled one of them + had met his death. A number of persons from the farms and + villages around had gathered at the spot and were looking on, + when one, a farmer from the neighbouring village of Chilmark, + snatched a gun from a gamekeeper's hand and shot one of the + rioters, killing him dead. On 27th January 1831 an inquest + was held on the body, and some one was found to swear that + the man had been shot by one of the yeomanry, although it was + known to everybody that, when the man was shot, the troop had + not yet arrived on the scene. The man, this witness stated, + had attacked, or threatened, one of the soldiers with his + stick, and had been shot. This was sufficient for the + coroner; he instructed his jury to bring in a verdict of + "Justifiable homicide," which they obediently did. "This + verdict," the coroner then said, "entailed the same + consequences as an act of <i>felo-de-se</i>, and he felt that + he could not give a warrant for the burial of the deceased. + However painful the duty devolved on him in thus adding to + the sorrows of the surviving relations, the law appeared too + clear to him to admit of an alternative." + </p> + <p> + The coroner was just as eager as the judges to exhibit his + zeal for the gentry, who were being injured in their + interests by these disturbances; and though he could not hang + anybody, being only a coroner, he could at any rate kick the + one corpse brought before him. Doubtless the "surviving + relations," for whose sorrows he had expressed sympathy, + carried the poor murdered man off by night to hide him + somewhere in the earth. + </p> + <p> + After the law had been thus vindicated and all the business + done with, even to the corpse-kicking by the coroner, the + farmers were still anxious, and began to show it by holding + meetings and discussions on the condition of the labourers. + Everybody said that the men had been very properly punished; + but at the same time it was admitted that they had some + reason for their discontent, that, with bread so dear, it was + hardly possible for a man with a family to support himself on + seven shillings a week, and it was generally agreed to raise + the wages one shilling. But by and by when the anxiety had + quite died out, when it was found that the men were more + submissive than they had ever been, the lesson they had + received having sunk deep into their minds, they cut off the + extra shilling and wages were what they had been—seven + shillings a week for a hard-working seasoned labourer, with a + family to keep, and from four to six shillings for young + unmarried men and for women, even for those who did as much + work in the field as any man. + </p> + <p> + But there were no more risings. + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p><a name="ch18"><!--Marker--></a> + <h2> + CHAPTER XVIII + </h2> + <h3> + THE SHEPHERD'S RETURN + </h3> + <blockquote> + Yarnborough Castle sheep-fair—Caleb leaves Doveton and + goes into Dorset—A land of strange happenings—He + is home-sick and returns to Winterbourne Bishop—Joseph, + his brother, leaves home—His meeting with Caleb's old + master—Settles in Dorset and is joined by his sister + Hannah—They marry and have children—I go to look + for them—Joseph Bawcombe in extreme old + age—Hannah in decline + </blockquote> + <p> + Caleb's shepherding period in Doveton came to a somewhat + sudden conclusion. It was nearing the end of August and he + was beginning to think about the sheep which would have to be + taken to the "Castle" sheep-fair on 5th October, and it + appeared strange to him that his master had so far said + nothing to him on the subject. By "Castle" he meant + Yarnborough Castle, the name of a vast prehistoric earthwork + on one of the high downs between Warminster and Amesbury. + There is no village there and no house near; it is nothing + but an immense circular wall and trench, inside of which the + fair is held. It was formerly one of the most important + sheep-fairs in the country, but for the last two or three + decades has been falling off and is now of little account. + When Bawcombe was shepherd at Doveton it was still great, and + when he first went there as Mr. Ellerby's head-shepherd he + found himself regarded as a person of considerable importance + at the Castle. Before setting out with the sheep he asked for + his master's instructions, and was told that when he got to + the ground he would be directed by the persons in charge to + the proper place. The Ellerbys, he said, had exhibited and + sold their sheep there for a period of eighty-eight years, + without missing a year, and always at the same spot. Every + person visiting the fair on business knew just where to find + the Ellerbys' sheep, and, he added with pride, they expected + them to be the best sheep at the Castle. + </p> + <p> + One day Mr. Ellerby came to have a talk with his shepherd, + and in reply to a remark of the latter about the October + sheep-fair he said that he would have no sheep to send. "No + sheep to send, master!" exclaimed Caleb in amazement. Then + Mr. Ellerby told him that he had taken a notion into his head + that he wanted to go abroad with his wife for a time, and + that some person had just made him so good an offer for all + his sheep that he was going to accept it, so that for the + first time in eighty-eight years there would be no sheep from + Doveton Farm at the Castle fair. When he came back he would + buy again; but if he could live away from the farm, he would + probably never come back—he would sell it. + </p> + <p> + Caleb went home with a heavy heart and told his wife. It + grieved her, too, because of her feeling for Mrs. Ellerby, + but in a little while she set herself to comfort him. "Why, + what's wrong about it?" she asked. "'Twill be more 'n three + months before the year's out, and master'll pay for all the + time sure, and we can go home to Bishop and bide a little + without work, and see if that father of yours has forgiven + 'ee for going away to Warminster." + </p> + <p> + So they comforted themselves, and were beginning to think + with pleasure of home when Mr. Ellerby informed his shepherd + that a friend of his, a good man though not a rich one, was + anxious to take him as head-shepherd, with good wages and a + good cottage rent free. The only drawback for the Bawcombes + was that it would take them still farther from home, for the + farm was in Dorset, although quite near the Wiltshire border. + </p> + <p> + Eventually they accepted the offer, and by the middle of + September were once more settled down in what was to them a + strange land. How strange it must have seemed to Caleb, how + far removed from home and all familiar things, when even to + this day, more than forty years later, he speaks of it as the + ordinary modern man might speak of a year's residence in + Uganda, Tierra del Fuego, or the Andaman Islands! It was a + foreign country, and the ways of the people were strange to + him, and it was a land of very strange things. One of the + strangest was an old ruined church in the neighbourhood of + the farm where he was shepherd. It was roofless, more than + half fallen down, and all the standing portion, with the + tower, overgrown with old ivy; the building itself stood in + the centre of a huge round earthwork and trench, with large + barrows on the ground outside the circle. Concerning this + church he had a wonderful story: its decay and ruin had come + about after the great bell in the tower had mysteriously + disappeared, stolen one stormy night, it was believed, by the + Devil himself. The stolen bell, it was discovered, had been + flung into a small river at a distance of some miles from the + church, and there in summer-time, when the water was low, it + could be distinctly seen lying half buried in the mud at the + bottom. But all the king's horses and all the king's men + couldn't pull it out; the Devil, who pulled the other way, + was strongest. Eventually some wise person said that a team + of white oxen would be able to pull it out, and after much + seeking the white oxen were obtained, and thick ropes were + tied to the sunken bell, and the cattle were goaded and + yelled at, and tugged and strained until the bell came up and + was finally drawn right up to the top of the steep, + cliff-like bank of the stream. Then one of the teamsters + shouted in triumph, "Now we've got out the bell, in spite of + all the devils in hell," and no sooner had he spoken the bold + words than the ropes parted, and back tumbled the bell to its + old place at the bottom of the river, where it remains to + this day. Caleb had once met a man in those parts who assured + him that he had seen the bell with his own eyes, lying nearly + buried in mud at the bottom of the stream. + </p> + <p> + The legend is not in the history of Dorset; a much more + prosaic account of the disappearance of the bell is there + given, in which the Devil took no part unless he was at the + back of the bad men who were concerned in the business. But + in this strange, remote country, outside of "Wiltsheer," + Bawcombe was in a region where anything might have happened, + where the very soil and pasture were unlike that of his + native country, and the mud adhered to his boots in a most + unaccountable way. It was almost uncanny. Doubtless he was + home-sick, for a month or two before the end of the year he + asked his master to look out for another shepherd. + </p> + <p> + This was a great disappointment to the farmer: he had gone a + distance from home to secure a good shepherd, and had hoped + to keep him permanently, and now after a single year he was + going to lose him. What did the shepherd want? He would do + anything to please him, and begged him to stay another year. + But no, his mind was set on going back to his own native + village and to his own people. And so when his long year was + ended he took his crook and set out over the hills and + valleys, followed by a cart containing his "sticks" and wife + and children. And at home with his old parents and his people + he was happy once more; in a short time he found a place as + head-shepherd, with a cottage in the village, and followed + his flock on the old familiar down, and everything again was + as it had been from the beginning of life and as he desired + it to be even to the end. + </p> + <p> + His return resulted incidentally in other changes and + migrations in the Bawcombe family. His elder brother Joseph, + unmarried still although his senior by about eight years, had + not got on well at home. He was a person of a peculiar + disposition, so silent with so fixed and unsmiling an + expression, that he gave the idea of a stolid, thick-skinned + man, but at bottom he was of a sensitive nature, and feeling + that his master did not treat him properly, he gave up his + place and was for a long time without one. He was singularly + attentive to all that fell from Caleb about his wide + wanderings and strange experiences, especially in the distant + Dorset country; and at length, about a year after his + brother's return, he announced his intention of going away + from his native place for good to seek his fortune in some + distant place where his services would perhaps be better + appreciated. When asked where he intended going, he answered + that he was going to look for a place in that part of Dorset + where Caleb had been shepherd for a year and had been so + highly thought of. + </p> + <p> + Now Joseph, being a single man, had no "sticks"; all his + possessions went into a bundle, which he carried tied to his + crook, and with his sheep-dog following at his heels he set + forth early one morning on the most important adventure of + his life. Then occurred an instance of what we call a + coincidence, but which the shepherd of the downs, nursed in + the old beliefs and traditions, prefers to regard as an act + of providence. + </p> + <p> + About noon he was trudging along in the turnpike road when he + was met by a farmer driving in a trap, who pulled up to speak + to him and asked him if he could say how far it was to + Winterbourne Bishop. Joseph replied that it was about + fourteen miles—he had left Bishop that morning. + </p> + <p> + Then the farmer asked him if he knew a man there named Caleb + Bawcombe, and if he had a place as shepherd there, as he was + now on his way to look for him and to try and persuade him to + go back to Dorset, where he had been his head-shepherd for + the space of a year. + </p> + <p> + Joseph said that Caleb had a place as head-shepherd on a farm + at Bishop, that he was satisfied with it, and was, moreover, + one that preferred to bide in his native place. + </p> + <p> + The farmer was disappointed, and the other added, "Maybe + you've heard Caleb speak of his elder brother Joseph—I + be he." + </p> + <p> + "What!" exclaimed the farmer. "You're Caleb's brother! Where + be going then?—to a new place?" + </p> + <p> + "I've got no place; I be going to look for a place in + Dorsetsheer." + </p> + <p> + "'Tis strange to hear you say that," exclaimed the farmer. He + was going, he said, to see Caleb, and if he would not or + could not go back to Dorset himself to ask him to recommend + some man of the village to him; for he was tired of the ways + of the shepherds of his own part of the country, and his + heart was set on getting a man from Caleb's village, where + shepherds understood sheep and knew their work. "Now look + here, shepherd," he continued, "if you'll engage yourself to + me for a year I'll go no farther, but take you right back + with me in the trap." + </p> + <p> + The shepherd was very glad to accept the offer; he devoutly + believed that in making it the farmer was but acting in + accordance with the will of a Power that was mindful of man + and kept watch on him, even on His poor servant Joseph, who + had left his home and people to be a stranger in a strange + land. + </p> + <p> + So well did servant and master agree that Joseph never had + occasion to look for another place; when his master died an + old man, his son succeeded him as tenant of the farm, and he + continued with the son until he was past work. Before his + first year was out, his younger sister, Hannah, came to live + with him and keep house, and eventually they both got + married, Joseph to a young woman of the place, and Hannah to + a small working farmer whose farm was about a mile from the + village. Children were born to both, and in time grew up, + Joseph's sons following their father's vocation, while + Hannah's were brought up to work on the farm. And some of + them, too, got married in time and had children of their own. + </p> + <p> + These are the main incidents in the lives of Joseph and + Hannah, related to me at different times by their brother; he + had followed their fortunes from a distance, sometimes + getting a message, or hearing of them incidentally, but he + did not see them. Joseph never returned to his native + village, and the visits of Hannah to her old home had been + few and had long ceased. But he cherished a deep enduring + affection for both; he was always anxiously waiting and + hoping for tidings of them, for Joseph was now a feeble old + man living with one of his sons, and Hannah, long a widow, + was in declining health, but still kept the farm, assisted by + one of her sons and two unmarried daughters. Though he had + not heard for a long time it never occurred to him to write, + nor did they ever write to him. + </p> + <p> + Then, when I was staying at Winterbourne Bishop and had the + intention of shortly paying a visit to Caleb, it occurred to + me one day to go into Dorset and look for these absent ones, + so as to be able to give him an account of their state. It + was not a long journey, and arrived at the village I soon + found a son of Joseph, a fine-looking man, who took me to his + cottage, where his wife led me into the old shepherd's room. + I found him very aged in appearance, with a grey face and + sunken cheeks, lying on his bed and breathing with + difficulty; but when I spoke to him of Caleb a light of joy + came into his eyes, and he raised himself on his pillows, and + questioned me eagerly about his brother's state and family, + and begged me to assure Caleb that he was still quite well, + although too feeble to get about much, and that his children + were taking good care of him. + </p> + <p> + From the old brother I went on to seek the young + sister—there was a difference of more than twenty years + in their respective ages—and found her at dinner in the + large old farm-house kitchen. At all events she was + presiding, the others present being her son, their hired + labourer, the farm boy, and two unmarried daughters. She + herself tasted no food. I joined them at their meal, and it + gladdened and saddened me at the same time to be with this + woman, for she was Caleb's sister, and was attractive in + herself, looking strangely young for her age, with beautiful + dark, soft eyes and but few white threads in her abundant + black hair. The attraction was also in her voice and speech + and manner; but, alas! there was that in her face which was + painful to witness—the signs of long suffering, of + nights that bring no refreshment, an expression in the eyes + of one that is looking anxiously out into the dim + distance—a vast unbounded prospect, but with clouds and + darkness resting on it. + </p> + <p> + It was not without a feeling of heaviness at the heart that I + said good-bye to her; nor was I surprised when, less than a + year later, Caleb received news of her death. + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p><a name="ch19"><!--Marker--></a> + <h2> + CHAPTER XIX + </h2> + <h3> + THE DARK PEOPLE OF THE VILLAGE + </h3> + <blockquote> + How the materials for this book were obtained—The + hedgehog-hunter—A gipsy taste—History of a + dark-skinned family—Hedgehog eaters—Half-bred and + true gipsies—Perfect health—Eating + carrion—Mysterious knowledge and faculties—The + three dark Wiltshire types—Story of another dark man of + the village—Account of Liddy—His + shepherding—A happy life with horses—Dies of a + broken heart—His daughter + </blockquote> + <p> + I have sometimes laughed to myself when thinking how a large + part of the material composing this book was collected. It + came to me in conversations, at intervals, during several + years, with the shepherd. In his long life in his native + village, a good deal of it spent on the quiet down, he had + seen many things it was or would be interesting to hear; the + things which had interested him, too, at the time, and had + fallen into oblivion, yet might be recovered. I discovered + that it was of little use to question him: the one valuable + recollection he possessed on any subject would, as a rule, + not be available when wanted; it would lie just beneath the + surface so to speak, and he would pass and repass over the + ground without seeing it. He would not know that it was + there; it would be like the acorn which a jay or squirrel has + hidden and forgotten all about, which he will nevertheless + recover some day if by chance something occurs to remind him + of it. The only method was to talk about the things he knew, + and when by chance he was reminded of some old experience or + some little observation or incident worth hearing, to make a + note of it, then wait patiently for something else. It was a + very slow process, but it is not unlike the one we practise + always with regard to wild nature. We are not in a hurry, but + are always watchful, with eyes and ears and mind open to what + may come; it is a mental habit, and when nothing comes we are + not disappointed—the act of watching has been a + sufficient pleasure: and when something does come we take it + joyfully as if it were a gift—a valuable object picked + up by chance in our walks. + </p> + <p> + When I turned into the shepherd's cottage, if it was in + winter and he was sitting by the fire, I would sit and smoke + with him, and if we were in a talking mood I would tell him + where I had been and what I had heard and seen, on the heath, + in the woods, in the village, or anywhere, on the chance of + its reminding him of something worth hearing in his past + life. + </p> + <p> + One Sunday morning, in the late summer, during one of my + visits to him, I was out walking in the woods and found a man + of the village, a farm labourer, with his small boy hunting + for hedgehogs. He had caught and killed two, which the boy + was carrying. He told me he was very fond of the flesh of + hedgehogs—"pigs," he called them for short; he said he + would not exchange one for a rabbit. He always spent his + holidays pig-hunting; he had no dog and didn't want one; he + found them himself, and his method was to look for the kind + of place in which they were accustomed to live—a thick + mass of bramble growing at the side of an old ditch as a + rule. He would force his way into it and, moving round and + round, trample down the roots and loose earth and dead leaves + with his heavy iron-shod boots until he broke into the nest + or cell of the spiny little beast hidden away under the bush. + </p> + <p> + He was a short, broad-faced man, with a brown skin, black + hair, and intensely black eyes. Talking with the shepherd + that evening I told him of the encounter, and remarked that + the man was probably a gipsy in blood, although a labourer, + living in the village and married to a woman with blue eyes + who belonged to the place. + </p> + <p> + This incident reminded him of a family, named Targett, in his + native village, consisting of four brothers and a sister. He + knew them first when he was a boy himself, but could not + remember their parents. "It seemed as if they didn't have + any," he said. The four brothers were very much alike: short, + with broad faces, black eyes and hair, and brown skins. They + were good workers, but somehow they were never treated by the + farmers like the other men. They were paid less + wages—as much as two to four shillings a week less per + man—and made to do things that others would not do, and + generally imposed upon. It was known to every employer of + labour in the place that they could be imposed upon; yet they + were not fools, and occasionally if their master went too far + in bullying and abusing them and compelling them to work + overtime every day, they would have sudden violent outbursts + of rage and go off without any pay at all. What became of + their sister he never knew: but none of the four brothers + ever married; they lived together always, and two died in the + village, the other two going to finish their lives in the + workhouse. + </p> + <p> + One of the curious things about these brothers was that they + had a passion for eating hedgehogs. They had it from boyhood, + and as boys used to go a distance from home and spend the day + hunting in hedges and thickets. When they captured a hedgehog + they would make a small fire in some sheltered spot and roast + it, and while it was roasting one of them would go to the + nearest cottage to beg for a pinch of salt, which was + generally given. + </p> + <p> + These, too, I said, must have been gipsies, at all events on + one side. Where there is a cross the gipsy strain is + generally strongest, although the children, if brought up in + the community, often remain in it all their lives; but they + are never quite of it. Their love of wildness and of eating + wild flesh remains in them, and it is also probable that + there is an instability of character, a restlessness, which + the small farmers who usually employ such men know and trade + on; the gipsy who takes to farm work must not look for the + same treatment as the big-framed, white-skinned man who is as + strong, enduring, and unchangeable as a draught horse or ox, + and constant as the sun itself. + </p> + <p> + The gipsy element is found in many if not most villages in + the south of England. I know one large scattered village + where it appears predominant—as dirty and + disorderly-looking a place as can be imagined, the ground + round every cottage resembling a gipsy camp, but worse owing + to its greater litter of old rags and rubbish strewn about. + But the people, like all gipsies, are not so poor as they + look, and most of the cottagers keep a trap and pony with + which they scour the country for many miles around in quest + of bones, rags, and bottles, and anything else they can buy + for a few pence, also anything they can "pick up" for + nothing. + </p> + <p> + This is almost the only kind of settled life which a man with + a good deal of gipsy blood in him can tolerate; it affords + some scope for his chaffering and predatory instincts and + satisfies the roving passion, which is not so strong in those + of mixed blood. But it is too respectable or humdrum a life + for the true, undegenerate gipsy. One wet evening in + September last I was prowling in a copse near Shrewton, + watching the birds, when I encountered a young gipsy and + recognized him as one of a gang of about a dozen I had met + several days before near Salisbury. They were on their way, + they had told me, to a village near Shaftesbury, where they + hoped to remain a week or so. + </p> + <p> + "What are you doing here?" I asked my gipsy. + </p> + <p> + He said he had been to Idmiston; he had been on his legs out + in the rain and wet to the skin since morning. He didn't mind + that much as the wet didn't hurt him and he was not tired; + but he had eight miles to walk yet over the downs to a + village on the Wylye where his people were staying. + </p> + <p> + I remarked that I had thought they were staying over + Shaftesbury way. + </p> + <p> + He then looked sharply at me. "Ah, yes," he said, "I remember + we met you and had some talk a fortnight ago. Yes, we went + there, but they wouldn't have us. They soon ordered us off. + They advised us to settle down if we wanted to stay anywhere. + Settle down! I'd rather be dead!" + </p> + <p> + There spoke the true gipsy; and they are mostly of that mind. + But what a mind it is for human beings in this climate! It is + in a year like this of 1909, when a long cold winter and a + miserable spring, with frosty nights lasting well into June, + was followed by a cold wet summer and a wet autumn, that we + can see properly what a mind and body is his—how + infinitely more perfect the correspondence between organism + and environment in his case than in ours, who have made our + own conditions, who have not only houses to live in, but a + vast army of sanitary inspectors, physicians and + bacteriologists to safeguard us from that wicked stepmother + who is anxious to get rid of us before our time! In all this + miserable year, during which I have met and conversed with + and visited many scores of gipsies, I have not found one who + was not in a cheerful frame of mind, even when he was under a + cloud with the police on his track; nor one with a cold, or + complaining of an ache in his bones, or of indigestion. + </p> + <p> + The subject of gipsies catching cold connects itself just now + in my mind with that of the gipsy's sense of humour. He has + that sense, and it makes him happy when he is reposing in the + bosom of his family and can give it free vent; but the + instant you appear on the scene its gracious outward signs + vanish like lightning and he is once more the sly, subtle + animal, watching you furtively, but with intensity. When you + have left him and he relaxes the humour will come back to + him; for it is a humour similar to that of some of the lower + animals, especially birds of the crow family, and of + primitive people, only more highly developed, and is + concerned mainly with the delight of trickery—with + getting the better of some one and the huge enjoyment + resulting from the process. + </p> + <p> + One morning, between nine and ten o'clock, during the + excessively cold spell near the end of November 1909, I paid + a visit to some gipsies I knew at their camp. The men had + already gone off for the day, but some of the women were + there—a young married woman, two big girls, and six or + seven children. It was a hard frost and their sleeping + accommodation was just as in the summer-time—bundles of + straw and old rugs placed in or against little half-open + canvas and rag shelters; but they all appeared remarkably + well, and some of the children were standing on the hard + frozen ground with bare feet. They assured me that they were + all well, that they hadn't caught colds and didn't mind the + cold. I remarked that I had thought the severe frost might + have proved too much for some of them in that high, + unsheltered spot in the downs, and that if I had found one of + the children down with a cold I should have given it a + sixpence to comfort it. "Oh," cried the young married woman, + "there's my poor six months' old baby half dead of a cold; + he's very bad, poor dear, and I'm in great trouble about + him." + </p> + <p> + "He is bad, the darling!" cried one of the big girls. "I'll + soon show you how bad he is!" and with that she dived into a + pile of straw and dragged out a huge fat sleeping baby. + Holding it up in her arms she begged me to look at it to see + how bad it was; the fat baby slowly opened its drowsy eyes + and blinked at the sun, but uttered no sound, for it was not + a crying baby, but was like a great fat retriever pup pulled + out of its warm bed. + </p> + <p> + How healthy they are is hardly known even to those who make a + special study of these aliens, who, albeit aliens, are yet + more native than any Englishman in the land. It is not merely + their indifference to wet and cold; more wonderful still is + their dog-like capacity of assimilating food which to us + would be deadly. This is indeed not a nice or pretty subject, + and I will give but one instance to illustrate my point; the + reader with a squeamish stomach may skip the ensuing + paragraph. + </p> + <p> + An old shepherd of Chitterne relates that a family, or gang, + of gipsies used to turn up from time to time at the village; + he generally saw them at lambing-time, when one of the heads + of the party with whom he was friendly would come round to + see what he had to give them. On one occasion his gipsy + friend appeared, and after some conversation on general + subjects, asked him if he had anything in his way. "No, + nothing this time," said the shepherd. "Lambing was over two + or three months ago and there's nothing left—no dead + lamb. I hung up a few cauls on a beam in the old shed, + thinking they would do for the dogs, but forgot them and they + went bad and then dried up." + </p> + <p> + "They'll do very well for us," said his friend. + </p> + <p> + "No, don't you take them!" cried the shepherd in alarm; "I + tell you they went bad months ago, and 'twould kill anyone to + eat such stuff. They've dried up now, and are dry and black + as old skin." + </p> + <p> + "That doesn't matter—we know how to make them all + right," said the gipsy. "Soaked with a little salt, then + boiled, they'll do very well." And off he carried them. + </p> + <p> + In reading the reports of the Assizes held at Salisbury from + the late eighteenth century down to about 1840, it surprised + me to find how rarely a gipsy appeared in that long, sad, + monotonous procession of "criminals" who passed before the + man sitting with his black cap on his head, and were sent to + the gallows or to the penal settlements for stealing sheep + and fowls and ducks or anything else. Yet the gipsies were + abundant then as now, living the same wild, lawless life, + quartering the country, and hanging round the villages to spy + out everything stealable. The man caught was almost + invariably the poor, slow-minded, heavy-footed agricultural + labourer; the light, quick-moving, cunning gipsy escaped. In + the "Salisbury Journal" for 1820 I find a communication on + this subject, in which the writer says that a common trick of + the gipsies was to dig a deep pit at their camp in which to + bury a stolen sheep, and on this spot they would make their + camp fire. If the sheep was not missed, or if no report of + its loss was made to the police, the thieves would soon be + able to dig it up and enjoy it; but if inquiries were made + they would have to wait until the affair had blown over. + </p> + <p> + It amused me to find, from an incident related to me by a + workman in a village where I was staying lately, that this + simple, ancient device is still practised by the gipsies. My + informant said that on going out at about four o'clock one + morning during the late summer he was surprised at seeing two + gipsies with a pony and cart at the spot where a party of + them had been encamped a fortnight before. He watched them, + himself unseen, and saw that they were digging a pit on the + spot where they had had their fire. They took out several + objects from the ground, but he was too far away to make out + what they were. They put them in the cart and covered them + over, then filled up the pit, trampled the earth well down, + and put the ashes and burnt sticks back in the same place, + after which they got into the cart and drove off. + </p> + <p> + Of course a man, even a nomad, must have some place to + conceal his treasures or belongings in, and the gipsy has no + cellar nor attic nor secret cupboard, and as for his van it + is about the last place in which he would bestow anything of + value or incriminating, for though he is always on the move, + he is, moving or sitting still, always under a cloud. The + ground is therefore the safest place to hide things in, + especially in a country like the Wiltshire Downs, though he + may use rocks and hollow trees in other districts. His habit + is that of the jay and magpie, and of the dog with a bone to + put by till it is wanted. Possibly the rural police have not + yet discovered this habit of the gipsy. Indeed, the contrast + in mind and locomotive powers between the gipsy and the + village policeman has often amused me; the former most like + the thievish jay, ever on mischief bent; the other, who has + his eye on him, is more like the portly Cochin-China fowl of + the farmyard, or the Muscovy duck, or stately gobbler. + </p> + <p> + To go back. When the buried sheep had to be kept too long + buried and was found "gone bad" when disinterred, I fancy it + made little difference to the diners. One remembers Thoreau's + pleasure at the spectacle of a crowd of vultures feasting on + the carrion of a dead horse; the fine healthy appetite and + boundless vigour of nature filled him with delight. But it is + not only some of the lower animals—dogs and vultures, + for instance—which possess this power and immunity from + the effects of poisons developed in putrid meat; the + Greenlanders and African savages, and many other peoples in + various parts of the world, have it as well. + </p> + <p> + Sometimes when sitting with gipsies at their wild hearth, I + have felt curious as to the contents of that black pot + simmering over the fire. No doubt it often contains strange + meats, but it would not have been etiquette to speak of such + a matter. It is like the pot on the fire of the Venezuela + savage into which he throws whatever he kills with his little + poisoned arrows or fishes out of the river. Probably my only + quarrel with them would be about the little fledgelings: it + angers me to see them beating the bushes in spring in search + of small nesties and the callow young that are in them. After + all, the gipsies could retort that my friends the jays and + magpies are at the same business in April and May. + </p> + <p> + It is just these habits of the gipsy which I have described, + shocking to the moralist and sanitarian and disgusting to the + person of delicate stomach, it may be, which please me, + rather than the romance and poetry which the scholar-gipsy + enthusiasts are fond of reading into him. He is to me a wild, + untameable animal of curious habits, and interests me as a + naturalist accordingly. It may be objected that being a + naturalist occupied with the appearance of things, I must + inevitably miss the one thing which others find. + </p> + <p> + In a talk I had with a gipsy a short time ago, he said to me: + "You know what the books say, and we don't. But we know other + things that are not in the books, and that's what we have. + It's ours, our own, and you can't know it." + </p> + <p> + It was well put; but I was not perhaps so entirely ignorant + as he imagined of the nature of that special knowledge, or + shall we say faculty, which he claimed. I take it to be + cunning—the cunning of a wild animal with a man's + brain—and a small, an infinitesimal, dose of something + else which eludes us. But that something else is not of a + spiritual nature: the gipsy has no such thing in him; the + soul growths are rooted in the social instinct, and are + developed in those in whom that instinct is strong. I think + that if we analyse that dose of something else, we will find + that it is still the animal's cunning, a special, a + sublimated cunning, the fine flower of his whole nature, and + that it has nothing mysterious in it. He is a parasite, but + free and as well able to exist free as the fox or jackal; but + the parasitism pays him well, and he has followed it so long + in his intercourse with social man that it has come to be + like an instinct, or secret knowledge, and is nothing more + than a marvellously keen penetration which reveals to him the + character and degree of credulity and other mental weaknesses + of his subject. + </p> + <p> + It is not so much the wind on the heath, brother, as the + fascination of lawlessness, which makes his life an + everlasting joy to him; to pit himself against gamekeeper, + farmer, policeman, and everybody else, and defeat them all, + to flourish like the parasitic fly on the honey in the hive + and escape the wrath of the bees. + </p> + <p> + I must now return from this long digression to my + conversation with the shepherd about the dark people of the + village. + </p> + <p> + There were, I continued, other black-eyed and black-haired + people in the villages who had no gipsy blood in their veins. + So far as I could make out there were dark people of three + originally distinct and widely different races in the + Wiltshire Downs. There was a good deal of mixed blood, no + doubt, and many dark persons could not be identified as + belonging to any particular race. Nevertheless three distinct + types could be traced among the dark people, and I took them + to be, first, the gipsy, rather short of stature, + brown-skinned, with broad face and high cheek-bones, like the + men we had just been speaking of. Secondly, the men and women + of white skins and good features, who had rather broad faces + and round heads, and were physically and mentally just as + good as the best blue-eyed people; these were probably the + descendants of the dark, broad-faced Wilsetas, who came over + at the time when the country was being overrun with the + English and other nations or tribes, and who colonized in + Wiltshire and gave it their name. The third type differed + widely from both the others. They were smallest in size and + had narrow heads and long or oval faces, and were very dark, + with brown skins; they also differed mentally from the + others, being of a more lively disposition and hotter temper. + The characters which distinguish the ancient British or + Iberian race appeared to predominate in persons of this type. + </p> + <p> + The shepherd said he didn't know much about "all that," but + he remembered that they once had a man in the village who was + like the last kind I had described. He was a labourer named + Tark, who had several sons, and when they were grown up there + was a last one born: he had to be the last because his mother + died when she gave him birth; and that last one was like his + father, small, very dark-skinned, with eyes like sloes, and + exceedingly lively and active. + </p> + <p> + Tark, himself, he said, was the liveliest, most amusing man + he had ever known, and the quickest to do things, whatever it + was he was asked to do, but he was not industrious and not + thrifty. The Tarks were always very poor. He had a good ear + for music and was a singer of the old songs—he seemed + to know them all. One of his performances was with a pair of + cymbals which he had made for himself out of some old metal + plates, and with these he used to play while dancing about, + clashing them in time, striking them on his head, his breast, + and legs. In these dances with the cymbals he would whirl and + leap about in an astonishing way, standing sometimes on his + hands, then on his feet, so that half the people in the + village used to gather at his cottage to watch his antics on + a summer evening. + </p> + <p> + One afternoon he was coming down the village street and saw + the blacksmith standing near his cottage looking up at a tall + fir-tree which grew there on his ground. "What be looking + at?" cried Tark. The blacksmith pointed to a branch, the + lowest branch of all, but about forty feet from the ground, + and said a chaffinch had his nest in it, about three feet + from the trunk, which his little son had set his heart on + having. He had promised to get it down for him, but there was + no long ladder and he didn't know how to get it. + </p> + <p> + Tark laughed and said that for half a gallon of beer he would + go up legs first and take the nest and bring it down in one + hand, which he would not use in climbing, and would come down + as he went up, head first. + </p> + <p> + "Do it, then," said the blacksmith, "and I'll stand the half + gallon." + </p> + <p> + Tark ran to the tree, and turning over and standing on his + hands, clasped the bole with his legs and then with his arms + and went up to the branch, when taking the nest and holding + it in one hand, he came down head first to the ground in + safety. + </p> + <p> + There were other anecdotes of his liveliness and agility. + Then followed the story of the youngest son, known as Liddy. + "I don't rightly know," said Caleb, "what the name was he was + given when they christened 'n; but he were always called + Liddy, and nobody knowed any other name for him." + </p> + <p> + Liddy's grown-up brothers all left home when he was a small + boy: one enlisted and was sent to India and never returned; + the other two went to America, so it was said. He was twelve + years old when his father died, and he had to shift for + himself; but he was no worse off on that account, as they had + always been very poor owing to poor Tark's love of beer. + Before long he got employed by a small working farmer who + kept a few cows and a pair of horses and used to buy wethers + to fatten them, and these the boy kept on the down. + </p> + <p> + Liddy was always a "leetel chap," and looked no more than + nine when twelve, so that he could do no heavy work; but he + was a very willing and active little fellow, with a sweet + temper, and so lively and full of fun as to be a favourite + with everybody in the village. The men would laugh at his + pranks, especially when he came from the fields on the old + plough horse and urged him to a gallop, sitting with his face + to the tail; and they would say that he was like his father, + and would never be much good except to make people laugh. But + the women had a tender feeling for him, because, although + motherless and very poor, he yet contrived to be always clean + and neat. He took the greatest care of his poor clothes, + washing and mending them himself. He also took an intense + interest in his wethers, and almost every day he would go to + Caleb, tending his flock on the down, to sit by him and ask a + hundred questions about sheep and their management. He looked + on Caleb, as head-shepherd on a good-sized farm, as the most + important and most fortunate person he knew, and was very + proud to have him as guide, philosopher, and friend. + </p> + <p> + Now it came to pass that once in a small lot of thirty or + forty wethers which the farmer had bought at a sheep-fair and + brought home it was discovered that one was a ewe—a ewe + that would perhaps at some future day have a lamb! Liddy was + greatly excited at the discovery; he went to Caleb and told + him about it, almost crying at the thought that his master + would get rid of it. For what use would it be to him? but + what a loss it would be! And at last, plucking up courage, he + went to the farmer and begged and prayed to be allowed to + keep the ewe, and the farmer laughed at him; but he was a + little touched at the boy's feeling, and at last consented. + Then Liddy was the happiest boy in the village, and whenever + he got the chance he would go out to Caleb on the down to + talk about and give him news of the one beloved ewe. And one + day, after about nineteen or twenty weeks, Caleb, out with + his flock, heard shouts at a distance, and, turning to look, + saw Liddy coming at great speed towards him, shouting out + some great news as he ran; but what it was Caleb could not + make out, even when the little fellow had come to him, for + his excitement made him incoherent. The ewe had lambed, and + there were twins—two strong healthy lambs, most + beautiful to see! Nothing so wonderful had ever happened in + his life before! And now he sought out his friend oftener + than ever, to talk of his beloved lambs, and to receive the + most minute directions about their care. Caleb, who is not a + laughing man, could not help laughing a little when he + recalled poor Liddy's enthusiasm. But that beautiful shining + chapter in the poor boy's life could not last, and when the + lambs were grown they were sold, and so were all the wethers, + then Liddy, not being wanted, had to find something else to + do. + </p> + <p> + I was too much interested in this story to let the subject + drop. What had been Liddy's after-life? Very uneventful: + there was, in fact, nothing in it, nor in him, except an + intense love for all things, especially animals; and nothing + happened to him until the end, for he has been dead now these + nine or ten years. In his next place he was engaged, first, + as carter's boy, and then under-carter, and all his love was + lavished on the horses. They were more to him than sheep, and + he could love them without pain, since they were not being + prepared for the butcher with his abhorred knife. Liddy's + love and knowledge of horses became known outside of his own + little circle, and he was offered and joyfully accepted a + place in the stables of a wealthy young gentleman farmer, who + kept a large establishment and was a hunting man. From + stable-boy he was eventually promoted to groom. Occasionally + he would reappear in his native place. His home was but a few + miles away, and when out exercising a horse he appeared to + find it a pleasure to trot down the old street, where as a + farmer's boy he used to make the village laugh at his antics. + But he was very much changed from the poor boy, who was often + hatless and barefooted, to the groom in his neat, + well-fitting black suit, mounted on a showy horse. + </p> + <p> + In this place he continued about thirty years, and was + married and had several children and was very happy, and then + came a great disaster. His employer having met with heavy + losses sold all his horses and got rid of his servants, and + Liddy had to go. This great change, and above all his grief + at the loss of his beloved horses, was more than he could + endure. He became melancholy and spent his days in silent + brooding, and by and by, to everybody's surprise, Liddy fell + ill, for he was in the prime of life and had always been + singularly healthy. Then to astonish people still more, he + died. What ailed him—what killed him? every one asked + of the doctor; and his answer was that he had no + disease—that nothing ailed him except a broken heart; + and that was what killed poor Liddy. + </p> + <p> + In conclusion I will relate a little incident which occurred + several months later, when I was again on a visit to my old + friend the shepherd. We were sitting together on a Sunday + evening, when his old wife looked out and said, "Lor, here be + Mrs. Taylor with her children coming in to see us." And Mrs. + Taylor soon appeared, wheeling her baby in a perambulator, + with two little girls following. She was a comely, round, + rosy little woman, with black hair, black eyes, and a + singularly sweet expression, and her three pretty little + children were like her. She stayed half an hour in pleasant + chat, then went her way down the road to her home. Who, I + asked, was Mrs. Taylor? + </p> + <p> + Bawcombe said that in a way she was a native of their old + village of Winterbourne Bishop: at least her father was. She + had married a man who had taken a farm near them, and after + having known her as a young girl they had been glad to have + her again as a neighbour. "She's a daughter of that Liddy I + told 'ee about some time ago," he said. + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p><a name="ch20"><!--Marker--></a> + <h2> + CHAPTER XX + </h2> + <h3> + SOME SHEEP-DOGS + </h3> + <blockquote> + Breaking a sheep-dog—The shepherd buys a pup—His + training—He refuses to work—He chases a swallow + and is put to death—The shepherd's remorse—Bob, + the sheep-dog—How he was bitten by an + adder—Period of the dog's receptivity—Tramp, the + sheep-dog—Roaming lost about the country—A rage + of hunger—Sheep-killing dogs—Dogs running + wild—Anecdotes—A Russian sheep-dog—Caleb + parts with Tramp + </blockquote> + <p> + To Caleb the proper training of a dog was a matter of the + very first importance. A man, he considered, must have not + only a fair amount of intelligence, but also experience, and + an even temper, and a little sympathy as well, to sum up the + animal in hand—its special aptitudes, its limitations, + its disposition, and that something in addition, which he + called a "kink," and would probably have described as its + idiosyncrasy if he had known the word. There was as much + individual difference among dogs as there is in boys; but if + the breed was right, and you went the right way about it, you + could hardly fail to get a good servant. If a dog was not + properly broken, if its trainer had not made the most of it, + he was not a "good shepherd": he lacked the + intelligence—"understanding" was his word—or else + the knowledge or patience or persistence to do his part. It + was, however, possible for the best shepherd to make + mistakes, and one of the greatest to be made, which was not + uncommon, was to embark on the long and laborious business of + training an animal of mixed blood—a sheep-dog with a + taint of terrier, retriever, or some other unsuitable breed + in him. In discussing this subject with other shepherds I + generally found that those who were in perfect agreement with + Caleb on this point were men who were somewhat like him in + character, and who regarded their work with the sheep as so + important that it must be done thoroughly in every detail and + in the best way. One of the best shepherds I know, who is + sixty years old and has been on the same downland sheep-farm + all his life, assures me that he has never had and never + would have a dog which was trained by another. But the + shepherd of the ordinary kind says that he doesn't care much + about the animal's parentage, or that he doesn't trouble to + inquire into its pedigree: he breaks the animal, and finds + that he does pretty well, even when he has some strange blood + in him; finally, that all dogs have faults and you must put + up with them. Caleb would say of such a man that he was not a + "good shepherd." One of his saddest memories was of a dog + which he bought and broke without having made the necessary + inquiries about its parentage. + </p> + <p> + It happened that a shepherd of the village, who had taken a + place at a distant farm, was anxious to dispose of a litter + of pups before leaving, and he asked Caleb to have one. Caleb + refused. "My dog's old, I know," he said, "but I don't want a + pup now and I won't have 'n." + </p> + <p> + A day or two later the man came back and said he had kept one + of the best of the five for him—he had got rid of all + the others. "You can't do better," he persisted. "No," said + Caleb, "what I said I say again. I won't have 'n, I've no + money to buy a dog." + </p> + <p> + "Never mind about money," said the other. "You've got a bell + I like the sound of; give he to me and take the pup." And so + the exchange was made, a copper bell for a nice black pup + with a white collar; its mother, Bawcombe knew, was a good + sheep-dog, but about the other parent he made no inquiries. + </p> + <p> + On receiving the pup he was told that its name was Tory, and + he did not change it. It was always difficult, he explained, + to find a name for a dog—a name, that is to say, which + anyone would say was a proper name for a dog and not a + foolish name. One could think of a good many proper + names—Jack and Watch, and so on—but in each case + one would remember some dog which had been called by that + name, and it seemed to belong to that particular + well-remembered dog and to no other, and so in the end + because of this difficulty he allowed the name to remain. + </p> + <p> + The dog had not cost him much to buy, but as it was only a + few weeks old he had to keep it at his own cost for fully six + months before beginning the business of breaking it, which + would take from three to six months longer. A dog cannot be + put to work before he is quite half a year old unless he is + exceptionally vigorous. Sheep are timid creatures, but not + unintelligent, and they can distinguish between the seasoned + old sheep-dog, whose furious onset and bite they fear, and + the raw young recruit as easily as the rook can distinguish + between the man with a gun and the man of straw with a + broomstick under his arm. They will turn upon and attack the + young dog, and chase him away with his tail between his legs. + He will also work too furiously for his strength and then + collapse, with the result that he will make a cowardly + sheep-dog, or, as the shepherds say, "brokenhearted." + </p> + <p> + Another thing. He must be made to work at first with an old + sheep-dog, for though he has the impulse to fly about and do + something, he does not know what to do and does not + understand his master's gestures and commands. He must have + an object-lesson, he must see the motion and hear the word + and mark how the old dog flies to this or that point and what + he does. The word of command or the gesture thus becomes + associated in his mind with a particular action on his part. + But he must not be given too many object-lessons or he will + lose more than he will gain—a something which might + almost be described as a sense of individual responsibility. + That is to say, responsibility to the human master who + delegates his power to him. Instead of taking his power + directly from the man he takes it from the dog, and this + becomes a fixed habit so quickly that many shepherds say that + if you give more than from three to six lessons of this kind + to a young dog you will spoil him. He will need the + mastership of the other dog, and will thereafter always be at + a loss and work in an uncertain way. + </p> + <p> + A timid or unwilling young dog is often coupled with the old + dog two or three times, but this method has its dangers too, + as it may be too much for the young dog's strength, and give + him that "broken-heart" from which he will never recover; he + will never be a good sheep-dog. + </p> + <p> + To return to Tory. In due time he was trained and proved + quick to learn and willing to work, so that before long he + began to be useful and was much wanted with the sheep, as the + old dog was rapidly growing stiffer on his legs and harder of + hearing. + </p> + <p> + One day the lambs were put into a field which was half clover + and half rape, and it was necessary to keep them on the + clover. This the young dog could not or would not understand; + again and again he allowed the lambs to go to the rape, which + so angered Caleb that he threw his crook at him. Tory turned + and gave him a look, then came very quietly and placed + himself behind his master. From that moment he refused to + obey, and Bawcombe, after exhausting all his arts of + persuasion, gave it up and did as well as he could without + his assistance. + </p> + <p> + That evening after folding-time he by chance met a shepherd + he was well acquainted with and told him of the trouble he + was in over Tory. + </p> + <p> + "You tie him up for a week," said the shepherd, "and treat + him well till he forgets all about it, and he'll be the same + as he was before you offended him. He's just like old + Tom—he's got his father's temper." + </p> + <p> + "What's that you say?" exclaimed Bawcombe. "Be you saying + that Tory's old Tom's son? I'd never have taken him if I'd + known that. Tom's not pure-bred—he's got retriever's + blood." + </p> + <p> + "Well, 'tis known, and I could have told 'ee, if thee'd asked + me," said the shepherd. "But you do just as I tell 'ee, and + it'll be all right with the dog." + </p> + <p> + Tory was accordingly tied up at home and treated well and + spoken kindly to and patted on the head, so that there would + be no unpleasantness between master and servant, and if he + was an intelligent animal he would know that the crook had + been thrown not to hurt but merely to express disapproval of + his naughtiness. + </p> + <p> + Then came a busy day for the shepherd, when the lambs were + trimmed before being taken to the Wilton sheep-fair. There + was Bawcombe, his boy, the decrepit old dog, and Tory to do + the work, but when the time came to start Tory refused to do + anything. + </p> + <p> + When sent to turn the lambs he walked off to a distance of + about twenty yards, sat down and looked at his master. Caleb + hoped he would come round presently when he saw them all at + work, and so they did the best they could without him for a + time; but the old dog was stiffer and harder of hearing than + ever, and as they could not get on properly Caleb went at + intervals to Tory and tried to coax him to give them his + help; and every time he was spoken to he would get up and + come to his master, then when ordered to do something he + would walk off to the spot where he had chosen to be and + calmly sit down once more and look at them. Caleb was + becoming more and more incensed, but he would not show it to + the dog; he still hoped against hope; and then a curious + thing happened. A swallow came skimming along close to the + earth and passed within a yard of Tory, when up jumped the + dog and gave chase, darting across the field with such speed + that he kept very near the bird until it rose and passed over + the hedge at the farther side. The joyous chase over Tory + came back to his old place, and sitting on his haunches began + watching them again struggling with the lambs. It was more + than the shepherd could stand; he went deliberately up to the + dog, and taking him by the straw collar still on his neck + drew him quietly away to the hedge-side and bound him to a + bush, then getting a stout stick he came back and gave him + one blow on the head. So great was the blow that the dog made + not the slightest sound: he fell; his body quivered a moment + and his legs stretched out—he was quite dead. Bawcombe + then plucked an armful of bracken and threw it over his body + to cover it, and going back to the hurdles sent the boy home, + then spreading his cloak at the hedge-side, laid himself down + on it and covered his head. + </p> + <p> + An hour later the fanner appeared on the scene. "What are you + doing here, shepherd?" he demanded in surprise. "Not trimming + the lambs!" + </p> + <p> + Bawcombe, raising himself on his elbow, replied that he was + not trimming the lambs—that he would trim no lambs that + day. + </p> + <p> + "Oh, but we must get on with the trimming!" cried the farmer. + </p> + <p> + Bawcombe returned that the dog had put him out, and now the + dog was dead—he had killed him in his anger, and he + would trim no more lambs that day. He had said it and would + keep to what he had said. + </p> + <p> + Then the farmer got angry and said that the dog had a very + good nose and would have been useful to him to take rabbits. + </p> + <p> + "Master," said the other, "I got he when he were a pup and + broke 'n to help me with the sheep and not to catch rabbits; + and now I've killed 'n and he'll catch no rabbits." + </p> + <p> + The farmer knew his man, and swallowing his anger walked off + without another word. + </p> + <p> + Later on in the day he was severely blamed by a shepherd + friend who said that he could easily have sold the dog to one + of the drovers, who were always anxious to pick up a dog in + their village, and he would have had the money to repay him + for his trouble; to which Bawcombe returned, "If he wouldn't + work for I that broke 'n he wouldn't work for another. But + I'll never again break a dog that isn't pure-bred." + </p> + <p> + But though he justified himself he had suffered remorse for + what he had done; not only at the time, when he covered the + dead dog up with bracken and refused to work any more that + day, but the feeling had persisted all his life, and he could + not relate the incident without showing it very plainly. He + bitterly blamed himself for having taken the pup and for + spending long months in training him without having first + taken pains to inform himself that there was no bad blood in + him. And although the dog was perhaps unfit to live he had + finally killed him in anger. If it had not been for that + sudden impetuous chase after a swallow he would have borne + with him and considered afterwards what was to be done; but + that dash after the bird was more than he could stand; for it + looked as if Tory had done it purposely, in something of a + mocking spirit, to exhibit his wonderful activity and speed + to his master, sweating there at his task, and make him see + what he had lost in offending him. + </p> + <p> + The shepherd gave another instance of a mistake he once made + which caused him a good deal of pain. It was the case of a + dog named Bob which he owned when a young man. He was an + exceptionally small dog, but his quick intelligence made up + for lack of strength, and he was of a very lively + disposition, so that he was a good companion to a shepherd as + well as a good servant. + </p> + <p> + One summer day at noon Caleb was going to his flock in the + fields, walking by a hedge, when he noticed Bob sniffing + suspiciously at the roots of an old holly-tree growing on the + bank. It was a low but very old tree with a thick trunk, + rotten and hollow inside, the cavity being hidden with the + brushwood growing up from the roots. As he came abreast of + the tree, Bob looked up and emitted a low whine, that sound + which says so much when used by a dog to his master and which + his master does not always rightly understand. At all events + he did not do so in this case. It was August and the shooting + had begun, and Caleb jumped to the conclusion that a wounded + bird had crept into the hollow tree to hide, and so to Bob's + whine, which expressed fear and asked what he was to do, the + shepherd answered, "Get him." Bob dashed in, but quickly + recoiled, whining in a piteous way, and began rubbing his + face on his legs. Bawcombe in alarm jumped down and peered + into the hollow trunk and heard a slight rustling of dead + leaves, but saw nothing. His dog had been bitten by an adder, + and he at once returned to the village, bitterly blaming + himself for the mistake he had made and greatly fearing that + he would lose his dog. Arrived at the village his mother at + once went off to the down to inform Isaac of the trouble and + ask him what they were to do. Caleb had to wait some time, as + none of the villagers who gathered round could suggest a + remedy, and in the meantime Bob continued rubbing his cheek + against his foreleg, twitching and whining with pain; and + before long the face and head began to swell on one side, the + swelling extending to the nape and downwards to the throat. + Presently Isaac himself, full of concern, arrived on the + scene, having left his wife in charge of the flock, and at + the same time a man from a neighbouring village came riding + by and joined the group. The horseman got off and assisted + Caleb in holding the dog while Isaac made a number of + incisions with his knife in the swollen place and let out + some blood, after which they rubbed the wounds and all the + swollen part with an oil used for the purpose. The + composition of this oil was a secret: it was made by a man in + one of the downland villages and sold at eighteenpence a + small bottle; Isaac was a believer in its efficacy, and + always kept a bottle hidden away somewhere in his cottage. + </p> + <p> + Bob recovered in a few days, but the hair fell out from all + the part which had been swollen, and he was a curious-looking + dog with half his face and head naked until he got his fresh + coat, when it grew again. He was as good and active a dog as + ever, and lived to a good old age, but one result of the + poison he never got over: his bark had changed from a sharp + ringing sound to a low and hoarse one. "He always barked," + said the shepherd, "like a dog with a sore throat." + </p> + <p> + To go back to the subject of training a dog. Once you make a + beginning it must be carried through to a finish. You take + him at the age of six months, and the education must be + fairly complete when he is a year old. He is then lively, + impressionable, exceedingly adaptive; his intelligence at + that period is most like man's; but it would be a mistake to + think that it will continue so—that to what he learns + now in this wonderful half-year, other things may be added by + and by as opportunity arises. At a year he has practically + got to the end of his capacity to learn. He has lost his + human-like receptivity, but what he has been taught will + remain with him for the rest of his life. We can hardly say + that he remembers it; it is more like what is called + "inherited memory" or "lapsed intelligence." + </p> + <p> + All this is very important to a shepherd, and explains the + reason an old head-shepherd had for saying to me that he had + never had, and never would have, a dog he had not trained + himself. No two men follow precisely the same method in + training, and a dog transferred from his trainer to another + man is always a little at a loss; method, voice, gestures, + personality, are all different; his new master must study him + and in a way adapt himself to the dog. The dog is still more + at a loss when transferred from one kind of country to + another where the sheep are worked in a different manner, and + one instance Caleb gave me of this is worth relating. It was, + I thought, one of his best dog stories. + </p> + <p> + His dogs as a rule were bought as pups; occasionally he had + had to get a dog already trained, a painful necessity to a + shepherd, seeing that the pound or two it costs—the + price of an ordinary animal—is a big sum of money to + him. And once in his life he got an old trained sheep-dog for + nothing. He was young then, and acting as under-shepherd in + his native village, when the report came one day that a great + circus and menagerie which had been exhibiting in the west + was on its way to Salisbury, and would be coming past the + village about six o'clock on the following morning. The + turnpike was a little over a mile away, and thither Caleb + went with half a dozen other young men of the village at + about five o'clock to see the show pass, and sat on a gate + beside a wood to wait its coming. In due time the long + procession of horses and mounted men and women, and gorgeous + vans containing lions and tigers and other strange beasts, + came by, affording them great admiration and delight. When it + had gone on and the last van had disappeared at the turning + of the road, they got down from the gate and were about to + set out on their way back when a big, shaggy sheepdog came + out of the wood and running to the road began looking up and + down in a bewildered way. They had no doubt that he belonged + to the circus and had turned aside to hunt a rabbit in the + wood; then, thinking the animal would understand them, they + shouted to it and waved their arms in the direction the + procession had gone. But the dog became frightened, and + turning fled back into cover, and they saw no more of it. + </p> + <p> + Two or three days later it was rumoured that a strange dog + had been seen in the neighbourhood of Winterbourne Bishop, in + the fields; and women and children going to or coming from + outlying cottages and farms had encountered it, sometimes + appearing suddenly out of the furze-bushes and staring wildly + at them; or they would meet him in some deep lane between + hedges, and after standing still a moment eyeing them he + would turn and fly in terror from their strange faces. + Shepherds began to be alarmed for the safety of their sheep, + and there was a good deal of excitement and talk about the + strange dog. Two or three days later Caleb encountered it. He + was returning from his flock at the side of a large grass + field where four or five women were occupied cutting the + thistles, and the dog, which he immediately recognized as the + one he had seen at the turnpike, was following one of the + women about. She was greatly alarmed, and called to him, + "Come here, Caleb, for goodness' sake, and drive this big dog + away! He do look so desprit, I'm afeared of he." + </p> + <p> + "Don't you be feared," he shouted back. "He won't hurt 'ee; + he's starving—don't you see his bones sticking out? + He's asking to be fed." Then going a little nearer he called + to her to take hold of the dog by the neck and keep him while + he approached. He feared that the dog on seeing him coming + would rush away. After a little while she called the dog, but + when he went to her she shrank away from him and called out, + "No, I daren't touch he—he'll tear my hand off. I never + see'd such a desprit-looking beast!" + </p> + <p> + "'Tis hunger," repeated Caleb, and then very slowly and + cautiously he approached, the dog all the time eyeing him + suspiciously, ready to rush away on the slightest alarm. And + while approaching him he began to speak gently to him, then + coming to a stand stooped and patting his legs called the dog + to him. Presently he came, sinking his body lower as he + advanced and at last crawling, and when he arrived at the + shepherd's feet he turned himself over on his back—that + eloquent action which a dog uses when humbling himself before + and imploring mercy from one mightier than himself, man or + dog. + </p> + <p> + Caleb stooped, and after patting the dog gripped him firmly + by the neck and pulled him up, while with his free hand he + undid his leather belt to turn it into a dog's collar and + leash; then, the end of the strap in his hand, he said + "Come," and started home with the dog at his side. Arrived at + the cottage he got a bucket and mixed as much meal as would + make two good feeds, the dog all the time watching him with + his muscles twitching and the water running from his mouth. + The meal well mixed he emptied it out on the turf, and what + followed, he said, was an amazing thing to see: the dog + hurled himself down on the food and started devouring it as + if the mass of meal had been some living savage creature he + had captured and was frenziedly tearing to pieces. He turned + round and round, floundering on the earth, uttering strange + noises like half-choking growls and screams while gobbling + down the meal; then when he had devoured it all he began + tearing up and swallowing the turf for the sake of the little + wet meal still adhering to it. + </p> + <p> + Such rage of hunger Caleb had never seen, and it was painful + to him to think of what the dog had endured during those days + when it had been roaming foodless about the neighbourhood. + Yet it was among sheep all the time—scores of flocks + left folded by night at a distance from the village; one + would have imagined that the old wolf and wild-dog instinct + would have come to life in such circumstances, but the + instinct was to all appearance dead. + </p> + <p> + My belief is that the pure-bred sheep-dog is indeed the last + dog to revert to a state of nature; and that when + sheep-killing by night is traced to a sheep-dog, the animal + has a bad strain in him, of retriever, or cur, or + "rabbit-dog," as the shepherds call all terriers. When I was + a boy on the pampas sheep-killing dogs were common enough, + and they were always curs, or the common dog of the country, + a smooth-haired animal about the size of a coach-dog, red, or + black, or white. I recall one instance of sheep-killing being + traced to our own dogs—we had about six or eight just + then. A native neighbour, a few miles away, caught them at it + one morning; they escaped him in spite of his good horse, + with lasso and bolas also, but his sharp eyes saw them pretty + well in the dim light, and by and by he identified them, and + my father had to pay him for about thirty slain and badly + injured sheep; after which a gallows was erected and our + guardians ignominiously hanged. Here we shoot dogs; in some + countries the old custom of hanging them, which is perhaps + less painful, is still followed. + </p> + <p> + To go back to our story. From that time the stray dog was + Caleb's obedient and affectionate slave, always watching his + face and every gesture, and starting up at his slightest word + in readiness to do his bidding. When put with the flock he + turned out to be a useful sheep-dog, but unfortunately he had + not been trained on the Wiltshire Downs. It was plain to see + that the work was strange to him, that he had been taught in + a different school, and could never forget the old and + acquire a new method. But as to what conditions he had been + reared in or in what district or country no one could guess. + Every one said that he was a sheep-dog, but unlike any + sheep-dog they had ever seen; he was not Wiltshire, nor + Welsh, nor Sussex, nor Scotch, and they could say no more. + Whenever a shepherd saw him for the first time his attention + was immediately attracted, and he would stop to speak with + Caleb. "What sort of a dog do you call that?" he would say. + "I never see'd one just like 'n before." + </p> + <p> + At length one day when passing by a new building which some + workmen had been brought from a distance to erect in the + village, one of the men hailed Caleb and said, "Where did you + get that dog, mate?" + </p> + <p> + "Why do you ask me that?" said the shepherd. + </p> + <p> + "Because I know where he come from: he's a Rooshian, that's + what he is. I've see'd many just like him in the Crimea when + I was there. But I never see'd one before in England." + </p> + <p> + Caleb was quite ready to believe it, and was a little proud + at having a sheep-dog from that distant country. He said that + it also put something new into his mind. He didn't know + nothing about Russia before that, though he had been hearing + so much of our great war there and of all the people that had + been killed. Now he realized that Russia was a great country, + a land where there were hills and valleys and villages, where + there were flocks and herds, and shepherds and sheepdogs just + as in the Wiltshire Downs. He only wished that + Tramp—that was the name he had given his + dog—could have told him his history. + </p> + <p> + Tramp, in spite of being strange to the downs and the + downland sheep-dog's work, would probably have been kept by + Caleb to the end but for his ineradicable passion for hunting + rabbits. He did not neglect his duty, but he would slip away + too often, and eventually when a man who wanted a good dog + for rabbits one day offered Caleb fifteen shillings for + Tramp, he sold him, and as he was taken away to a distance by + his new master, he never saw him again. + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p><a name="ch21"><!--Marker--></a> + <h2> + CHAPTER XXI + </h2> + <h3> + THE SHEPHERD AS NATURALIST + </h3> + <blockquote> + General remarks—Great Ridge Wood—Encounter with a + roe-deer—A hare on a stump—A gamekeeper's + memory—Talk with a gipsy—A strange story of a + hedgehog—A gipsy on memory—The shepherd's feeling + for animals—Anecdote of a shrew—Anecdote of an + owl—Reflex effect of the gamekeeper's calling—We + remember best what we see emotionally + </blockquote> + <p> + It will appear to some of my readers that the interesting + facts about wild life, or rather about animal life, wild and + domestic, gathered in my talks with the old shepherd, do not + amount to much. If this is all there is to show after a long + life spent out of doors, or all that is best worth + preserving, it is a somewhat scanty harvest, they will say. + To me it appears a somewhat abundant one. We field + naturalists, who set down what we see and hear in a notebook, + lest we forget it, do not always bear in mind that it is + exceedingly rare for those who are not naturalists, whose + senses and minds are occupied with other things, to come upon + a new and interesting fact in animal life, or that these + chance observations are quickly forgotten. This was strongly + borne in upon me lately while staying in the village of + Hindon in the neighbourhood of the Great Ridge Wood, which + clothes the summit of the long high down overlooking the vale + of the Wylye. It is an immense wood, mostly of scrub or dwarf + oak, very dense in some parts, in others thin, with open, + barren patches, and like a wild forest, covering altogether + twelve or fourteen square miles—perhaps more. There are + no houses near, and no people in it except a few gamekeepers: + I spent long days in it without meeting a human being. It was + a joy to me to find such a spot in England, so wild and + solitary, and I was filled with pleasing anticipation of all + the wild life I should see in such a place, especially after + an experience I had on my second day in it. I was standing in + an open glade when a cock-pheasant uttered a cry of alarm, + and immediately afterwards, startled by the cry perhaps, a + roe-deer rushed out of the close thicket of oak and holly in + which it had been hiding, and ran past me at a very short + distance, giving me a good sight of this shyest of the large + wild animals still left to us. He looked very beautiful to + me, in that mouse-coloured coat which makes him invisible in + the deep shade in which he is accustomed to pass the daylight + hours in hiding, as he fled across the green open space in + the brilliant May sunshine. But he was only one, a chance + visitor, a wanderer from wood to wood about the land; and he + had been seen once, a month before my encounter with him, and + ever since then the keepers had been watching and waiting for + him, gun in hand, to send a charge of shot into his side. + </p> + <p> + That was the best and the only great thing I saw in the Great + Ridge Wood, for the curse of the pheasant is on it as on all + the woods and forests in Wiltshire, and all wild life + considered injurious to the semi-domestic bird, from the + sparrowhawk to the harrier and buzzard and goshawk, and from + the little mousing weasel to the badger; and all the wild + life that is only beautiful, or which delights us because of + its wildness, from the squirrel to the roe-deer, must be + included in the slaughter. + </p> + <p> + One very long summer day spent in roaming about in this + endless wood, always on the watch, had for sole result, so + far as anything out of the common goes, the spectacle of a + hare sitting on a stump. The hare started up at a distance of + over a hundred yards before me and rushed straight away at + first, then turned, and ran on my left so as to get round to + the side from which I had come. I stood still and watched him + as he moved swiftly over the ground, seeing him not as a hare + but as a dim brown object successively appearing, vanishing, + and reappearing, behind and between the brown tree-trunks, + until he had traced half a circle and was then suddenly lost + to sight. Thinking that he had come to a stand I put my + binocular on the spot where he had vanished, and saw him + sitting on an old oak stump about thirty inches long. It was + a round mossy stump, about eighteen inches in diameter, + standing in a bed of brown dead leaves, with the rough brown + trunks of other dwarf oak-trees on either side of it. The + animal was sitting motionless, in profile, its ears erect, + seeing me with one eye, and was like a carved figure of a + hare set on a pedestal, and had a very striking appearance. + </p> + <p> + As I had never seen such a thing before I thought it was + worth mentioning to a keeper I called to see at his lodge on + my way back in the evening. It had been a blank day, I told + him—a hare sitting on a stump being the only thing I + could remember to tell him. "Well," he said, "you've seen + something I've never seen in all the years I've been in these + woods. And yet, when you come to think of it, it's just what + one might expect a hare would do. The wood is full of old + stumps, and it seems only natural a hare should jump on to + one to get a better view of a man or animal at a distance + among the trees. But I never saw it." + </p> + <p> + What, then, had he seen worth remembering during his long + hours in the wood on that day, or the day before, or on any + day during the last thirty years since he had been policing + that wood, I asked him. He answered that he had seen many + strange things, but he was not now able to remember one to + tell me! He said, further, that the only things he remembered + were those that related to his business of guarding and + rearing the birds; all other things he observed in animals, + however remarkable they might seem to him at the moment, were + things that didn't matter and were quickly forgotten. + </p> + <p> + On the very next day I was out on the down with a gipsy, and + we got talking about wild animals. He was a middle-aged man + and a very perfect specimen of his race—not one of the + blue-eyed and red or light-haired bastard gipsies, but dark + as a Red Indian, with eyes like a hawk, and altogether a + hawk-like being, lean, wiry, alert, a perfectly wild man in a + tame, civilized land. The lean, mouse-coloured lurcher that + followed at his heels was perfect too, in his way—man + and dog appeared made for one another. When this man spoke of + his life, spent in roaming about the country, of his very + perfect health, and of his hatred of houses, the very + atmosphere of any indoor place producing a suffocating and + sickening effect on him, I envied him as I envy birds their + wings and as I can never envy men who live in mansions. His + was the wild, the real life, and it seemed to me that there + was no other worth living. + </p> + <p> + "You know," said he, in the course of our talk about wild + animals, "we are very fond of hedgehogs—we like them + better than rabbits." + </p> + <p> + "Well, so do I," was my remark. I am not quite sure that I + do, but that is what I told him. "But now you talk of + hedgehogs," I said, "it's funny to think that, common as the + animal is, it has some queer habits I can't find anything + about from gamekeepers and others I've talked to on the + subject, or from my own observation. Yet one would imagine + that we know all there is to be known about the little beast; + you'll find his history in a hundred books—perhaps in + five hundred. There's one book about our British animals so + big you'd hardly be able to lift its three volumes from the + ground with all your strength, in which its author has raked + together everything known about the hedgehog, but he doesn't + give me the information I want—just what I went to the + book to find. Now here's what a friend of mine once saw. He's + not a naturalist, nor a sportsman, nor a gamekeeper, and not + a gipsy; he doesn't observe animals or want to find out their + ways; he is a writer, occupied day and night with his + writing, sitting among books, yet he saw something which the + naturalists and gamekeepers haven't seen, so far as I know. + He was going home one moonlight night by a footpath through + the woods when he heard a very strange noise a little + distance ahead, a low whistling sound, very sharp, like the + continuous twittering of a little bird with a voice like a + bat, or a shrew, only softer, more musical. He went on very + cautiously, until he spied two hedgehogs standing on the path + facing each other, with their noses almost or quite touching. + He remained watching and listening to them for some moments, + then tried to go a little nearer and they ran away. + </p> + <p> + "Now I've asked about a dozen gamekeepers if they ever saw + such a thing, and all said they hadn't; they never heard + hedgehogs make that twittering sound, like a bird or a + singing mouse; they had only heard them scream like a rabbit + when in a trap. Now what do you say about it?" + </p> + <p> + "I've never seen anything like that," said the gipsy. "I only + know the hedgehog makes a little whistling sound when he + first comes out at night; I believe it is a sort of call they + have." + </p> + <p> + "But no doubt," I said, "you've seen other queer things in + hedgehogs and in other little animals which I should like to + hear." + </p> + <p> + Yes, he had, first and last, seen a good many queer things + both by day and night, in woods and other places, he replied, + and then continued: "But you see it's like this. We see + something and say, 'Now that's a very curious thing!' and + then we forget all about it. You see, we don't lay no store + by such things; we ain't scholards and don't know nothing + about what's said in books. We see something and say + <i>That's</i> something we never saw before and never heard + tell of, but maybe others have seen it and you can find it in + the books. So that's how 'tis, but if I hadn't forgotten them + I could have told you a lot of queer things." + </p> + <p> + That was all he could say, and few can say more. Caleb was + one of the few who could, and one wonders why it was so, + seeing that he was occupied with his own tasks in the fields + and on the down where wild life is least abundant and varied, + and that his opportunities were so few compared with those of + the gamekeeper. It was, I take it, because he had sympathy + for the creatures he observed, that their actions had stamped + themselves on his memory, because he had seen them + emotionally. We have seen how well he remembered the many + sheep-dogs he had owned, how vividly their various characters + are portrayed in his account of them. I have met with + shepherds who had little to tell about the dogs they had + possessed; they had regarded their dogs as useful servants + and nothing more as long as they lived, and when dead they + were forgotten. But Caleb had a feeling for his dogs which + made it impossible for him to forget them or to recall them + without that tenderness which accompanies the thought of + vanished human friends. In a lesser degree he had something + of this feeling for all animals, down even to the most minute + and unconsidered. I recall here one of his anecdotes of a + very small creature—a shrew, or over-runner, as he + called it. + </p> + <p> + One day when out with his flock a sudden storm of rain caused + him to seek for shelter in an old untrimmed hedge close by. + He crept into the ditch, full of old dead leaves beneath the + tangle of thorns and brambles, and setting his back against + the bank he thrust his legs out, and as he did so was + startled by an outburst of shrill little screams at his feet. + Looking down he spied a shrew standing on the dead leaves + close to his boot, screaming with all its might, its long + thin snout pointed upwards and its mouth wide open; and just + above it, two or three inches perhaps, hovered a small brown + butterfly. There for a few moments it continued hovering + while the shrew continued screaming; then the butterfly + flitted away and the shrew disappeared among the dead leaves. + </p> + <p> + Caleb laughed (a rare thing with him) when he narrated this + little incident, then remarked: "The over-runner was a-crying + 'cause he couldn't catch that leetel butterfly." + </p> + <p> + The shepherd's inference was wrong; he did not know—few + do—that the shrew has the singular habit, when + surprised on the surface and in danger, of remaining + motionless and uttering shrill cries. His foot, set down + close to it, had set it screaming; the small butterfly, no + doubt disturbed at the same moment, was there by chance. I + recall here another little story he related of a bird—a + long-eared owl. + </p> + <p> + One summer there was a great drought, and the rooks, unable + to get their usual food from the hard, sun-baked + pasture-lands, attacked the roots and would have pretty well + destroyed them if the farmer had not protected his swedes by + driving in stakes and running cotton-thread and twine from + stake to stake all over the field. This kept them off, just + as thread keeps the chaffinches from the seed-beds in small + gardens, and as it keeps the sparrows from the crocuses on + lawn and ornamental grounds. One day Caleb caught sight of an + odd-looking, brownish-grey object out in the middle of the + turnip-field, and as he looked it rose up two or three feet + into the air, then dropped back again, and this curious + movement was repeated at intervals of two or three minutes + until he went to see what the thing was. It turned out to be + a long-eared owl, with its foot accidentally caught by a + slack thread, which allowed the bird to rise a couple of feet + into the air; but every such attempt to escape ended in its + being pulled back to the ground again. It was so excessively + lean, so weightless in his hand, when he took it up after + disengaging its foot, that he thought it must have been + captive for the space of two or three days. The wonder was + that it had kept alive during those long midsummer days of + intolerable heat out there in the middle of the burning + field. Yet it was in very fine feather and beautiful to look + at with its long, black ear-tufts and round, orange-yellow + eyes, which would never lose their fiery lustre until glazed + in death. Caleb's first thought on seeing it closely was that + it would have been a prize to anyone who liked to have a + handsome bird stuffed in a glass case. Then raising it over + his head he allowed it to fly, whereupon it flew off a + distance of a dozen or fifteen yards and pitched among the + turnips, after which it ran a little space and rose again + with labour, but soon recovering strength it flew away over + the field and finally disappeared in the deep shade of the + copse beyond. + </p> + <p> + In relating these things the voice, the manner, the + expression in his eyes were more than the mere words, and + displayed the feeling which had caused these little incidents + to endure so long in his memory. + </p> + <p> + The gamekeeper cannot have this feeling: he may come to his + task with the liveliest interest in, even with sympathy for, + the wild creatures amidst which he will spend his life, but + it is all soon lost. His business in the woods is to kill, + and the reflex effect is to extinguish all interest in the + living animal—in its life and mind. It would, indeed, + be a wonderful thing if he could remember any singular action + or appearance of an animal which he had witnessed before + bringing his gun automatically to his shoulder. + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p><a name="ch22"><!--Marker--></a> + <h2> + CHAPTER XXII + </h2> + <h3> + THE MASTER OF THE VILLAGE + </h3> + <blockquote> + Moral effect of the great man—An orphaned + village—The masters of the village.—Elijah + Raven—Strange appearance and character—Elijah's + house—The owls—Two rooms in the + house—Elijah hardens with time—The village club + and its arbitrary secretary—Caleb dips the lambs and + falls ill—His claim on the club rejected—Elijah + in court + </blockquote> + <p> + In my roamings about the downs it is always a relief—a + positive pleasure in fact—to find myself in a village + which has no squire or other magnificent and munificent + person who dominates everybody and everything, and, if he + chooses to do so, plays providence in the community. I may + have no personal objection to him—he is sometimes + almost if not quite human; what I heartily dislike is the + effect of his position (that of a giant among pigmies) on the + lowly minds about him, and the servility, hypocrisy, and + parasitism which spring up and flourish in his wide shadow + whether he likes these moral weeds or not. As a rule he likes + them, since the poor devil has this in common with the rest + of us, that he likes to stand high in the general regard. But + how is he to know it unless he witnesses its outward + beautiful signs every day and every hour on every countenance + he looks upon? Better, to my mind, the severer conditions, + the poverty and unmerited sufferings which cannot be + relieved, with the greater manliness and self-dependence when + the people are left to work out their own destiny. On this + account I was pleased to make the discovery on my first visit + to Caleb's native village that there was no magnate, or other + big man, and no gentleman except the parson, who was not a + rich man. It was, so to speak, one of the orphaned villages + left to fend for itself and fight its own way in a hard + world, and had nobody even to give the customary blankets and + sack of coals to its old women. Nor was there any very big + farmer in the place, certainly no gentleman farmer; they were + mostly small men, some of them hardly to be distinguished in + speech and appearance from their hired labourers. + </p> + <p> + In these small isolated communities it is common to find men + who have succeeded in rising above the others and in + establishing a sort of mastery over them. They are not as a + rule much more intelligent than the others who are never able + to better themselves; the main difference is that they are + harder and more grasping and have more self-control. These + qualities tell eventually, and set a man a little apart, a + little higher than the others, and he gets the taste of + power, which reacts on him like the first taste of blood on + the big cat. Henceforward he has his ideal, his definite + goal, which is to get the upper hand—to be on top. He + may be, and generally is, an exceedingly unpleasant fellow to + have for a neighbour—mean, sordid, greedy, tyrannous, + even cruel, and he may be generally hated and despised as + well, but along with these feelings there will be a kind of + shamefaced respect and admiration for his courage in + following his own line in defiance of what others think and + feel. It is after all with man as with the social animals: he + must have a master—not a policeman, or magistrate, or a + vague, far-away, impersonal something called the authorities + or the government; but a head of the pack or herd, a being + like himself whom he knows and sees and hears and feels every + day. A real man, dressed in old familiar clothes, a + fellow-villager, who, wolf or dog-like, has fought his way to + the mastership. + </p> + <p> + There was a person of this kind at Winterbourne Bishop who + was often mentioned in Caleb's reminiscences, for he had left + a very strong impression on the shepherd's mind—as + strong, perhaps, though in a disagreeable way, as that of + Isaac his father, and of Mr. Ellerby of Doveton. For not only + was he a man of great force of character, but he was of + eccentric habits and of a somewhat grotesque appearance. The + curious name of this person was Elijah Raven. He was a native + of the village and lived till extreme old age in it, the last + of his family, in a small house inherited from his father, + situated about the centre of the village street. It was a + quaint, old, timbered house, little bigger than a cottage, + with a thatched roof, and behind it some outbuildings, a + small orchard, and a field of a dozen or fifteen acres. Here + he lived with one other person, an old man who did the + cooking and housework, but after this man died he lived + alone. Not only was he a bachelor, but he would never allow + any woman to come inside his house. Elijah's one idea was to + get the advantage of others—to make himself master in + the village. Beginning poor, he worked in a small, cautious, + peddling way at farming, taking a field or meadow or strip of + down here and there in the neighbourhood, keeping a few + sheep, a few cows, buying and selling and breeding horses. + The men he employed were those he could get at low + wages—poor labourers who were without a place and + wanted to fill up a vacant time, or men like the Targetts + described in a former chapter who could be imposed upon; also + gipsies who flitted about the country, working in a spasmodic + way when in the mood for the farmers who could tolerate them, + and who were paid about half the wages of an ordinary + labourer. If a poor man had to find money quickly, on account + of illness or some other cause, he could get it from Elijah + at once—not borrowed, since Elijah neither lent nor + gave—but he could sell him anything he + possessed—a horse or cow, or sheepdog, or a piece of + furniture; and if he had nothing to sell, Elijah would give + him something to do and pay him something for it. The great + thing was that Elijah had money which he was always willing + to circulate. At his unlamented death he left several + thousands of pounds, which went to a distant relation, and a + name which does not smell sweet, but is still remembered not + only at Winterbourne Bishop but at many other villages on + Salisbury Plain. + </p> + <p> + Elijah was short of stature, broad-shouldered, with an + abnormally big head and large dark eyes. They say that he + never cut his hair in his life. It was abundant and curly, + and grew to his shoulders, and when he was old and his great + mass of hair and beard became white it was said that he + resembled a gigantic white owl. Mothers frightened their + children into quiet by saying, "Elijah will get you if you + don't behave yourself." He knew and resented this, and though + he never noticed a child, he hated to have the little ones + staring in a half-terrified way at him. To seclude himself + more from the villagers he planted holly and yew bushes + before his house, and eventually the entire building was + hidden from sight by the dense evergreen thicket. The trees + were cut down after his death: they were gone when I first + visited the village and by chance found a lodging in the + house, and congratulated myself that I had got the quaintest, + old rambling rooms I had ever inhabited. I did not know that + I was in Elijah Raven's house, although his name had long + been familiar to me: it only came out one day when I asked my + landlady, who was a native, to tell me the history of the + place. She remembered how as a little girl, full of mischief + and greatly daring, she had sometimes climbed over the low + front wall to hide under the thick yew bushes and watch to + catch a sight of the owlish old man at his door or window. + </p> + <p> + For many years Elijah had two feathered tenants, a pair of + white owls—the birds he so much resembled. They + occupied a small garret at the end of his bedroom, having + access to it through a hole under the thatch. They bred there + in peace, and on summer evenings one of the common sights of + the village was Elijah's owls flying from the house behind + the evergreens and returning to it with mice in their talons. + At such seasons the threat to the unruly children would be + varied to "Old Elijah's owls will get you." Naturally, the + children grew up with the idea of the birds and the owlish + old man associated in their minds. + </p> + <p> + It was odd that the two very rooms which Elijah had occupied + during all those solitary years, the others being given over + to spiders and dust, should have been assigned to me when I + came to lodge in the house. The first, my sitting-room, was + so low that my hair touched the ceiling when I stood up my + full height; it had a brick floor and a wide old fireplace on + one side. Though so low-ceilinged it was very large and good + to be in when I returned from a long ramble on the downs, + sometimes wet and cold, to sit by a wood fire and warm + myself. At night when I climbed to my bedroom by means of the + narrow, crooked, worm-eaten staircase, with two difficult and + dangerous corners to get round, I would lie awake staring at + the small square patch of greyness in the black interior made + by the latticed window; and listening to the wind and rain + outside, would remember that the sordid, owlish old man had + slept there and stared nightly at that same grey patch in the + dark for very many years. If, I thought, that something of a + man which remains here below to haunt the scene of its past + life is more likely to exist and appear to mortal eyes in the + case of a person of strong individuality, then there is a + chance that I may be visited this night by Elijah Raven his + ghost. But his owlish countenance never appeared between me + and that patch of pale dim light; nor did I ever feel a + breath of cold unearthly air on me. + </p> + <p> + Elijah did not improve with time; the years that made him + long-haired, whiter, and more owl-like also made him more + penurious and grasping, and anxious to get the better of + every person about him. There was scarcely a poor person in + the village—not a field labourer nor shepherd nor + farmer's boy, nor any old woman he had employed, who did not + consider that they had suffered at his hands. The very + poorest could not escape; if he got some one to work for + fourpence a day he would find a reason to keep back a portion + of the small sum due to him. At the same time he wanted to be + well thought of, and at length an opportunity came to him to + figure as one who did not live wholly for himself but rather + as a person ready to go out of his way to help his + neighbours. + </p> + <p> + There had long existed a small benefit society or club in the + village to which most of the farm-hands in the parish + belonged, the members numbering about sixty or seventy. + Subscriptions were paid quarterly, but the rules were not + strict, and any member could take a week or a fortnight + longer to pay; when a member fell ill he received half the + amount of his wages a week from the funds in hand, and once a + year they had a dinner. The secretary was a labourer, and in + time he grew old and infirm and could not hold a pen in his + rheumaticky fingers, and a meeting was held to consider what + was to be done in the matter. It was not an easy one to + settle. There were few members capable of keeping the books + who would undertake the duty, as it was unpaid, and no one + among them well known and trusted by all the members. It was + then that Elijah Raven came to the rescue. He attended the + meeting, which he was allowed to do owing to his being a + person of importance—the only one of that description + in the village; and getting up on his legs he made the offer + to act as secretary himself. This came as a great surprise, + and the offer was at once and unanimously accepted, all + unpleasant feelings being forgotten, and for the first time + in his life Elijah heard himself praised as a disinterested + person, one it was good to have in the village. + </p> + <p> + Things went on very well for a time, and at the yearly dinner + of the club, a few months later, Elijah gave an account of + his stewardship, showing that the club had a surplus of two + hundred pounds. Shortly after this trouble began; Elijah, it + was said, was making use of his position as secretary for his + own private interests and to pay off old scores against those + he disliked. When a man came with his quarterly subscription + Elijah would perhaps remember that this person had refused to + work for him or that he had some quarrel with him, and if the + subscription was overdue he would refuse to take it; he would + tell the man that he was no longer a member, and he also + refused to give sick pay to any applicant whose last + subscription was still due, if he happened to be in Elijah's + black book. By and by he came into collision with Caleb, one + of the villagers against whom he cherished a special grudge, + and this small affair resulted in the dissolution of the + club. + </p> + <p> + At this time Caleb was head-shepherd at Bartle's Cross, a + large farm above a mile and a half from the village. One + excessively hot day in August he had to dip the lambs; it was + very hard work to drive them from the farm over a high down + to the stream a mile below the village, where there was a + dipping place, and he was tired and hot, and in a sweat when + he began the work. With his arms bared to the shoulders he + took and plunged his first lamb into the tank. When engaged + in dipping, he said, he always kept his mouth closed tightly + for fear of getting even a drop of the mixture in it, but on + this occasion it unfortunately happened that the man + assisting him spoke to him and he was compelled to reply, but + had no sooner opened his mouth to speak than the lamb made a + violent struggle in his arms and splashed the water over his + face and into his mouth. He got rid of it as quickly as he + could, but soon began to feel bad, and before the work was + over he had to sit down two or three times to rest. However, + he struggled on to the finish, then took the flock home and + went to his cottage. He could do no more. The farmer came to + see what the matter was, and found him in a fever, with face + and throat greatly swollen. "You look bad," he said; "you + must be off to the doctor." But it was five miles to the + village where the doctor lived, and Bawcombe replied that he + couldn't go. "I'm too bad—I couldn't go, master, if you + offered me money for it," he said. + </p> + <p> + Then the farmer mounted his horse and went himself, and the + doctor came. "No doubt," he said, "you've got some of the + poison into your system and took a chill at the same time." + The illness lasted six weeks, and then the shepherd resumed + work, although still feeling very shaky. By and by when the + opportunity came, he went to claim his sick pay—six + shillings a week for the six weeks, his wages being then + twelve shillings. Elijah flatly refused to pay him; his + subscription, he said, had been due for several weeks and he + had consequently forfeited his right to anything. In vain the + shepherd explained that he could not pay when lying ill at + home with no money in the house and receiving no pay from the + farmer. The old man remained obdurate, and with a very heavy + heart the shepherd came out and found three or four of the + villagers waiting in the road outside to hear the result of + the application. + </p> + <p> + They, too, were men who had been turned away from the club by + the arbitrary secretary. Caleb was telling them about his + interview when Elijah came out of the house and, leaning over + the front gate, began to listen. The shepherd then turned + towards him and said in a loud voice: "Mr. Elijah Raven, + don't you think this is a tarrible hard case! I've paid my + subscription every quarter for thirty years and never had + nothing from the fund except two weeks' pay when I were bad + some years ago. Now I've been bad six weeks, and my master + giv' me nothing for that time, and I've got the doctor to pay + and nothing to live on. What am I to do?" + </p> + <p> + Elijah stared at him in silence for some time, then spoke: "I + told you in there I wouldn't pay you one penny of the money + and I'll hold to what I said—in there I said it + indoors, and I say again that indoors I'll never pay + you—no, not one penny piece. But if I happen some day + to meet you out of doors then I'll pay you. Now go." + </p> + <p> + And go he did, very meekly, his wrath going down as he + trudged home; for after all he would have his money by and + by, although the hard old man would punish him for past + offences by making him wait for it. + </p> + <p> + A week or so went by, and then one day while passing through + the village he saw Elijah coming towards him, and said to + himself, Now I'll be paid! When the two men drew near + together he cried out cheerfully, "Good morning, Mr. Raven." + The other without a word and without a pause passed by on his + way, leaving the poor shepherd gazing crestfallen after him. + </p> + <p> + After all he would not get his money! The question was + discussed in the cottages, and by and by one of the villagers + who was not so poor as most of them, and went occasionally to + Salisbury, said he would ask an attorney's advice about the + matter. He would pay for the advice out of his own pocket; he + wanted to know if Elijah could lawfully do such things. + </p> + <p> + To the man's astonishment the attorney said that as the club + was not registered and the members had themselves made Elijah + their head he could do as he liked—no action would lie + against him. But if it was true and it could be proved that + he had spoken those words about paying the shepherd his money + if he met him out of doors, then he could be made to pay. He + also said he would take the case up and bring it into court + if a sum of five pounds was guaranteed to cover expenses in + case the decision went against them. + </p> + <p> + Poor Caleb, with twelve shillings a week to pay his debts and + live on, could guarantee nothing, but by and by when the + lawyer's opinion had been discussed at great length at the + inn and in all the cottages in the village, it was found that + several of Bawcombe's friends were willing to contribute + something towards a guarantee fund, and eventually the sum of + five pounds was raised and handed over to the person who had + seen the lawyer. + </p> + <p> + His first step was to send for Bawcombe, who had to get a day + off and journey in the carrier's cart one market-day to + Salisbury. The result was that action was taken, and in due + time the case came on. Elijah Raven was in court with two or + three of his friends—small working farmers who had some + interested motive in desiring to appear as his supporters. + He, too, had engaged a lawyer to conduct his case. The judge, + said Bawcombe, who had never seen one before, was a tarrible + stern-looking old man in his wig. The plaintiff's lawyer he + did open the case and he did talk and talk a lot, but + Elijah's counsel he did keep on interrupting him, and they + two argued and argued, but the judge he never said no word, + only he looked blacker and more tarrible stern. Then when the + talk did seem all over, Bawcombe, ignorant of the forms, got + up and said, "I beg your lordship's pardon, but may I speak?" + He didn't rightly remember afterwards what he called him, but + 'twere your lordship or your worship, he was sure. "Yes, + certainly, you are here to speak," said the judge, and + Bawcombe then gave an account of his interview with Elijah + and of the conversation outside the house. + </p> + <p> + Then up rose Elijah Raven, and in a loud voice exclaimed, + "Lord, Lord, what a sad thing it is to have to sit here and + listen to this man's lies!" + </p> + <p> + "Sit down, sir," thundered the judge; "sit down and hold your + tongue, or I shall have you removed." + </p> + <p> + Then Elijah's lawyer jumped up, and the judge told him he'd + better sit down too because he knowed who the liar was in + this case. "A brutal case!" he said, and that was the end, + and Bawcombe got his six weeks' sick pay and expenses, and + about three pounds besides, being his share of the society's + funds which Elijah had been advised to distribute to the + members. + </p> + <p> + And that was the end of the Winterbourne Bishop club, and + from that time it has continued without one. + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p><a name="ch23"><!--Marker--></a> + <h2> + CHAPTER XXIII + </h2> + <h3> + ISAAC'S CHILDREN + </h3> + <blockquote> + Isaac Bawcombe's family—The youngest son—Caleb + goes to seek David at Wilton sheep-fair—Martha, the + eldest daughter—Her beauty—She marries Shepherd + Ierat—The name of Ierat—Story of Ellen + Ierat—The Ierats go to Somerset—Martha and the + lady of the manor—Martha's travels—Her mistress + dies—Return to Winterbourne Bishop—Shepherd + Ierat's end + </blockquote> + <p> + Caleb was one of five, the middle one, with a brother and + sister older and a brother and sister younger than + himself—a symmetrical family. I have already written + incidentally of the elder brother and the youngest sister, + and in this chapter will complete the history of Isaac's + children by giving an account of the eldest sister and + youngest brother. + </p> + <p> + The brother was David, the hot-tempered young shepherd who + killed his dog Monk, and who afterwards followed his brother + to Warminster. In spite of his temper and "want of sense" + Caleb was deeply attached to him, and when as an old man his + shepherding days were finished he followed his wife to their + new home, he grieved at being so far removed from his + favourite brother. For some time he managed to make the + journey to visit him once a year. Not to his home near + Warminster, but to Wilton, at the time of the great annual + sheep-fair held on 12th September. From his cottage he would + go by the carrier's cart to the nearest town, and thence by + rail with one or two changes by Salisbury to Wilton. + </p> + <p> + After I became acquainted with Caleb he was ill and not + likely to recover, and for over two years could not get + about. During all this time he spoke often to me of his + brother and wished he could see him. I wondered why he did + not write; but he would not, nor would the other. These + people of the older generation do not write to each other; + years are allowed to pass without tidings, and they wonder + and wish and talk of this and that absent member of the + family, trusting it is well with them, but to write a letter + never enters into their minds. + </p> + <p> + At last Caleb began to mend and determined to go again to + Wilton sheep-fair to look for his beloved brother; to + Warminster he could not go; it was too far. September the + 12th saw him once more at the old meeting-place, painfully + making his slow way to that part of the ground where Shepherd + David Bawcombe was accustomed to put his sheep. But he was + not there. "I be here too soon," said Caleb, and sat himself + patiently down to wait, but hours passed and David did not + appear, so he got up and made his way about the fair in + search of him, but couldn't find 'n. Returning to the old + spot he got into conversation with two young shepherds and + told them he was waiting for his brother who always put his + sheep in that part. "What be his name?" they asked, and when + he gave it they looked at one another and were silent. Then + one of them said, "Be you Shepherd Caleb Bawcombe?" and when + he had answered them the other said, "You'll not see your + brother at Wilton to-day. We've come from Doveton, and knew + he. You'll not see your brother no more. He be dead these two + years." + </p> + <p> + Caleb thanked them for telling him, and got up and went his + way very quietly, and got back that night to his cottage. He + was very tired, said his wife; he wouldn't eat and he + wouldn't talk. Many days passed and he still sat in his + corner and brooded, until the wife was angry and said she + never knowed a man make so great a trouble over losing a + brother. 'Twas not like losing a wife or a son, she said; but + he answered not a word, and it was many weeks before that + dreadful sadness began to wear off, and he could talk + cheerfully once more of his old life in the village. + </p> + <p> + Of the sister, Martha, there is much more to say; her life + was an eventful one as lives go in this quiet downland + country, and she was, moreover, distinguished above the + others of the family by her beauty and vivacity. I only knew + her when her age was over eighty, in her native village where + her life ended some time ago, but even at that age there was + something of her beauty left and a good deal of her charm. + She had a good figure still and was of a good height; and had + dark, fine eyes, clear, dark, unwrinkled skin, a finely + shaped face, and her grey hair, once black, was very + abundant. Her manner, too, was very engaging. At the age of + twenty-five she married a shepherd named Thomas Ierat—a + surname I had not heard before and which made me wonder where + were the Ierats in Wiltshire that in all my rambles among the + downland villages I had never come across them, not even in + the churchyards. Nobody knew—there were no Ierats + except Martha Ierat, the widow, of Winterbourne Bishop and + her son—nobody had ever heard of any other family of + the name. I began to doubt that there ever had been such a + name until quite recently when, on going over an old downland + village church, the rector took me out to show me "a strange + name" on a tablet let into the wall of the building outside. + The name was Ierat and the date the seventeenth century. He + had never seen the name excepting on that tablet. Who, then, + was Martha's husband? It was a queer story which she would + never have told me, but I had it from her brother and his + wife. + </p> + <p> + A generation before that of Martha, at a farm in the village + of Bower Chalk on the Ebble, there was a girl named Ellen + Ierat employed as a dairymaid. She was not a native of the + village, and if her parentage and place of birth were ever + known they have long passed out of memory. She was a + good-looking, nice-tempered girl, and was much liked by her + master and mistress, so that after she had been about two + years in their service it came as a great shock to find that + she was in the family way. The shock was all the greater when + the fresh discovery was made one day that another unmarried + woman in the house, who was also a valued servant, was in the + same condition. The two unhappy women had kept their secret + from every one except from each other until it could be kept + no longer, and they consulted together and determined to + confess it to their mistress and abide the consequences. + </p> + <p> + Who were the men? was the first question asked There was only + one—Robert Coombe, the shepherd, who lived at the + farm-house, a slow, silent, almost inarticulate man, with a + round head and flaxen hair; a bachelor of whom people were + accustomed to say that he would never marry because no woman + would have such a stolid, dull-witted fellow for a husband. + But he was a good shepherd and had been many years on the + farm, and it was altogether a terrible business. Forthwith + the farmer got out his horse and rode to the downs to have it + out with the unconscionable wretch who had brought that shame + and trouble on them. He found him sitting on the turf eating + his midday bread and bacon, with a can of cold tea at his + side, and getting off his horse he went up to him and damned + him for a scoundrel and abused him until he had no words + left, then told his shepherd that he must choose between the + two women and marry at once, so as to make an honest woman of + one of the two poor fools; either he must do that or quit the + farm forthwith. + </p> + <p> + Coombe heard in silence and without a change in his + countenance, masticating his food the while and washing it + down with an occasional draught from his can, until he had + finished his meal; then taking his crook he got up, and + remarking that he would "think of it" went after his flock. + </p> + <p> + The farmer rode back cursing him for a clod; and in the + evening Coombe, after folding his flock, came in to give his + decision, and said he had thought of it and would take Jane + to wife. She was a good deal older than Ellen and not so + good-looking, but she belonged to the village and her people + were there, and everybody knowed who Jane was, an' she was an + old servant an' would be wanted on the farm. Ellen was a + stranger among them, and being only a dairymaid was of less + account than the other one. + </p> + <p> + So it was settled, and on the following morning Ellen, the + rejected, was told to take up her traps and walk. + </p> + <p> + What was she to do in her condition, no longer to be + concealed, alone and friendless in the world? She thought of + Mrs. Poole, an elderly woman of Winterbourne Bishop, whose + children were grown up and away from home, who when staying + at Bower Chalk some months before had taken a great liking + for Ellen, and when parting with her had kissed her and said: + "My dear, I lived among strangers too when I were a girl and + had no one of my own, and know what 'tis." That was all; but + there was nobody else, and she resolved to go to Mrs. Poole, + and so laden with her few belongings she set out to walk the + long miles over the downs to Winterbourne Bishop where she + had never been. It was far to walk in hot August weather when + she went that sad journey, and she rested at intervals in the + hot shade of a furze-bush, haunted all day by the miserable + fear that the woman she sought, of whom she knew so little, + would probably harden her heart and close her door against + her. But the good woman took compassion on her and gave her + shelter in her poor cottage, and kept her till her child was + born, in spite of all the women's bitter tongues. And in the + village where she had found refuge she remained to the end of + her life, without a home of her own, but always in a room or + two with her boy in some poor person's cottage. Her life was + hard but not unpeaceful, and the old people, all dead and + gone now, remembered Ellen as a very quiet, staid woman who + worked hard for a living, sometimes at the wash-tub, but + mostly in the fields, haymaking and harvesting and at other + times weeding, or collecting flints, or with a spud or sickle + extirpating thistles in the pasture-land. She worked alone or + with other poor women, but with the men she had no + friendships; the sharpest women's eyes in the village could + see no fault in her in this respect; if it had not been so, + if she had talked pleasantly with them and smiled when + addressed by them, her life would have been made a burden to + her. She would have been often asked who her brat's father + was. The dreadful experience of that day, when she had been + cast out and was alone in the world, when, burdened with her + unborn child, she had walked over the downs in the hot August + weather, in anguish of apprehension, had sunk into her soul. + Her very nature was changed, and in a man's presence her + blood seemed frozen, and if spoken to she answered in + monosyllables with her eyes on the earth. This was noted, + with the result that all the village women were her good + friends; they never reminded her of her fall, and when she + died still young they grieved for her and befriended the + little orphan boy she had left on their hands. + </p> + <p> + He was then about eleven years old, and was a stout little + fellow with a round head and flaxen hair like his father; but + he was not so stolid and not like him in character; at all + events his old widow in speaking of him to me said that never + in all his life did he do one unkind or unjust thing. He came + from a long line of shepherds, and shepherding was perhaps + almost instinctive in him; from his earliest boyhood the + tremulous bleating of the sheep and half-muffled clink of the + copper bells and the sharp bark of the sheep-dog had a + strange attraction for him. He was always ready when a boy + was wanted to take charge of a flock during a temporary + absence of the shepherd, and eventually, when only about + fifteen, he was engaged as under-shepherd, and for the rest + of his life shepherding was his trade. + </p> + <p> + His marriage to Martha Bawcombe came as a surprise to the + village, for though no one had any fault to find with Tommy + Ierat there was a slur on him, and Martha, who was the finest + girl in the place, might, it was thought, have looked for + some one better. But Martha had always liked Tommy; they were + of the same age and had been playmates in their childhood; + growing up together their childish affection had turned to + love, and after they had waited some years and Tommy had a + cottage and seven shillings a week, Isaac and his wife gave + their consent and they were married. Still they felt hurt at + being discussed in this way by the villagers, so that when + Ierat was offered a place as shepherd at a distance from + home, where his family history was not known, he was glad to + take it and his wife to go with him, about a month after her + child was born. + </p> + <p> + The new place was in Somerset, thirty-five to forty miles + from their native village, and Ierat as shepherd at the + manor-house farm on a large estate would have better wages + than he had ever had before and a nice cottage to live in. + Martha was delighted with her new home—the cottage, the + entire village, the great park and mansion close by, all made + it seem like paradise to her. Better than everything was the + pleasant welcome she received from the villagers, who looked + in to make her acquaintance and seemed very much taken with + her appearance and nice, friendly manner. They were all eager + to tell her about the squire and his lady, who were young, + and of how great an interest they took in their people and + how much they did for them and how they were loved by + everybody on the estate. + </p> + <p> + It happens, oddly enough, that I became acquainted with this + same man, the squire, over fifty years after the events I am + relating, when he was past eighty. This acquaintance came + about by means of a letter he wrote me in reference to the + habits of a bird or some such small matter, a way in which I + have become acquainted with scores—perhaps I should say + hundreds—of persons in many parts of the country. He + was a very fine man, the head of an old and distinguished + county family; an ideal squire, and one of the few large + landowners I have had the happiness to meet who was not + devoted to that utterly selfish and degraded form of sport + which consists in the annual rearing and subsequent slaughter + of a host of pheasants. + </p> + <p> + Now when Martha was entertaining half a dozen of her new + neighbours who had come in to see her, and exhibited her baby + to them and then proceeded to suckle it, they looked at one + another and laughed, and one said, "Just you wait till the + lady at the mansion sees 'ee—she'll soon want 'ee to + nurse her little one." + </p> + <p> + What did they mean? They told her that the great lady was a + mother too, and had a little sickly baby and wanted a nurse + for it, but couldn't find a woman to please her. + </p> + <p> + Martha fired up at that. Did they imagine, she asked, that + any great lady in the world with all her gold could tempt her + to leave her own darling to nurse another woman's? She would + not do such a thing—she would rather leave the place + than submit to it. But she didn't believe it—they had + only said that to tease and frighten her! + </p> + <p> + They laughed again, looking admiringly at her as she stood + before them with sparkling eyes, flushed cheeks, and fine + full bust, and only answered, "Just you wait, my dear, till + she sees 'ee." + </p> + <p> + And very soon the lady did see her. The people at the manor + were strict in their religious observances, and it had been + impressed on Martha that she had better attend at morning + service on her first Sunday, and a girl was found by one of + her neighbours to look after the baby in the meantime. And so + when Sunday came she dressed herself in her best clothes and + went to church with the others. The service over, the squire + and his wife came out first and were standing in the path + exchanging greetings with their friends; then as the others + came out with Martha in the midst of the crowd the lady + turned and fixed her eyes on her, and suddenly stepping out + from the group she stopped Martha and said, "Who are + you?—I don't remember your face." + </p> + <p> + "No, ma'am," said Martha, blushing and curtsying. "I be the + new shepherd's wife at the manor-house farm—we've only + been here a few days." + </p> + <p> + The other then said she had heard of her and that she was + nursing her child, and she then told Martha to go to the + mansion that afternoon as she had something to say to her. + </p> + <p> + The poor young mother went in fear and trembling, trying to + stiffen herself against the expected blandishments. + </p> + <p> + Then followed the fateful interview. The lady was satisfied + that she had got hold of the right person at last—the + one in the world who would be able to save her precious + little one "from to die," the poor pining infant on whose + frail little life so much depended! She would feed it from + her full, healthy breasts and give it something of her own + abounding, splendid life. Martha's own baby would do very + well—there was nothing the matter with it, and it would + flourish on "the bottle" or anything else, no matter what. + All she had to do was to go back to her cottage and make the + necessary arrangements, then come to stay at the mansion. + </p> + <p> + Martha refused, and the other smiled; then Martha pleaded and + cried and said she would never never leave her own child, and + as all that had no effect she was angry, and it came into her + mind that if the lady would get angry too she would be + ordered out and all would be over. But the lady wouldn't get + angry, for when Martha stormed she grew more gentle and spoke + tenderly and sweetly, but would still have it her own way, + until the poor young mother could stand it no longer, and so + rushed away in a great state of agitation to tell her husband + and ask him to help her against her enemy. But Tommy took the + lady's side, and his young wife hated him for it, and was in + despair and ready to snatch up her child and run away from + them all, when all at once a carriage appeared at the + cottage, and the great lady herself, followed by a nurse with + the sickly baby in her arms, came in. She had come, she said + very gently, almost pleadingly, to ask Martha to feed her + child once, and Martha was flattered and pleased at the + request, and took and fondled the infant in her arms, then + gave it suck at her beautiful breast. And when she had fed + the child, acting very tenderly towards it like a mother, her + visitor suddenly burst into tears, and taking Martha in her + arms she kissed her and pleaded with her again until she + could resist no more; and it was settled that she was to live + at the mansion and come once every day to the village to feed + her own child from the breast. + </p> + <p> + Martha's connexion with the people at the mansion did not end + when she had safely reared the sickly child. The lady had + become attached to her and wanted to have her always, + although Martha could not act again as wet nurse, for she had + no more children herself. And by and by when her mistress + lost her health after the birth of a third child and was + ordered abroad, she took Martha with her, and she passed a + whole year with her on the Continent, residing in France and + Italy. They came home again, but as the lady continued to + decline in health she travelled again, still taking Martha + with her, and they visited India and other distant countries, + including the Holy Land; but travel and wealth and all that + the greatest physicians in the world could do for her, and + the tender care of a husband who worshipped her, availed not, + and she came home in the end to die; and Martha went back to + her Tommy and the boy, to be separated no more while their + lives lasted. + </p> + <p> + The great house was shut up and remained so for years. The + squire was the last man in England to shirk his duties as + landlord and to his people whom he loved, and who loved him + as few great landowners are loved in England, but his grief + was too great for even his great strength to bear up against, + and it was long feared by his friends that he would never + recover from his loss. But he was healed in time, and ten + years later married again and returned to his home, to live + there until nigh upon his ninetieth year. Long before this + the Ierats had returned to their native village. When I last + saw Martha, then in her eighty-second year, she gave me the + following account of her Tommy's end. + </p> + <p> + He continued shepherding up to the age of seventy-eight. One + Sunday, early in the afternoon, when she was ill with an + attack of influenza, he came home, and putting aside his + crook said, "I've done work." + </p> + <p> + "It's early," she replied, "but maybe you got the boy to mind + the sheep for you." + </p> + <p> + "I don't mean I've done work for the day," he returned. "I've + done for good—I'll not go with the flock no more." + </p> + <p> + "What be saying?" she cried in sudden alarm. "Be you feeling + bad—what be the matter?" + </p> + <p> + "No, I'm not bad," he said. "I'm perfectly well, but I've + done work;" and more than that he would not say. + </p> + <p> + She watched him anxiously but could see nothing wrong with + him; his appetite was good, he smoked his pipe, and was + cheerful. + </p> + <p> + Three days later she noticed that he had some difficulty in + pulling on a stocking when dressing in the morning, and went + to his assistance. He laughed and said, "Here's a funny + thing! You be ill and I be well, and you've got to help me + put on a stocking!" and he laughed again. + </p> + <p> + After dinner that day he said he wanted a drink and would + have a glass of beer. There was no beer in the house, and she + asked him if he would have a cup of tea. + </p> + <p> + "Oh, yes, that'll do very well," he said, and she made it for + him. + </p> + <p> + After drinking his cup of tea he got a footstool, and placing + it at her feet sat down on it and rested his head on her + knees; he remained a long time in this position so perfectly + still that she at length bent over and felt and examined his + face, only to discover that he was dead. + </p> + <p> + And that was the end of Tommy Ierat, the son of Ellen. He + died, she said, like a baby that has been fed and falls + asleep on its mother's breast. + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p><a name="ch24"><!--Marker--></a> + <h2> + CHAPTER XXIV + </h2> + <h3> + LIVING IN THE PAST + </h3> + <blockquote> + Evening talks—On the construction of + sheep-folds—Making hurdles—Devil's + guts—Character in sheep-dogs—Sally the spiteful + dog—Dyke the lost dog who returned—Strange + recovery of a lost dog—Badger the playful + dog—Badger shepherds the fowls—A ghost + story—A Sunday-evening talk—Parsons and + ministers—Noisy religion—The shepherd's love of + his calling—Mark Dick and the giddy + sheep—Conclusion + </blockquote> + <p> + During our frequent evening talks, often continued till a + late hour, it was borne in on Caleb Bawcombe that his + anecdotes of wild creatures interested me more than anything + else he had to tell; but in spite of this, or because he + could not always bear it in mind, the conversation almost + invariably drifted back to the old subject of sheep, of which + he was never tired. Even in his sleep he does not forget + them; his dreams, he says, are always about sheep; he is with + the flock, shifting the hurdles, or following it out on the + down. A troubled dream when he is ill or uneasy in his sleep + is invariably about some difficulty with the flock; it gets + out of his control, and the dog cannot understand him or + refuses to obey when everything depends on his instant + action. The subject was so much to him, so important above + all others, that he would not spare the listener even the + minutest details of the shepherd's life and work. His "hints + on the construction of sheep-folds" would have filled a + volume; and if any farmer had purchased the book he would not + have found the title a misleading one and that he had been + defrauded of his money. But with his singular fawn-like face + and clear eyes on his listener it was impossible to fall + asleep, or even to let the attention wander; and incidentally + even in his driest discourse there were little bright touches + which one would not willingly have missed. + </p> + <p> + About hurdles he explained that it was common for the + downland shepherds to repair the broken and worn-out ones + with the long woody stems of the bithywind from the hedges; + and when I asked what the plant was he described the wild + clematis or traveller's-joy; but those names he did not + know—to him the plant had always been known as + <i>bithywind</i> or else <i>Devil's guts</i>. It struck me + that bithywind might have come by the transposition of two + letters from withybind, as if one should say flutterby for + butterfly, or flagondry for dragonfly. Withybind is one of + the numerous vernacular names of the common convolvulus. + Lilybind is another. But what would old Gerarde, who invented + the pretty name of traveller's-joy for that ornament of the + wayside hedges, have said to such a name as Devil's guts? + </p> + <p> + There was, said Caleb, an old farmer in the parish of Bishop + who had a peculiar fondness for this plant, and if a shepherd + pulled any of it out of one of his hedges after leafing-time + he would be very much put out; he would shout at him, "Just + you leave my Devil's guts alone or I'll not keep you on the + farm." And the shepherds in revenge gave him the unpleasant + nickname of "Old Devil's Guts," by which he was known in that + part of the country. + </p> + <p> + As a rule, talk about sheep, or any subject connected with + sheep, would suggest something about sheepdogs individual + dogs he had known or possessed, and who always had their own + character and peculiarities, like human beings. They were + good and bad and indifferent; a really bad dog was a rarity; + but a fairly good dog might have some trick or vice or + weakness. There was Sally, for example, a stump-tail bitch, + as good a dog with sheep as he ever possessed, but you had to + consider her feelings. She would keenly resent any injustice + from her master. If he spoke too sharply to her, or rebuked + her unnecessarily for going a little out of her way just to + smell at a rabbit burrow, she would nurse her anger until an + opportunity came of inflicting a bite on some erring sheep. + Punishing her would have made matters worse: the only way was + to treat her as a reasonable being and never to speak to her + as a dog—a mere slave. + </p> + <p> + Dyke was another dog he remembered well. He belonged to old + Shepherd Matthew Titt, who was head-shepherd at a farm near + Warminster, adjacent to the one where Caleb worked. Old Mat + and his wife lived alone in their cottage out of the village, + all their children having long grown up and gone away to a + distance from home, and being so lonely "by their two selves" + they loved their dog just as others love their relations. But + Dyke deserved it, for he was a very good dog. One year Mat + was sent by his master with lambs to Weyhill, the little + village near Andover, where a great sheep-fair is held in + October every year. It was distant over thirty miles, but Mat + though old was a strong man still and greatly trusted by his + master. From this journey he returned with a sad heart, for + he had lost Dyke. He had disappeared one night while they + were at Weyhill. Old Mrs. Titt cried for him as she would + have cried for a lost son, and for many a long day they went + about with heavy hearts. + </p> + <p> + Just a year had gone by when one night the old woman was + roused from sleep by loud knocks on the window-pane of the + living-room below. "Mat! Mat!" she cried, shaking him + vigorously, "wake up—old Dyke has come back to us!" + "What be you talking about?" growled the old shepherd. "Lie + down and go to sleep—you've been dreaming." "'Tain't no + dream; 'tis Dyke—I know his knock," she cried, and + getting up she opened the window and put her head well out, + and there sure enough was Dyke, standing up against the wall + and gazing up at her, and knocking with his paw against the + window below. + </p> + <p> + Then Mat jumped up, and going together downstairs they + unbarred the door and embraced the dog with joy, and the rest + of the night was spent in feeding and caressing him, and + asking him a hundred questions, which he could only answer by + licking their hands and wagging his tail. + </p> + <p> + It was supposed that he had been stolen at the fair, probably + by one of the wild, little, lawless men called "general + dealers," who go flying about the country in a trap drawn by + a fast-trotting pony; that he had been thrown, muffled up, + into the cart and carried many a mile away, and sold to some + shepherd, and that he had lost his sense of direction. But + after serving a stranger a full year he had been taken with + sheep to Weyhill Fair once more, and once there he knew where + he was, and had remembered the road leading to his old home + and master, and making his escape had travelled the thirty + long miles back to Warminster. + </p> + <p> + The account of Dyke's return reminded me of an equally good + story of the recovery of a lost dog which I heard from a + shepherd on the Avon. He had been lost over a year, when one + day the shepherd, being out on the down with his flock, stood + watching two drovers travelling with a flock on the turnpike + road below, nearly a mile away, and by and by hearing one of + their dogs bark he knew at that distance that it was his dog. + "I haven't a doubt," he said to himself, "and if I know his + bark he'll know my whistle." With that he thrust two fingers + in his mouth and blew his shrillest and longest whistle, then + waited the result. Presently he spied a dog, still at a great + distance, coming swiftly towards him; it was his own dog, mad + with joy at finding his old master. + </p> + <p> + Did ever two friends, long sundered by unhappy chance, + recognize each other's voices at such a distance and so come + together once more! + </p> + <p> + Whether the drovers had seen him desert them or not, they did + not follow to recover him, nor did the shepherd go to them to + find out how they had got possession of him; it was enough + that he had got his dog back. + </p> + <p> + No doubt in this case the dog had recognized his old home + when taken by it, but he was in another man's hands now, and + the habits and discipline of a life made it impossible for + him to desert until that old, familiar, and imperative call + reached his ears and he could not disobey. + </p> + <p> + Then (to go on with Caleb's reminiscences) there was Badger, + owned by a farmer and worked for some years by + Caleb—the very best stump-tail he ever had to help him. + This dog differed from others in his vivacious temper and + ceaseless activity. When the sheep were feeding quietly and + there was little or nothing to do for hours at a time, he + would not lie down and go to sleep like any other sheep-dog, + but would spend his vacant time "amusing of hisself" on some + smooth slope where he could roll over and over; then run back + and roll over again and again, playing by himself just like a + child. Or he would chase a butterfly or scamper about over + the down hunting for large white flints, which he would bring + one by one and deposit them at his master's feet, pretending + they were something of value and greatly enjoying the game. + This dog, Caleb said, would make him laugh every day with his + games and capers. + </p> + <p> + When Badger got old his sight and hearing failed; yet when he + was very nearly blind and so deaf that he could not hear a + word of command, even when it was shouted out quite close to + him, he was still kept with the flock because he was so + intelligent and willing. But he was too old at last; it was + time for him to be put out of the way. The farmer, however, + who owned him, would not consent to have him shot, and so the + wistful old dog was ordered to keep at home at the + farm-house. Still he refused to be superannuated, and not + allowed to go to the flock he took to shepherding the fowls. + In the morning he would drive them out to their run and keep + them there in a flock, going round and round them by the + hour, and furiously hunting back the poor hens that tried to + steal off to lay their eggs in some secret place. This could + not be allowed, and so poor old Badger, who would have been + too miserable if tied up, had to be shot after all. + </p> + <p> + These were always his best stories—his recollections of + sheep-dogs, for of all creatures, sheep alone excepted, he + knew and loved them best. Yet for one whose life had been + spent in that small isolated village and on the bare down + about it, his range was pretty wide, and it even included one + memory of a visitor from the other world. Let him tell it in + his own words. + </p> + <p> + "Many say they don't believe there be such things as + ghosties. They niver see'd 'n. An' I don't say I believe or + disbelieve what I hear tell. I warn't there to see. I only + know what I see'd myself: but I don't say that it were a + ghostie or that it wasn't one. I was coming home late one + night from the sheep; 'twere close on 'leven o'clock, a very + quiet night, with moonsheen that made it a'most like day. + Near th' end of the village I come to the stepping-stones, as + we call 'n, where there be a gate and the road, an' just by + the road the four big white stones for people going from the + village to the copse an' the down on t'other side to step + over the water. In winter 'twas a stream there, but the water + it dried in summer, and now 'twere summer-time and there wur + no water. When I git there I see'd two women, both on 'em + tall, with black gowns on, an' big bonnets they used to wear; + an' they were standing face to face so close that the tops o' + their bonnets wur a'most touching together. Who be these + women out so late? says I to myself. Why, says I, they be + Mrs. Durk from up in the village an' Mrs. Gaarge Durk, the + keeper's wife down by the copse. Then I thought I know'd how + 'twas: Mrs. Gaarge, she'd a been to see Mrs. Durk in the + village, and Mrs. Durk she were coming out a leetel way with + her, so far as the stepping-stones, and they wur just having + a last leetel talk before saying Good night. But mind, I + hear'd no talking when I passed 'n. An' I'd hardly got past + 'n before I says, Why, what a fool be I! Mrs. Durk she be + dead a twelvemonth, an' I were in the churchyard and see'd + her buried myself. Whatever be I thinking of? That made me + stop and turn round to look at 'n agin. An' there they was + just as I see'd 'n at first—Mrs. Durk, who was dead a + twelvemonth, an' Mrs. Gaarge Durk from the copse, standing + there with their bonnets a'most touching together. An' I + couldn't hear nothing—no talking, they were so still as + two posties. Then something came over me like a tarrible + coldness in the blood and down my back, an' I were afraid, + and turning I runned faster than I ever runned in my life, + an' never stopped—not till I got to the cottage." + </p> + <p> + It was not a bad ghost story: but then such stories seldom + are when coming from those who have actually seen, or believe + they have seen, an immaterial being. Their principal charm is + in their infinite variety; you never find two real or true + ghost stories quite alike, and in this they differ from the + weary inventions of the fictionist. + </p> + <p> + But invariably the principal subject was sheep. + </p> + <p> + "I did always like sheep," said Caleb. "Some did say to me + that they couldn't abide shepherding because of the Sunday + work. But I always said, Someone must do it; they must have + food in winter and water in summer, and must be looked after, + and it can't be worse for me to do it." + </p> + <p> + It was on a Sunday afternoon, and the distant sound of the + church bells had set him talking on this subject. He told me + how once, after a long interval, he went to the Sunday + morning service in his native village, and the vicar preached + a sermon about true religion. Just going to church, he said, + did not make men religious. Out there on the downs there were + shepherds who seldom saw the inside of a church, who were + sober, righteous men and walked with God every day of their + lives. Caleb said that this seemed to touch his heart because + he knowed it was true. + </p> + <p> + When I asked him if he would not change the church for the + chapel, now he was ill and his vicar paid him no attention, + while the minister came often to see and talk to him, as I + had witnessed, he shook his head and said that he would never + change. He then added: "We always say that the chapel + ministers are good men: some say they be better than the + parsons; but all I've knowed—all them that have talked + to me—have said bad things of the Church, and that's + not true religion: I say that the Bible teaches different." + </p> + <p> + Caleb could not have had a very wide experience, and most of + us know Dissenting ministers who are wholly free from the + fault he pointed out; but in the purely rural districts, in + the small villages where the small men are found, it is + certainly common to hear unpleasant things said of the parish + priest by his Nonconformist rival; and should the parson have + some well-known fault or make a slip, the other is apt to + chuckle over it with a very manifest and most unchristian + delight. + </p> + <p> + The atmosphere on that Sunday afternoon was very still, and + by and by through the open window floated a strain of music; + it was from the brass band of the Salvationists who were + marching through the next village, about two miles away. We + listened, then Caleb remarked: "Somehow I never cared to go + with them Army people. Many say they've done a great good, + and I don't disbelieve it, but there was too much what I + call—NOISE; if, sir, you can understand what I mean." + </p> + <p> + I once heard the great Dr. Parker speak the word imagination, + or, as he pronounced it, im-madge-i-na-shun, with a volume of + sound which filled a large building and made the quality he + named seem the biggest thing in the universe. That in my + experience was his loftiest oratorical feat; but I think the + old shepherd rose to a greater height when, after a long + pause during which he filled his lungs with air, he brought + forth the tremendous word, dragging it out gratingly, so as + to illustrate the sense in the prolonged harsh sound. + </p> + <p> + To show him that I understood what he meant very well, I + explained the philosophy of the matter as follows: He was a + shepherd of the downs, who had lived always in a quiet + atmosphere, a noiseless world, and from lifelong custom had + become a lover of quiet. The Salvation Army was born in a + very different world, in East London—the dusty, busy, + crowded world of streets, where men wake at dawn to sounds + that are like the opening of hell's gates, and spend their + long strenuous days and their lives in that atmosphere + peopled with innumerable harsh noises, until they, too, + acquire the noisy habit, and come at last to think that if + they have anything to say to their fellows, anything to sell + or advise or recommend, from the smallest thing—from a + mackerel or a cabbage or a penn'orth of milk, to a newspaper + or a book or a picture or a religion—they must howl and + yell it out at every passer-by. And the human voice not being + sufficiently powerful, they provide themselves with bells and + gongs and cymbals and trumpets and drums to help them in + attracting the attention of the public. + </p> + <p> + He listened gravely to this outburst, and said he didn't know + exactly 'bout that, but agreed that it was very quiet on the + downs, and that he loved their quiet. "Fifty years," he said, + "I've been on the downs and fields, day and night, seven days + a week, and I've been told that it's a poor way to spend a + life, working seven days for ten or twelve, or at most + thirteen shillings. But I never seen it like that; I liked + it, and I always did my best. You see, sir, I took a pride in + it. I never left a place but I was asked to stay. When I left + it was because of something I didn't like. I couldn't never + abide cruelty to a dog or any beast. And I couldn't abide bad + language. If my master swore at the sheep or the dog I + wouldn't bide with he—no, not for a pound a week. I + liked my work, and I liked knowing things about sheep. Not + things in books, for I never had no books, but what I found + out with my own sense, if you can understand me. + </p> + <p> + "I remember, when I were young, a very old shepherd on the + farm; he had been more 'n forty years there, and he was + called Mark Dick. He told me that when he were a young man he + was once putting the sheep in the fold, and there was one + that was giddy—a young ewe. She was always a-turning + round and round and round, and when she got to the gate she + wouldn't go in but kept on a-turning and turning, until at + last he got angry and, lifting his crook, gave her a crack on + the head, and down she went, and he thought he'd killed her. + But in a little while up she jumps and trotted straight into + the fold, and from that time she were well. Next day he told + his master, and his master said, with a laugh, 'Well, now you + know what to do when you gits a giddy sheep.' Some time after + that Mark Dick he had another giddy one, and remembering what + his master had said, he swung his stick and gave her a big + crack on the skull, and down went the sheep, dead. He'd + killed it this time, sure enough. When he tells of this one + his master said, 'You've cured one and you've killed one; now + don't you try to cure no more,' he says. + </p> + <p> + "Well, some time after that I had a giddy one in my flock. + I'd been thinking of what Mark Dick had told me, so I caught + the ewe to see if I could find out anything. I were always a + tarrible one for examining sheep when they were ill. I found + this one had a swelling at the back of her head; it were like + a soft ball, bigger 'n a walnut. So I took my knife and + opened it, and out ran a lot of water, quite clear; and when + I let her go she ran quite straight, and got well. After that + I did cure other giddy sheep with my knife, but I found out + there were some I couldn't cure. They had no swelling, and + was giddy because they'd got a maggot on the brain or some + other trouble I couldn't find out." + </p> + <p> + Caleb could not have finished even this quiet Sunday + afternoon conversation, in the course of which we had risen + to lofty matters, without a return to his old favourite + subjects of sheep and his shepherding life on the downs. He + was long miles away from his beloved home now, lying on his + back, a disabled man who would never again follow a flock on + the hills nor listen to the sounds he loved best to + hear—the multitudinous tremulous bleatings of the + sheep, the tinklings of numerous bells, and crisp ringing + bark of his dog. But his heart was there still, and the + images of past scenes were more vivid in him than they can + ever be in the minds of those who live in towns and read + books. "I can see it now," was a favourite expression of his + when relating some incident in his past life. Whenever a + sudden light, a kind of smile, came into his eyes, I knew + that it was at some ancient memory, a touch of quaintness or + humour in some farmer or shepherd he had known in the + vanished time—his father, perhaps, or old John, or Mark + Dick, or Liddy, or Dan'l Burdon, the solemn seeker after + buried treasure. + </p> + <p> + After our long Sunday talk we were silent for a time, and + then he uttered these impressive words: "I don't say that I + want to have my life again, because 'twould be sinful. We + must take what is sent. But if 'twas offered to me and I was + told to choose my work, I'd say, Give me my Wiltsheer Downs + again and let me be a shepherd there all my life long." + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of A Shepherd's Life, by W. H. 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If you are not located in the United States, you'll have +to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. + +Title: A Shepherd's Life + +Author: W. H. Hudson + +Posting Date: February 12, 2015 [EBook #7415] +Release Date: February, 2005 +First Posted: April 26, 2003 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A SHEPHERD'S LIFE *** + + + + +Produced by Eric Eldred, David Garcia, Charles Franks, and +the Online Distributed Proofreading Team + + + + + + + + + + + +A SHEPHERD'S LIFE + +IMPRESSIONS OF THE SOUTH WILTSHIRE DOWNS + +BY W. H. HUDSON + + + + + + + +NOTE + +I an obliged to Messrs. Longmans, Green, & Co. for permission to make +use of an article entitled "A Shepherd of the Downs," which appeared in +the October and November numbers of _Longmans' Magazine_ in 1902. +With the exception of that article, portions of which I have +incorporated in different chapters, the whole of the matter contained in +this work now appears for the first time. + + + + + + +CONTENTS + +Chapter. + + I. SALISBURY PLAIN + + II. SALISBURY AS I SEE IT + + III. WINTERBOURNE BISHOP + + IV. A SHEPHERD OF THE DOWNS + + V. EARLY MEMORIES + + VI. SHEPHERD ISAAC BAWCOMBE + + VII. THE DEER-STEALERS + + VIII. SHEPHERDS AND POACHING + + IX. THE SHEPHERD ON FOXES + + X. BIRD LIFE ON THE DOWNS + + XI. STARLINGS AND SHEEP-BELLS + + XII. THE SHEPHERD AND THE BIBLE + + XIII. VALE OF THE WYLYE + + XIV. A SHEEP-DOG'S LIFE + + XV. THE ELLERBYS OF DOVETON + + XVI. OLD WILTSHIRE DAYS + + XVII. OLD WILTSHIRE DAYS (_continued_) + + XVIII. THE SHEPHERD'S RETURN + + XIX. THE DARK PEOPLE OF THE VILLAGE + + XX. SOME SHEEP-DOGS + + XXI. THE SHEPHERD AS NATURALIST + + XXII. THE MASTER OF THE VILLAGE + + XXIII. ISAAC'S CHILDREN + + XXIV. LIVING IN THE PAST + + + + + + + +A SHEPHERD'S LIFE + +SALISBURY PLAIN + +CHAPTER I + + Introductory remarks--Wiltshire little favoured by tourists--Aspect of + the downs--Bad weather--Desolate aspect--The bird-scarer--Fascination + of the downs--The larger Salisbury Plain--Effect of the military + occupation--A century's changes--Birds--Old Wiltshire sheep--Sheep-horns + in a well--Changes wrought by cultivation--Rabbit-warrens on the + downs--Barrows obliterated by the plough and by rabbits + + +Wiltshire looks large on the map of England, a great green county, yet +it never appears to be a favourite one to those who go on rambles in the +land. At all events I am unable to bring to mind an instance of a lover +of Wiltshire who was not a native or a resident, or had not been to +Marlborough and loved the country on account of early associations. Nor +can I regard myself as an exception, since, owing to a certain kind of +adaptiveness in me, a sense of being at home wherever grass grows, I am +in a way a native too. Again, listen to any half-dozen of your friends +discussing the places they have visited, or intend visiting, comparing +notes about the counties, towns, churches, castles, scenery--all that +draws them and satisfies their nature, and the chances are that they +will not even mention Wiltshire. They all know it "in a way"; they have +seen Salisbury Cathedral and Stonehenge, which everybody must go to look +at once in his life; and they have also viewed the country from the +windows of a railroad carriage as they passed through on their flight to +Bath and to Wales with its mountains, and to the west country, which +many of us love best of all--Somerset, Devon, and Cornwall. For there is +nothing striking in Wiltshire, at all events to those who love nature +first; nor mountains, nor sea, nor anything to compare with the places +they are hastening to, west or north. The downs! Yes, the downs are +there, full in sight of your window, in their flowing forms resembling +vast, pale green waves, wave beyond wave, "in fluctuation fixed"; a fine +country to walk on in fine weather for all those who regard the mere +exercise of walking as sufficient pleasure. But to those who wish for +something more, these downs may be neglected, since, if downs are +wanted, there is the higher, nobler Sussex range within an hour of +London. There are others on whom the naked aspect of the downs has a +repelling effect. Like Gilpin they love not an undecorated earth; and +false and ridiculous as Gilpin's taste may seem to me and to all those +who love the chalk, which "spoils everything" as Gilpin said, he +certainly expresses a feeling common to those who are unaccustomed to +the emptiness and silence of these great spaces. + +As to walking on the downs, one remembers that the fine days are not so +many, even in the season when they are looked for--they have certainly +been few during this wet and discomfortable one of 1909. It is indeed +only on the chalk hills that I ever feel disposed to quarrel with this +English climate, for all weathers are good to those who love the open +air, and have their special attractions. What a pleasure it is to be out +in rough weather in October when the equinoctial gales are on, "the wind +Euroclydon," to listen to its roaring in the bending trees, to watch the +dead leaves flying, the pestilence-stricken multitudes, yellow and black +and red, whirled away in flight on flight before the volleying blast, +and to hear and see and feel the tempests of rain, the big silver-grey +drops that smite you like hail! And what pleasure too, in the still grey +November weather, the time of suspense and melancholy before winter, a +strange quietude, like a sense of apprehension in nature! And so on +through the revolving year, in all places in all weathers, there is +pleasure in the open air, except on these chalk hills because of their +bleak nakedness. There the wind and driving rain are not for but against +you, and may overcome you with misery. One feels their loneliness, +monotony, and desolation on many days, sometimes even when it is not +wet, and I here recall an amusing encounter with a bird-scarer during +one of these dreary spells. + +It was in March, bitterly cold, with an east wind which had been blowing +many days, and overhead the sky was of a hard, steely grey. I was +cycling along the valley of the Ebble, and finally leaving it pushed up +a long steep slope and set off over the high plain by a dusty road with +the wind hard against me. A more desolate scene than the one before me +it would be hard to imagine, for the land was all ploughed and stretched +away before me, an endless succession of vast grey fields, divided by +wire fences. On all that space there was but one living thing in sight, +a human form, a boy, far away on the left side, standing in the middle +of a big field with something which looked like a gun in his hand. +Immediately after I saw him he, too, appeared to have caught sight of +me, for turning he set off running as fast as he could over the ploughed +ground towards the road, as if intending to speak to me. The distance he +would have to run was about a quarter of a mile and I doubted that he +would be there in time to catch me, but he ran fast and the wind was +against me, and he arrived at the road just as I got to that point. +There by the side of the fence he stood, panting from his race, his +handsome face glowing with colour, a boy about twelve or thirteen, with +a fine strong figure, remarkably well dressed for a bird-scarer. For +that was what he was, and he carried a queer, heavy-looking old gun. I +got off my wheel and waited for him to speak, but he was silent, and +continued regarding me with the smiling countenance of one well pleased +with himself. "Well?" I said, but there was no answer; he only kept on +smiling. + +"What did you want?" I demanded impatiently. + +"I didn't want anything." + +"But you started running here as fast as you could the moment you caught +sight of me." + +"Yes, I did." + +"Well, what did you do it for--what was your object in running here?" + +"Just to see you pass," he answered. + +It was a little ridiculous and vexed me at first, but by and by when I +left him, after some more conversation, I felt rather pleased; for it +was a new and somewhat flattering experience to have any person run a +long distance over a ploughed field, burdened with a heavy gun, "just to +see me pass." + +But it was not strange in the circumstances; his hours in that grey, +windy desolation must have seemed like days, and it was a break in the +monotony, a little joyful excitement in getting to the road in time to +see a passer-by more closely, and for a few moments gave him a sense of +human companionship. I began even to feel a little sorry for him, alone +there in his high, dreary world, but presently thought he was better off +and better employed than most of his fellows poring over miserable books +in school, and I wished we had a more rational system of education for +the agricultural districts, one which would not keep the children shut +up in a room during all the best hours of the day, when to be out of +doors, seeing, hearing, and doing, would fit them so much better for the +life-work before them. Squeers' method was a wiser one. We think less of +it than of the delightful caricature, which makes Squeers "a joy for +ever," as Mr. Lang has said of Pecksniff. But Dickens was a Londoner, +and incapable of looking at this or any other question from any other +than the Londoner's standpoint. Can you have a better system for the +children of all England than this one which will turn out the most +perfect draper's assistant in Oxford Street, or, to go higher, the most +efficient Mr. Guppy in a solicitor's office? It is true that we have +Nature's unconscious intelligence against us; that by and by, when at +the age of fourteen the boy is finally released, she will set to work to +undo the wrong by discharging from his mind its accumulations of useless +knowledge as soon as he begins the work of life. But what a waste of +time and energy and money! One can only hope that the slow intellect of +the country will wake to this question some day, that the countryman +will say to the townsman, Go on making your laws and systems of +education for your own children, who will live as you do indoors; while +I shall devise a different one for mine, one which will give them hard +muscles and teach them to raise the mutton and pork and cultivate the +potatoes and cabbages on which we all feed. + +To return to the downs. Their very emptiness and desolation, which +frightens the stranger from them, only serves to make them more +fascinating to those who are intimate with and have learned to love +them. That dreary aspect brings to mind the other one, when, on waking +with the early sunlight in the room, you look out on a blue sky, +cloudless or with white clouds. It may be fancy, or the effect of +contrast, but it has always seemed to me that just as the air is purer +and fresher on these chalk heights than on the earth below, and as the +water is of a more crystal purity, and the sky perhaps bluer, so do all +colours and all sounds have a purity and vividness and intensity beyond +that of other places. I see it in the yellows of hawkweed, rock-rose, +and birds'-foot-trefoil, in the innumerable specks of brilliant +colour--blue and white and rose--of milk-wort and squinancy-wort, and in +the large flowers of the dwarf thistle, glowing purple in its green +setting; and I hear it in every bird-sound, in the trivial songs of +yellow-hammer and corn-bunting, and of dunnock and wren and whitethroat. + +The pleasure of walking on the downs is not, however, a subject which +concerns me now; it is one I have written about in a former work, +"Nature in Downland," descriptive of the South Downs. The theme of the +present work is the life, human and other, of the South Wiltshire Downs, +or of Salisbury Plain. It is the part of Wiltshire which has most +attracted me. Most persons would say that the Marlborough Downs are +greater, more like the great Sussex range as it appears from the Weald: +but chance brought me farther south, and the character and life of the +village people when I came to know them made this appear the best place +to be in. + +The Plain itself is not a precisely denned area, and may be made to +include as much or little as will suit the writer's purpose. If you want +a continuous plain, with no dividing valley cutting through it, you must +place it between the Avon and Wylye Rivers, a distance about fifteen +miles broad and as many long, with the village of Tilshead in its +centure; or, if you don't mind the valleys, you can say it extends from +Downton and Tollard Royal south of Salisbury to the Pewsey vale in the +north, and from the Hampshire border on the east side to Dorset and +Somerset on the west, about twenty-five to thirty miles each way. My own +range is over this larger Salisbury Plain, which includes the River +Ebble, or Ebele, with its numerous interesting villages, from Odstock +and Combe Bisset, near Salisbury and "the Chalks," to pretty Alvediston +near the Dorset line, and all those in the Nadder valley, and westward +to White Sheet Hill above Mere. You can picture this high chalk country +as an open hand, the left hand, with Salisbury in the hollow of the +palm, placed nearest the wrist, and the five valleys which cut through +it as the five spread fingers, from the Bourne (the little finger) +succeeded by Avon, Wylye, and Nadder, to the Ebble, which comes in lower +down as the thumb and has its junction with the main stream below +Salisbury. + +A very large portion of this high country is now in a transitional +state, that was once a sheep-walk and is now a training ground for the +army. Where the sheep are taken away the turf loses the smooth, elastic +character which makes it better to walk on than the most perfect lawn. +The sheep fed closely, and everything that grew on the down--grasses, +clovers, and numerous small creeping herbs--had acquired the habit of +growing and flowering close to the ground, every species and each +individual plant striving, with the unconscious intelligence that is in +all growing things, to hide its leaves and pushing sprays under the +others, to escape the nibbling teeth by keeping closer to the surface. +There are grasses and some herbs, the plantain among them, which keep +down very close but must throw up a tall stem to flower and seed. Look +at the plantain when its flowering time comes; each particular plant +growing with its leaves so close down on the surface as to be safe from +the busy, searching mouths, then all at once throwing up tall, straight +stems to flower and ripen its seeds quickly. Watch a flock at this time, +and you will see a sheep walking about, rapidly plucking the flowering +spikes, cutting them from the stalk with a sharp snap, taking them off +at the rate of a dozen or so in twenty seconds. But the sheep cannot be +all over the downs at the same time, and the time is short, myriads of +plants throwing up their stems at once, so that many escape, and it has +besides a deep perennial root so that the plant keeps its own life +though it may be unable to sow any seeds for many seasons. So with other +species which must send up a tall flower stem; and by and by, the +flowering over and the seeds ripened or lost, the dead, scattered stems +remain like long hairs growing out of a close fur. The turf remains +unchanged; but take the sheep away and it is like the removal of a +pressure, or a danger: the plant recovers liberty and confidence and +casts off the old habit; it springs and presses up to get the better of +its fellows--to get all the dew and rain and sunshine that it can--and +the result is a rough surface. + +Another effect of the military occupation is the destruction of the wild +life of the Plain, but that is a matter I have written about in my last +book, "Afoot in England," in a chapter on Stonehenge, and need not dwell +on here. To the lover of Salisbury Plain as it was, the sight of +military camps, with white tents or zinc houses, and of bodies of men in +khaki marching and drilling, and the sound of guns, now informs him that +he is in a district which has lost its attraction, where nature has been +dispossessed. + +Meanwhile, there is a corresponding change going on in the human life of +the district. Let anyone describe it as he thinks best, as an +improvement or a deterioration, it is a great change nevertheless, which +in my case and probably that of many others is as disagreeable to +contemplate as that which we are beginning to see in the down, which was +once a sheep-walk and is so no longer. On this account I have ceased to +frequent that portion of the Plain where the War Office is in possession +of the land, and to keep to the southern side in my rambles, out of +sight and hearing of the "white-tented camps" and mimic warfare. Here is +Salisbury Plain as it has been these thousand years past, or ever since +sheep were pastured here more than in any other district in England, and +that may well date even more than ten centuries back. + +Undoubtedly changes have taken place even here, some very great, chiefly +during the last, or from the late eighteenth century. Changes both in +the land and the animal life, wild and domestic. Of the losses in wild +bird life there will be something to say in another chapter; they relate +chiefly to the extermination of the finest species, the big bird, +especially the soaring bird, which is now gone out of all this wide +Wiltshire sky. As a naturalist I must also lament the loss of the old +Wiltshire breed of sheep, although so long gone. Once it was the only +breed known in Wilts, and extended over the entire county; it was a big +animal, the largest of the fine-woolled sheep in England, but for looks +it certainly compared badly with modern downland breeds and possessed, +it was said, all the points which the breeder, or improver, was against. +Thus, its head was big and clumsy, with a round nose, its legs were long +and thick, its belly without wool, and both sexes were horned. Horns, +even in a ram, are an abomination to the modern sheep-farmer in Southern +England. Finally, it was hard to fatten. On the other hand it was a +sheep which had been from of old on the bare open downs and was modified +to suit the conditions, the scanty feed, the bleak, bare country, and +the long distances it had to travel to and from the pasture ground. It +was a strong, healthy, intelligent animal, in appearance and character +like the old original breed of sheep on the pampas of South America, +which I knew as a boy, a coarse-woolled sheep with naked belly, tall and +hardy, a greatly modified variety of the sheep introduced by the Spanish +colonist three centuries ago. At all events the old Wiltshire sheep had +its merits, and when the Southdown breed was introduced during the late +eighteenth century the farmer viewed it with disfavour; they liked their +old native animal, and did not want to lose it. But it had to go in +time, just as in later times the Southdown had to go when the Hampshire +Down took its place--the breed which is now universal, in South Wilts at +all events. + +A solitary flock of the pure-bred old Wiltshire sheep existed in the +county as late as 1840, but the breed has now so entirely disappeared +from the country that you find many shepherds who have never even heard +of it. Not many days ago I met with a curious instance of this ignorance +of the past. I was talking to a shepherd, a fine intelligent fellow, +keenly interested in the subjects of sheep and sheep-dogs, on the high +down above the village of Broad Chalk on the Ebble, and he told me that +his dog was of mixed breed, but on its mother's side came from a Welsh +sheep-dog, that his father had always had the Welsh dog, once common in +Wiltshire, and he wondered why it had gone out as it was so good an +animal. This led me to say something about the old sheep having gone out +too, and as he had never heard of the old breed I described the animal +to him. + +What I told him, he said, explained something which had been a puzzle to +him for some years. There was a deep hollow in the down near the spot +where we were standing, and at the bottom he said there was an old well +which had been used in former times to water the sheep, but masses of +earth had fallen down from the sides, and in that condition it had +remained for no one knew how long--perhaps fifty, perhaps a hundred +years. Some years ago it came into his master's head to have this old +well cleaned out, and this was done with a good deal of labour, the +sides having first been boarded over to make it safe for the workmen +below. At the bottom of the well a vast store of rams' horns was +discovered and brought out; and it was a mystery to the fanner and the +men how so large a number of sheep's horns had been got together; for +rams are few and do not die often, and here there were hundreds of +horns. He understood it now, for if all the sheep, ewes as well as rams, +were horned in the old breed, a collection like this might easily have +been made. + +The greatest change of the last hundred years is no doubt that which the +plough has wrought in the aspect of the downs. There is a certain +pleasure to the eye in the wide fields of golden corn, especially of +wheat, in July and August; but a ploughed down is a down made ugly, and +it strikes one as a mistake, even from a purely economic point of view, +that this old rich turf, the slow product of centuries, should be ruined +for ever as sheep-pasture when so great an extent of uncultivated land +exists elsewhere, especially the heavy clays of the Midlands, better +suited for corn. The effect of breaking up the turf on the high downs is +often disastrous; the thin soil which was preserved by the close, hard +turf is blown or washed away, and the soil becomes poorer year by year, +in spite of dressing, until it is hardly worth cultivating. Clover may +be grown on it but it continues to deteriorate; or the tenant or +landlord may turn it into a rabbit-warren, the most fatal policy of all. +How hideous they are--those great stretches of downland, enclosed in big +wire fences and rabbit netting, with little but wiry weeds, moss, and +lichen growing on them, the earth dug up everywhere by the disorderly +little beasts! For a while there is a profit--"it will serve me my +time," the owner says--but the end is utter barrenness. + +One must lament, too, the destruction of the ancient earth-works, +especially of the barrows, which is going on all over the downs, most +rapidly where the land is broken up by the plough. One wonders if the +ever-increasing curiosity of our day with regard to the history of the +human race in the land continues to grow, what our descendants of the +next half of the century, to go no farther, will say of us and our +incredible carelessness in the matter! So small a matter to us, but one +which will, perhaps, be immensely important to them! It is, perhaps, +better for our peace that we do not know; it would not be pleasant to +have our children's and children's children's contemptuous expressions +sounding in our prophetic ears. Perhaps we have no right to complain of +the obliteration of these memorials of antiquity by the plough; the +living are more than the dead, and in this case it may be said that we +are only following the Artemisian example in consuming (in our daily +bread) minute portions of the ashes of our old relations, albeit +untearfully, with a cheerful countenance. Still one cannot but +experience a shock on seeing the plough driven through an ancient, +smooth turf, curiously marked with barrows, lynchetts, and other +mysterious mounds and depressions, where sheep have been pastured for a +thousand years, without obscuring these chance hieroglyphs scored by men +on the surface of the hills. + +It is not, however, only on the cultivated ground that the destruction +is going on; the rabbit, too, is an active agent in demolishing the +barrows and other earth-works. He burrows into the mound and throws out +bushels of chalk and clay, which is soon washed down by the rains; he +tunnels it through and through and sometimes makes it his village; then +one day the farmer or keeper, who is not an archaeologist, comes along +and puts his ferrets into the holes, and one of them, after drinking his +fill of blood, falls asleep by the side of his victim, and the keeper +sets to work with pick and shovel to dig him out, and demolishes half +the barrow to recover his vile little beast. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +SALISBURY AS I SEE IT + + The Salisbury of the villager--The cathedral from the meadows--Walks to + Wilton and Old Sarum--The spire and a rainbow--Charm of Old Sarum--The + devastation--Salisbury from Old Sarum--Leland's description--Salisbury + and the village mind--Market-day--The infirmary--The cathedral--The + lesson of a child's desire--In the streets again--An Apollo of the downs + + +To the dwellers on the Plain, Salisbury itself is an exceedingly +important place--the most important in the world. For if they have seen +a greater--London, let us say--it has left but a confused, a +phantasmagoric image on the mind, an impression of endless thoroughfares +and of innumerable people all apparently in a desperate hurry to do +something, yet doing nothing; a labyrinth of streets and wilderness of +houses, swarming with beings who have no definite object and no more to +do with realities than so many lunatics, and are unconfined because they +are so numerous that all the asylums in the world could not contain +them. But of Salisbury they have a very clear image: inexpressibly rich +as it is in sights, in wonders, full of people--hundreds of people in +the streets and market-place--they can take it all in and know its +meaning. Every man and woman, of all classes, in all that concourse, is +there for some definite purpose which they can guess and understand; and +the busy street and market, and red houses and soaring spire, are all +one, and part and parcel too of their own lives in their own distant +little village by the Avon or Wylye, or anywhere on the Plain. And that +soaring spire which, rising so high above the red town, first catches +the eye, the one object which gives unity and distinction to the whole +picture, is not more distinct in the mind than the entire Salisbury with +its manifold interests and activities. + +There is nothing in the architecture of England more beautiful than that +same spire. I have seen it many times, far and near, from all points of +view, and am never in or near the place but I go to some spot where I +look at and enjoy the sight; but I will speak here of the two best +points of view. + +The nearest, which is the artist's favourite point, is from the meadows; +there, from the waterside, you have the cathedral not too far away nor +too near for a picture, whether on canvas or in the mind, standing +amidst its great old trees, with nothing but the moist green meadows and +the river between. One evening, during the late summer of this wettest +season, when the rain was beginning to cease, I went out this way for my +stroll, the pleasantest if not the only "walk" there is in Salisbury. It +is true, there are two others: one to Wilton by its long, shady avenue; +the other to Old Sarum; but these are now motor-roads, and until the +loathed hooting and dusting engines are thrust away into roads of their +own there is little pleasure in them for the man on foot. The rain +ceased, but the sky was still stormy, with a great blackness beyond the +cathedral and still other black clouds coming up from the west behind +me. Then the sun, near its setting, broke out, sending a flame of orange +colour through the dark masses around it, and at the same time flinging +a magnificent rainbow on that black cloud against which the immense +spire stood wet with rain and flushed with light, so that it looked like +a spire built of a stone impregnated with silver. Never had Nature so +glorified man's work! It was indeed a marvellous thing to see, an effect +so rare that in all the years I had known Salisbury, and the many times +I had taken that stroll in all weathers, it was my first experience of +such a thing. How lucky, then, was Constable to have seen it, when he +set himself to paint his famous picture! And how brave he was and even +wise to have attempted such a subject, one which, I am informed by +artists with the brush, only a madman would undertake, however great a +genius he might be. It was impossible, we know, even to a Constable, but +we admire his failure nevertheless, even as we admire Turner's many +failures; but when we go back to Nature we are only too glad to forget +all about the picture. + +The view from the meadows will not, in the future, I fear, seem so +interesting to me; I shall miss the rainbow, and shall never see again +except in that treasured image the great spire as Constable saw and +tried to paint it. In like manner, though for a different reason, my +future visits to Old Sarum will no longer give me the same pleasure +experienced on former occasions. + +Old Sarum stands over the Avon, a mile and a half from Salisbury; a +round chalk hill about 300 feet high, in its round shape and isolation +resembling a stupendous tumulus in which the giants of antiquity were +buried, its steeply sloping, green sides ringed about with vast, +concentric earth-works and ditches, the work of the "old people," as +they say on the Plain, when referring to the ancient Britons, but how +ancient, whether invading Celts or Aborigines--the true Britons, who +possessed the land from neolithic times--even the anthropologists, the +wise men of to-day, are unable to tell us. Later, it was a Roman +station, one of the most important, and in after ages a great Norman +castle and cathedral city, until early in the thirteenth century, when +the old church was pulled down and a new and better one to last for ever +was built in the green plain by many running waters. Church and people +gone, the castle fell into ruin, though some believe it existed down to +the fifteenth century; but from that time onwards the site has been a +place of historical memories and a wilderness. Nature had made it a +sweet and beautiful spot; the earth over the old buried ruins was +covered with an elastic turf, jewelled with the bright little flowers of +the chalk, the ramparts and ditches being all overgrown with a dense +thicket of thorn, holly, elder, bramble, and ash, tangled up with ivy, +briony, and traveller's-joy. Once only during the last five or six +centuries some slight excavations were made when, in 1834, as the result +of an excessively dry summer, the lines of the cathedral foundations +were discernible on the surface. But it will no longer be the place it +was, the Society of Antiquaries having received permission from the Dean +and Chapter of Salisbury to work their sweet will on the site. That +ancient, beautiful carcass, which had long made their mouths water, on +which they have now fallen like a pack of hungry hyenas to tear off the +old hide of green turf and burrow down to open to the light or drag out +the deep, stony framework. The beautiful surrounding thickets, too, must +go, they tell me, since you cannot turn the hill inside out without +destroying the trees and bushes that crown it. What person who has known +it and has often sought that spot for the sake of its ancient +associations, and of the sweet solace they have found in the solitude, +or for the noble view of the sacred city from its summit, will not +deplore this fatal amiability of the authorities, this weak desire to +please every one and inability to say no to such a proposal! + +But let me now return to the object which brings me to this spot; it was +not to lament the loss of the beautiful, which cannot be preserved in +our age--even this best one of all which Salisbury possessed cannot be +preserved--but to look at Salisbury from this point of view. It is not +as from "the meadows" a view of the cathedral only, but of the whole +town, amidst its circle of vast green downs. It has a beautiful aspect +from that point: a red-brick and red-tiled town, set low on that +circumscribed space, whose soft, brilliant green is in lovely contrast +with the paler hue of the downs beyond, the perennial moist green of its +water-meadows. For many swift, clear currents flow around and through +Salisbury, and doubtless in former days there were many more channels in +the town itself. Leland's description is worth quoting: "There be many +fair streates in the Cite Saresbyri, and especially the High Streate and +Castle Streate.... Al the Streates in a maner, in New Saresbyri, hath +little streamlettes and arms derivyd out of Avon that runneth through +them. The site of the very town of Saresbyri and much ground thereabout +is playne and low, and as a pan or receyvor of most part of the waters +of Wiltshire." + +On this scene, this red town with the great spire, set down among +water-meadows, encircled by paler green chalk hills, I look from the top +of the inner and highest rampart or earth-work; or going a little +distance down sit at ease on the turf to gaze at it by the hour. Nor +could a sweeter resting-place be found, especially at the time of ripe +elder-berries, when the thickets are purple with their clusters and the +starlings come in flocks to feed on them, and feeding keep up a +perpetual, low musical jangle about me. + +It is not, however, of "New Saresbyri" as seen by the tourist, with a +mind full of history, archaeology, and the aesthetic delight in +cathedrals, that I desire to write, but of Salisbury as it appears to +the dweller on the Plain. For Salisbury is the capital of the Plain, the +head and heart of all those villages, too many to count, scattered far +and wide over the surrounding country. It is the villager's own peculiar +city, and even as the spot it stands upon is the "pan or receyvor of +most part of the waters of Wiltshire," so is it the receyvor of all he +accomplishes in his laborious life, and thitherward flow all his +thoughts and ambitions. Perhaps it is not so difficult for me as it +would be for most persons who are not natives to identify myself with +him and see it as he sees it. That greater place we have been in, that +mighty, monstrous London, is ever present to the mind and is like a mist +before the sight when we look at other places; but for me there is no +such mist, no image so immense and persistent as to cover and obscure +all others, and no such mental habit as that of regarding people as a +mere crowd, a mass, a monstrous organism, in and on which each +individual is but a cell, a scale. This feeling troubles and confuses my +mind when I am in London, where we live "too thick"; but quitting it I +am absolutely free; it has not entered my soul and coloured me with its +colour or shut me out from those who have never known it, even of the +simplest dwellers on the soil who, to our sophisticated minds, may seem +like beings of another species. This is my happiness--to feel, in all +places, that I am one with them. To say, for instance, that I am going +to Salisbury to-morrow, and catch the gleam in the children's eye and +watch them, furtively watching me, whisper to one another that there +will be something for them, too, on the morrow. To set out betimes and +overtake the early carriers' carts on the road, each with its little +cargo of packages and women with baskets and an old man or two, to +recognize acquaintances among those who sit in front, and as I go on +overtaking and passing carriers and the half-gipsy, little "general +dealer" in his dirty, ramshackle, little cart drawn by a rough, +fast-trotting pony, all of us intent on business and pleasure, bound for +Salisbury--the great market and emporium and place of all delights for +all the great Plain. I remember that on my very last expedition, when I +had come twelve miles in the rain and was standing at a street corner, +wet to the skin, waiting for my carrier, a man in a hurry said to me, "I +say, just keep an eye on my cart for a minute or two while I run round +to see somebody. I've got some fowls in it, and if you see anyone come +poking round just ask them what they want--you can't trust every one. +I'll be back in a minute." And he was gone, and I was very pleased to +watch his cart and fowls till he came back. + +Business is business and must be attended to, in fair or foul weather, +but for business with pleasure we prefer it fine on market-day. The one +great and chief pleasure, in which all participate, is just to be there, +to be in the crowd--a joyful occasion which gives a festive look to +every face. The mere sight of it exhilarates like wine. The numbers--the +people and the animals! The carriers' carts drawn up in rows on +rows--carriers from a hundred little villages on the Bourne, the Avon, +the Wylye, the Nadder, the Ebble, and from all over the Plain, each +bringing its little contingent. Hundreds and hundreds more coming by +train; you see them pouring down Fisherton Street in a continuous +procession, all hurrying market-wards. And what a lively scene the +market presents now, full of cattle and sheep and pigs and crowds of +people standing round the shouting auctioneers! And horses, too, the +beribboned hacks, and ponderous draught horses with manes and tails +decorated with golden straw, thundering over the stone pavement as they +are trotted up and down! And what a profusion of fruit and vegetables, +fish and meat, and all kinds of provisions on the stalls, where women +with baskets on their arms are jostling and bargaining! The Corn +Exchange is like a huge beehive, humming with the noise of talk, full of +brown-faced farmers in their riding and driving clothes and leggings, +standing in knots or thrusting their hands into sacks of oats and +barley. You would think that all the farmers from all the Plain were +congregated there. There is a joyful contagion in it all. Even the +depressed young lover, the forlornest of beings, repairs his wasted +spirits and takes heart again. Why, if I've seen a girl with a pretty +face to-day I've seen a hundred--and more. And she thinks they be so few +she can treat me like that and barely give me a pleasant word in a +month! Let her come to Salisbury and see how many there be! + +And so with every one in that vast assemblage--vast to the dweller in +the Plain. Each one is present as it were in two places, since each has +in his or her heart the constant image of home--the little, peaceful +village in the remote valley; of father and mother and neighbours and +children, in school just now, or at play, or home to dinner--home cares +and concerns and the business in Salisbury. The selling and buying; +friends and relations to visit or to meet in the market-place, and--how +often!--the sick one to be seen at the Infirmary. This home of the +injured and ailing, which is in the mind of so many of the people +gathered together, is indeed the cord that draws and binds the city and +the village closest together and makes the two like one. + +That great, comely building of warm, red brick in Fisherton Street, set +well back so that you can see it as a whole, behind its cedar and +beech-trees--how familiar it is to the villagers! In numberless humble +homes, in hundreds of villages of the Plain, and all over the +surrounding country, the "Infirmary" is a name of the deepest meaning, +and a place of many gad and tender and beautiful associations. I heard +it spoken of in a manner which surprised me at first, for I know some of +the London poor and am accustomed to their attitude towards the +metropolitan hospitals. The Londoner uses them very freely; they have +come to be as necessary to him as the grocer's shop and the +public-house, but for all the benefits he receives from them he has no +faintest sense of gratitude, and it is my experience that if you speak +to him of this he is roused to anger and demands, "What are they for?" +So far is he from having any thankful thoughts for all that has been +given him for nothing and done for him and for his, if he has anything +to say at all on the matter it is to find fault with the hospitals and +cast blame on them for not having healed him more quickly or thoroughly. + +This country town hospital and infirmary is differently regarded by the +villagers of the Plain. It is curious to find how many among them are +personally acquainted with it; perhaps it is not easy for anyone, even +in this most healthy district, to get through life without sickness, and +all are liable to accidents. The injured or afflicted youth, taken +straight from his rough, hard life and poor cottage, wonders at the +place he finds himself in--the wide, clean, airy room and white, easy +bed, the care and skill of the doctors, the tender nursing by women, and +comforts and luxuries, all without payment, but given as it seems to him +out of pure divine love and compassion--all this comes to him as +something strange, almost incredible. He suffers much perhaps, but can +bear pain stoically and forget it when it is past, but the loving +kindness he has experienced is remembered. + +That is one of the very great things Salisbury has for the villagers, +and there are many more which may not be spoken of, since we do not want +to lose sight of the wood on account of the trees; only one must be +mentioned for a special reason, and that is the cathedral. The villager +is extremely familiar with it as he sees it from the market and the +street and from a distance, from all the roads which lead him to +Salisbury. Seeing it he sees everything beneath it--all the familiar +places and objects, all the streets--High and Castle and Crane Streets, +and many others, including Endless Street, which reminds one of Sydney +Smith's last flicker of fun before that candle went out; and the "White +Hart" and the "Angel" and "Old George," and the humbler "Goat" and +"Green Man" and "Shoulder of Mutton," with many besides; and the great, +red building with its cedar-tree, and the knot of men and boys standing +on the bridge gazing down on the trout in the swift river below; and the +market-place and its busy crowds--all the familiar sights and scenes +that come under the spire like a flock of sheep on a burning day in +summer, grouped about a great tree growing in the pasture-land. But he +is not familiar with the interior of the great fane; it fails to draw +him, doubtless because he has no time in his busy, practical life for +the cultivation of the aesthetic faculties. There is a crust over that +part of his mind; but it need not always and ever be so; the crust is +not on the mind of the child. + +Before a stall in the market-place a child is standing with her +mother--a commonplace-looking, little girl of about twelve, blue-eyed, +light-haired, with thin arms and legs, dressed, poorly enough, for her +holiday. The mother, stoutish, in her best but much-worn black gown and +a brown straw, out-of-shape hat, decorated with bits of ribbon and a few +soiled and frayed artificial flowers. Probably she is the wife of a +labourer who works hard to keep himself and family on fourteen shillings +a week; and she, too, shows, in her hard hands and sunburnt face, with +little wrinkles appearing, that she is a hard worker; but she is very +jolly, for she is in Salisbury on market-day, in fine weather, with +several shillings in her purse--a shilling for the fares, and perhaps +eightpence for refreshments, and the rest to be expended in necessaries +for the house. And now to increase the pleasure of the day she has +unexpectedly run against a friend! There they stand, the two friends, +basket on arm, right in the midst of the jostling crowd, talking in +their loud, tinny voices at a tremendous rate; while the girl, with a +half-eager, half-listless expression, stands by with her hand on her +mother's dress, and every time there is a second's pause in the eager +talk she gives a little tug at the gown and ejaculates "Mother!" The +woman impatiently shakes off the hand and says sharply, "What now, +Marty! Can't 'ee let me say just a word without bothering!" and on the +talk runs again; then another tug and "Mother!" and then, "You promised, +mother," and by and by, "Mother, you said you'd take me to the cathedral +next time." + +Having heard so much I wanted to hear more, and addressing the woman I +asked her why her child wanted to go. She answered me with a +good-humoured laugh, "'Tis all because she heard 'em talking about it +last winter, and she'd never been, and I says to her, 'Never you mind, +Marty, I'll take you there the next time I go to Salisbury.'" + +"And she's never forgot it," said the other woman. + +"Not she--Marty ain't one to forget." + +"And you been four times, mother," put in the girl. + +"Have I now! Well, 'tis too late now--half-past two, and we must be't' +Goat' at four." + +"Oh, mother, you promised!" + +"Well, then, come along, you worriting child, and let's have it over or +you'll give me no peace"; and away they went. And I would have followed +to know the result if it had been in my power to look into that young +brain and see the thoughts and feelings there as the crystal-gazer sees +things in a crystal. In a vague way, with some very early memories to +help me, I can imagine it--the shock of pleased wonder at the sight of +that immense interior, that far-extending nave with pillars that stand +like the tall trunks of pines and beeches, and at the end the light +screen which allows the eye to travel on through the rich choir, to see, +with fresh wonder and delight, high up and far off, that glory of +coloured glass as of a window half-open to an unimaginable place +beyond--a heavenly cathedral to which all this is but a dim porch or +passage! + +We do not properly appreciate the educational value of such early +experiences; and I use that dismal word not because it is perfectly +right or for want of a better one, but because it is in everybody's +mouth and understood by all. For all I know to the contrary, village +schools may be bundled in and out of the cathedral from time to time, +but that is not the right way, seeing that the child's mind is not the +crowd-of-children's mind. But I can imagine that when we have a wiser, +better system of education in the villages, in which books will not be +everything, and to be shut up six or seven hours every day to prevent +the children from learning the things that matter most--I can imagine at +such a time that the schoolmaster or mistress will say to the village +woman, "I hear you are going to Salisbury to-morrow, or next Tuesday, +and I want you to take Janie or little Dan or Peter, and leave him for +an hour to play about on the cathedral green and watch the daws flying +round the spire, and take a peep inside while you are doing your +marketing." + +Back from the cathedral once more, from the infirmary, and from shops +and refreshment-houses, out in the sun among the busy people, let us +delay a little longer for the sake of our last scene. + +It was past noon on a hot, brilliant day in August, and that splendid +weather had brought in more people than I had ever before seen +congregated in Salisbury, and never had the people seemed so talkative +and merry and full of life as on that day. I was standing at a busy spot +by a row of carriers' carts drawn up at the side of the pavement, just +where there are three public-houses close together, when I caught sight +of a young man of about twenty-two or twenty-three, a shepherd in a grey +suit and thick, iron-shod, old boots and brown leggings, with a soft +felt hat thrust jauntily on the back of his head, coming along towards +me with that half-slouching, half-swinging gait peculiar to the men of +the downs, especially when they are in the town on pleasure bent. +Decidedly he was there on pleasure and had been indulging in a glass or +two of beer (perhaps three) and was very happy, trolling out a song in a +pleasant, musical voice as he swung along, taking no notice of the +people stopping and turning round to stare after him, or of those of his +own party who were following and trying to keep up with him, calling to +him all the time to stop, to wait, to go slow, and give them a chance. +There were seven following him: a stout, middle-aged woman, then a +grey-haired old woman and two girls, and last a youngish, married woman +with a small boy by the hand; and the stout woman, with a red, laughing +face, cried out, "Oh, Dave, do stop, can't 'ee! Where be going so fast, +man--don't 'ee see we can't keep up with 'ee?" But he would not stop nor +listen. It was his day out, his great day in Salisbury, a very rare +occasion, and he was very happy. Then she would turn back to the others +and cry, "'Tisn't no use, he won't bide for us--did 'ee ever see such a +boy!" and laughing and perspiring she would start on after him again. + +Now this incident would have been too trivial to relate had it not been +for the appearance of the man himself--his powerful and perfect physique +and marvellously handsome face--such a face as the old Greek sculptors +have left to the world to be universally regarded and admired for all +time as the most perfect. I do not think that this was my feeling only; +I imagine that the others in that street who were standing still and +staring after him had something of the same sense of surprise and +admiration he excited in me. Just then it happened that there was a +great commotion outside one of the public-houses, where a considerable +party of gipsies in their little carts had drawn up, and were all +engaged in a violent, confused altercation. Probably they, or one of +them, had just disposed of a couple of stolen ducks, or a sheepskin, or +a few rabbits, and they were quarrelling over the division of the spoil. +At all events they were violently excited, scowling at each other and +one or two in a dancing rage, and had collected a crowd of amused +lookers-on; but when the young man came singing by they all turned to +stare at him. + +As he came on I placed myself directly in his path and stared straight +into his eyes--grey eyes and very beautiful; but he refused to see me; +he stared through me like an animal when you try to catch its eyes, and +went by still trolling out his song, with all the others streaming after +him. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +WINTERBOURNE BISHOP + + A favourite village--Isolated situation--Appearance of the + village--Hedge-fruit--The winterbourne--Human interest--The home + feeling--Man in harmony with nature--Human bones thrown out by a + rabbit--A spot unspoiled and unchanged + + +Of the few widely separated villages, hidden away among the lonely downs +in the large, blank spaces between the rivers, the one I love best is +Winterbourne Bishop. Yet of the entire number--I know them all +intimately--I daresay it would be pronounced by most persons the least +attractive. It has less shade from trees in summer and is more exposed +in winter to the bleak winds of this high country, from whichever +quarter they may blow. Placed high itself on a wide, unwooded valley or +depression, with the low, sloping downs at some distance away, the +village is about as cold a place to pass a winter in as one could find +in this district. And, it may be added, the most inconvenient to live in +at any time, the nearest town, or the easiest to get to, being +Salisbury, twelve miles distant by a hilly road. The only means of +getting to that great centre of life which the inhabitants possess is by +the carrier's cart, which makes the weary four-hours' journey once a +week, on market-day. Naturally, not many of them see that place of +delights oftener than once a year, and some but once in five or more +years. + +Then, as to the village itself, when you have got down into its one +long, rather winding street, or road. This has a green bank, five or +six feet high, on either side, on which stand the cottages, mostly +facing the road. Real houses there are none--buildings worthy of +being called houses in these great days--unless the three small +farm-houses are considered better than cottages, and the rather +mean-looking rectory--the rector, poor man, is very poor. Just in +the middle part, where the church stands in its green churchyard, +the shadiest spot in the village, a few of the cottages are close +together, almost touching, then farther apart, twenty yards or so, +then farther still, forty or fifty yards. They are small, old cottages; +a few have seventeenth-century dates cut on stone tablets on their +fronts, but the undated ones look equally old; some thatched, +others tiled, but none particularly attractive. Certainly they are +without the added charm of a green drapery--creeper or ivy rose, +clematis, and honeysuckle; and they are also mostly without the +cottage-garden flowers, unprofitably gay like the blossoming furze, +but dear to the soul: the flowers we find in so many of the villages +along the rivers, especially in those of the Wylye valley to be +described in a later chapter. + +The trees, I have said, are few, though the churchyard is shady, where +you can refresh yourself beneath its ancient beeches and its one +wide-branching yew, or sit on a tomb in the sun when you wish for warmth +and brightness. The trees growing by or near the street are mostly ash +or beech, with a pine or two, old but not large; and there are small or +dwarf yew-, holly-, and thorn-trees. Very little fruit is grown; two or +three to half a dozen apple- and damson-trees are called an orchard, and +one is sorry for the children. But in late summer and autumn they get +their fruit from the hedges. These run up towards the downs on either +side of the village, at right angles with its street; long, unkept +hedges, beautiful with scarlet haws and traveller's-joy, rich in bramble +and elder berries and purple sloes and nuts--a thousand times more nuts +than the little dormice require for their own modest wants. + +Finally, to go back to its disadvantages, the village is waterless; at +all events in summer, when water is most wanted. Water is such a +blessing and joy in a village--a joy for ever when it flows throughout +the year, as at Nether Stowey and Winsford and Bourton-on-the-Water, to +mention but three of all those happy villages in the land which are +known to most of us! What man on coming to such places and watching the +rushing, sparkling, foaming torrent by day and listening to its +splashing, gurgling sounds by night, does not resolve that he will live +in no village that has not a perennial stream in it! This unblessed, +high and dry village has nothing but the winter bourne which gives it +its name; a sort of surname common to a score or two of villages in +Wiltshire, Dorset, Somerset, and Hants. Here the bed of the stream lies +by the bank on one side of the village street, and when the autumn and +early winter rains have fallen abundantly, the hidden reservoirs within +the chalk hills are filled to overflowing; then the water finds its way +out and fills the dry old channel and sometimes turns the whole street +into a rushing river, to the immense joy of the village children. They +are like ducks, hatched and reared at some upland farm where there was +not even a muddy pool to dibble in. For a season (the wet one) the +village women have water at their own doors and can go out and dip pails +in it as often as they want. When spring comes it is still flowing +merrily, trying to make you believe that it is going to flow for ever; +beautiful, green water-loving plants and grasses spring up and flourish +along the roadside, and you may see comfrey and water forget-me-not in +flower. Pools, too, have been formed in some deep, hollow places; they +are fringed with tall grasses, whitened over with bloom of +water-crowfoot, and poa grass grows up from the bottom to spread its +green tresses over the surface. Better still, by and by a couple of +stray moorhens make their appearance in the pool--strange birds, +coloured glossy olive-brown, slashed with white, with splendid scarlet +and yellow beaks! If by some strange chance a shining blue kingfisher +were to appear it could not create a greater excitement. So much +attention do they receive that the poor strangers have no peace of their +lives. It is a happy time for the children, and a good time for the busy +housewife, who has all the water she wants for cooking and washing and +cleaning--she may now dash as many pailfuls over her brick floors as she +likes. Then the clear, swift current begins to diminish, and scarcely +have you had time to notice the change than it is altogether gone! The +women must go back to the well and let the bucket down, and laboriously +turn and turn the handle of the windlass till it mounts to the top +again. The pretty moist, green herbage, the graceful grasses, quickly +wither away; dust and straws and rubbish from the road lie in the dry +channel, and by and by it is filled with a summer growth of dock and +loveless nettles which no child may touch with impunity. + +No, I cannot think that any person for whom it had no association, no +secret interest, would, after looking at this village with its dried-up +winterbourne, care to make his home in it. And no person, I imagine, +wants to see it; for it has no special attraction and is away from any +road, at a distance from everywhere. I knew a great many villages in +Salisbury Plain, and was always adding to their number, but there was no +intention of visiting this one. Perhaps there is not a village on the +Plain, or anywhere in Wiltshire for that matter, which sees fewer +strangers. Then I fell in with the old shepherd whose life will be +related in the succeeding chapters, and who, away from his native place, +had no story about his past life and the lives of those he had known--no +thought in his mind, I might almost say, which was not connected with +the village of Winterbourne Bishop. And many of his anecdotes and +reflections proved so interesting that I fell into the habit of putting +them down in my notebook; until in the end the place itself, where he +had followed his "homely trade" so long, seeing and feeling so much, +drew me to it. I knew there was "nothing to see" in it, that it was +without the usual attractions; that there was, in fact, nothing but the +human interest, but that was enough. So I came to it to satisfy an idle +curiosity--just to see how it would accord with the mental picture +produced by his description of it. I came, I may say, prepared to like +the place for the sole but sufficient reason that it had been his home. +Had it not been for this feeling he had produced in me I should not, I +imagine, have cared to stay long in it. As it was, I did stay, then came +again and found that it was growing on me. I wondered why; for the mere +interest in the old shepherd's life memories did not seem enough to +account for this deepening attachment. It began to seem to me that I +liked it more and more because of its very barrenness--the entire +absence of all the features which make a place attractive, noble +scenery, woods, and waters; deer parks and old houses, Tudor, +Elizabethan, Jacobean, stately and beautiful, full of art treasures; +ancient monuments and historical associations. There were none of these +things; there was nothing here but that wide, vacant expanse, very +thinly populated with humble, rural folk--farmers, shepherds, +labourers--living in very humble houses. England is so full of riches in +ancient monuments and grand and interesting and lovely buildings and +objects and scenes, that it is perhaps too rich. For we may get into the +habit of looking for such things, expecting them at every turn, every +mile of the way. + +I found it a relief, at Winterbourne Bishop, to be in a country which +had nothing to draw a man out of a town. A wide, empty land, with +nothing on it to look at but a furze-bush; or when I had gained the +summit of the down, and to get a little higher still stood on the top of +one of its many barrows, a sight of the distant village, its low, grey +or reddish-brown cottages half hidden among its few trees, the square, +stone tower of its little church looking at a distance no taller than a +milestone. That emptiness seemed good for both mind and body: I could +spend long hours idly sauntering or sitting or lying on the turf, +thinking of nothing, or only of one thing--that it was a relief to have +no thought about anything. + +But no, something was secretly saying to me all the time, that it was +more than what I have said which continued to draw me to this vacant +place--more than the mere relief experienced on coming back to nature +and solitude, and the freedom of a wide earth and sky. I was not fully +conscious of what the something more was until after repeated visits. On +each occasion it was a pleasure to leave Salisbury behind and set out on +that long, hilly road, and the feeling would keep with me all the +journey, even in bad weather, sultry or cold, or with the wind hard +against me, blowing the white chalk dust into my eyes. From the time I +left the turnpike to go the last two and a half to three miles by the +side-road I would gaze eagerly ahead for a sight of my destination long +before it could possibly be seen; until, on gaining the summit of a low, +intervening down, the wished scene would be disclosed--the vale-like, +wide depression, with its line of trees, blue-green in the distance, +flecks of red and grey colour of the houses among them--and at that +sight there would come a sense of elation, like that of coming home. + +This in fact was the secret! This empty place was, in its aspect, +despite the difference in configuration between down and undulating +plain, more like the home of my early years than any other place known +to me in the country. I can note many differences, but they do not +deprive me of this home feeling; it is the likenesses that hold me, the +spirit of the place, one which is not a desert with the desert's +melancholy or sense of desolation, but inhabited, although thinly and by +humble-minded men whose work and dwellings are unobtrusive. The final +effect of this wide, green space with signs of human life and labour on +it, and sight of animals--sheep and cattle--at various distances, is +that we are not aliens here, intruders or invaders on the earth, living +in it but apart, perhaps hating and spoiling it, but with the other +animals are children of Nature, like them living and seeking our +subsistence under her sky, familiar with her sun and wind and rain. + +If some ostentatious person had come to this strangely quiet spot and +raised a staring, big house, the sight of it in the landscape would have +made it impossible to have such a feeling as I have described--this +sense of man's harmony and oneness with nature. From how much of England +has this expression which nature has for the spirit, which is so much +more to us than beauty of scenery, been blotted out! This quiet spot in +Wiltshire has been inhabited from of old, how far back in time the +barrows raised by an ancient, barbarous people are there to tell us, and +to show us how long it is possible for the race of men, in all stages of +culture, to exist on the earth without spoiling it. + +One afternoon when walking on Bishop Down I noticed at a distance of a +hundred yards or more that a rabbit had started making a burrow in a new +place and had thrown out a vast quantity of earth. Going to the spot to +see what kind of chalk or soil he was digging so deeply in, I found that +he had thrown out a human thigh-bone and a rib or two. They were of a +reddish-white colour and had been embedded in a hard mixture of chalk +and red earth. The following day I went again, and there were more +bones, and every day after that the number increased until it seemed to +me that he had brought out the entire skeleton, minus the skull, which I +had been curious to see. Then the bones disappeared. The man who looked +after the game had seen them, and recognizing that they were human +remains had judiciously taken them away to destroy or stow them away in +some safe place. For if the village constable had discovered them, or +heard of their presence, he would perhaps have made a fuss and even +thought it necessary to communicate with the coroner of the district. +Such things occasionally happen, even in Wiltshire where the chalk hills +are full of the bones of dead men, and a solemn Crowner's quest is held +on the remains of a Saxon or Dane or an ancient Briton. When some +important person--a Sir Richard Colt Hoare, for example, who dug up 379 +barrows in Wiltshire, or a General Pitt Rivers throws out human remains +nobody minds, but if an unauthorized rabbit kicks out a lot of bones the +matter should be inquired into. + +But the man whose bones had been thus thrown out into the sunlight after +lying so long at that spot, which commanded a view of the distant, +little village looking so small in that immense, green space--who and +what was he, and how long ago did he live on the earth--at Winterbourne +Bishop, let us say? There were two barrows in that part of the down, but +quite a stone's-throw away from the spot where the rabbit was working, +so that he may not have been one of the people of that period. Still, it +is probable that he was buried a very long time ago, centuries back, +perhaps a thousand years, perhaps longer, and by chance there was a +slope there which prevented the water from percolating, and the soil in +which he had been deposited, under that close-knit turf which looked as +if it had never been disturbed, was one in which bones might keep +uncrumbled for ever. + +The thought that occurred to me at the time was that if the man himself +had come back to life after so long a period, to stand once more on that +down surveying the scene, he would have noticed little change in it, +certainly nothing of a startling description. The village itself, +looking so small at that distance, in the centre of the vast depression, +would probably not be strange to him. It was doubtless there as far back +as history goes and probably still farther back in time. For at that +point, just where the winterbourne gushes out from the low hills, is the +spot man would naturally select to make his home. And he would see no +mansion or big building, no puff of white steam and sight of a long, +black train creeping over the earth, nor any other strange thing. It +would appear to him even as he knew it before he fell asleep--the same +familiar scene, with furze and bramble and bracken on the slope, the +wide expanse with sheep and cattle grazing in the distance, and the dark +green of trees in the hollows, and fold on fold of the low down beyond, +stretching away to the dim, farthest horizon. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +A SHEPHERD OF THE DOWNS + + Caleb Bawcombe--An old shepherd's love of his home--Fifty years' + shepherding--Bawcombe's singular appearance--A tale of a titlark--Caleb + Bawcombe's father--Father and son--A grateful sportsman and Isaac + Bawcombe's pension--Death following death in old married couples--In a + village churchyard--A farm-labourer's gravestone and his story + + +It is now several years since I first met Caleb Bawcombe, a shepherd of +the South Wiltshire Downs, but already old and infirm and past work. I +met him at a distance from his native village, and it was only after I +had known him a long time and had spent many afternoons and evenings in +his company, listening to his anecdotes of his shepherding days, that I +went to see his own old home for myself--the village of Winterbourne +Bishop already described, to find it a place after my own heart. But as +I have said, if I had never known Caleb and heard so much from him about +his own life and the lives of many of his fellow-villagers, I should +probably never have seen this village. + +One of his memories was of an old shepherd named John, whose +acquaintance he made when a very young man--John being at that time +seventy-eight years old--on the Winterbourne Bishop farm, where he had +served for an unbroken period of close on sixty years. Though so aged he +was still head shepherd, and he continued to hold that place seven years +longer--until his master, who had taken over old John with the place, +finally gave up the farm and farming at the same time. He, too, was +getting past work and wished to spend his declining years in his native +village in an adjoining parish, where he owned some house and cottage +property. And now what was to become of the old shepherd, since the new +tenant had brought his own men with him?--and he, moreover, considered +that John, at eighty-five, was too old to tend a flock on the hills, +even of tegs. His old master, anxious to help him, tried to get him some +employment in the village where he wished to stay; and failing in this, +he at last offered him a cottage rent free in the village where he was +going to live himself, and, in addition, twelve shillings a week for the +rest of his life. It was in those days an exceedingly generous offer, +but John refused it. "Master," he said, "I be going to stay in my own +native village, and if I can't make a living the parish'll have to keep +I; but keep or not keep, here I be and here I be going to stay, where I +were borned." + +From this position the stubborn old man refused to be moved, and there +at Winterbourne Bishop his master had to leave him, although not without +having first made him a sufficient provision. + +The way in which my old friend, Caleb Bawcombe, told the story plainly +revealed his own feeling in the matter. He understood and had the +keenest sympathy with old John, dead now over half a century; or rather, +let us say, resting very peacefully in that green spot under the old +grey tower of Winterbourne Bishop church where as a small boy he had +played among the old gravestones as far back in time as the middle of +the eighteenth century. But old John had long survived wife and +children, and having no one but himself to think of was at liberty to +end his days where he pleased. Not so with Caleb, for, although his +undying passion for home and his love of the shepherd's calling were as +great as John's, he was not so free, and he was compelled at last to +leave his native downs, which he may never see again, to settle for the +remainder of his days in another part of the country. + +Early in life he "caught a chill" through long exposure to wet and cold +in winter; this brought on rheumatic fever and a malady of the thigh, +which finally affected the whole limb and made him lame for life. Thus +handicapped he had continued as shepherd for close on fifty years, +during which time his sons and daughters had grown up, married, and gone +away, mostly to a considerable distance, leaving their aged parents +alone once more. Then the wife, who was a strong woman and of an +enterprising temper, found an opening for herself at a distance from +home where she could start a little business. Caleb indignantly refused +to give up shepherding in his place to take part in so unheard-of an +adventure; but after a year or more of life in his lonely hut among the +hills and cold, empty cottage in the village, he at length tore himself +away from that beloved spot and set forth on the longest journey of his +life--about forty-five miles--to join her and help in the work of her +new home. Here a few years later I found him, aged seventy-two, but +owing to his increasing infirmities looking considerably more. When he +considered that his father, a shepherd before him on those same +Wiltshire Downs, lived to eighty-six, and his mother to eighty-four, and +that both were vigorous and led active lives almost to the end, he +thought it strange that his own work should be so soon done. For in +heart and mind he was still young; he did not want to rest yet. + +Since that first meeting nine years have passed, and as he is actually +better in health to-day than he was then, there is good reason to hope +that his staying power will equal that of his father. + +I was at first struck with the singularity of Caleb's appearance, and +later by the expression of his eyes. A very tall, big-boned, lean, +round-shouldered man, he was uncouth almost to the verge of +grotesqueness, and walked painfully with the aid of a stick, dragging +his shrunken and shortened bad leg. His head was long and narrow, and +his high forehead, long nose, long chin, and long, coarse, grey +whiskers, worn like a beard on his throat, produced a goat-like effect. +This was heightened by the ears and eyes. The big ears stood out from +his head, and owing to a peculiar bend or curl in the membrane at the +top they looked at certain angles almost pointed. The hazel eyes were +wonderfully clear, but that quality was less remarkable than the unhuman +intelligence in them--fawn-like eyes that gazed steadily at you as one +may gaze through the window, open back and front, of a house at the +landscape beyond. This peculiarity was a little disconcerting at first, +when, after making his acquaintance out of doors, I went in uninvited +and sat down with him at his own fireside. The busy old wife talked of +this and that, and hinted as politely as she knew how that I was in her +way. To her practical, peasant mind there was no sense in my being +there. "He be a stranger to we, and we be strangers to he." Caleb was +silent, and his clear eyes showed neither annoyance nor pleasure but +only their native, wild alertness, but the caste feeling is always less +strong in the hill shepherd than in other men who are on the land; in +some cases it will vanish at a touch, and it was so in this one. A +canary in a cage hanging in the kitchen served to introduce the subject +of birds captive and birds free. I said that I liked the little yellow +bird, and was not vexed to see him in a cage, since he was cage-born; +but I considered that those who caught wild birds and kept them +prisoners did not properly understand things. This happened to be +Caleb's view. He had a curiously tender feeling about the little wild +birds, and one amusing incident of his boyhood which he remembered came +out during our talk. He was out on the down one summer day in charge of +his father's flock, when two boys of the village on a ramble in the +hills came and sat down on the turf by his side. One of them had a +titlark, or meadow pipit, which he had just caught, in his hand, and +there was a hot argument as to which of the two was the lawful owner of +the poor little captive. The facts were as follows. One of the boys +having found the nest became possessed with the desire to get the bird. +His companion at once offered to catch it for him, and together they +withdrew to a distance and sat down and waited until the bird returned +to sit on the eggs. Then the young birdcatcher returned to the spot, and +creeping quietly up to within five or six feet of the nest threw his hat +so that it fell over the sitting titlark; but after having thus secured +it he refused to give it up. The dispute waxed hotter as they sat there, +and at last when it got to the point of threats of cuffs on the ear and +slaps on the face they agreed to fight it out, the victor to have the +titlark. The bird was then put under a hat for safety on the smooth turf +a few feet away, and the boys proceeded to take off their jackets and +roll up their shirt-sleeves, after which they faced one another, and +were just about to begin when Caleb, thrusting out his crook, turned the +hat over and away flew the titlark. + +The boys, deprived of their bird and of an excuse for a fight, would +gladly have discharged their fury on Caleb, but they durst not, seeing +that his dog was lying at his side; they could only threaten and abuse +him, call him bad names, and finally put on their coats and walk off. + +That pretty little tale of a titlark was but the first of a long +succession of memories of his early years, with half a century of +shepherding life on the downs, which came out during our talks on many +autumn and winter evenings as we sat by his kitchen fire. The earlier of +these memories were always the best to me, because they took one back +sixty years or more, to a time when there was more wildness in the earth +than now, and a nobler wild animal life. Even more interesting were some +of the memories of his father, Isaac Bawcombe, whose time went back to +the early years of the nineteenth century. Caleb cherished an admiration +and reverence for his father's memory which were almost a worship, and +he loved to describe him as he appeared in his old age, when upwards of +eighty. He was erect and tall, standing six feet two in height, well +proportioned, with a clean-shaved, florid face, clear, dark eyes, and +silver-white hair; and at this later period of his life he always wore +the dress of an old order of pensioners to which he had been admitted--a +soft, broad, white felt hat, thick boots and brown leather leggings, and +a long, grey cloth overcoat with red collar and brass buttons. + +According to Caleb, he must have been an exceedingly fine specimen of a +man, both physically and morally. Born in 1800, he began following a +flock as a boy, and continued as shepherd on the same farm until he was +sixty, never rising to more than seven shillings a week and nothing +found, since he lived in the cottage where he was born and which he +inherited from his father. That a man of his fine powers, a +head-shepherd on a large hill-farm, should have had no better pay than +that down to the year 1860, after nearly half a century of work in one +place, seems almost incredible. Even his sons, as they grew up to man's +estate, advised him to ask for an increase, but he would not. Seven +shillings a week he had always had; and that small sum, with something +his wife earned by making highly finished smock-frocks, had been +sufficient to keep them all in a decent way; and his sons were now all +earning their own living. But Caleb got married, and resolved to leave +the old farm at Bishop to take a better place at a distance from home, +at Warminster, which had been offered him. He would there have a cottage +to live in, nine shillings a week, and a sack of barley for his dog. At +that time the shepherd had to keep his own dog--no small expense to him +when his wages were no more than six to eight shillings a week. But +Caleb was his father's favourite son, and the old man could not endure +the thought of losing sight of him; and at last, finding that he could +not persuade him not to leave the old home, he became angry, and told +him that if he went away to Warminster for the sake of the higher wages +and barley for the dog he would disown him! This was a serious matter to +Caleb, in spite of the fact that a shepherd has no money to leave to his +children when he passes away. He went nevertheless, for, though he loved +and reverenced his father, he had a young wife who pulled the other way; +and he was absent for years, and when he returned the old man's heart +had softened, so that he was glad to welcome him back to the old home. + +Meanwhile at that humble cottage at Winterbourne Bishop great things had +happened; old Isaac was no longer shepherding on the downs, but living +very comfortably in his own cottage in the village. The change came +about in this way. + +The downland shepherds, Caleb said, were as a rule clever poachers; and +it is really not surprising, when one considers the temptation to a man +with a wife and several hungry children, besides himself and a dog, to +feed out of about seven shillings a week. But old Bawcombe was an +exception: he would take no game, furred or feathered, nor, if he could +prevent it, allow another to take anything from the land fed by his +flock. Caleb and his brothers, when as boys and youths they began their +shepherding, sometimes caught a rabbit, or their dog caught and killed +one without their encouragement; but, however the thing came into their +hands, they could not take it home on account of their father. Now it +happened that an elderly gentleman who had the shooting was a keen +sportsman, and that in several successive years he found a wonderful +difference in the amount of game at one spot among the hills and in all +the rest of his hill property. The only explanation the keeper could +give was that Isaac Bawcombe tended his flock on that down where +rabbits, hares, and partridges were so plentiful. One autumn day the +gentleman was shooting over that down, and seeing a big man in a +smock-frock standing motionless, crook in hand, regarding him, he called +out to his keeper, who was with him, "Who is that big man?" and was told +that it was Shepherd Bawcombe. The old gentleman pulled some money out +of his pocket and said, "Give him this half-crown, and thank him for the +good sport I've had to-day." But after the coin had been given the giver +still remained standing there, thinking, perhaps, that he had not yet +sufficiently rewarded the man; and at last, before turning away, he +shouted, "Bawcombe, that's not all. You'll get something more by and +by." + +Isaac had not long to wait for the something more, and it turned out not +to be the hare or brace of birds he had half expected. It happened that +the sportsman was one of the trustees of an ancient charity which +provided for six of the most deserving old men of the parish of Bishop; +now, one of the six had recently died, and on this gentleman's +recommendation Bawcombe had been elected to fill the vacant place. The +letter from Salisbury informing him of his election and commanding his +presence in that city filled him with astonishment; for, though he was +sixty years old and the father of three sons now out in the world, he +could not yet regard himself as an old man, for he had never known a +day's illness, nor an ache, and was famed in all that neighbourhood for +his great physical strength and endurance. And now, with his own cottage +to live in, eight shillings a week, and his pensioners' garments, with +certain other benefits, and a shilling a day besides which his old +master paid him for some services at the farm-house in the village, +Isaac found himself very well off indeed, and he enjoyed his prosperous +state for twenty-six years. Then, in 1886, his old wife fell ill and +died, and no sooner was she in her grave than he, too, began to droop; +and soon, before the year was out, he followed her, because, as the +neighbours said, they had always been a loving pair and one could not +'bide without the other. + +This chapter has already had its proper ending and there was no +intention of adding to it, but now for a special reason, which I trust +the reader will pardon when he hears it, I must go on to say something +about that strange phenomenon of death succeeding death in old married +couples, one dying for no other reason than that the other has died. For +it is our instinct to hold fast to life, and the older a man gets if he +be sane the more he becomes like a newborn child in the impulse to grip +tightly. A strange and a rare thing among people generally (the people +we know), it is nevertheless quite common among persons of the labouring +class in the rural districts. I have sometimes marvelled at the number +of such cases to be met with in the villages; but when one comes to +think about it one ceases to wonder that it should be so. For the +labourer on the land goes on from boyhood to the end of life in the same +everlasting round, the changes from task to task, according to the +seasons, being no greater than in the case of the animals that alter +their actions and habits to suit the varying conditions of the year. +March and August and December, and every month, will bring about the +changes in the atmosphere and earth and vegetation and in the animals, +which have been from of old, which he knows how to meet, and the old, +familiar task, lambing-time, shearing-time, root and seed crops hoeing, +haymaking, harvesting. It is a life of the extremest simplicity, without +all those interests outside the home and the daily task, the innumerable +distractions, common to all persons in other classes and to the workmen +in towns as well. Incidentally it may be said that it is also the +healthiest, that, speaking generally, the agricultural labourer is the +healthiest and sanest man in the land, if not also the happiest, as some +believe. + +It is this life of simple, unchanging actions and of habits that are +like instincts, of hard labour in sun and wind and rain from day to day, +with its weekly break and rest, and of but few comforts and no luxuries, +which serves to bind man and wife so closely. And the longer their life +goes on together the closer and more unbreakable the union grows. They +are growing old: old friends and companions have died or left them; +their children have married and gone away and have their own families +and affairs, so that the old folks at home are little remembered, and to +all others they have become of little consequence in the world. But they +do not know it, for they are together, cherishing the same memories, +speaking of the same old, familiar things, and their lost friends and +companions, their absent, perhaps estranged, children, are with them +still in mind as in the old days. The past is with them more than the +present, to give an undying interest to life; for they share it, and it +is only when one goes, when the old wife gets the tea ready and goes +mechanically to the door to gaze out, knowing that her tired man will +come in no more to take his customary place and listen to all the things +she has stored up in her mind during the day to tell him; and when the +tired labourer comes in at dusk to find no old wife waiting to give him +his tea and talk to him while he refreshes himself, he all at once +realizes his position; he finds himself cut off from the entire world, +from all of his kind. Where are they all? The enduring sympathy of that +one soul that was with him till now had kept him in touch with life, had +made it seem unchanged and unchangeable, and with that soul has vanished +the old, sweet illusion as well as all ties, all common, human +affection. He is desolate, indeed, alone in a desert world, and it is +not strange that in many and many a case, even in that of a man still +strong, untouched by disease and good for another decade or two, the +loss, the awful solitude, has proved too much for him. + +Such cases, I have said, are common, but they are not recorded, though +it is possible with labour to pick them out in the church registers; but +in the churchyards you do not find them, since the farm-labourer has +only a green mound to mark the spot where he lies. Nevertheless, he is +sometimes honoured with a gravestone, and last August I came by chance +on one on which was recorded a case like that of Isaac Bawcombe and his +life-mate. + +The churchyard is in one of the prettiest and most secluded villages in +the downland country described in this book. The church is ancient and +beautiful and interesting in many ways, and the churchyard, too, is one +of the most interesting I know, a beautiful, green, tree-shaded spot, +with an extraordinary number of tombs and gravestones, many of them +dated in the eighteenth and seventeenth centuries, inscribed with names +of families which have long died out. + +I went on that afternoon to pass an hour in the churchyard, and finding +an old man in labourer's clothes resting on a tomb, I sat down and +entered into conversation with him. He was seventy-nine, he told me, and +past work, and he had three shillings a week from the parish; but he was +very deaf and it fatigued me to talk to him, and seeing the church open +I went in. On previous visits I had had a good deal of trouble to get +the key, and to find it open now was a pleasant surprise. An old woman +was there dusting the seats, and by and by, while I was talking with +her, the old labourer came stumping in with his ponderous, iron-shod +boots and without taking off his old, rusty hat, and began shouting at +the church-cleaner about a pair of trousers he had given her to mend, +which he wanted badly. Leaving them to their arguing I went out and +began studying the inscriptions on the stones, so hard to make out in +some instances; the old man followed and went his way; then the +church-cleaner came out to where I was standing. "A tiresome old man!" +she said. "He's that deaf he has to shout to hear himself speak, then +you've got to shout back--and all about his old trousers!" + +"I suppose he wants them," I returned, "and you promised to do them, so +he has some reason for going at you about it." + +"Oh no, he hasn't," she replied. "The girl brought them for me to mend, +and I said, 'Leave them and I'll do them when I've time'--how did I know +he wanted them in a hurry? A troublesome old man!" + +By and by, taking a pair of spectacles out of her pocket, she put them +on, and going down on her knees she began industriously picking the old, +brown, dead moss out of the lettering on one side of the tomb. "I'd like +to know what it says on this stone," she said. + +"Well, you can read it for yourself, now you've got your glasses on." + +"I can't read. You see, I'm old--seventy-six years, and when I were +little we were very poor and I couldn't get no schooling. I've got these +glasses to do my sewing, and only put them on to get this stuff out so's +you could read it. I'd like to hear you read it." + +I began to get interested in the old dame who talked to me so freely. +She was small and weak-looking, and appeared very thin in her limp, old, +faded gown; she had a meek, patient expression on her face, and her +voice, too, like her face, expressed weariness and resignation. + +"But if you have always lived here you must know what is said on this +stone?" + +"No, I don't; nobody never read it to me, and I couldn't read it because +I wasn't taught to read. But I'd like to hear you read it." + +It was a long inscription to a person named Ash, gentleman, of this +parish, who departed this life over a century ago, and was a man of a +noble and generous disposition, good as a husband, a father, a friend, +and charitable to the poor. Under all were some lines of verse, scarcely +legible in spite of the trouble she had taken to remove the old moss +from the letters. + +She listened with profound interest, then said, "I never heard all that +before; I didn't know the name, though I've known this stone since I was +a child. I used to climb on to it then. Can you read me another?" + +I read her another and several more, then came to one which she said she +knew--every word of it, for this was the grave of the sweetest, kindest +woman that ever lived. Oh, how good this dear woman had been to her in +her young married life more'n fifty years ago! If that dear lady had +only lived it would not have been so hard for her when her trouble come! + +"And what was your trouble?" + +"It was the loss of my poor man. He was such a good man, a thatcher; and +he fell from a rick and injured his spine, and he died, poor fellow, and +left me with our five little children." Then, having told me her own +tragedy, to my surprise she brightened up and begged me to read other +inscriptions to her. + +I went on reading, and presently she said, "No, that's wrong. There +wasn't ever a Lampard in this parish. That I know." + +"You don't know! There certainly was a Lampard or it would not be stated +here, cut in deep letters on this stone." + +"No, there wasn't a Lampard. I've never known such a name and I've lived +here all my life." + +"But there were people living here before you came on the scene. He died +a long time ago, this Lampard--in 1714, it says. And you are only +seventy-six, you tell me; that is to say, you were born in 1835, and +that would be one hundred and twenty-one years after he died." + +"That's a long time! It must be very old, this stone. And the church +too. I've heard say it was once a Roman Catholic church. Is that true?" + +"Why, of course it's true--all the old churches were, and we were all of +that faith until a King of England had a quarrel with the Pope and +determined he would be Pope himself as well as king in his own country. +So he turned all the priests and monks out, and took their property and +churches and had his own men put in. That was Henry VIII." + +"I've heard something about that king and his wives. But about Lampard, +it do seem strange I've never heard that name before." + +"Not strange at all; it was a common name in this part of Wiltshire in +former days; you find it in dozens of churchyards, but you'll find very +few Lampards living in the villages. Why, I could tell you a dozen or +twenty surnames, some queer, funny names, that were common in these +parts not more than a century ago which seem to have quite died out." + +"I should like to hear some of them if you'll tell me." + +"Let me think a moment: there was Thorr, Pizzie, Gee, Every, Pottle, +Kiddle, Toomer, Shergold, and--" + +Here she interrupted to say that she knew three of the names I had +mentioned. Then, pointing to a small, upright gravestone about twenty +feet away, she added, "And there's one." + +"Very well," I said, "but don't keep putting me out--I've got more names +in my mind to tell you. Maidment, Marchmont, Velvin, Burpitt, Winzur, +Rideout, Cullurne." + +Of these she only knew one--Rideout. + +Then I went over to the stone she had pointed to and read the +inscription to John Toomer and his wife Rebecca. She died first, in +March 1877, aged 72; he in July the same year, aged 75. + +"You knew them, I suppose?" + +"Yes, they belonged here, both of them." + +"Tell me about them." + +"There's nothing to tell; he was only a labourer and worked on the same +farm all his life." + +"Who put a stone over them--their children?" + +"No, they're all poor and live away. I think it was a lady who lived +here; she'd been good to them, and she came and stood here when they put +old John in the ground." + +"But I want to hear more." + +"There's no more, I've said; he was a labourer, and after she died he +died." + +"Yes? go on." + +"How can I go on? There's no more. I knew them so well; they lived in +the little thatched cottage over there, where the Millards live now." + +"Did they fall ill at the same time?" + +"Oh no, he was as well as could be, still at work, till she died, then +he went on in a strange way. He would come in of an evening and call his +wife. 'Mother! Mother, where are you?' you'd hear him call, 'Mother, be +you upstairs? Mother, ain't you coming down for a bit of bread and +cheese before you go to bed?' And then in a little while he just died." + +"And you said there was nothing to tell!" + +"No, there wasn't anything. He was just one of us, a labourer on the +farm." + +I then gave her something, and to my surprise after taking it she made +me an elaborate curtsy. It rather upset me, for I had thought we had got +on very well together and were quite free and easy in our talk, very +much on a level. But she was not done with me yet. She followed to the +gate, and holding out her open hand with that small gift in it, she said +in a pathetic voice, "Did you think, sir, I was expecting this? I had no +such thought and didn't want it." + +And I had no thought of saying or writing a word about her. But since +that day she has haunted me--she and her old John Toomer, and it has +just now occurred to me that by putting her in my book I may be able to +get her out of my mind. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +EARLY MEMORIES + + A child shepherd--Isaac and his children--Shepherding in boyhood--Two + notable sheep-dogs--Jack, the adder-killer--Sitting on an adder--Rough + and the drovers--The Salisbury coach--A sheep-dog suckling a lamb + + +Caleb's shepherding began in childhood; at all events he had his first +experience of it at that time. Many an old shepherd, whose father was +shepherd before him, has told me that he began to go with the flock very +early in life, when he was no more than ten to twelve years of age. +Caleb remembered being put in charge of his father's flock at the tender +age of six. It was a new and wonderful experience, and made so vivid and +lasting an impression on his mind that now, when he is past eighty, he +speaks of it very feelingly as of something which happened yesterday. + +It was harvesting time, and Isaac, who was a good reaper, was wanted in +the field, but he could find no one, not even a boy, to take charge of +his flock in the meantime, and so to be able to reap and keep an eye on +the flock at the same time he brought his sheep down to the part of the +down adjoining the field. It was on his "liberty," or that part of the +down where he was entitled to have his flock. He then took his very +small boy, Caleb, and placing him with the sheep told him they were now +in his charge; that he was not to lose sight of them, and at the same +time not to run about among the furze-bushes for fear of treading on an +adder. By and by the sheep began straying off among the furze-bushes, +and no sooner would they disappear from sight than he imagined they were +lost for ever, or would be unless he quickly found them, and to find +them he had to run about among the bushes with the terror of adders in +his mind, and the two troubles together kept him crying with misery all +the time. Then, at intervals, Isaac would leave his reaping and come to +see how he was getting on, and the tears would vanish from his eyes, and +he would feel very brave again, and to his father's question he would +reply that he was getting on very well. + +Finally his father came and took him to the field, to his great relief; +but he did not carry him in his arms; he strode along at his usual pace +and let the little fellow run after him, stumbling and falling and +picking himself up again and running on. And by and by one of the women +in the field cried out, "Be you not ashamed, Isaac, to go that pace and +not bide for the little child! I do b'lieve he's no more'n seven +year--poor mite!" + +"No more'n six," answered Isaac proudly, with a laugh. + +But though not soft or tender with his children he was very fond of +them, and when he came home early in the evening he would get them round +him and talk to them, and sing old songs and ballads he had learnt in +his young years--"Down in the Village," "The Days of Queen Elizabeth," +"The Blacksmith," "The Gown of Green," "The Dawning of the Day," and +many others, which Caleb in the end got by heart and used to sing, too, +when he was grown up. + +Caleb was about nine when he began to help regularly with the flock; +that was in the summer-time, when the flock was put every day on the +down and when Isaac's services were required for the haymaking and later +for harvesting and other work. His best memories of this period relate +to his mother and to two sheepdogs, Jack at first and afterwards Rough, +both animals of original character. Jack was a great favourite of his +master, who considered him a "tarrable good dog." He was rather +short-haired, like the old Welsh sheepdog once common in Wiltshire, but +entirely black instead of the usual colour--blue with a sprinkling of +black spots. This dog had an intense hatred of adders and never failed +to kill every one he discovered. At the same time he knew that they were +dangerous enemies to tackle, and on catching sight of one his hair would +instantly bristle up, and he would stand as if paralysed for some +moments, glaring at it and gnashing his teeth, then springing like a cat +upon it he would seize it in his mouth, only to hurl it from him to a +distance. This action he would repeat until the adder was dead, and +Isaac would then put it under a furze-bush to take it home and hang it +on a certain gate. The farmer, too, like the dog, hated adders, and paid +his shepherd sixpence for every one his dog killed. + +One day Caleb, with one of his brothers, was out with the flock, amusing +themselves in their usual way on the turf with nine morris-men and the +shepherd's puzzle, when all at once their mother appeared unexpectedly +on the scene. It was her custom, when the boys were sent out with the +flock, to make expeditions to the down just to see what they were up to; +and hiding her approach by keeping to a hedge-side or by means of the +furze-bushes, she would sometimes come upon them with disconcerting +suddenness. On this occasion just where the boys had been playing there +was a low, stout furze-bush, so dense and flat-topped that one could use +it as a seat, and his mother taking off and folding her shawl placed it +on the bush, and sat down on it to rest herself after her long walk. "I +can see her now," said Caleb, "sitting on that furze-bush, in her smock +and leggings, with a big hat like a man's on her head--for that's how +she dressed." But in a few moments she jumped up, crying out that she +felt a snake under her, and snatched off the shawl, and there, sure +enough, out of the middle of the flat bush-top appeared the head of an +adder, flicking out its tongue. The dog, too, saw it, dashed at the +bush, forcing his muzzle and head into the middle of it, seized the +serpent by its body and plucked it out and threw it from him, only to +follow it up and kill it in the usual way. + +Rough was a large, shaggy, grey-blue bobtail bitch with a white collar. +She was a clever, good all-round dog, but had originally been trained +for the road, and one of the shepherd's stories about her relates of her +intelligence in her own special line--the driving of sheep. + +One day he and his smaller brother were in charge of the flock on the +down, and were on the side where it dips down to the turnpike-road about +a mile and a half from the village, where a large flock, driven by two +men and two dogs, came by. They were going to the Britford sheep-fair +and were behind time; Isaac had started at daylight that morning with +sheep for the same fair, and that was the reason of the boys being with +the flock. As the flock on the down was feeding quietly the boys +determined to go to the road to watch the sheep and men pass, and +arriving at the roadside they saw that the dogs were too tired to work +and the men were getting on with great difficulty. One of them, looking +intently at Rough, asked if she would work. "Oh, yes, she'll work," said +the boy proudly, and calling Rough he pointed to the flock moving very +slowly along the road and over the turf on either side of it. Rough knew +what was wanted; she had been looking on and had taken the situation in +with her professional eye; away she dashed, and running up and down, +first on one side then on the other, quickly put the whole flock, +numbering 800, into the road and gave them a good start. + +"Why, she be a road dog!" exclaimed the drover delightedly. "She's +better for me on the road than for you on the down; I'll buy her of +you." + +"No, I mustn't sell her," said Caleb. + +"Look here, boy," said the other, "I'll give 'ee a sovran and this young +dog, an' he'll be a good one with a little more training." + +"No, I mustn't," said Caleb, distressed at the other's persistence. + +"Well, will you come a little way on the road with us?" asked the +drover. + +This the boys agreed to and went on for about a quarter of a mile, when +all at once the Salisbury coach appeared on the road, coming to meet +them. This new trouble was pointed out to Rough, and at once when her +little master had given the order she dashed barking into the midst of +the mass of sheep and drove them furiously to the side from end to end +of the extended flock, making a clear passage for the coach, which was +not delayed a minute. And no sooner was the coach gone than the sheep +were put back into the road. + +Then the drover pulled out his sovereign once more and tried to make the +boy take it. + +"I mustn't," he repeated, almost in tears. "What would father say?" + +"Say! He won't say nothing. He'll think you've done well." + +But Caleb thought that perhaps his father would say something, and when +he remembered certain whippings he had experienced in the past he had an +uncomfortable sensation about his back. "No, I mustn't," was all he +could say, and then the drovers with a laugh went on with their sheep. + +When Isaac came home and the adventure was told to him he laughed and +said that he meant to sell Rough some day. He used to say this +occasionally to tease his wife because of the dog's intense devotion to +her; and she, being without a sense of humour and half thinking that he +meant it, would get up out of her seat and solemnly declare that if he +ever sold Rough she would never again go out to the down to see what the +boys were up to. + +One day she visited the boys when they had the flock near the turnpike, +and seating herself on the turf a few yards from the road got out her +work and began sewing. Presently they spied a big, singular-looking man +coming at a swinging pace along the road. He was in shirt-sleeves, +barefooted, and wore a straw hat without a rim. Rough eyed the strange +being's approach with suspicion, and going to her mistress placed +herself at her side. The man came up and sat down at a distance of three +or four yards from the group, and Rough, looking dangerous, started up +and put her forepaws on her mistress's lap and began uttering a low +growl. + +"Will that dog bite, missus?" said the man. + +"Maybe he will," said she. "I won't answer for he if you come any +nearer." + +The two boys had been occupied cutting a faggot from a furze-bush with a +bill-hook, and now held a whispered consultation as to what they would +do if the man tried to "hurt mother," and agreed that as soon as Rough +had got her teeth in his leg they would attack him about the head with +the bill-hook. They were not required to go into action; the stranger +could not long endure Rough's savage aspect, and very soon he got up and +resumed his travels. + +The shepherd remembered another curious incident in Rough's career. At +one time when she had a litter of pups at home she was yet compelled to +be a great part of the day with the flock of ewes as they could not do +without her. The boys just then were bringing up a motherless lamb by +hand and they would put it with the sheep, and to feed it during the day +were obliged to catch a ewe with milk. The lamb trotted at Caleb's heels +like a dog, and one day when it was hungry and crying to be fed, when +Rough happened to be sitting on her haunches close by, it occurred to +him that Rough's milk might serve as well as a sheep's. The lamb was put +to her and took very kindly to its canine foster-mother, wriggling its +tail and pushing vigorously with its nose. Rough submitted patiently to +the trial, and the result was that the lamb adopted the sheep-dog as its +mother and sucked her milk several times every day, to the great +admiration of all who witnessed it. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +SHEPHERD ISAAC BAWCOMBE + + A noble shepherd--A fighting village blacksmith--Old Joe the collier--A + story of his strength--Donkeys poisoned by yew--The shepherd without his + sheep--How the shepherd killed a deer + + +To me the most interesting of Caleb's old memories were those relating +to his father, partly on account of the man's fine character, and partly +because they went so far back, beginning in the early years of the last +century. + +Altogether he must have been a very fine specimen of a man, both +physically and morally. In Caleb's mind he was undoubtedly the first +among men morally, but there were two other men supposed to be his +equals in bodily strength, one a native of the village, the other a +periodical visitor. The first was Jarvis the blacksmith, a man of an +immense chest and big arms, one of Isaac's greatest friends, and very +good-tempered except when in his cups, for he did occasionally get +drunk, and then he quarrelled with anyone and every one. + +One afternoon he had made himself quite tipsy at the inn, and when going +home, swaying about and walking all over the road, he all at once caught +sight of the big shepherd coming soberly on behind. No sooner did he see +him than it occurred to his wild and muddled mind that he had a quarrel +with this very man, Shepherd Isaac, a quarrel of so pressing a nature +that there was nothing to do but to fight it out there and then. He +planted himself before the shepherd and challenged him to fight. Isaac +smiled and said nothing. + +"I'll fight thee about this," he repeated, and began tugging at his +coat, and after getting it off again made up to Isaac, who still smiled +and said no word. Then he pulled his waistcoat off, and finally his +shirt, and with nothing but his boots and breeches on once more squared +up to Isaac and threw himself into his best fighting attitude. + +"I doan't want to fight thee," said Isaac at length, "but I be thinking +'twould be best to take thee home." And suddenly dashing in he seized +Jarvis round the waist with one arm, grasped him round the legs with the +other, and flung the big man across his shoulder, and carried him off, +struggling and shouting, to his cottage. There at the door, pale and +distressed, stood the poor wife waiting for her lord, when Isaac +arrived, and going straight in dropped the smith down on his own floor, +and with the remark, "Here be your man," walked off to his cottage and +his tea. + +The other powerful man was Old Joe the collier, who flourished and was +known in every village in the Salisbury Plain district during the first +thirty-five years of the last century. I first heard of this once famous +man from Caleb, whose boyish imagination had been affected by his +gigantic figure, mighty voice, and his wandering life over all that wide +world of Salisbury Plain. Afterwards when I became acquainted with a +good many old men, aged from 75 to 90 and upwards, I found that Old +Joe's memory is still green in a good many villages of the district, +from the upper waters of the Avon to the borders of Dorset. But it is +only these ancients who knew him that keep it green; by and by when they +are gone Old Joe and his neddies will be remembered no more. + +In those days--down to about 1840, it was customary to burn peat in the +cottages, the first cost of which was about four and sixpence the +wagon-load--as much as I should require to keep me warm for a month in +winter; but the cost of its conveyance to the villages of the Plain was +about five to six shillings per load, as it came from a considerable +distance, mostly from the New Forest. How the labourers at that time, +when they were paid seven or eight shillings a week, could afford to buy +fuel at such prices to bake their rye bread and keep the frost out of +their bones is a marvel to us. Isaac was a good deal better off than +most of the villagers in this respect, as his master--for he never had +but one--allowed him the use of a wagon and the driver's services for +the conveyance of one load of peat each year. The wagon-load of peat and +another of faggots lasted him the year with the furze obtained from his +"liberty" on the down. Coal at that time was only used by the +blacksmiths in the villages, and was conveyed in sacks on ponies or +donkeys, and of those who were engaged in this business the best known +was Old Joe. He appeared periodically in the villages with his eight +donkeys, or neddies as he called them, with jingling bells on their +headstalls and their burdens of two sacks of small coal on each. In +stature he was a giant of about six feet three, very broad-chested, and +invariably wore a broad-brimmed hat, a slate-coloured smock-frock, and +blue worsted stockings to his knees. He walked behind the donkeys, a +very long staff in his hand, shouting at them from time to time, and +occasionally swinging his long staff and bringing it down on the back of +a donkey who was not keeping up the pace. In this way he wandered from +village to village from end to end of the Plain, getting rid of his +small coal and loading his animals with scrap iron which the blacksmiths +would keep for him, and as he continued his rounds for nearly forty +years he was a familiar figure to every inhabitant throughout the +district. + +There are some stories still told of his great strength, one of which is +worth giving. He was a man of iron constitution and gave himself a hard +life, and he was hard on his neddies, but he had to feed them well, and +this he often contrived to do at some one else's expense. One night at a +village on the Wylye it was discovered that he had put his eight donkeys +in a meadow in which the grass was just ripe for mowing. The enraged +farmer took them to the village pound and locked them up, but in the +morning the donkeys and Joe with them had vanished and the whole village +wondered how he had done it. The stone wall of the pound was four feet +and a half high and the iron gate was locked, yet he had lifted the +donkeys up and put them over and had loaded them and gone before anyone +was up. + +Once Joe met with a very great misfortune. He arrived late at a village, +and finding there was good feed in the churchyard and that everybody was +in bed, he put his donkeys in and stretched himself out among the +gravestones to sleep. He had no nerves and no imagination; and was +tired, and slept very soundly until it was light and time to put his +neddies out before any person came by and discovered that he had been +making free with the rector's grass. Glancing round he could see no +donkeys, and only when he stood up he found they had not made their +escape but were there all about him, lying among the gravestones, stone +dead every one! He had forgotten that a churchyard was a dangerous place +to put hungry animals in. They had browsed on the luxuriant yew that +grew there, and this was the result. + +In time he recovered from his loss and replaced his dead neddies with +others, and continued for many years longer on his rounds. + +To return to Isaac Bawcombe. He was born, we have seen, in 1800, and +began following a flock as a boy and continued as shepherd on the same +farm for a period of fifty-five years. The care of sheep was the one +all-absorbing occupation of his life, and how much it was to him appears +in this anecdote of his state of mind when he was deprived of it for a +time. The flock was sold and Isaac was left without sheep, and with +little to do except to wait from Michaelmas to Candlemas, when there +would be sheep again at the farm. It was a long time to Isaac, and he +found his enforced holiday so tedious that he made himself a nuisance to +his wife in the house. Forty times a day he would throw off his hat and +sit down, resolved to be happy at his own fireside, but after a few +minutes the desire to be up and doing would return, and up he would get +and out he would go again. One dark cloudy evening a man from the farm +put his head in at the door. "Isaac," he said, "there be sheep for 'ee +up't the farm--two hunderd ewes and a hunderd more to come in dree days. +Master, he sent I to say you be wanted." And away the man went. + +Isaac jumped up and hurried forth without taking his crook from the +corner and actually without putting on his hat! His wife called out +after him, and getting no response sent the boy with his hat to overtake +him. But the little fellow soon returned with the hat--he could not +overtake his father! + +He was away three or four hours at the farm, then returned, his hair +very wet, his face beaming, and sat down with a great sigh of pleasure. +"Two hunderd ewes," he said, "and a hunderd more to come--what d'you +think of that?" + +"Well, Isaac," said she, "I hope thee'll be happy now and let I alone." + +After all that had been told to me about the elder Bawcombe's life and +character, it came somewhat as a shock to learn that at one period +during his early manhood he had indulged in one form of poaching--a +sport which had a marvellous fascination for the people of England in +former times, but was pretty well extinguished during the first quarter +of the last century. Deer he had taken; and the whole tale of the +deer-stealing, which was a common offence in that part of Wiltshire down +to about 1834, sounds strange at the present day. + +Large herds of deer were kept at that time at an estate a few miles from +Winterbourne Bishop, and it often happened that many of the animals +broke bounds and roamed singly and in small bands over the hills. When +deer were observed in the open, certain of the villagers would settle on +some plan of action; watchers would be sent out not only to keep an eye +on the deer but on the keepers too. Much depended on the state of the +weather and the moon, as some light was necessary; then, when the +conditions were favourable and the keepers had been watched to their +cottages, the gang would go out for a night's hunting. But it was a +dangerous sport, as the keepers also knew that deer were out of bounds, +and they would form some counter-plan, and one peculiarly nasty plan +they had was to go out about three or four o'clock in the morning and +secrete themselves somewhere close to the village to intercept the +poachers on their return. + +Bawcombe, who never in his life associated with the village idlers and +frequenters of the alehouse, had no connexion with these men. His +expeditions were made alone on some dark, unpromising night, when the +regular poachers were in bed and asleep. He would steal away after +bedtime, or would go out ostensibly to look after the sheep, and, if +fortunate, would return in the small hours with a deer on his back. +Then, helped by his mother, with whom he lived (for this was when he was +a young unmarried man, about 1820), he would quickly skin and cut up the +carcass, stow the meat away in some secret place, and bury the head, +hide, and offal deep in the earth; and when morning came it would find +Isaac out following his flock as usual, with no trace of guilt or +fatigue in his rosy cheeks and clear, honest eyes. + +This was a very astonishing story to hear from Caleb, but to suspect him +of inventing or of exaggerating was impossible to anyone who knew him. +And we have seen that Isaac Bawcombe was an exceptional man--physically +a kind of Alexander Selkirk of the Wiltshire Downs. And he, moreover, +had a dog to help him--one as superior in speed and strength to the +ordinary sheep-dog as he himself was to the rack of his fellow-men. It +was only after much questioning on my part that Caleb brought himself to +tell me of these ancient adventures, and finally to give a detailed +account of how his father came to take his first deer. It was in the +depth of winter--bitterly cold, with a strong north wind blowing on the +snow-covered downs--when one evening Isaac caught sight of two deer out +on his sheep-walk. In that part of Wiltshire there is a famous monument +of antiquity, a vast mound-like wall, with a deep depression or fosse +running at its side. Now it happened that on the highest part of the +down, where the wall or mound was most exposed to the blast, the snow +had been blown clean off the top, and the deer were feeding here on the +short turf, keeping to the ridge, so that, outlined against the sky, +they had become visible to Isaac at a great distance. + +He saw and pondered. These deer, just now, while out of bounds, were no +man's property, and it would be no sin to kill and eat one--if he could +catch it!--and it was a season of bitter want. For many many days he had +eaten his barley bread, and on some days barley-flour dumplings, and had +been content with this poor fare; but now the sight of these animals +made him crave for meat with an intolerable craving, and he determined +to do something to satisfy it. + +He went home and had his poor supper, and when it was dark set forth +again with his dog. He found the deer still feeding on the mound. +Stealing softly along among the furze-bushes, he got the black line of +the mound against the starry sky, and by and by, as he moved along, the +black figures of the deer, with their heads down, came into view. He +then doubled back and, proceeding some distance, got down into the fosse +and stole forward to them again under the wall. His idea was that on +taking alarm they would immediately make for the forest which was their +home, and would probably pass near him. They did not hear him until he +was within sixty yards, and then bounded down from the wall, over the +dyke, and away, but in almost opposite directions--one alone making for +the forest; and on this one the dog was set. Out he shot like an arrow +from the bow, and after him ran Isaac "as he had never runned afore in +all his life." For a short space deer and dog in hot pursuit were +visible on the snow, then the darkness swallowed them up as they rushed +down the slope; but in less than half a minute a sound came back to +Isaac, flying, too, down the incline--the long, wailing cry of a deer in +distress. The dog had seized his quarry by one of the front legs, a +little above the hoof, and held it fast, and they were struggling on the +snow when Isaac came up and flung himself upon his victim, then thrust +his knife through its windpipe "to stop its noise." Having killed it, he +threw it on his back and went home, not by the turnpike, nor by any road +or path, but over fields and through copses until he got to the back of +his mother's cottage. There was no door on that side, but there was a +window, and when he had rapped at it and his mother opened it, without +speaking a word he thrust the dead deer through, then made his way round +to the front. + +That was how he killed his first deer. How the others were taken I do +not know; I wish I did, since this one exploit of a Wiltshire shepherd +has more interest for me than I find in fifty narratives of elephants +slaughtered wholesale with explosive bullets, written for the delight +and astonishment of the reading public by our most glorious Nimrods. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +THE DEER-STEALERS + + Deer-stealing on Salisbury Plain--The head-keeper Harbutt--Strange + story of a baby--Found as a surname--John Barter the village + carpenter--How the keeper was fooled--A poaching attack planned--The + fight--Head-keeper and carpenter--The carpenter hides his son--The + arrest--Barter's sons forsake the village + + +There were other memories of deer-taking handed down to Caleb by his +parents, and the one best worth preserving relates to the head-keeper of +the preserves, or chase, and to a great fight in which he was engaged +with two brothers of the girl who was afterwards to be Isaac's wife. + +Here it may be necessary to explain that formerly the owner of +Cranbourne Chase, at that time Lord Rivers, claimed the deer and the +right to preserve and hunt deer over a considerable extent of country +outside of his own lands. On the Wiltshire side these rights extended +from Cranbourne Chase over the South Wiltshire Downs to Salisbury, and +the whole territory, about thirty miles broad, was divided into beats or +walks, six or eight in number, each beat provided with a keeper's lodge. +This state of things continued to the year 1834, when the chase was +"disfranchised" by Act of Parliament. + +The incident I am going to relate occurred about 1815 or perhaps two or +three years later. The border of one of the deer walks was at a spot +known as Three Downs Place, two miles and a half from Winterbourne +Bishop. Here in a hollow of the downs there was an extensive wood, and +just within the wood a large stone house, said to be centuries old but +long pulled down, called Rollston House, in which the head-keeper lived +with two under-keepers. He had a wife but no children, and was a +middle-aged, thick-set, very dark man, powerful and vigilant, a +"tarrable" hater and persecutor of poachers, feared and hated by them in +turn, and his name was Harbutt. + +It happened that one morning, when he had unbarred the front door to go +out, he found a great difficulty in opening it, caused by a heavy object +having been fastened to the door-handle. It proved to be a basket or +box, in which a well-nourished, nice-looking boy baby was sleeping, well +wrapped up and covered with a cloth. On the cloth a scrap of paper was +pinned with the following lines written on it: + + Take me in and treat me well, + For in this house my father dwell. + + +Harbutt read the lines and didn't even smile at the grammar; on the +contrary, he appeared very much upset, and was still standing holding +the paper, staring stupidly at it, when his wife came on the scene. +"What be this?" she exclaimed, and looked first at the paper, then at +him, then at the rosy child fast asleep in its cradle; and instantly, +with a great cry, she fell on it and snatched it up in her arms, and +holding it clasped to her bosom, began lavishing caresses and endearing +expressions on it, tears of rapture in her eyes! Not one word of inquiry +or bitter, jealous reproach--all that part of her was swallowed up and +annihilated in the joy of a woman who had been denied a child of her own +to love and nourish and worship. And now one had come to her and it +mattered little how. Two or three days later the infant was baptized at +the village church with the quaint name of Moses Found. + +Caleb was a little surprised at my thinking it a laughable name. It was +to his mind a singularly appropriate one; he assured me it was not the +only case he knew of in which the surname Found had been bestowed on a +child of unknown parentage, and he told me the story of one of the +Founds who had gone to Salisbury as a boy and worked and saved and +eventually become quite a prosperous and important person. There was +really nothing funny in it. + +The story of Moses Found had been told him by his old mother; she, he +remarked significantly, had good cause to remember it. She was herself a +native of the village, born two or three years later than the mysterious +Moses; her father, John Barter by name was a carpenter and lived in an +old, thatched house which still exists and is very familiar to me. He +had five sons; then, after an interval of some years, a daughter was +born, who in due time was to be Isaac's wife. When she was a little girl +her brothers were all grown up or on the verge of manhood, and Moses, +too, was a young man--"the spit of his father" people said, meaning the +head-keeper--and he was now one of Harbutt's under-keepers. + +About this time some of the more ardent spirits in the village, not +satisfied with an occasional hunt when a deer broke out and roamed over +the downs, took to poaching them in the woods. One night, a hunt having +been arranged, one of the most daring of the men secreted himself close +to the keeper's house, and having watched the keepers go in and the +lights put out, he actually succeeded in fastening up the doors from the +outside with screws and pieces of wood without creating an alarm. He +then met his confederates at an agreed spot and the hunting began, +during which one deer was chased to the house and actually pulled down +and killed on the lawn. + +Meanwhile the inmates were in a state of great excitement; the +under-keepers feared that a force it would be dangerous to oppose had +taken possession of the woods, while Harbutt raved and roared like a +maddened wild beast in a cage, and put forth all his strength to pull +the doors open. Finally he smashed a window and leaped out, gun in hand, +and calling the others to follow rushed into the wood. But he was too +late; the hunt was over and the poachers had made good their escape, +taking the carcasses of two or three deer they had succeeded in killing. + +The keeper was not to be fooled in the same way a second time, and +before very long he had his revenge. A fresh raid was planned, and on +this occasion two of the five brothers were in it, and there were four +more, the blacksmith of Winterbourne Bishop, their best man, two famous +shearers, father and son, from a neighbouring village, and a young farm +labourer. + +They knew very well that with the head-keeper in his present frame of +mind it was a risky affair, and they made a solemn compact that if +caught they would stand by one another to the end. And caught they were, +and on this occasion the keepers were four. + +At the very beginning the blacksmith, their ablest man and virtual +leader, was knocked down senseless with a blow on his head with the butt +end of a gun. Immediately on seeing this the two famous shearers took to +their heels and the young labourer followed their example. The brothers +were left but refused to be taken, although Harbutt roared at them in +his bull's voice that he would shoot them unless they surrendered. They +made light of his threats and fought against the four, and eventually +were separated. By and by the younger of the two was driven into a +brambly thicket where his opponents imagined that it would be impossible +for him to escape. But he was a youth of indomitable spirit, strong and +agile as a wild cat; and returning blow for blow he succeeded in tearing +himself from them, then after a running fight through the darkest part +of the wood for a distance of two or three hundred yards they at length +lost him or gave him up and went back to assist Harbutt and Moses +against the other man. Left to himself he got out of the wood and made +his way back to the village. It was long past midnight when he turned up +at his father's cottage, a pitiable object covered with mud and blood, +hatless, his clothes torn to shreds, his face and whole body covered +with bruises and bleeding wounds. + +The old man was in a great state of distress about his other son, and +early in the morning went to examine the ground where the fight had +been. It was only too easily found; the sod was trampled down and +branches broken as though a score of men had been engaged. Then he found +his eldest son's cap, and a little farther away a sleeve of his coat; +shreds and rags were numerous on the bramble bushes, and by and by he +came on a pool of blood. "They've kill 'n!" he cried in despair, +"they've killed my poor boy!" and straight to Rollston House he went to +inquire, and was met by Harbutt himself, who came out limping, one boot +on, the other foot bound up with rags, one arm in a sling and a cloth +tied round his head. He was told that his son was alive and safe indoors +and that he would be taken to Salisbury later in the day. "His clothes +be all torn to pieces," added the keeper. "You can just go home at once +and git him others before the constable comes to take him." + +"You've tored them to pieces yourself and you can git him others," +retorted the old man in a rage. + +"Very well," said the keeper. "But bide a moment--I've something more +to say to you. When your son comes out of jail in a year or so you tell +him from me that if he'll just step up this way I'll give him five +shillings and as much beer as he likes to drink. I never see'd a better +fighter!" + +It was a great compliment to his son, but the old men was troubled in +his mind. "What dost mean, keeper, by a year or so?" he asked. + +"When I said that," returned the other, with a grin, "I was just +thinking what 'twould be he deserves to git." + +"And you'd agot your deserts, by God," cried the angry father, "if that +boy of mine hadn't a-been left alone to fight ye!" + +Harbutt regarded him with a smile of gratified malice. + +"You can go home now," he said. "If you'd see your son you'll find'n in +Salisbury jail. Maybe you'll be wanting new locks on your doors; you can +git they in Salisbury too--you've no blacksmith in your village now. No, +your boy weren't alone and you know that damned well." + +"I know naught about that," he returned, and started to walk home with a +heavy heart. Until now he had been clinging to the hope that the other +son had not been identified in the dark wood. And now what could he do +to save one of the two from hateful imprisonment? The boy was not in a +fit condition to make his escape; he could hardly get across the room +and could not sit or lie down without groaning. He could only try to +hide him in the cottage and pray that they would not discover him. The +cottage was in the middle of the village and had but little ground to +it, but there was a small, boarded-up cavity or cell at one end of an +attic, and it might be possible to save him by putting him in there. +Here, then, in a bed placed for him on the floor, his bruised son was +obliged to lie, in the close, dark hole, for some days. + +One day, about a week later, when he was recovering from his hurts, he +crawled out of his box and climbed down the narrow stairs to the ground +floor to see the light and breathe a better air for a short time, and +while down he was tempted to take a peep at the street through the +small, latticed window. But he quickly withdrew his head and by and by +said to his father, "I'm feared Moses has seen me. Just now when I was +at the window he came by and looked up and see'd me with my head all +tied up, and I'm feared he knew 'twas I." + +After that they could only wait in fear and trembling, and on the next +day quite early there came a loud rap at the door, and on its being +opened by the old man the constable and two keepers appeared standing +before him. + +"I've come to take your son," said the constable. + +The old man stepped back without a word and took down his gun from its +place on the wall, then spoke: "It you've got a search-warrant you may +come in; if you haven't got 'n I'll blow the brains out of the first man +that puts a foot inside my door." + +They hesitated a few moments then silently withdrew. After consulting +together the constable went off to the nearest magistrate, leaving the +two keepers to keep watch on the house: Moses Found was one of them. +Later in the day the constable returned armed with a warrant and was +thereupon admitted, with the result that the poor youth was soon +discovered in his hiding-place and carried off. And that was the last he +saw of his home, his young sister crying bitterly and his old father +white and trembling with grief and impotent rage. + +A month or two later the two brothers were tried and sentenced each to +six months' imprisonment. They never came home. On their release they +went to Woolwich, where men were wanted and the pay was good. And by and +by the accounts they sent home induced first one then the other brother +to go and join them, and the poor old father, who had been very proud of +his five sons, was left alone with his young daughter--Isaac's destined +wife. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +SHEPHERDS AND POACHING + + General remarks on poaching--Farmer, shepherd, and dog--A sheep-dog + that would not hunt--Taking a partridge from a hawk--Old Gaarge and + Young Gaarge--Partridge-poaching--The shepherd robbed of his + rabbits--Wisdom of Shepherd Gathergood--Hare-trapping on the + down--Hare-taking with a crook + + +When Caleb was at length free from his father's tutelage, and as an +under-shepherd practically independent, he did not follow Isaac's strict +example with regard to wild animals, good for the pot, which came by +chance in his way; he even allowed himself to go a little out of his way +on occasion to get them. + +We know that about this matter the law of the land does not square with +the moral law as it is written in the heart of the peasant. A wounded +partridge or other bird which he finds in his walks abroad or which +comes by chance to him is his by a natural right, and he will take and +eat or dispose of it without scruple. With rabbits he is very free--he +doesn't wait to find a distressed one with a stoat on its track--stoats +are not sufficiently abundant; and a hare, too, may be picked up at any +moment; only in this case he must be very sure that no one is looking. +Knowing the law, and being perhaps a respectable, religious person, he +is anxious to abstain from all appearance of evil. This taking a hare or +rabbit or wounded partridge is in his mind a very different thing from +systematic poaching; but he is aware that to the classes above him it is +not so--the law has made them one. It is a hard, arbitrary, unnatural +law, made by and for them, his betters, and outwardly he must conform to +it. Thus you will find the best of men among the shepherds and labourers +freely helping themselves to any wild creature that falls in their way, +yet sharing the game-preserver's hatred of the real poacher. The village +poacher as a rule is an idle, dissolute fellow, and the sober, +industrious, righteous shepherd or ploughman or carter does not like to +be put on a level with such a person. But there is no escape from the +hard and fast rule in such things, and however open and truthful he may +be in everything else, in this one matter he is obliged to practise a +certain amount of deception. Here is a case to serve as an illustration; +I have only just heard it, after putting together the material I had +collected for this chapter, in conversation with an old shepherd friend +of mine. + +He is a fine old man who has followed a flock these fifty years, and +will, I have no doubt, carry his crook for yet another ten. Not only is +he a "good shepherd," in the sense in which Caleb uses that phrase, with +a more intimate knowledge of sheep and all the ailments they are subject +to than I have found in any other, but he is also a truly religious man, +one that "walks with God." He told me this story of a sheep-dog he owned +when head-shepherd on a large farm on the Dorsetshire border with a +master whose chief delight in life was in coursing hares. They abounded +on his land, and he naturally wanted the men employed on the farm to +regard them as sacred animals. One day he came out to the shepherd to +complain that some one had seen his dog hunting a hare. + +The shepherd indignantly asked who had said such a thing. + +"Never mind about that," said the farmer. "Is it true?" + +"It is a lie," said the shepherd. "My dog never hunts a hare or anything +else. 'Tis my belief the one that said that has got a dog himself that +hunts the hares and he wants to put the blame on some one else." + +"May be so," said the farmer, unconvinced. + +Just then a hare made its appearance, coming across the field directly +towards them, and either because they never moved or it did not smell +them it came on and on, stopping at intervals to sit for a minute or so +on its haunches, then on again until it was within forty yards of where +they were standing. The farmer watched it approach and at the same time +kept an eye on the dog sitting at their feet and watching the hare too, +very steadily. "Now, shepherd," said the farmer, "don't you say one word +to the dog and I'll see for myself." Not a word did he say, and the hare +came and sat for some seconds near them, then limped away out of sight, +and the dog made not the slightest movement. "That's all right," said +the farmer, well pleased. "I know now 'twas a lie I heard about your +dog. I've seen for myself and I'll just keep a sharp eye on the man that +told me." + +My comment on this story was that the farmer had displayed an almost +incredible ignorance of a sheepdog--and a shepherd. "How would it have +been if you had said, 'Catch him, Bob,' or whatever his name was?" I +asked. + +He looked at me with a twinkle in his eye and replied, "I do b'lieve +he'd ha' got 'n, but he'd never move till I told 'n." + +It comes to this: the shepherd refuses to believe that by taking a hare +he is robbing any man of his property, and if he is obliged to tell a +lie to save himself from the consequences he does not consider that it +is a lie. + +When he understood that I was on his side in this question, he told me +about a good sheep-dog he once possessed which he had to get rid of +because he would not take a hare! + +A dog when broken is made to distinguish between the things he must and +must not do. He is "feelingly persuaded" by kind words and caresses in +one case and hard words and hard blows in the other. He learns that if +he hunts hares and rabbits it will be very bad for him, and in due time, +after some suffering, he is able to overcome this strongest instinct of +a dog. He acquires an artificial conscience. Then, when his education is +finished, he must be made to understand that it is not quite finished +after all--that he must partially unlearn one of the saddest of the +lessons instilled in him. He must hunt a hare or rabbit when told by his +master to do so. It is a compact between man and dog. Thus, they have +got a law which the dog has sworn to obey; but the man who made it is +above the law and can when he thinks proper command his servant to break +it. The dog, as a rule, takes it all in very readily and often allows +himself more liberty than his master gives him; the most highly +accomplished animal is one that, like my shepherd's dog in the former +instance, will not stir till he is told. In the other case the poor +brute could not rise to the position; it was too complex for him, and +when ordered to catch a rabbit he could only put his tail between his +legs and look in a puzzled way at his master. "Why do you tell me to do +a thing for which I shall be thrashed?" + +It was only after Caleb had known me some time, when we were fast +friends, that he talked with perfect freedom of these things and told me +of his own small, illicit takings without excuse or explanation. + +One day he saw a sparrowhawk dash down upon a running partridge and +struggle with it on the ground. It was in a grass field, divided from +the one he was walking in by a large, unkept hedge without a gap in it +to let him through. Presently the hawk rose up with the partridge still +violently struggling in its talons, and flew over the hedge to Caleb's +side, but was no sooner over than it came down again and the struggle +went on once more on the ground. On Caleb running to the spot the hawk +flew off, leaving his prey behind. He had grasped it in its sides, +driving his sharp claws well in, and the partridge, though unable to +fly, was still alive. The shepherd killed it and put it in his pocket, +and enjoyed it very much when he came to eat it. + +From this case, a most innocent form of poaching, he went on to relate +how he had once been able to deprive a cunning poacher and bad man, a +human sparrowhawk, of his quarry. + +There were two persons in the village, father and son, he very heartily +detested, known respectively as Old Gaarge and Young Gaarge, inveterate +poachers both. They were worse than the real reprobate who haunted the +public-house and did no work and was not ashamed of his evil ways, for +these two were hypocrites and were outwardly sober, righteous men, who +kept themselves a little apart from their neighbours and were very +severe in their condemnation of other people's faults. + +One Sunday morning Caleb was on his way to his ewes folded at a distance +from the village, walking by a hedgerow at the foot of the down, when he +heard a shot fired some way ahead, and after a minute or two a second +shot. This greatly excited his curiosity and caused him to keep a sharp +look-out in the direction the sounds had come from, and by and by he +caught sight of a man walking towards him. It was Old Gaarge in his long +smock-frock, proceeding in a leisurely way towards the village, but +catching sight of the shepherd he turned aside through a gap in the +hedge and went off in another direction to avoid meeting him. No doubt, +thought Caleb, he has got his gun in two pieces hidden under his smock. +He went on until he came to a small field of oats which had grown badly +and had only been half reaped, and here he discovered that Old Gaarge +had been lying in hiding to shoot at the partridges that came to feed. +He had been screened from the sight of the birds by a couple of hurdles +and some straw, and there were feathers of the birds he had shot +scattered about. He had finished his Sunday morning's sport and was +going back, a little too late on this occasion as it turned out. + +Caleb went on to his flock, but before getting to it his dog discovered +a dead partridge in the hedge; it had flown that far and then dropped, +and there was fresh blood on its feathers. He put it in his pocket and +carried it about most of the day while with his sheep on the down. Late +in the afternoon he spied two magpies pecking at something out in the +middle of a field and went to see what they had found. It was a second +partridge which Old Gaarge had shot in the morning and had lost, the +bird having flown to some distance before dropping. The magpies had +probably found it already dead, as it was cold; they had begun tearing +the skin at the neck and had opened it down to the breast-bone. Caleb +took this bird, too, and by and by, sitting down to examine it, he +thought he would try to mend the torn skin with the needle and thread he +always carried inside his cap. He succeeded in stitching it neatly up, +and putting back the feathers in their place the rent was quite +concealed. That evening he took the two birds to a man in the village +who made a livelihood by collecting bones, rags, and things of that +kind; the man took the birds in his hand, held them up, felt their +weight, examined them carefully, and pronounced them to be two good, fat +birds, and agreed to pay two shillings for them. + +Such a man may be found in most villages; he calls himself a "general +dealer," and keeps a trap and pony--in some cases he keeps the +ale-house--and is a useful member of the small, rural community--a sort +of human carrion-crow. + +The two shillings were very welcome, but more than the money was the +pleasing thought that he had got the bird shot by the hypocritical old +poacher for his own profit. Caleb had good cause to hate him. He, Caleb, +was one of the shepherds who had his master's permission to take rabbits +on the land, and having found his snares broken on many occasions he +came to the conclusion that they were visited in the night time by some +very cunning person who kept a watch on his movements. One evening he +set five snares in a turnip field and went just before daylight next +morning in a dense fog to visit them. Every one was broken! He had just +started on his way back, feeling angry and much puzzled at such a thing, +when the fog all at once passed away and revealed the figures of two men +walking hurriedly off over the down. They were at a considerable +distance, but the light was now strong enough to enable him to identify +Old Gaarge and Young Gaarge. In a few moments they vanished over the +brow. Caleb was mad at being deprived of his rabbits in this mean way, +but pleased at the same time in having discovered who the culprits were; +but what to do about it he did not know. + +On the following day he was with his flock on the down and found himself +near another shepherd, also with his sheep, one he knew very well, a +quiet but knowing old man named Joseph Gathergood. He was known to be a +skilful rabbit-catcher, and Caleb thought he would go over to him and +tell him about how he was being tricked by the two Gaarges and ask him +what to do in the matter. + +The old man was very friendly and at once told him what to do. "Don't +you set no more snares by the hedges and in the turmots," he said. "Set +them out on the open down where no one would go after rabbits and +they'll not find the snares." And this was how it had to be done. First +he was to scrape the ground with the heel of his boot until the fresh +earth could be seen through the broken turf; then he was to sprinkle a +little rabbit scent on the scraped spot, and plant his snare. The scent +and smell of the fresh earth combined would draw the rabbits to the +spot; they would go there to scratch and would inevitably get caught if +the snare was properly placed. + +Caleb tried this plan with one snare, and on the following morning found +that he had a rabbit. He set it again that evening, then again, until he +had caught five rabbits on five consecutive nights, all with the same +snare. That convinced him that he had been taught a valuable lesson and +that old Gathergood was a very wise man about rabbits; and he was very +happy to think that he had got the better of his two sneaking enemies. + +But Shepherd Gathergood was just as wise about hares, and, as in the +other case, he took them out on the down in the most open places. His +success was due to his knowledge of the hare's taste for blackthorn +twigs. He would take a good, strong blackthorn stem or shoot with twigs +on it, and stick it firmly down in the middle of a large grass field or +on the open down, and place the steel trap tied to the stick at a +distance of a foot or so from it, the trap concealed under grass or moss +and dead leaves. The smell of the blackthorn would draw the hare to the +spot, and he would move round and round nibbling the twigs until caught. + +Caleb never tried this plan, but was convinced that Gathergood was right +about it. + +He told me of another shepherd who was clever at taking hares in another +way, and who was often chaffed by his acquaintances on account of the +extraordinary length of his shepherd's crook. It was like a lance or +pole, being twice the usual length. But he had a use for it. This +shepherd used to make hares' forms on the downs in all suitable places, +forming them so cunningly that no one seeing them by chance would have +believed they were the work of human hands. The hares certainly made use +of them. When out with his flock he would visit these forms, walking +quietly past them at a distance of twenty to thirty feet, his dog +following at his heels. On catching sight of a hare crouching in a form +he would drop a word, and the dog would instantly stand still and remain +fixed and motionless, while the shepherd went on but in a circle so as +gradually to approach the form. Meanwhile the hare would keep his eyes +fixed on the dog, paying no attention to the man, until by and by the +long staff would be swung round and a blow descend on the poor, silly +head from the opposite side, and if the blow was not powerful enough to +stun or disable the hare, the dog would have it before it got many yards +from the cosy nest prepared for its destruction. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +THE SHEPHERD ON FOXES + + A fox-trapping shepherd--Gamekeepers and foxes--Fox and stoat--A + gamekeeper off his guard--Pheasants and foxes--Caleb kills a fox--A + fox-hunting sheep-dog--Two varieties of foxes--Rabbits playing with + little foxes--How to expel foxes--A playful spirit in the + fox--Fox-hunting a danger to sheep + + +Caleb related that his friend Shepherd Gathergood was a great fox-killer +and, as with hares, he took them in a way of his own. He said that the +fox will always go to a heap of ashes in any open place, and his plan +was to place a steel trap concealed among the ashes, made fast to a +stick about three feet high, firmly planted in the middle of the heap, +with a piece of strong-smelling cheese tied to the top. The two +attractions of an ash-heap and the smell of strong cheese was more than +any fox could resist. When he caught a fox he killed and buried it on +the down and said "nothing to nobody" about it. He killed them to +protect himself from their depredations; foxes, like Old Gaarge and his +son in Caleb's case, went round at night to rob him of the rabbits he +took in his snares. + +Caleb never blamed him for this; on the contrary, he greatly admired him +for his courage, seeing that if it had been found out he would have been +a marked man. It was perhaps intelligence or cunning rather than +courage; he did not believe that he would be found out, and he never +was; he told Caleb of these things because he was sure of his man. Those +who were interested in the hunt never suspected him, and as to +gamekeepers, they hardly counted. He was helping them; no one hates a +fox more than they do. The farmer gets compensation for damage, and the +hen-wife is paid for her stolen chickens by the hunt, The keeper is +required to look after the game, and at the same time to spare his chief +enemy, the fox. Indeed, the keeper's state of mind with regard to foxes +has always been a source of amusement to me, and by long practice I am +able to talk to him on that delicate subject in a way to make him +uncomfortable and self-contradictory. There are various, quite innocent +questions which the student of wild life may put to a keeper about foxes +which have a disturbing effect on his brain. How to expel foxes from a +covert, for example; and here is another: Is it true that the fox +listens for the distressed cries of a rabbit pursued by a stoat and that +he will deprive the stoat of his captive? Perhaps; Yes; No, I don't +think so, because one hunts by night, the other by day, he will answer, +but you see that the question troubles him. One keeper, off his guard, +promptly answered, "I've no doubt of it; I can always bring a fox to me +by imitating the cry of a rabbit hunted by a stoat." But he did not say +what his object was in attracting the fox. + +I say that the keeper was off his guard in this instance, because the +fiction that foxes were preserved on the estate was kept up, though as a +fact they were systematically destroyed by the keepers. As the +pheasant-breeding craze appears to increase rather than diminish, +notwithstanding the disastrous effect it has had in alienating the +people from their lords and masters, the conflict of interest between +fox-hunter and pheasant-breeder will tend to become more and more acute, +and the probable end will be that fox-hunting will have to go. A +melancholy outlook to those who love the country and old country sports, +and who do not regard pheasant-shooting as now followed as sport at all. +It is a delusion of the landlords that the country people think most +highly of the great pheasant-preserver who has two or three big shoots +in a season, during which vast numbers of birds are slaughtered--every +bird "costing a guinea," as the saying is. It brings money into the +country, he or his apologist tells you, and provides employment for the +village poor in October and November, when there is little doing. He +does not know the truth of the matter. A certain number of the poorer +people of the village are employed as beaters for the big shoots at a +shilling a day or so, and occasionally a labourer, going to or from his +work, finds a pheasant's nest and informs the keeper and receives some +slight reward. If he "keeps his eyes open" and shows himself anxious at +all times to serve the keeper he will sometimes get a rabbit for his +Sunday dinner. + +This is not a sufficient return for the freedom to walk on the land and +in woods, which the villager possessed formerly, even in his worst days +of his oppression, a liberty which has now been taken from him. The +keeper is there now to prevent him; he was there before, and from of +old, but the pheasant was not yet a sacred bird, and it didn't matter +that a man walked on the turf or picked up a few fallen sticks in a +wood. The keeper is there to tell him to keep to the road and sometimes +to ask him, even when he is on the road, what is he looking over the +hedge for. He slinks obediently away; he is only a poor labourer with +his living to get, and he cannot afford to offend the man who stands +between him and the lord and the lord's tenant. And he is inarticulate; +but the insolence and injustice rankle in his heart, for he is not +altogether a helot in soul; and the result is that the sedition-mongers, +the Socialists, the furious denouncers of all landlords, who are now +quartering the country, and whose vans I meet in the remotest villages, +are listened to, and their words--wild and whirling words they may +be--are sinking into the hearts of the agricultural labourers of the new +generation. + +To return to foxes and gamekeepers. There are other estates where the +fiction of fox-preserving is kept up no longer, where it is notorious +that the landlord is devoted exclusively to the gun and to +pheasant-breeding. On one of the big estates I am familiar with in +Wiltshire the keepers openly say they will not suffer a fox, and every +villager knows it and will give information of a fox to the keepers, and +looks to be rewarded with a rabbit. All this is undoubtedly known to the +lord of the manor; his servants are only carrying out his own wishes, +although he still subscribes to the hunt and occasionally attends the +meet. The entire hunt may unite in cursing him, but they must do so +below their breath; it would have a disastrous effect to spread it +abroad that he is a persecutor of foxes. + +Caleb disliked foxes, too, but not to the extent of killing them. He did +once actually kill one, when a young under-shepherd, but it was accident +rather than intention. + +One day he found a small gap in a hedge, which had been made or was +being used by a hare, and, thinking to take it, he set a trap at the +spot, tying it securely to a root and covering it over with dead leaves. +On going to the place the next morning he could see nothing until his +feet were on the very edge of the ditch, when with startling suddenness +a big dog fox sprang up at him with a savage snarl. It was caught by a +hind-leg, and had been lying concealed among the dead leaves close under +the bank. Caleb, angered at finding a fox when he had looked for a hare, +and at the attack the creature had made on him, dealt it a blow on the +head with his heavy stick--just one blow given on the impulse of the +moment, but it killed the fox! He felt very bad at what he had done and +began to think of consequences. He took it from the trap and hid it away +under the dead leaves beneath the hedge some yards from the gap, and +then went to his work. During the day one of the farm hands went out to +speak to him. He was a small, quiet old man, a discreet friend, and +Caleb confided to him what he had done. "Leave it to me," said his old +friend, and went back to the farm. In the afternoon Caleb was standing +on the top of the down looking towards the village, when he spied at a +great distance the old man coming out to the hills, and by and by he +could make out that he had a sack on his back and a spade in his hand. +When half-way up the side of the hill he put his burden down and set to +work digging a deep pit. Into this he put the dead fox, and threw in and +trod down the earth, then carefully put back the turf in its place, +then, his task done, shouldered the spade and departed. Caleb felt +greatly relieved, for now the fox was buried out on the downs, and no +one would ever know that he had wickedly killed it. + +Subsequently he had other foxes caught in traps set for hares, but was +always able to release them. About one he had the following story. The +dog he had at that time, named Monk, hated foxes as Jack hated adders, +and would hunt them savagely whenever he got a chance. One morning Caleb +visited a trap he had set in a gap in a hedge and found a fox in it. The +fox jumped up, snarling and displaying his teeth, ready to fight for +dear life, and it was hard to restrain Monk from flying at him. So +excited was he that only when his master threatened him with his crook +did he draw back and, sitting on his haunches, left him to deal with the +difficult business in his own way. The difficulty was to open the steel +trap without putting himself in the way of a bite from those "tarrable +sharp teeth." After a good deal of manoeuvring he managed to set the +butt end of his crook on the handle of the gin, and forcing it down +until the iron teeth relaxed their grip, the fox pulled his foot out, +and darting away along the hedge side vanished into the adjoining copse. +Away went Monk after him, in spite of his master's angry commands to him +to come back, and fox and dog disappeared almost together among the +trees. Sounds of yelping and of crashing through the undergrowth came +back fainter and fainter, and then there was silence. Caleb waited at +the spot full twenty minutes before the disobedient dog came back, +looking very pleased. He had probably succeeded in overtaking and +killing his enemy. + +About that same Monk a sad story will have to be told in another +chapter. + +When speaking of foxes Caleb always maintained that in his part of the +country there were two sorts: one small and very red, the larger one of +a lighter colour with some grey in it. And it is possible that the hill +foxes differed somewhat in size and colour from those of the lower +country. He related that one year two vixens littered at one spot, a +deep bottom among the downs, so near together that when the cubs were +big enough to come out they mixed and played in company; the vixens +happened to be of the different sorts, and the difference in colour +appeared in the little ones as well. + +Caleb was so taken with the pretty sight of all these little foxes, +neighbours and playmates, that he went evening after evening to sit for +an hour or longer watching them. One thing he witnessed which will +perhaps be disbelieved by those who have not closely observed animals +for themselves, and who still hold to the fable that all wild creatures +are born with an inherited and instinctive knowledge and dread of their +enemies. Rabbits swarmed at that spot, and he observed that when the old +foxes were not about the young, half-grown rabbits would freely mix and +play with the little foxes. He was so surprised at this, never having +heard of such a thing, that he told his master of it, and the farmer +went with him on a moonlight night and the two sat for a long time +together, and saw rabbits and foxes playing, pursuing one another round +and round, the rabbits when pursued often turning very suddenly and +jumping clean over their pursuer. + +The rabbits at this place belonged to the tenant, and the farmer, after +enjoying the sight of the little ones playing together, determined to +get rid of the foxes in the usual way by exploding a small quantity of +gunpowder in the burrows. Four old foxes with nine cubs were too many +for him to have. The powder was duly burned, and the very next day the +foxes had vanished. + +In Berkshire I once met with that rare being, an intelligent gamekeeper +who took an interest in wild animals and knew from observation a great +deal about their habits. During an after-supper talk, kept up till past +midnight, we discussed the subject of strange, erratic actions in +animals, which in some cases appear contrary to their own natures. He +gave an instance of such behaviour in a fox that had its earth at a spot +on the border of a wood where rabbits were abundant. One evening he was +at this spot, standing among the trees and watching a number of rabbits +feeding and gambolling on the green turf, when the fox came trotting by +and the rabbits paid no attention. Suddenly he stopped and made a dart +at a rabbit; the rabbit ran from him a distance of twenty to thirty +yards, then suddenly turning round went for the fox and chased it back +some distance, after which the fox again chased the rabbit, and so they +went on, turn and turn about, half a dozen times. It was evident, he +said, that the fox had no wish to catch and kill a rabbit, that it was +nothing but play on his part, and that the rabbits responded in the same +spirit, knowing that there was nothing to fear. + +Another instance of this playful spirit of the fox with an enemy, which +I heard recently, is of a gentleman who was out with his dog, a +fox-terrier, for an evening walk in some woods near his house. On his +way back he discovered on coming out of the woods that a fox was +following him, at a distance of about forty yards. When he stood still +the fox sat down and watched the dog. The dog appeared indifferent to +its presence until his master ordered him to go for the fox, whereupon +he charged him and drove him back to the edge of the wood, but at that +point the fox turned and chased the dog right back to its master, then +once more sat down and appeared very much at his ease. Again the dog was +encouraged to go for him and hunted him again back to the wood, and was +then in turn chased back to its master, After several repetitions of +this performance, the gentleman went home, the fox still following, and +on going in closed the gate behind him, leaving the fox outside, sitting +in the road as if waiting for him to come out again to have some more +fun. + +This incident serves to remind me of an experience I had one evening in +King's Copse, an immense wood of oak and pine in the New Forest near +Exbury. It was growing dark when I heard on or close to the ground, some +twenty to thirty yards before me, a low, wailing cry, resembling the +hunger-cry of the young, long-eared owl. I began cautiously advancing, +trying to see it, but as I advanced the cry receded, as if the bird was +flitting from me. Now, just after I had begun following the sound, a fox +uttered his sudden, startlingly loud scream about forty yards away on my +right hand, and the next moment a second fox screamed on my left, and +from that time I was accompanied, or shadowed, by the two foxes, always +keeping abreast of me, always at the same distance, one screaming and +the other replying about every half-minute. The distressful bird-sound +ceased, and I turned and went off in another direction, to get out of +the wood on the side nearest the place where I was staying, the foxes +keeping with me until I was out. + +What moved them to act in such a way is a mystery, but it was perhaps +play to them. + +Another curious instance of foxes playing was related to me by a +gentleman at the little village of Inkpen, near the Beacon, in +Berkshire. He told me that when it happened, a good many years ago, he +sent an account of it to the "Field." His gamekeeper took him one day +"to see a strange thing," to a spot in the woods where a fox had a +litter of four cubs, near a long, smooth, green slope. A little distance +from the edge of the slope three round swedes were lying on the turf. +"How do you think these swedes came here?" said the keeper, and then +proceeded to say that the old fox must have brought them there from the +field a long distance away, for her cubs to play with. He had watched +them of an evening, and wanted his master to come and see too. +Accordingly they went in the evening, and hiding themselves among the +bushes near waited till the young foxes came out and began rolling the +swedes about and jumping at and tumbling over them. By and by one rolled +down the slope, and the young foxes went after it all the way down, and +then, when they had worried it sufficiently, they returned to the top +and played with another swede until that was rolled down, then with the +third one in the same way. Every morning, the keeper said, the swedes +were found back on top of the ground, and he had no doubt that they were +taken up by the old fox again and left there for her cubs to play with. + +Caleb was not so eager after rabbits as Shepherd Gathergood, but he +disliked the fox for another reason. He considered that the hunted fox +was a great danger to sheep when the ewes were heavy with lambs and when +the chase brought the animal near if not right into the flock. He had +one dreadful memory of a hunted fox trying to lose itself in his flock +of heavy-sided ewes and the hounds following it and driving the poor +sheep mad with terror. The result was that a large number of lambs were +cast before their time and many others were poor, sickly things; many of +the sheep also suffered in health. He had no extra money from the lambs +that year. He received but a shilling (half a crown is often paid now) +for every lamb above the number of ewes, and as a rule received from +three to six pounds a year from this source. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +BIRD LIFE ON THE DOWNS + + Great bustard--Stone curlew--Big hawks--Former abundance of the + raven--Dogs fed on carrion--Ravens fighting--Ravens' breeding-places + in Wilts--Great Ridge Wood ravens--Field-fare breeding in + Wilts--Pewit--Mistle-thrush--Magpie and turtledove--Gamekeepers and + magpies--Rooks and farmers--Starling, the shepherd's favourite + bird--Sparrowhawk and "brown thrush" + + +Wiltshire, like other places in England, has long been deprived of its +most interesting birds--the species that were best worth preserving. Its +great bustard, once our greatest bird--even greater than the golden and +sea eagles and the "giant crane" with its "trumpet sound" once heard in +the land--is now but a memory. Or a place name: Bustard Inn, no longer +an inn, is well known to the many thousands who now go to the mimic wars +on Salisbury Plain; and there is a Trappist monastery in a village on +the southernmost border of the county, which was once called, and is +still known to old men as, "Bustard Farm." All that Caleb Bawcombe knew +of this grandest bird is what his father had told him; and Isaac knew of +it only from hearsay, although it was still met with in South Wilts when +he was a young man. + +The stone curlew, our little bustard with the long wings, big, yellow +eyes, and wild voice, still frequents the uncultivated downs, unhappily +in diminishing numbers. For the private collector's desire to possess +British-taken birds' eggs does not diminish; I doubt if more than one +clutch in ten escapes the searching eyes of the poor shepherds and +labourers who are hired to supply the cabinets. One pair haunted a +flinty spot at Winterbourne Bishop until a year or two ago; at other +points a few miles away I watched other pairs during the summer of 1909, +but in every instance their eggs were taken. + +The larger hawks and the raven, which bred in all the woods and forests +of Wiltshire, have, of course, been extirpated by the gamekeepers. The +biggest forest in the county now affords no refuge to any hawk above the +size of a kestrel. Savernake is extensive enough, one would imagine, for +condors to hide in, but it is not so. A few years ago a buzzard made its +appearance there--just a common buzzard, and the entire surrounding +population went mad with excitement about it, and every man who +possessed a gun flew to the forest to join in the hunt until the +wretched bird, after being blazed at for two or three days, was brought +down. I heard of another case at Fonthill Abbey. Nobody could say what +this wandering hawk was--it was very big, blue above with a white breast +barred with black--a "tarrable" fierce-looking bird with fierce, yellow +eyes. All the gamekeepers and several other men with guns were in hot +pursuit of it for several days, until some one fatally wounded it, but +it could not be found where it was supposed to have fallen. A fortnight +later its carcass was discovered by an old shepherd, who told me the +story. It was not in a fit state to be preserved, but he described it to +me, and I have no doubt that it was a goshawk. + +The raven survived longer, and the Shepherd Bawcombe talks about its +abundance when he was a boy, seventy or more years ago. His way of +accounting for its numbers at that time and its subsequent, somewhat +rapid disappearance greatly interested me. + +We have seen his account of deer-stealing, by the villagers in those +brave, old, starvation days when Lord Rivers owned the deer and hunting +rights over a large part of Wiltshire, extending from Cranborne Chase to +Salisbury, and when even so righteous a man as Isaac Bawcombe was +tempted by hunger to take an occasional deer, discovered out of bounds. +At that time, Caleb said, a good many dogs used for hunting the deer +were kept a few miles from Winterbourne Bishop and were fed by the +keepers in a very primitive manner. Old, worn-out horses were bought and +slaughtered for the dogs. A horse would be killed and stripped of his +hide somewhere away in the woods, and left for the hounds to batten on +its flesh, tearing at and fighting over it like so many jackals. When +only partially consumed the carcass would become putrid; then another +horse would be killed and skinned at another spot perhaps a mile away, +and the pack would start feeding afresh there. The result of so much +carrion lying about was that ravens were attracted in numbers to the +place and were so numerous as to be seen in scores together. Later, when +the deer-hunting sport declined in the neighbourhood, and dogs were no +longer fed on carrion, the birds decreased year by year, and when Caleb +was a boy of nine or ten their former great abundance was but a memory. +But he remembers that they were still fairly common, and he had much to +say about the old belief that the raven "smells death," and when seen +hovering over a flock, uttering its croak, it is a sure sign that a +sheep is in a bad way and will shortly die. + +One of his recollections of the bird may be given here. It was one of +those things seen in boyhood which had very deeply impressed him. One +fine day he was on the down with an elder brother, when they heard the +familiar croak and spied three birds at a distance engaged in a fight in +the air. Two of the birds were in pursuit of the third, and rose +alternately to rush upon and strike at their victim from above. They +were coming down from a considerable height, and at last were directly +over the boys, not more than forty or fifty feet from the ground; and +the youngsters were amazed at their fury, the loud, rushing sound of +their wings, as of a torrent, and of their deep, hoarse croaks and +savage, barking cries. Then they began to rise again, the hunted bird +trying to keep above his enemies, they in their turn striving to rise +higher still so as to rush down upon him from overhead; and in this way +they towered higher and higher, their barking cries coming fainter and +fainter back to earth, until the boys, not to lose sight of them, cast +themselves down flat on their backs, and, continuing to gaze up, saw +them at last no bigger than three "leetle blackbirds." Then they +vanished; but the boys, still lying on their backs, kept their eyes +fixed on the same spot, and by and by first one black speck reappeared, +then a second, and they soon saw that two birds were swiftly coming down +to earth. They fell swiftly and silently, and finally pitched upon the +down not more than a couple of hundred yards from the boys. The hunted +bird had evidently succeeded in throwing them off and escaping. Probably +it was one of their own young, for the ravens' habit is when their young +are fully grown to hunt them out of the neighbourhood, or, when they +cannot drive them off, to kill them. + +There is no doubt that the carrion did attract ravens in numbers to this +part of Wiltshire, but it is a fact that up to that date--about +1830--the bird had many well-known, old breeding-places in the county. +The Rev. A. C. Smith, in his "Birds of Wiltshire," names twenty-three +breeding-places, no fewer than nine of them on Salisbury Plain; but at +the date of the publication of his work, 1887, only three of all these +nesting-places were still in use: South Tidworth, Wilton Park, and +Compton Park, Compton Chamberlain. Doubtless there were other ancient +breeding-places which the author had not heard of: one was at the Great +Ridge Wood, overlooking the Wylye valley, where ravens bred down to +about thirty-five or forty years ago. I have found many old men in that +neighbourhood who remember the birds, and they tell that the raven tree +was a great oak which was cut down about sixty years ago, after which +the birds built their nest in another tree not far away. A London friend +of mine, who was born in the neighbourhood of the Great Ridge Wood, +remembers the ravens as one of the common sights of the place when he +was a boy. He tells of an unlucky farmer in those parts whose sheep fell +sick and died in numbers, year after year, bringing him down to the +brink of ruin, and how his old head-shepherd would say, solemnly shaking +his head, "'Tis not strange--master, he shot a raven." + +There was no ravens' breeding-place very near Winterbourne Bishop. Caleb +had "never heared tell of a nestie"; but he had once seen the nest of +another species which is supposed never to breed in this country. He was +a small boy at the time, when one day an old shepherd of the place going +out from the village saw Caleb, and calling to him said, "You're the boy +that likes birds; if you'll come with me, I'll show 'ee what no man ever +seed afore"; and Caleb, fired with curiosity, followed him away to a +distance from home, out from the downs, into the woods and to a place +where he had never been, where there were bracken and heath with birch +and thorn-trees scattered about. On cautiously approaching a clump of +birches they saw a big, thrush-like bird fly out of a large nest about +ten feet from the ground, and settle on a tree close by, where it was +joined by its mate. The old man pointed out that it was a felt or +fieldfare, a thrush nearly as big as the mistle-thrush but different in +colour, and he said that it was a bird that came to England in flocks in +winter from no man knows where, far off in the north, and always went +away before breeding-time. This was the only felt he had ever seen +breeding in this country, and he "didn't believe that no man had ever +seed such a thing before." He would not climb the tree to see the eggs, +or even go very near it, for fear of disturbing the birds. + +This man, Caleb said, was a great one for birds: he knew them all, but +seldom said anything about them; he watched and found out a good deal +about them just for his private pleasure. + +The characteristic species of this part of the down country, comprising +the parish of Winterbourne Bishop, are the pewit, magpie, turtledove, +mistle-thrush, and starling. The pewit is universal on the hills, but +will inevitably be driven away from all that portion of Salisbury Plain +used for military purposes. The mistle-thrush becomes common in summer +after its early breeding season is ended, when the birds in small flocks +resort to the downs, where they continue until cold weather drives them +away to the shelter of the wooded, low country. + +In this neighbourhood there are thickets of thorn, holly, bramble, and +birch growing over hundreds of acres of down, and here the hill-magpie, +as it is called, has its chief breeding-ground, and is so common that +you can always get a sight of at least twenty birds in an afternoon's +walk. Here, too, is the metropolis of the turtledove, and the low sound +of its crooning is heard all day in summer, the other most common sound +being that of magpies--their subdued, conversational chatter and their +solo-singing, the chant or call which a bird will go on repeating for a +hundred times. The wonder is how the doves succeed in such a place in +hatching any couple of chalk-white eggs, placed on a small platform of +sticks, or of rearing any pair of young, conspicuous in their blue skins +and bright yellow down! + +The keepers tell me they get even with these kill-birds later in the +year, when they take to roosting in the woods, a mile away in the +valley. The birds are waited for at some point where they are accustomed +to slip in at dark, and one keeper told me that on one evening alone +assisted by a friend he had succeeded in shooting thirty birds. + +On Winterbourne Bishop Down and round the village the magpies are not +persecuted, probably because the gamekeepers, the professional +bird-killers, have lost heart in this place. It is a curious and rather +pretty story. There is no squire, as we have seen; the farmers have the +rabbits, and for game the shooting is let, or to let, by some one who +claims to be lord of the manor, who lives at a distance or abroad. At +all events he is not known personally to the people, and all they know +about the overlordship is that, whereas in years gone by every villager +had certain rights in the down--to cut furze and keep a cow, or pony, or +donkey, or half a dozen sheep or goats--now they have none; but how and +why and when these rights were lost nobody knows. Naturally there is no +sympathy between the villagers and the keepers sent from a distance to +protect the game, so that the shooting may be let to some other +stranger. On the contrary, they religiously destroy every nest they can +find, with the result that there are too few birds for anyone to take +the shooting, and it remains year after year unlet. + +This unsettled state of things is all to the advantage of the black and +white bird with the ornamental tail, and he flourishes accordingly and +builds his big, thorny nests in the roadside trees about the village. + +The one big bird on these downs, as in so many other places in England, +is the rook, and let us humbly thank the gods who own this green earth +and all the creatures which inhabit it that they have in their goodness +left us this one. For it is something to have a rook, although he is not +a great bird compared with the great ones lost--bustard and kite and +raven and goshawk, and many others. His abundance on the cultivated +downs is rather strange when one remembers the outcry made against him +in some parts on account of his injurious habits; but here it appears +the sentiment in his favour is just as strong in the farmer, or in a +good many farmers, as in the great landlord. The biggest rookery I know +on Salisbury Plain is at a farm-house where the farmer owns the land +himself and cultivates about nine hundred acres. One would imagine that +he would keep his rooks down in these days when a boy cannot be hired to +scare the birds from the crops. + +One day, near West Knoyle, I came upon a vast company of rooks busily +engaged on a ploughed field where everything short of placing a +bird-scarer on the ground had been done to keep the birds off. A score +of rooks had been shot and suspended to long sticks planted about the +field, and there were three formidable-looking men of straw and rags +with hats on their heads and wooden guns under their arms. But the rooks +were there all the same; I counted seven at one spot, prodding the earth +close to the feet of one of the scarecrows. I went into the field to see +what they were doing, and found that it was sown with vetches, just +beginning to come up, and the birds were digging the seed up. + +Three months later, near the same spot, on Mere Down, I found these +birds feasting on the corn, when it had been long cut but could not be +carried on account of the wet weather. It was a large field of fifty to +sixty acres, and as I walked by it the birds came flying leisurely over +my head to settle with loud cawings on the stocks. It was a magnificent +sight--the great, blue-black bird-forms on the golden wheat, an animated +group of three or four to half a dozen on every stock, while others +walked about the ground to pick up the scattered grain, and others were +flying over them, for just then the sun was shining on the field and +beyond it the sky was blue. Never had I witnessed birds so manifestly +rejoicing at their good fortune, with happy, loud caw-caw. Or rather +haw-haw! what a harvest, what abundance! was there ever a more perfect +August and September! Rain, rain, by night and in the morning; then sun +and wind to dry our feathers and make us glad, but never enough to dry +the corn to enable them to carry it and build it up in stacks where it +would be so much harder to get at. Could anything be better! + +But the commonest bird, the one which vastly outnumbers all the others I +have named together, is the starling. It was Caleb Bawcombe's favourite +bird, and I believe it is regarded with peculiar affection by all +shepherds on the downs on account of its constant association with sheep +in the pasture. The dog, the sheep, and the crowd of starlings--these +are the lonely man's companions during his long days on the hills from +April or May to November. And what a wise bird he is, and how well he +knows his friends and his enemies! There was nothing more beautiful to +see, Caleb would say, than the behaviour of a flock of starlings when a +hawk was about. If it was a kestrel they took little or no notice of it, +but if a sparrowhawk made its appearance, instantly the crowd of birds +could be seen flying at furious speed towards the nearest flock of +sheep, and down into the flock they would fall like a shower of stones +and instantly disappear from sight. There they would remain on the +ground, among the legs of the grazing sheep, until the hawk had gone on +his way and passed out of sight. + +The sparrowhawk's victims are mostly made among the young birds that +flock together in summer and live apart from the adults during the +summer months after the breeding season is over. + +When I find a dead starling on the downs ranged over by sparrowhawks, it +is almost always a young bird--a "brown thrush" as it used to be called +by the old naturalists. You may know that the slayer was a sparrowhawk +by the appearance of the bird, its body untouched, but the flesh picked +neatly from the neck and the head gone. That was swallowed whole, after +the beak had been cut off. You will find the beak lying by the side of +the body. In summertime, when birds are most abundant, after the +breeding season, the sparrowhawk is a fastidious feeder. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +STARLINGS AND SHEEP-BELLS + + Starlings' singing--Native and borrowed sounds--Imitations of + sheep-bells--The shepherd on sheep-bells--The bells for pleasure, + not use--A dog in charge of the flock--Shepherd calling his + sheep--Richard Warner of Bath--Ploughmen singing to their oxen + in Cornwall--A shepherd's loud singing + + +The subject of starlings associating with sheep has served to remind me +of something I have often thought when listening to their music. It +happens that I am writing this chapter in a small village on Salisbury +Plain, the time being mid-September 1909, and that just outside my door +there is a group of old elder-bushes laden just now with clusters of +ripe berries on which the starlings come to feed, filling the room all +day with that never-ending medley of sounds which is their song. They +sing in this way not only when they sing--that is to say, when they make +a serious business of it, standing motionless and a-shiver on the tiles, +wings drooping and open beak pointing upwards, but also when they are +feasting on fruit--singing and talking and swallowing elderberries +between whiles to wet their whistles. If the weather is not too cold you +will hear this music daily, wet or dry, all the year round. We may say +that of all singing birds they are most vocal, yet have no set song. I +doubt if they have more than half a dozen to a dozen sounds or notes +which are the same in every individual and their very own. One of them +is a clear, soft, musical whistle, slightly inflected; another a kissing +sound, usually repeated two or three times or oftener, a somewhat +percussive smack; still another, a sharp, prolonged hissing or sibilant +but at the same time metallic note, compared by some one to the sound +produced by milking a cow into a tin pail--a very good description. +There are other lesser notes: a musical, thrush-like chirp, repeated +slowly, and sometimes rapidly till it runs to a bubbling sound; also +there is a horny sound, which is perhaps produced by striking upon the +edges of the lower mandible with those of the upper. But it is quite +unlike the loud, hard noise made by the stork; the poor stork being a +dumb bird has made a sort of policeman's rattle of his huge beak. These +sounds do not follow each other; they come from time to time, the +intervals being filled up with others in such endless variety, each bird +producing its own notes, that one can but suppose that they are +imitations. We know, in fact, that the starling is our greatest mimic, +and that he often succeeds in recognizable reproductions of single +notes, of phrases, and occasionally of entire songs, as, for instance, +that of the blackbird. But in listening to him we are conscious of his +imitations; even when at his best he amuses rather than delights--he is +not like the mocking-bird. His common starling pipe cannot produce +sounds of pure and beautiful quality, like the blackbird's "oboe-voice," +to quote Davidson's apt phrase: he emits this song in a strangely +subdued tone, producing the effect of a blackbird heard singing at a +considerable distance. And so with innumerable other notes, calls, and +songs--they are often to their originals what a man's voice heard on a +telephone is to his natural voice. He succeeds best, as a rule, in +imitations of the coarser, metallic sounds, and as his medley abounds in +a variety of little, measured, tinkling, and clinking notes, as of +tappings on a metal plate, it has struck me at times that these are +probably borrowed from the sheep-bells of which the bird hears so much +in his feeding-grounds. It is, however, not necessary to suppose that +every starling gets these sounds directly from the bells; the birds +undoubtedly mimic one another, as is the case with mocking-birds, and +the young might easily acquire this part of their song language from the +old birds without visiting the flocks in the pastures. + +The sheep-bell, in its half-muffled strokes, as of a small hammer +tapping on an iron or copper plate, is, one would imagine, a sound well +within the starling's range, easily imitated, therefore specially +attractive to him. + +But--to pass to another subject--what does the shepherd himself think or +feel about it; and why does he have bells on his sheep? + +He thinks a great deal of his bells. He pipes not like the shepherd of +fable or of the pastoral poets, nor plays upon any musical instrument, +and seldom sings, or even whistles--that sorry substitute for song; he +loves music nevertheless, and gets it in his sheep-bells; and he likes +it in quantity. "How many bells have you got on your sheep--it sounds as +if you had a great many?" I asked of a shepherd the other day, feeding +his flock near Old Sarum, and he replied, "Just forty, and I wish there +were eighty." Twenty-five or thirty is a more usual number, but only +because of their cost, for the shepherd has very little money for bells +or anything else. Another told me that he had "only thirty," but he +intended getting more. The sound cheers him; it is not exactly +monotonous, owing to the bells being of various sizes and also greatly +varying in thickness, so that they produce different tones, from the +sharp tinkle-tinkle of the smallest to the sonorous klonk-klonk of the +big, copper bell. Then, too, they are differently agitated, some quietly +when the sheep are grazing with heads down, others rapidly as the animal +walks or trots on; and there are little bursts or peals when a sheep +shakes its head, all together producing a kind of rude harmony--a music +which, like that of bagpipes or of chiming church-bells, heard from a +distance, is akin to natural music and accords with rural scenes. + +As to use, there is little or none. A shepherd will sometimes say, when +questioned on the subject, that the bells tell him just where the flock +is or in which direction they are travelling; but he knows better. The +one who is not afraid to confess the simple truth of the matter to a +stranger will tell you that he does not need the bells to tell him where +the sheep are or in which direction they are grazing. His eyes are good +enough for that. The bells are for his solace or pleasure alone. It may +be that the sheep like the tinkling too--it is his belief that they do +like it. A shepherd said to me a few days ago: "It is lonesome with the +flock on the downs; more so in cold, wet weather, when you perhaps don't +see a person all day--on some days not even at a distance, much less to +speak to. The bells keep us from feeling it too much. We know what we +have them for, and the more we have the better we like it. They are +company to us." + +Even in fair weather he seldom has anyone to speak to. A visit from an +idle man who will sit down and have a pipe and talk with him is a day to +be long remembered and even to date events from. "'Twas the month--May, +June, or October--when the stranger came out to the down and talked to I." + +One day, in September, when sauntering over Mere Down, one of the most +extensive and loneliest-looking sheep-walks in South Wilts--a vast, +elevated plain or table-land, a portion of which is known as White Sheet +Hill--I passed three flocks of sheep, all with many bells, and noticed +that each flock produced a distinctly different sound or effect, owing +doubtless to a different number of big and little bells in each; and it +struck me that any shepherd on a dark night, or if taken blindfolded +over the downs, would be able to identify his own flock by the sound. At +the last of the three flocks a curious thing occurred. There was no +shepherd with it or anywhere in sight, but a dog was in charge; I found +him lying apparently asleep in a hollow, by the side of a stick and an +old sack. I called to him, but instead of jumping up and coming to me, +as he would have done if his master had been there, he only raised his +head, looked at me, then put his nose down on his paws again. I am on +duty--in sole charge--and you must not speak to me, was what he said. +After walking a little distance on, I spied the shepherd with a second +dog at his heels, coming over the down straight to the flock, and I +stayed to watch. When still over a hundred yards from the hollow the dog +flew ahead, and the other jumping up ran to meet him, and they stood +together, wagging their tails as if conversing. When the shepherd had +got up to them he stood and began uttering a curious call, a somewhat +musical cry in two notes, and instantly the sheep, now at a considerable +distance, stopped feeding and turned, then all together began running +towards him, and when within thirty yards stood still, massed together, +and all gazing at him. He then uttered a different call, and turning +walked away, the dogs keeping with him and the sheep closely following. +It was late in the day, and he was going to fold them down at the foot +of the slope in some fields half a mile away. + +As the scene I had witnessed appeared unusual I related it to the very +next shepherd I talked with. + +"Oh, there was nothing in that," he said. "Of course the dog was behind +the flock." + +I said, "No, the peculiar thing was that both dogs were with their +master, and the flock followed." + +"Well, my sheep would do the same," he returned. "That is, they'll do it +if they know there's something good for them--something they like in the +fold. They are very knowing." And other shepherds to whom I related the +incident said pretty much the same, but they apparently did not quite +like to hear that any shepherd could control his sheep with his voice +alone; their way of receiving the story confirmed me in the belief that +I had witnessed something unusual. + +Before concluding this short chapter I will leave the subject of the +Wiltshire shepherd and his sheep to quote a remarkable passage about men +singing to their cattle in Cornwall, from a work on that county by +Richard Warner of Bath, once a well-known and prolific writer of +topographical and other books. They are little known now, I fancy, but +he was great in his day, which lasted from about the middle of the +eighteenth to about the middle of the nineteenth century--at all events, +he died in 1857, aged ninety-four. But he was not great at first, and +finding when nearing middle age that he was not prospering, he took to +the Church and had several livings, some of them running concurrently, +as was the fashion in those dark days. His topographical work included +Walks in Wales, in Somerset, in Devon, Walks in many places, usually +taken in a stage-coach or on horseback, containing nothing worth +remembering except perhaps the one passage I have mentioned, which is as +follows:-- + +"We had scarcely entered Cornwall before our attention was agreeably +arrested by a practice connected with the agriculture of the people, +which to us was entirely novel. The farmers judiciously employ the fine +oxen of the country in ploughing, and other processes of husbandry, to +which the strength of this useful animal can be employed"--the Rev. +Richard Warner is tedious, but let us be patient and see what +follows--"to which the strength of this useful animal can be employed; +and while the hinds are thus driving their patient slaves along the +furrows, they continually cheer them with conversation, denoting +approbation and pleasure. This encouragement is conveyed to them in a +sort of chaunt, of very agreeable modulation, which, floating through +the air from different distances, produces a striking effect both on the +ear and imagination. The notes are few and simple, and when delivered by +a clear, melodious voice, have something expressive of that tenderness +and affection which man naturally entertains for the companions of his +labours, in a _pastoral state_ of society, when, feeling more +forcibly his dependence upon domesticated animals for support, he gladly +reciprocates with them kindness and protection for comfort and +subsistence. This wild melody was to me, I confess, peculiarly +affecting. It seemed to draw more closely the link of friendship between +man and the humbler tribes of _fellow mortals_. It solaced my heart +with the appearance of humanity, in a world of violence and in times of +universal hostile rage; and it gladdened my fancy with the contemplation +of those days of heavenly harmony, promised in the predictions of +eternal truth, when man, freed at length from prejudice and passion, +shall seek his happiness in cultivating the mild, the benevolent, and +the merciful sensibilities of his nature; and when the animal world, +catching the virtues of its lord and master, shall soften into +gentleness and love; when the wolf".... + +And so on, clause after clause, with others to be added, until the whole +sentence becomes as long as a fishing-rod. But apart from the +fiddlededee, is the thing he states believable? It is a charming +picture, and one would like to know more about that "chaunt," that "wild +melody." The passage aroused my curiosity when in Cornwall, as it had +appeared to me that in no part of England are the domestic animals so +little considered by their masters. The R.S.P.C.A. is practically +unknown there, and when watching the doings of shepherds or drovers with +their sheep the question has occurred to me, What would my Wiltshire +shepherd friends say of such a scene if they had witnessed it? There is +nothing in print which I can find to confirm Warner's observations, and +if you inquire of very old men who have been all their lives on the soil +they will tell you that there has never been such a custom in their +time, nor have they ever heard of it as existing formerly. Warner's Tour +through Cornwall is dated 1808. + +I take it that he described a scene he actually witnessed, and that he +jumped to the conclusion that it was a common custom for the ploughman +to sing to his oxen. It is not unusual to find a man anywhere singing to +his oxen, or horses, or sheep, if he has a voice and is fond of +exercising it. I remember that in a former book--"Nature in Downland"--I +described the sweet singing of a cow-boy when tending his cows on a +heath near Trotton, in West Sussex; and here in Wiltshire it amused me +to listen, at a vast distance, to the robust singing of a shepherd while +following his flock on the great lonely downs above Chitterne. He was a +sort of Tamagno of the downs, with a tremendous voice audible a mile +away. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +THE SHEPHERD AND THE BIBLE + + Dan'l Burdon, the treasure-seeker--The shepherd's feeling for the + Bible--Effect of the pastoral life--The shepherd's story of Isaac's + boyhood--The village on the Wylye + + +One of the shepherd's early memories was of Dan'l Burdon, a labourer on +the farm where Isaac Bawcombe was head-shepherd. He retained a vivid +recollection of this person, who had a profound gravity and was the most +silent man in the parish. He was always thinking about hidden treasure, +and all his spare time was spent in seeking for it. On a Sunday morning, +or in the evening after working hours, he would take a spade or pick and +go away over the hills on his endless search after "something he could +not find." He opened some of the largest barrows, making trenches six to +ten feet deep through them, but found nothing to reward him. One day he +took Caleb with him, and they went to a part of the down where there +were certain depressions in the turf of a circular form and six to seven +feet in circumference. Burdon had observed these basin-like depressions +and had thought it possible they marked the place where things of value +had been buried in long-past ages. To begin he cut the turf all round +and carefully removed it, then dug and found a thick layer of flints. +These removed, he came upon a deposit of ashes and charred wood. And +that was all. Burdon without a word set to work to put it all back in +its place again--ashes and wood, and earth and flints--and having trod +it firmly down he carefully replaced the turf, then leaning on his spade +gazed silently at the spot for a space of several minutes. At last he +spoke. "Maybe, Caleb, you've beared tell about what the Bible says of +burnt sacrifice. Well now, I be of opinion that it were here. They +people the Bible says about, they come up here to sacrifice on White +Bustard Down, and these be the places where they made their fires." + +Then he shouldered his spade and started home, the boy following. +Caleb's comment was: "I didn't say nothing to un because I were only a +leetel boy and he were a old man; but I knowed better than that all the +time, because them people in the Bible they was never in England at all, +so how could they sacrifice on White Bustard Down in Wiltsheer?" + +It was no idle boast on his part. Caleb and his brothers had been taught +their letters when small, and the Bible was their one book, which they +read not only in the evenings at home but out on the downs during the +day when they were with the flock. His extreme familiarity with the +whole Scripture narrative was a marvel to me; it was also strange, +considering how intelligent a man he was, that his lifelong reading of +that one book had made no change in his rude "Wiltsheer" speech. + +Apart from the feeling which old, religious country people, who know +nothing about the Higher Criticism, have for the Bible, taken literally +as the Word of God, there is that in the old Scriptures which appeals in +a special way to the solitary man who feeds his flock on the downs. I +remember well in the days of my boyhood and youth, when living in a +purely pastoral country among a semi-civilized and very simple people, +how understandable and eloquent many of the ancient stories were to me. +The life, the outlook, the rude customs, and the vivid faith in the +Unseen, were much the same in that different race in a far-distant age, +in a remote region of the earth, and in the people I mixed with in my +own home. That country has been changed now; it has been improved and +civilized and brought up to the European standard; I remember it when it +was as it had existed for upwards of two centuries before it had caught +the contagion. The people I knew were the descendants of the Spanish +colonists of the seventeenth century, who had taken kindly to the life +of the plains, and had easily shed the traditions and ways of thought of +Europe and of towns. Their philosophy of life, their ideals, their +morality, were the result of the conditions they existed in, and wholly +unlike ours; and the conditions were like those of the ancient people of +which the Bible tells us. Their very phraseology was strongly +reminiscent of that of the sacred writings, and their character in the +best specimens was like that of the men of the far past who lived nearer +to God, as we say, and certainly nearer to nature than it is possible +for us in this artificial state. Among these sometimes grand old men who +were large landowners, rich in flocks and herds, these fine old, +dignified "natives," the substantial and leading men of the district who +could not spell their own names, there were those who reminded you of +Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and Esau and Joseph and his brethren, and +even of David the passionate psalmist, with perhaps a guitar for a harp. + +No doubt the Scripture lessons read in the thousand churches on every +Sunday of the year are practically meaningless to the hearers. These old +men, with their sheep and goats and wives, and their talk about God, are +altogether out of our ways of thought, in fact as far from us--as +incredible or unimaginable, we may say--as the neolithic men or the +inhabitants of another planet. They are of the order of mythical heroes +and the giants of antiquity. To read about them is an ancient custom, +but we do not listen. + +Even to myself the memories of my young days came to be regarded as very +little more than mere imaginations, and I almost ceased to believe in +them until, after years of mixing with modern men, mostly in towns, I +fell in with the downland shepherds, and discovered that even here, in +densely populated and ultra-civilized England, something of the ancient +spirit had survived. In Caleb, and a dozen old men more or less like +him, I seemed to find myself among the people of the past, and sometimes +they were so much like some of the remembered, old, sober, and +slow-minded herders of the plains that I could not help saying to +myself, Why, how this man reminds me of Tio Isidoro, or of Don Pascual +of the "Three Poplar Trees," or of Marcos who would always have three +black sheep in a flock. And just as they reminded me of these men I had +actually known, so did they bring back the older men of the Bible +history--Abraham and Jacob and the rest. + +The point here is that these old Bible stories have a reality and +significance for the shepherd of the down country which they have lost +for modern minds; that they recognize their own spiritual lineaments in +these antique portraits, and that all these strange events might have +happened a few years ago and not far away. + +One day I said to Caleb Bawcombe that his knowledge of the Bible, +especially of the old part, was greater than that of the other shepherds +I knew on the downs, and I would like to hear why it was so. This led to +the telling of a fresh story about his father's boyhood, which he had +heard in later years from his mother. Isaac was an only child and not +the son of a shepherd; his father was a rather worthless if not a wholly +bad man; he was idle and dissolute, and being remarkably dexterous with +his fists he was persuaded by certain sporting persons to make a +business of fighting--quite a common thing in those days. He wanted +nothing better, and spent the greater part of the time in wandering +about the country; the money he made was spent away from home, mostly in +drink, while his wife was left to keep herself and child in the best way +she could at home or in the fields. By and by a poor stranger came to +the village in search of work and was engaged for very little pay by a +small farmer, for the stranger confessed that he was without experience +of farm work of any description. The cheapest lodging he could find was +in the poor woman's cottage, and then Isaac's mother, who pitied him +because he was so poor and a stranger alone in the world, a very silent, +melancholy man, formed the opinion that he had belonged to another rank +in life. His speech and hands and personal habits betrayed it. +Undoubtedly he was a gentleman; and then from something in his manner, +his voice, and his words whenever he addressed her, and his attention to +religion, she further concluded that he had been in the Church; that, +owing to some trouble or disaster, he had abandoned his place in the +world to live away from all who had known him, as a labourer. + +One day he spoke to her about Isaac; he said he had been observing him +and thought it a great pity that such a fine, intelligent boy should be +allowed to grow up without learning his letters. She agreed that it was, +but what could she do? The village school was kept by an old woman, and +though she taught the children very little it had to be paid for, and +she could not afford it. He then offered to teach Isaac himself and she +gladly consented, and from that day he taught Isaac for a couple of +hours every evening until the boy was able to read very well, after +which they read the Bible through together, the poor man explaining +everything, especially the historical parts, so clearly and beautifully, +with such an intimate knowledge of the countries and peoples and customs +of the remote East, that it was all more interesting than a fairy tale. +Finally he gave his copy of the Bible to Isaac, and told him to carry it +in his pocket every day when he went out on the downs, and when he sat +down to take it out and read in it. For by this time Isaac, who was now +ten years old, had been engaged as a shepherd-boy to his great +happiness, for to be a shepherd was his ambition. + +Then one day the stranger rolled up his few belongings in a bundle and +put them on a stick which he placed on his shoulder, said good-bye, and +went away, never to return, taking his sad secret with him. + +Isaac followed the stranger's counsel, and when he had sons of his own +made them do as he had done from early boyhood. Caleb had never gone +with his flock on the down without the book, and had never passed a day +without reading a portion. + +The incidents and observations gathered in many talks with the old +shepherd, which I have woven into the foregoing chapters, relate mainly +to the earlier part of his life, up to the time when, a married man and +father of three small children, he migrated to Warminster. There he was +in, to him, a strange land, far away from friends and home and the old +familiar surroundings, amid new scenes and new people, But the few years +he spent at that place had furnished him with many interesting memories, +some of which will be narrated in the following chapters. + +I have told in the account of Winterbourne Bishop how I first went to +that village just to see his native place, and later I visited Doveton +for no other reason than that he had lived there, to find it one of the +most charming of the numerous pretty villages in the vale. I looked for +the cottage in which he had lived and thought it as perfect a home as a +quiet, contemplative man who loved nature could have had: a small, +thatched cottage, very old looking, perhaps inconvenient to live in, but +situated in the prettiest spot, away from other houses, near and within +sight of the old church with old elms and beech-trees growing close to +it, and the land about it green meadow. The clear river, fringed with a +luxuriant growth of sedges, flag, and reeds, was less than a +stone's-throw away. + +So much did I like the vale of the Wylye when I grew to know it well +that I wish to describe it fully in the chapter that follows. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +VALE OF THE WYLYE + + Warminster--Vale of the Wylye--Counting the villages--A lost + church--Character of the villages--Tytherington church--Story of the + dog--Lord Lovell--Monuments in churches--Manor-houses--Knook--The + cottages--Yellow stonecrop--Cottage gardens--Marigolds--Golden-rod--Wild + flowers of the water-side--Seeking for the characteristic expression + + +The prettily-named Wylye is a little river not above twenty miles in +length from its rise to Salisbury, where, after mixing with the Nadder +at Wilton, it joins the Avon. At or near its source stands Warminster, a +small, unimportant town with a nobler-sounding name than any other in +Wiltshire. Trowbridge, Devizes, Marlborough, Salisbury, do not stir the +mind in the same degree; and as for Chippenham, Melksham, Mere, Calne, +and Corsham, these all are of no more account than so many villages in +comparison. Yet Warminster has no associations--no place in our mental +geography; at all events one remembers nothing about it. Its name, which +after all may mean nothing more than the monastery on the Were--one of +the three streamlets which flow into the Wylye at its source--is its +only glory. It is not surprising that Caleb Bawcombe invariably speaks +of his migration to, and of the time he passed at Warminster, when, as a +fact, he was not there at all, but at Doveton, a little village on the +Wylye a few miles below the town with the great name. + +It is a green valley--the greenness strikes one sharply on account of +the pale colour of the smooth, high downs on either side--half a mile to +a mile in width, its crystal current showing like a bright serpent for a +brief space in the green, flat meadows, then vanishing again among the +trees. So many are the great shade trees, beeches and ashes and elms, +that from some points the valley has the appearance of a continuous +wood--a contiguity of shade. And the wood hides the villages, at some +points so effectually that looking down from the hills you may not catch +a glimpse of one and imagine it to be a valley where no man dwells. As a +rule you do see something of human occupancy--the red or yellow roofs of +two or three cottages, a half-hidden grey church tower, or column of +blue smoke, but to see the villages you must go down and look closely, +and even so you will find it difficult to count them all. I have tried, +going up and down the valley several times, walking or cycling, and have +never succeeded in getting the same number on two occasions. There are +certainly more then twenty, without counting the hamlets, and the right +number is probably something between twenty-five and thirty, but I do +not want to find out by studying books and maps. I prefer to let the +matter remain unsettled so as to have the pleasure of counting or trying +to count them again at some future time. But I doubt that I shall ever +succeed. On one occasion I caught sight of a quaint, pretty little +church standing by itself in the middle of a green meadow, where it +looked very solitary with no houses in sight and not even a cow grazing +near it. The river was between me and the church, so I went up-stream, a +mile and a half, to cross by the bridge, then doubled back to look for +the church, and couldn't find it! Yet it was no illusory church; I have +seen it again on two occasions, but again from the other side of the +river, and I must certainly go back some day in search of that lost +church, where there may be effigies, brasses, sad, eloquent +inscriptions, and other memorials of ancient tragedies and great +families now extinct in the land. + +This is perhaps one of the principal charms of the Wylye--the sense of +beautiful human things hidden from sight among the masses of foliage. +Yet another lies in the character of the villages. Twenty-five or +twenty-eight of them in a space of twenty miles; yet the impression, +left on the mind is that these small centres of population are really +few and far between. For not only are they small, but of the old, quiet, +now almost obsolete type of village, so unobtrusive as to affect the +mind soothingly, like the sight of trees and flowery banks and grazing +cattle. The churches, too, as is fit, are mostly small and ancient and +beautiful, half-hidden in their tree-shaded churchyards, rich in +associations which go back to a time when history fades into myth and +legend. Not all, however, are of this description; a few are naked, +dreary little buildings, and of these I will mention one which, albeit +ancient, has no monuments and no burial-ground. This is the church of +Tytherington, a small, rustic village, which has for neighbours Codford +St. Peter one one side and Sutton Veny and Norton Bavant on the other. +To get into this church, where there was nothing but naked walls to look +at, I had to procure the key from the clerk, a nearly blind old man of +eighty. He told me that he was shoemaker but could no longer see to make +or mend shoes; that as a boy he was a weak, sickly creature, and his +father, a farm bailiff, made him learn shoemaking because he was unfit +to work out of doors. "I remember this church," he said, "when there was +only one service each quarter," but, strange to say, he forgot to tell +me the story of the dog! "What, didn't he tell you about the dog?" +exclaimed everybody. There was really nothing else to tell. + +It happened about a hundred years ago that once, after the quarterly +service had been held, a dog was missed, a small terrier owned by the +young wife of a farmer of Tytherington named Case. She was fond of her +dog, and lamented its loss for a little while, then forgot all about it. +But after three months, when the key was once more put into the rusty +lock and the door thrown open, there was the dog, a living "skelington" +it was said, dazed by the light of day, but still able to walk! It was +supposed that he had kept himself alive by "licking the moisture from +the walls." The walls, they said, were dripping with wet and covered +with a thick growth of mould. I went back to interrogate the ancient +clerk, and he said that the dog died shortly after its deliverance; Mrs. +Case herself told him all about it. She was an old woman then, but was +always willing to relate the sad story of her pet. + +That picture of the starving dog coming out, a living skeleton, from the +wet, mouldy church, reminds us sharply of the changed times we live in +and of the days when the Church was still sleeping very peacefully, not +yet turning uneasily in its bed before opening its eyes; and when a +comfortable rector of Codford thought it quite enough that the people of +Tytherington, a mile away, should have one service every three months. + +As a fact, the Tytherington dog interested me as much as the story of +the last Lord Lovell's self-incarceration in his own house in the +neighbouring little village of Upton Lovell. He took refuge there from +his enemies who were seeking his life, and concealed himself so +effectually that he was never seen again. Centuries later, when +excavations were made on the site of the ruined mansion, a secret +chamber was discovered, containing a human skeleton seated in a chair at +a table, on which were books and papers crumbling into dust. + +A volume might be filled with such strange and romantic happenings in +the little villages of the Wylye, and for the natural man they have a +lasting fascination; but they invariably relate to great people of their +day--warriors and statesmen and landowners of old and noble lineage, +the smallest and meanest you will find being clothiers, or merchants, +who amassed large fortunes and built mansions for themselves and +almshouses for the aged poor, and, when dead, had memorials placed to +them in the churches. But of the humble cottagers, the true people of +the vale who were rooted in the soil, and nourished and died like trees +in the same place--of these no memory exists. We only know that they +lived and laboured; that when they died, three or four a year, three or +four hundred in a century, they were buried in the little shady +churchyard, each with a green mound over him to mark the spot. But in +time these "mouldering heaps" subsided, the bodies turned to dust, and +another and yet other generations were laid in the same place among the +forgotten dead, to be themselves in turn forgotten. Yet I would rather +know the histories of these humble, unremembered lives than of the great +ones of the vale who have left us a memory. + +It may be for this reason that I was little interested in the +manor-houses of the vale. They are plentiful enough, some gone to decay +or put to various uses; others still the homes of luxury, beauty, +culture: stately rooms, rich fabrics; pictures, books, and manuscripts, +gold and silver ware, china and glass, expensive curios, suits of +armour, ivory and antlers, tiger-skins, stuffed goshawks and peacocks' +feathers. Houses, in some cases built centuries ago, standing +half-hidden in beautiful wooded grounds, isolated from the village; and +even as they thus stand apart, sacred from intrusion, so the life that +is in them does not mix with or form part of the true native life. They +are to the cottagers of to-day what the Roman villas were to the native +population of some eighteen centuries ago. This will seem incredible to +some: to me, an untrammelled person, familiar in both hall and cottage, +the distance between them appears immense. + +A reader well acquainted with the valley will probably laugh to be told +that the manor-house which most interested me was that of Knook, a poor +little village between Heytesbury and Upton Lovell. Its ancient and +towerless little church with rough, grey walls is, if possible, even +more desolate-looking than that of Tytherington. In my hunt for the +key to open it I disturbed a quaint old man, another octogenarian, +picturesque in a vast white beard, who told me he was a thatcher, or had +been one before the evil days came when he could work no more and was +compelled to seek parish relief. "You must go to the manor-house for the +key," he told me. A strange place in which to look for the key, and it +was stranger still to see the house, close to the church, and so like it +that but for the small cross on the roof of the latter one could not +have known which was the sacred building. First a monks' house, it fell +at the Reformation to some greedy gentleman who made it his dwelling, +and doubtless in later times it was used as a farm-house. Now a house +most desolate, dirty, and neglected, with cracks in the walls which +threaten ruin, standing in a wilderness of weeds, tenanted by a poor +working-man whose wages are twelve shillings a week, and his wife and +eight small children. The rent is eighteen-pence a week--probably the +lowest-rented manor-house in England, though it is not very rare to +find such places tenanted by labourers. + +But let us look at the true cottages. There are, I imagine, +few places in England where the humble homes of the people +have so great a charm. Undoubtedly they are darker inside, and not so +convenient to live in as the modern box-shaped, red-brick, slate-roofed +cottages, which have spread a wave of ugliness over the country; +but they do not offend--they please the eye. They are smaller than +the modern-built habitations; they are weathered and coloured by +sun and wind and rain and many lowly vegetable forms to a harmony +with nature. They appear related to the trees amid which they +stand, to the river and meadows, to the sloping downs at the side, +and to the sky and clouds over all. And, most delightful feature, +they stand among, and are wrapped in, flowers as in a garment--rose +and vine and creeper and clematis. They are mostly thatched, but some +have tiled roofs, their deep, dark red clouded and stained with lichen +and moss; and these roofs, too, have their flowers in summer. They are +grown over with yellow stonecrop, that bright cheerful flower that +smiles down at you from the lowly roof above the door, with such an +inviting expression, so delighted to see you no matter how poor and +worthless a person you may be or what mischief you may have been at, +that you begin to understand the significance of a strange vernacular +name of this plant--Welcome-home-husband-though-never-so-drunk. + +But its garden flowers, clustering and nestling round it, amid which its +feet are set--they are to me the best of all flowers. These are the +flowers we know and remember for ever. The old, homely, cottage-garden +blooms, so old that they have entered the soul. The big house garden, or +gardener's garden, with everything growing in it I hate, but these I +love--fragrant gillyflower and pink and clove-smelling carnation; +wallflower, abundant periwinkle, sweet-william, larkspur, +love-in-a-mist, and love-lies-bleeding, old-woman's-nightcap, and +kiss-me-John-at-the-garden-gate, some times called pansy. And best of +all and in greatest profusion, that flower of flowers, the marigold. + +How the townsman, town born and bred, regards this flower, I do not +know. He is, in spite of all the time I have spent in his company, a +comparative stranger to me--the one living creature on the earth who +does not greatly interest me. Some over-populated planet in our system +discovered a way to relieve itself by discharging its superfluous +millions on our globe--a pale people with hurrying feet and eager, +restless minds, who live apart in monstrous, crowded camps, like wood +ants that go not out to forage for themselves--six millions of them +crowded together in one camp alone! I have lived in these colonies, +years and years, never losing the sense of captivity, of exile, ever +conscious of my burden, taking no interest in the doings of that +innumerable multitude, its manifold interests, its ideals and +philosophy, its arts and pleasures. What, then, does it matter how they +regard this common orange-coloured flower with a strong smell? For me it +has an atmosphere, a sense or suggestion of something immeasurably +remote and very beautiful--an event, a place, a dream perhaps, which has +left no distinct image, but only this feeling unlike all others, +imperishable, and not to be described except by the one word Marigold. + +But when my sight wanders away from the flower to others blooming with +it--to all those which I have named and to the taller ones, so tall that +they reach half-way up, and some even quite up, to the eaves of the +lowly houses they stand against--hollyhocks and peonies and crystalline +white lilies with powdery gold inside, and the common sunflower--I begin +to perceive that they all possess something of that same magical +quality. + +These taller blooms remind me that the evening primrose, long +naturalized in our hearts, is another common and very delightful +cottage-garden flower; also that here, on the Wylye, there is yet +another stranger from the same western world which is fast winning our +affections. This is the golden-rod, grandly beautiful in its great, +yellow, plume-like tufts. But it is not quite right to call the tufts +yellow: they are green, thickly powdered with the minute golden florets. +There is no flower in England like it, and it is a happiness to know +that it promises to establish itself with us as a wild flower. + +Where the village lies low in the valley and the cottage is near the +water, there are wild blooms, too, which almost rival those of the +garden in beauty--water agrimony and comfrey with ivory-white and dim +purple blossoms, purple and yellow loosestrife and gem-like, water +forget-me-not; all these mixed with reeds and sedges and water-grasses, +forming a fringe or border to the potato or cabbage patch, dividing it +from the stream. + +But now I have exhausted the subject of the flowers, and enumerated and +dwelt upon the various other components of the scene, it comes to me +that I have not yet said the right thing and given the Wylye its +characteristic expression. In considering the flowers we lose sight of +the downs, and so in occupying ourselves with the details we miss the +general effect. Let me then, once more, before concluding this chapter, +try to capture the secret of this little river. + +There are other chalk streams in Wiltshire and Hampshire and +Dorset--swift crystal currents that play all summer long with the +floating poa grass fast held in their pebbly beds, flowing through +smooth downs, with small ancient churches in their green villages, and +pretty thatched cottages smothered in flowers--which yet do not produce +the same effect as the Wylye. Not Avon for all its beauty, nor Itchen, +nor Test. Wherein, then, does the "Wylye bourne" differ from these +others, and what is its special attraction? It was only when I set +myself to think about it, to analyse the feeling in my own mind, that I +discovered the secret--that is, in my own case, for of its effect on +others I cannot say anything. What I discovered was that the various +elements of interest, all of which may be found in other chalk-stream +valleys, are here concentrated, or comprised in a limited space, and +seen together produce a combined effect on the mind. It is the +narrowness of the valley and the nearness of the high downs standing +over it on either side, with, at some points, the memorials of antiquity +carved on their smooth surfaces, the barrows and lynchetts or terraces, +and the vast green earth-works crowning their summit. Up here on the +turf, even with the lark singing his shrill music in the blue heavens, +you are with the prehistoric dead, yourself for the time one of that +innumerable, unsubstantial multitude, invisible in the sun, so that the +sheep travelling as they graze, and the shepherd following them, pass +through their ranks without suspecting their presence. And from that +elevation you look down upon the life of to-day--the visible life, so +brief in the individual, which, like the swift silver stream beneath, +yet flows on continuously from age to age and for ever. And even as you +look down you hear, at that distance, the bell of the little hidden +church tower telling the hour of noon, and quickly following, a shout of +freedom and joy from many shrill voices of children just released from +school. Woke to life by those sounds, and drawn down by them, you may +sit to rest or sun yourself on the stone table of a tomb overgrown on +its sides with moss, the two-century-old inscription well-nigh +obliterated, in the little grass-grown, flowery churchyard which serves +as village green and playground in that small centre of life, where the +living and the dead exist in a neighbourly way together. For it is not +here as in towns, where the dead are away and out of mind and the past +cut off. And if after basking too long in the sun in that tree-sheltered +spot you go into the little church to cool yourself, you will probably +find in a dim corner not far from the altar a stone effigy of one of an +older time; a knight in armour, perhaps a crusader with legs crossed, +lying on his back, dimly seen in the dim light, with perhaps a coloured +sunbeam on his upturned face. For this little church where the villagers +worship is very old; Norman on Saxon foundations; and before they were +ever laid there may have been a temple to some ancient god at that spot, +or a Roman villa perhaps. For older than Saxon foundations are found in +the vale, and mosaic floors, still beautiful after lying buried so long. + +All this--the far-removed events and periods in time--are not in the +conscious mind when we are in the vale or when we are looking down on it +from above: the mind is occupied with nothing but visible nature. Thus, +when I am sitting on the tomb, listening to the various sounds of life +about me, attentive to the flowers and bees and butterflies, to man or +woman or child taking a short cut through the churchyard, exchanging a +few words with them; or when I am by the water close by, watching a +little company of graylings, their delicately-shaded, silver-grey scales +distinctly seen as they lie in the crystal current watching for flies; +or when I listen to the perpetual musical talk and song combined of a +family of green-finches in the alders or willows, my mind is engaged +with these things. But if one is familiar with the vale; if one has +looked with interest and been deeply impressed with the signs and +memorials of past life and of antiquity everywhere present and forming +part of the scene, something of it and of all that it represents remains +in the subconscious mind to give a significance and feeling to the +scene, which affects us here more than in most places; and that, I take +it, is the special charm of this little valley. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +A SHEEP-DOG'S LIFE + + Watch--His visits to a dew-pond--David and his dog Monk--Watch goes to + David's assistance--Caleb's new master objects to his dog--Watch and the + corn-crake--Watch plays with rabbits and guinea-pigs--Old Nance the + rook-scarer--The lost pair of spectacles--Watch in decline--Grey hairs + in animals--A grey mole--Last days of Watch--A shepherd on old + sheep-dogs + + +Perhaps the most interesting of the many sheep-dog histories the +shepherd related was that of Watch, a dog he had at Winterbourne Bishop +for three years before he migrated to Warminster. Watch, he said, was +more "like a Christian," otherwise a reasonable being, than any other +dog he had owned. He was exceedingly active, and in hot weather suffered +more from heat than most dogs. Now the only accessible water when they +were out on the down was in the mist-pond about a quarter of a mile from +his "liberty," as he called that portion of the down on which he was +entitled to pasture his sheep. When Watch could stand his sufferings no +longer, he would run to his master, and sitting at his feet look up at +his face and emit a low, pleading whine. + +"What be you wanting, Watch--a drink or a swim?" the shepherd would say, +and Watch, cocking up his ears, would repeat the whine. + +"Very well, go to the pond," Bawcombe would say, and off Watch would +rush, never pausing until he got to the water, and dashing in he would +swim round and round, lapping the water as he bathed. + +At the side of the pond there was a large, round sarsen-stone, and +invariably on coming out of his bath Watch would jump upon it, and with +his four feet drawn up close together would turn round and round, +surveying the country from that elevation; then jumping down he would +return in all haste to his duties. + +Another anecdote, which relates to the Winterbourne Bishop period, is a +somewhat painful one, and is partly about Monk, the sheep-dog already +described as a hunter of foxes, and his tragic end. Caleb had worked him +for a time, but when he came into possession of Watch he gave Monk to +his younger brother David, who was under-shepherd on the same farm. + +One morning Caleb was with the ewes in a field, when David, who was in +charge of the lambs two or three fields away, came to him looking very +strange--very much put out. + +"What are you here for--what's wrong with 'ee?" demanded Caleb. + +"Nothing's wrong," returned the other. + +"Where's Monk then?" asked Caleb. + +"Dead," said David. + +"Dead! How's he dead?" + +"I killed'n. He wouldn't mind me and made me mad, and I up with my stick +and gave him one crack on the head and it killed'n." + +"You killed 'n!" exclaimed Caleb. "An' you come here an' tell I +nothing's wrong! Is that a right way to speak of such a thing as that? +What be you thinking of? And what be you going to do with the lambs?" + +"I'm just going back to them--I'm going to do without a dog. I'm going +to put them in the rape and they'll be all right." + +"What! put them in the rape and no dog to help 'ee?" cried the other. +"You are not doing things right, but master mustn't pay for it. Take +Watch to help 'ee--I must do without'n this morning." + +"No, I'll not take'n," he said, for he was angry because he had done an +evil thing and he would have no one, man or dog, to help him. "I'll do +better without a dog," he said, and marched off. + +Caleb cried after him: "If you won't have the dog don't let the lambs +suffer but do as I tell 'ee. Don't you let 'em bide in the rape more 'n +ten minutes; then chase them out, and let 'em stand twenty minutes to +half an hour; then let them in another ten minutes and out again for +twenty minutes, then let them go back and feed in it quietly, for the +danger 'll be over. If you don't do as I tell 'ee you'll have many +blown." + +David listened, then without a word went his way. But Caleb was still +much troubled in his mind. How would he get that flock of hungry lambs +out of the rape without a dog? And presently he determined to send +Watch, or try to send him, to save the situation. David had been gone +half an hour when he called the dog, and pointing in the direction he +had taken he cried, "Dave wants 'ee--go to Dave." + +Watch looked at him and listened, then bounded away, and after running +full speed about fifty yards stopped to look back to make sure he was +doing the right thing. "Go to Dave," shouted Caleb once more; and away +went Watch again, and arriving at a very high gate at the end of the +field dashed at and tried two or three times to get over it, first by +jumping, then by climbing, and falling back each time. But by and by he +managed to force his way through the thick hedge and was gone from +sight. + +When David came back that evening he was in a different mood, and said +that Watch had saved him from a great misfortune: he could never have +got the lambs out by himself, as they were mad for the rape. For some +days after this Watch served two masters. Caleb would take him to his +ewes, and after a while would say, "Go--Dave wants 'ee," and away Watch +would go to the other shepherd and flock. + +When Bawcombe had taken up his new place at Doveton, his master, Mr. +Ellerby, watched him for a while with sharp eyes, but he was soon +convinced that he had not made a mistake in engaging a head-shepherd +twenty-five miles away without making the usual inquiries but merely on +the strength of something heard casually in conversation about this man. +But while more than satisfied with the man he remained suspicious of the +dog. "I'm afraid that dog of yours must hurt the sheep," he would say, +and he even advised him to change him for one that worked in a quieter +manner. Watch was too excitable, too impetuous--he could not go after +the sheep in that violent way and grab them as he did without injuring +them with his teeth. + +"He did never bite a sheep in his life," Bawcombe assured him, and +eventually he was able to convince his master that Watch could make a +great show of biting the sheep without doing them the least hurt--that +it was actually against his nature to bite or injure anything. + +One day in the late summer, when the corn had been cut but not carried, +Bawcombe was with his flock on the edge of a newly reaped cornfield in a +continuous, heavy rain, when he spied his master coming to him. He was +in a very light summer suit and straw hat, and had no umbrella or other +protection from the pouring rain. "What be wrong with master to-day?" +said Bawcombe. "He's tarrably upset to be out like this in such a rain +in a straw hat and no coat." + +Mr. Ellerby had by that time got into the habit when troubled in his +mind of going out to his shepherd to have a long talk with him. Not a +talk about his trouble--that was some secret bitterness in his +heart--but just about the sheep and other ordinary topics, and the talk, +Caleb said, would seem to do him good. But this habit he had got into +was observed by others, and the farm-men would say, "Something's wrong +to-day--the master's gone off to the head-shepherd." + +When he came to where Bawcombe was standing, in a poor shelter by the +side of a fence, he at once started talking on indifferent subjects, +standing there quite unconcerned, as if he didn't even know that it was +raining, though his thin clothes were wet through, and the water coming +through his straw hat was running in streaks down his face. By and by he +became interested in the dog's movements, playing about in the rain +among the stocks. "What has he got in his mouth?" he asked presently. + +"Come here, Watch," the shepherd called, and when Watch came he bent +down and took a corncrake from his mouth. He had found the bird hiding +in one of the stocks and had captured without injuring it. + +"Why, it's alive--the dog hasn't hurt it," said the farmer, taking it in +his hands to examine it. + +"Watch never hurted any creature yet," said Bawcombe. He caught things +just for his own amusement, but never injured them--he always let them +go again. He would hunt mice in the fields, and when he captured one he +would play with it like a cat, tossing it from him, then dashing after +and recapturing it. Finally, he would let it go. He played with rabbits +in the same way, and if you took a rabbit from him and examined it you +would find it quite uninjured. + +The farmer said it was wonderful--he had never heard of a case like it +before; and talking of Watch he succeeded in forgetting the trouble in +his mind which had sent him out in the rain in his thin clothes and +straw hat, and he went away in a cheerful mood. + +Caleb probably forgot to mention during this conversation with his +master that in most cases when Watch captured a rabbit he took it to his +master and gave it into his hands, as much as to say, Here is a very big +sort of field-mouse I have caught, rather difficult to manage--perhaps +_you_ can do something with it? + +The shepherd had many other stories about this curious disposition of +his dog. When he had been some months in his new place his brother David +followed him to the Wylye, having obtained a place as shepherd on a farm +adjoining Mr. Ellerby's. His cottage was a little out of the village and +had some ground to it, with a nice lawn or green patch. David was fond +of keeping animal pets--birds in cages, and rabbits and guinea-pigs in +hutches, the last so tame that he would release them on the grass to see +them play with one another. When Watch first saw these pets he was very +much attracted, and wanted to get to them, and after a good deal of +persuasion on the part of Caleb, David one day consented to take them +out and put them on the grass in the dog's presence. They were a little +alarmed at first, but in a surprisingly short time made the discovery +that this particular dog was not their enemy but a playmate. He rolled +on the grass among them, and chased them round and round, and sometimes +caught and pretended to worry them, and they appeared to think it very +good fun. + +"Watch," said Bawcombe, "in the fifteen years I had 'n, never killed and +never hurt a creature, no, not even a leetel mouse, and when he caught +anything 'twere only to play with it." + +Watch comes into a story of an old woman employed at the farm at this +period. She had been in the Warminster workhouse for a short time, and +had there heard that a daughter of a former mistress in another part of +the county had long been married and was now the mistress of Doveton +Farm, close by. Old Nance thereupon obtained her release and trudged to +Doveton, and one very rough, cold day presented herself at the farm to +beg for something to do which would enable her to keep herself. If there +was nothing for her she must, she said, go back and end her days in the +Warminster workhouse. Mrs. Ellerby remembered and pitied her, and going +in to her husband begged him earnestly to find some place on the farm +for the forlorn old creature. He did not see what could be done for her: +they already had one old woman on their hands, who mended sacks and did +a few other trifling things, but for another old woman there would be +nothing to do. Then he went in and had a good long look at her, +revolving the matter in his mind, anxious to please his wife, and +finally, he asked her if she could scare the crows. He could think of +nothing else. Of course she could scare crows--it was the very thing for +her! Well, he said, she could go and look after the swedes; the rooks +had just taken a liking to them, and even if she was not very active +perhaps she would be able to keep them off. + +Old Nance got up to go and begin her duties at once. Then the farmer, +looking at her clothes, said he would give her something more to protect +her from the weather on such a bleak day. He got her an old felt hat, a +big old frieze overcoat, and a pair of old leather leggings. When she +had put on these somewhat cumbrous things, and had tied her hat firmly +on with a strip of cloth, and fastened the coat at the waist with a +cord, she was told to go to the head-shepherd and ask him to direct her +to the field where the rooks were troublesome. Then when she was setting +out the farmer called her back and gave her an ancient, rusty gun to +scare the birds. "It isn't loaded," he said, with a grim smile. "I don't +allow powder and shot, but if you'll point it at them they'll fly fast +enough." + +Thus arrayed and armed she set forth, and Caleb seeing her approach at a +distance was amazed at her grotesque appearance, and even more amazed +still when she explained who and what she was and asked him to direct +her to the field of swedes. + +Some hours later the farmer came to him and asked him casually if he had +seen an old gallus-crow about. + +"Well," replied the shepherd, "I seen an old woman in man's coat and +things, with an old gun, and I did tell she where to bide." + +"I think it will be rather cold for the old body in that field," said +the farmer. "I'd like you to get a couple of padded hurdles and put them +up for a shelter for her." + +And in the shelter of the padded or thatched hurdles, by the hedge-side, +old Nance spent her days keeping guard over the turnips, and afterwards +something else was found for her to do, and in the meanwhile she lodged +in Caleb's cottage and became like one of the family. She was fond of +the children and of the dog, and Watch became so much attached to her +that had it not been for his duties with the flock he would have +attended her all day in the fields to help her with the crows. + +Old Nance had two possessions she greatly prized--a book and a pair of +spectacles, and it was her custom to spend the day sitting, spectacles +on nose and book in hand, reading among the turnips. Her spectacles were +so "tarrable" good that they suited all old eyes, and when this was +discovered they were in great request in the village, and every person +who wanted to do a bit of fine sewing or anything requiring young vision +in old eyes would borrow them for the purpose. One day the old woman +returned full of trouble from the fields--she had lost her spectacles; +she must, she thought, have lent them to some one in the village on the +previous evening and then forgotten all about it. But no one had them, +and the mysterious loss of the spectacles was discussed and lamented by +everybody. A day or two later Caleb came through the turnips on his way +home, the dog at his heels, and when he got to his cottage Watch came +round and placed himself square before his master and deposited the lost +spectacles at his feet. He had found them in the turnip-field over a +mile from home, and though but a dog he remembered that he had seen them +on people's noses and in their hands, and knew that they must therefore +be valuable--not to himself, but to that larger and more important kind +of dog that goes about on its hind legs. + +There is always a sad chapter in the life-history of a dog; it is the +last one, which tells of his decline; and it is ever saddest in the case +of the sheep-dog, because he has lived closer to man and has served him +every day of his life with all his powers, all his intelligence, in the +one useful and necessary work he is fitted for or which we have found +for him to do. The hunting and the pet, or parasite, dogs--the "dogs for +sport and pleasure"--though one in species with him are not like beings +of the same order; they are like professional athletes and performers, +and smart or fashionable people compared to those who do the work of the +world--who feed us and clothe us. We are accustomed to speak of dogs +generally as the servants and the friends of man; it is only of the +sheep-dog that this can be said with absolute truth. Not only is he the +faithful servant of the solitary man who shepherds his flock, but the +dog's companionship is as much to him as that of a fellow-being would +be. + +Before his long and strenuous life was finished. Watch, originally +jet-black without a spot, became quite grey, the greyness being most +marked on the head, which became at last almost white. + +It is undoubtedly the case that some animals, like men, turn grey with +age, and Watch when fifteen was relatively as old as a man at sixty-five +or seventy. But grey hairs do not invariably come with age, even in our +domestic animals, which are more subject to this change than those in a +state of nature. But we are never so well able to judge of this in the +case of wild animals, as in most cases their lives end prematurely. + +The shepherd related a curious instance in a mole. He once noticed +mole-heaps of a peculiar kind in a field of sainfoin, and it looked to +him as if this mole worked in a way of his own, quite unlike the others. +The hills he threw up were a good distance apart, and so large that you +could fill a bushel measure with the mould from any one of them. He +noticed that this mole went on burrowing every day in the same manner; +every morning there were new chains or ranges of the huge mounds. The +runs were very deep, as he found when setting a mole-trap--over two feet +beneath the surface. He set his trap, filling the deep hole he had made +with sods, and on opening it next day he found his mole and was +astonished at its great size. He took no measurements, but it was +bigger, he affirmed, than he could have believed it possible for a mole +to be. And it was grey instead of black, the grey hairs being so +abundant on the head as to make it almost white, as in the case of old +Watch. He supposed that it was a very old mole, that it was a more +powerful digger than most of its kind, and had perhaps escaped death so +long on account of its strength and of its habit of feeding deeper in +the earth than the others. + +To return to Watch. His hearing and eyesight failed as he grew older +until he was practically blind and too deaf to hear any word given in +the ordinary way. But he continued strong as ever on his legs, and his +mind was not decayed, nor was he in the least tired. On the contrary, he +was always eager to work, and as his blindness and deafness had made him +sharper in other ways he was still able to make himself useful with the +sheep. Whenever the hurdles were shifted to a fresh place and the sheep +had to be kept in a corner of the enclosure until the new place was +ready for them, it was old Watch's duty to keep them from breaking away. +He could not see nor hear, but in some mysterious way he knew when they +tried to get out, even if it was but one. Possibly the slight vibration +of the ground informed him of the movement and the direction as well. He +would make a dash and drive the sheep back, then run up and down before +the flock until all was quiet again. But at last it became painful to +witness his efforts, especially when the sheep were very restless, and +incessantly trying to break away; and Watch finding them so hard to +restrain would grow angry and rush at them with such fury that he would +come violently against the hurdles at one side, then getting up, howling +with pain, he would dash to the other side, when he would strike the +hurdles there and cry out with pain once more. + +It could not be allowed to go on; yet Watch could not endure to be +deprived of his work; if left at home he would spend the time whining +and moaning, praying to be allowed to go to the flock, until at last his +master with a very heavy heart was compelled to have him put to death. + +This is indeed almost invariably the end of a sheepdog; however zealous +and faithful he may have been, and however much valued and loved, he +must at last be put to death. I related the story of this dog to a +shepherd in the very district where Watch had lived and served his +master so well--one who had been head-shepherd for upwards of forty +years at Imber Court, the principal farm at the small downland village +of Imber. He told me that during all his shepherding years he had never +owned a dog which had passed out of his hands to another; every dog had +been acquired as a pup and trained by himself; and he had been very fond +of his dogs, but had always been compelled to have them shot in the end. +Not because he would have found them too great a burden when they had +become too old and their senses decayed, but because it was painful to +see them in their decline, perpetually craving to be at their old work +with the sheep, incapable of doing it any longer, yet miserable if kept +from it. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +THE ELLERBYS OF DOVETON + + The Bawcombes at Doveton Farm--Caleb finds favour with his master--Mrs. + Ellerby and the shepherd's wife--The passion of a childless wife--The + curse--A story of the "mob"--The attack on the farm--A man transported + for life--The hundred and ninth Psalm--The end of the Ellerbys + + +Caleb and his wife invariably spoke of their time at Doveton Farm in a +way which gave one the idea that they regarded it as the most important +period of their lives. It had deeply impressed them, and doubtless it +was a great change for them to leave their native village for the first +time in their lives and go long miles from home among strangers to serve +a new master. Above everything they felt leaving the old father who was +angry with them, and had gone to the length of disowning them for taking +such a step. But there was something besides all this which had served +to give Doveton an enduring place in their memories, and after many +talks with the old couple about their Warminster days I formed the idea +that it was more to them than any other place where they had lived, +because of a personal feeling they cherished for their master and +mistress there. + +Hitherto Caleb had been in the service of men who were but a little way +removed in thought and feeling from those they employed. They were +mostly small men, born and bred in the parish, some wholly self-made, +with no interest or knowledge of anything outside their own affairs, and +almost as far removed as the labourers themselves from the ranks above. +The Ellerbys were of another stamp, or a different class. If not a +gentleman, Mr. Ellerby was very like one and was accustomed to associate +with gentlemen. He was a farmer, descended from a long line of farmers; +but he owned his own land, and was an educated and travelled man, +considered wealthy for a farmer; at all events he was able to keep his +carriage and riding and hunting horses in his stables, and he was +regarded as the best breeder of sheep in the district. He lived in a +good house, which with its pictures and books and beautiful decorations +and furniture appeared to their simple minds extremely luxurious. This +atmosphere was somewhat disconcerting to them at first, for although he +knew his own value, priding himself on being a "good shepherd," Caleb +had up till now served with farmers who were in a sense on an equality +with him, and they understood him and he them. But in a short time the +feeling of strangeness vanished: personally, as a fellow-man, his master +soon grew to be more to him than any farmer he had yet been with. And he +saw a good deal of his master. Mr. Ellerby cultivated his acquaintance, +and, as we have seen, got into the habit of seeking him out and talking +to him even when he was at a distance out on the down with his flock. +And Caleb could not but see that in this respect he was preferred above +the other men employed on the farm--that he had "found favour" in his +master's eyes. + +When he had told me that story about Watch and the corn-crake, it stuck +in my mind, and on the first opportunity I went back to that subject to +ask what it really was that made his master act in such an extraordinary +manner--to go out on a pouring wet day in a summer suit and straw hat, +and walk a mile or two just to stand there in the rain talking to him +about nothing in particular. What secret trouble had he--was it that his +affairs were in a bad way, or was he quarrelling with his wife? No, +nothing of the kind; it was a long story--this secret trouble of the +Ellerbys, and with his unconquerable reticence in regard to other +people's private affairs he would have passed it off with a few general +remarks. + +But there was his old wife listening to us, and, woman-like, eager to +discuss such a subject, she would not let it pass. She would tell it and +would not be silenced by him: they were all dead and gone--why should I +not be told if I wanted to hear it? And so with a word put in here and +there by him when she talked, and with a good many words interposed by +her when he took up the tale, they unfolded the story, which was very +long as they told it and must be given briefly here. + +It happened that when the Bawcombes settled at Doveton, just as Mr. +Ellerby had taken to the shepherd, making a friend of him, so Mrs. +Ellerby took to the shepherd's wife, and fell into the habit of paying +frequent visits to her in her cottage. She was a very handsome woman, of +a somewhat stately presence, dignified in manner, and she wore her +abundant hair in curls hanging on each side to her shoulders--a fashion +common at that time. From the first she appeared to take a particular +interest in the Bawcombes, and they could not but notice that she was +more gracious and friendly towards them than to the others of their +station on the farm. The Bawcombes had three children then, aged six, +four, and two years respectively, all remarkably healthy, with rosy +cheeks and black eyes, and they were merry-tempered little things. Mrs. +Ellerby appeared much taken with the children; praised their mother for +always keeping them so clean and nicely dressed, and wondered how she +could manage it on their small earnings. The carter and his wife lived +in a cottage close by, and they, too, had three little children, and +next to the carter's was the bailiff's cottage, and he, too, was married +and had children; but Mrs. Ellerby never went into their cottages, and +the shepherd and his wife concluded that it was because in both cases +the children were rather puny, sickly-looking little things and were +never very clean. The carter's wife, too, was a slatternly woman. One +day when Mrs. Ellerby came in to see Mrs. Bawcombe the carter's wife was +just going out of the door, and Mrs. Ellerby appeared displeased, and +before leaving she said, "I hope, Mrs. Bawcombe, you are not going to +mix too freely with your neighbours or let your children go too much +with them and fall into their ways." They also observed that when she +passed their neighbours' children in the lane she spoke no word and +appeared not to see them. Yet she was kind to them too, and whenever she +brought a big parcel of cakes, fruit, and sweets for the children, which +she often did, she would tell the shepherd's wife to divide it into +three lots, one for her own children and the others for those of her two +neighbours. It was clear to see that Mrs. Ellerby had grown fond of her +children, especially of the eldest, the little rosy-cheeked six-year-old +boy. Sitting in the cottage she would call him to her side and would +hold his hand while conversing with his mother; she would also bare the +child's arm just for the pleasure of rubbing it with her hand and +clasping it round with her fingers, and sometimes when caressing the +child in this way she would turn her face aside to hide the tears that +dropped from her eyes. + +She had no child of her own--the one happiness which she and her husband +desired above all things. Six times in their ten married years they had +hoped and rejoiced, although with fear and trembling, that their prayer +would be answered, but in vain--every child born to them came lifeless +into the world. "And so 'twould always be, for sure," said the +villagers, "because of the curse." + +For it was a cause of wonder to the shepherd and his wife that this +couple, so strong and healthy, so noble-looking, so anxious to have +children, should have been so unfortunate, and still the villagers +repeated that it was the curse that was on them. + +This made the shepherd angry. "What be you saying about a curse that is +on them?--a good man and a good woman!" he would exclaim, and taking up +his crook go out and leave them to their gossip. He would not ask them +what they meant; he refused to listen when they tried to tell him; but +in the end he could not help knowing, since the idea had become a fixed +one in the minds of all the villagers, and he could not keep it out. +"Look at them," the gossipers would say, "as fine a couple as you ever +saw, and no child; and look at his two brothers, fine, big, strong, +well-set-up men, both married to fine healthy women, and never a child +living to any of them. And the sisters unmarried! 'Tis the curse and +nothing else." + +The curse had been uttered against Mr. Ellerby's father, who was in his +prime in the year 1831 at the time of the "mob," when the introduction +of labour-saving machinery in agriculture sent the poor farm-labourers +mad all over England. Wheat was at a high price at that time, and the +farmers were exceedingly prosperous, but they paid no more than seven +shillings a week to their miserable labourers. And if they were +half-starved when there was work for all, when the corn was reaped with +sickles, what would their condition be when reaping machines and other +new implements of husbandry came into use? They would not suffer it; +they would gather in bands everywhere and destroy the machinery, and +being united they would be irresistible; and so it came about that there +were risings or "mobs" all over the land. + +Mr. Ellerby, the most prosperous and enterprising farmer in the parish, +had been the first to introduce the new methods. He did not believe that +the people would rise against him, for he well knew that he was regarded +as a just and kind man and was even loved by his own labourers, but even +if it had not been so he would not have hesitated to carry out his +resolution, as he was a high-spirited man. But one day the villagers got +together and came unexpectedly to his barns, where they set to work to +destroy his new thrashing machine. When he was told he rushed out and +went in hot haste to the scene, and as he drew near some person in the +crowd threw a heavy hammer at him, which struck him on the head and +brought him senseless to the ground. + +He was not seriously injured, but when he recovered the work of +destruction had been done and the men had gone back to their homes, and +no one could say who had led them and who had thrown the hammer. But by +and by the police discovered that the hammer was the property of a +shoemaker in the village, and he was arrested and charged with injuring +with intent to murder. Tried with many others from other villages in the +district at the Salisbury Assizes, he was found guilty and sentenced to +transportation for life. Yet the Doveton shoemaker was known to every +one as a quiet, inoffensive young man, and to the last he protested his +innocence, for although he had gone with the others to the farm he had +not taken the hammer and was guiltless of having thrown it. + +Two years after he had been sent away Mr. Ellerby received a letter with +an Australian postmark on it, but on opening it found nothing but a long +denunciatory passage from the Bible enclosed, with no name or address. +Mr. Ellerby was much disturbed in his mind, and instead of burning the +paper and holding his peace, he kept it and spoke about it to this +person and that, and every one went to his Bible to find out what +message the poor shoemaker had sent, for it had been discovered that it +was the one hundred and ninth Psalm, or a great portion of it, and this +is what they read:-- + +"Let the iniquity of his fathers be remembered with the Lord; and let +not the sin of his mother be blotted out. + +"Let them be before the Lord continually, that he may cut off the memory +of them from the earth. + +"Because that he remembered not to show mercy, but persecuted the poor +and needy man, that he might even slay the broken in heart. + +"As he loved cursing, so let it come unto him; as he delighted not in +blessing, so let it be far from him. + +"As he clothed himself with cursing like as with a garment, so let it +come into his bowels like water, and like oil into his bones. + +"Let it be unto him as a garment which covereth him, and for a girdle +wherewith he is girded continually. + +"But do Thou for me, O God the Lord, for Thy name's sake. For I am poor +and needy, and my heart is wounded within me. + +"I am come like the shadow when it declineth: I am tossed up and down as +the locust. + +"My knees are weak through fasting; and my flesh faileth of fatness." + +From that time the hundred and ninth Psalm became familiar to the +villagers, and there were probably not many who did not get it by heart. +There was no doubt in their minds of the poor shoemaker's innocence. +Every one knew that he was incapable of hurting a fly. The crowd had +gone into his shop and swept him away with them--all were in it; and +some person seeing the hammer had taken it to help in smashing the +machinery. And Mr. Ellerby had known in his heart that he was innocent, +and if he had spoken a word for him in court he would have got the +benefit of the doubt and been discharged. But no, he wanted to have his +revenge on some one, and he held his peace and allowed this poor fellow +to be made the victim. Then, when he died, and his eldest son succeeded +him at Doveton Farm, and he and the other sons got married, and there +were no children, or none born alive, they went back to the Psalm again +and read and re-read and quoted the words: "Let his posterity be cut +off; and in the generation following let their name be blotted out." +Undoubtedly the curse was on them! + +Alas! it was; the curse was their belief in the curse, and the dreadful +effect of the knowledge of it on a woman's mind--all the result of Mr. +Ellerby the father's fatal mistake in not having thrown the scrap of +paper that came to him from the other side of the world into the fire. +All the unhappiness of the "generation following" came about in this +way, and the family came to an end; for when the last of the Ellerbys +died at a great age there was not one person of the name left in that +part of Wiltshire. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +OLD WILTSHIRE DAYS + + Old memories--Hindon as a borough and as a village--The Lamb Inn and its + birds--The "mob" at Hindon--The blind smuggler--Rawlings of Lower + Pertwood Farm--Reed, the thresher and deer-stealer--He leaves a + fortune--Devotion to work--Old Father Time--Groveley Wood and the + people's rights--Grace Reed and the Earl of Pembroke--An illusion of the + very aged--Sedan-chairs in Bath--Stick-gathering by the + poor--Game-preserving + + +The incident of the unhappy young man who was transported to Australia +or Tasmania, which came out in the shepherd's history of the Ellerby +family, put it in my mind to look up some of the very aged people of the +downland villages, whose memories could go back to the events of eighty +years ago. I found a few, "still lingering here," who were able to +recall that miserable and memorable year of 1830 and had witnessed the +doings of the "mobs." One was a woman, my old friend of Fonthill Bishop, +now aged ninety-four, who was in her teens when the poor labourers, "a +thousand strong," some say, armed with cudgels, hammers, and axes, +visited her village and broke up the thrashing machines they found +there. + +Another person who remembered that time was an old but remarkably +well-preserved man of eighty-nine at Hindon, a village a couple of miles +distant from Fonthill Bishop. Hindon is a delightful little village, so +rustic and pretty amidst its green, swelling downs, with great woods +crowning the heights beyond, that one can hardly credit the fact that it +was formerly an important market and session town and a Parliamentary +borough returning two members; also that it boasted among other +greatnesses thirteen public-houses. Now it has two, and not flourishing +in these tea- and mineral-water drinking days. Naturally it was an +exceeedingly corrupt little borough, where free beer for all was the +order of the day for a period of four to six weeks before an election, +and where every householder with a vote looked to receive twenty guineas +from the candidate of his choice. It is still remembered that when a +householder in those days was very hard up, owing, perhaps, to his too +frequent visits to the thirteen public-houses, he would go to some +substantial tradesman in the place and pledge his twenty guineas, due at +the next election! In due time, after the Reform Bill, it was deprived +of its glory, and later when the South-Western Railway built their line +from Salisbury to Yeovil and left Hindon some miles away, making their +station at Tisbury, it fell into decay, dwindling to the small village +it now is; and its last state, sober and purified, is very much better +than the old. For although sober, it is contented and even merry, and +exhibits such a sweet friendliness toward the stranger within its gates +as to make him remember it with pleasure and gratitude. + +What a quiet little place Hindon has become, after its old noisy period, +the following little bird story will show. For several weeks during the +spring and summer of 1909 my home was at the Lamb Inn, a famous +posting-house of the great old days, and we had three pairs of +birds--throstle, pied wagtail, and flycatcher--breeding in the ivy +covering the wall facing the village street, just over my window. I +watched them when building, incubating, feeding their young, and +bringing their young off. The villagers, too, were interested in the +sight, and sometimes a dozen or more men and boys would gather and stand +for half an hour watching the birds flying in and out of their nests +when feeding their young. The last to come off were the flycatchers, on +18th June. It was on the morning of the day I left, and one of the +little things flitted into the room where I was having my breakfast. I +succeeded in capturing it before the cats found out, and put it back on +the ivy. There were three young birds; I had watched them from the time +they hatched, and when I returned a fortnight later, there were the +three, still being fed by their parents in the trees and on the roof, +their favourite perching-place being on the swinging sign of the "Lamb." +Whenever an old bird darted at and captured a fly the three young would +flutter round it like three butterflies to get the fly. This continued +until 18th July, after which date I could not detect their feeding the +young, although the hunger-call was occasionally heard. + +If the flycatcher takes a month to teach its young to catch their own +flies, it is not strange that it breeds but once in the year. It is a +delicate art the bird practises and takes long to learn, but how +different with the martin, which dismisses its young in a few days and +begins breeding again, even to the third time! + +These three broods over my window were not the only ones in the place; +there were at least twenty other pairs in the garden and outhouses of +the inn--sparrows, thrushes, blackbirds, dunnocks, wrens, starlings, and +swallows. Yet the inn was in the very centre of the village, and being +an inn was the most frequented and noisiest spot. + +To return to my old friend of eighty-nine. He was but a small boy, +attending the Hindon school, when the rioters appeared on the scene, and +he watched their entry from the schoolhouse window. It was market-day, +and the market was stopped by the invaders, and the agricultural +machines brought for sale and exhibition were broken up. The picture +that remains in his mind is of a great excited crowd in which men and +cattle and sheep were mixed together in the wide street, which was the +market-place, and of shouting and noise of smashing machinery, and +finally of the mob pouring forth over the down on its way to the next +village, he and other little boys following their march. + +The smuggling trade flourished greatly at that period, and there were +receivers and distributors of smuggled wine, spirits, and other +commodities in every town and in very many villages throughout the +county in spite of its distance from the sea-coast. One of his memories +is of a blind man of the village, or town as it was then, who was used +as an assistant in this business. He had lost his sight in childhood, +one eye having been destroyed by a ferret which got into his cradle; +then, when he was about six years old he was running across the room one +day with a fork it his hand when he stumbled, and falling on the floor +had the other eye pierced by the prongs. But in spite of his blindness +he became a good worker, and could make a fence, reap, trim hedges, feed +the animals, and drive a horse as well as any man. His father had a +small farm and was a carrier as well, a quiet, sober, industrious man +who was never suspected by his neighbours of being a smuggler, for he +never left his house and work, but from time to time he had little +consignments of rum and brandy in casks received on a dark night and +carefully stowed away in his manure heap and in a pit under the floor of +his pigsty. Then the blind son would drive his old mother in the +carrier's cart to Bath and call at a dozen or twenty private houses, +leaving parcels which had been already ordered and paid for--a gallon of +brandy at one, two or four gallons of rum at another, and so on, until +all was got rid of, and on the following day they would return with +goods to Hindon. This quiet little business went on satisfactorily for +some years, during which the officers of the excise had stared a +thousand times with their eagle's eyes at the quaint old woman in her +poke bonnet and shawl, driven by a blind man with a vacant face, and had +suspected nothing, when a little mistake was made and a jar of brandy +delivered at a wrong address. The recipient was an honest gentleman, and +in his anxiety to find the rightful owner of the brandy made extensive +inquiries in his neighbourhood, and eventually the excisemen got wind of +the affair, and on the very next visit of the old woman and her son to +Bath they were captured. After an examination before a magistrate the +son was discharged on account of his blindness, but the cart and horses, +as well as the smuggled spirits, were confiscated, and the poor blind +man had to make his way on foot to Hindon. + +Another of his recollections is of a family named Rawlings, tenants of +Lower Pertwood Farm, near Hindon, a lonely, desolate-looking house +hidden away in a deep hollow among the high downs. The Farmer Rawlings +of seventy or eighty years ago was a man of singular ideas, and that he +was permitted to put them in practice shows that severe as was the law +in those days, and dreadful the punishments inflicted on offenders, +there was a kind of liberty which does not exist now--the liberty a man +had of doing just what he thought proper in his own house. This Rawlings +had a numerous family, and some died at home and others lived to grow up +and go out into the world under strange names--Faith, Hope, and Charity +were three of his daughters, and Justice, Morality, and Fortitude three +of his sons. Now, for some reason Rawlings objected to the burial of his +dead in the churchyard of the nearest village--Monkton Deverill, and the +story is that he quarrelled with the rector over the question of the +church bell being tolled for the funeral. He would have no bell tolled, +he swore, and the rector would bury no one without the bell. Thereupon +Rawlings had the coffined corpse deposited on a table in an outhouse and +the door made fast. Later there was another death, then a third, and all +three were kept in the same place for several years, and although it was +known to the whole countryside no action was taken by the local +authorities. + +My old informant says that he was often at the farm when he was a young +man, and he used to steal round to the "Dead House," as it was called, +to peep through a crack in the door and see the three coffins resting on +the table in the dim interior. + +Eventually the dead disappeared a little while before the Rawlings gave +up the farm, and it was supposed that the old farmer had buried them in +the night-time in one of the neighbouring chalk-pits, but the spot has +never been discovered. + +One of the stories of the old Wiltshire days I picked up was from an old +woman, aged eighty-seven, in the Wilton workhouse. She has a vivid +recollection of a labourer named Reed, in Odstock, a village on the +Ebble near Salisbury, a stern, silent man, who was a marvel of strength +and endurance. The work in which he most delighted was precisely that +which most labourers hated, before threshing machines came in despite +the action of the "mobs"--threshing out corn with the flail. From +earliest dawn till after dark he would sit or stand in a dim, dusty +barn, monotonously pounding away, without an interval to rest, and +without dinner, and with no food but a piece of bread and a pinch of +salt. Without the salt he would not eat the bread. An hour after all +others had ceased from work he would put on his coat and trudge home to +his wife and family. + +The woman in the workhouse remembers that once, when Reed was a very old +man past work, he came to their cottage for something, and while he +stood waiting at the entrance, a little boy ran in and asked his mother +for a piece of bread and butter with sugar on it. Old Reed glared at +him, and shaking his big stick, exclaimed, "I'd give you sugar with this +if you were my boy!" and so terrible did he look in his anger at the +luxury of the times, that the little boy burst out crying and ran away! + +What chiefly interested me about this old man was that he was a +deer-stealer of the days when that offence was common in the country. It +was not so great a crime as sheep-stealing, for which men were hanged; +taking a deer was punished with nothing worse than hard labour, as a +rule. But Reed was never caught; he would labour his full time and steal +away after dark over the downs, to return in the small hours with a deer +on his back. It was not for his own consumption; he wanted the money for +which he sold it in Salisbury; and it is probable that he was in league +with other poachers, as it is hard to believe that he could capture the +animals single-handed. + +After his death it was found that old Reed had left a hundred pounds to +each of his two surviving daughters, and it was a wonder to everybody +how he had managed not only to bring up a family and keep himself out of +the workhouse to the end of his long life, but to leave so large a sum +of money. One can only suppose that he was a rigid economist and never +had a week's illness, and that by abstaining from beer and tobacco he +was able to save a couple of shillings each week out of his wages of +seven or eight shillings; this, in forty years, would make the two +hundred pounds with something over. + +It is not a very rare thing to find a farm-labourer like old Reed of +Odstock, with not only a strong preference for a particular kind of +work, but a love of it as compelling as that of an artist for his art. +Some friends of mine whom I went to visit over the border in Dorset told +me of an enthusiast of this description who had recently died in the +village. "What a pity you did not come sooner," they said. Alas! it is +nearly always so; on first coming to stay at a village one is told that +it has but just lost its oldest and most interesting inhabitant--a +relic of the olden time. + +This man had taken to the scythe as Reed had to the flail, and was never +happy unless he had a field to mow. He was a very tall old man, so lean +that he looked like a skeleton, the bones covered with a skin as brown +as old leather, and he wore his thin grey hair and snow-white beard very +long. He rode on a white donkey, and was usually seen mounted galloping +down the village street, hatless, his old brown, bare feet and legs +drawn up to keep them from the ground, his scythe over his shoulder. +"Here comes old Father Time," they would cry, as they called him, and +run to the door to gaze with ever fresh delight at the wonderful old man +as he rushed by, kicking and shouting at his donkey to make him go +faster. He was always in a hurry, hunting for work with furious zeal, +and when he got a field to mow so eager was he that he would not sleep +at home, even if it was close by, but would lie down on the grass at the +side of the field and start working at dawn, between two and three +o'clock, quite three hours before the world woke up to its daily toil. + +The name of Reed, the zealous thresher with the flail, serves to remind +me of yet another Reed, a woman who died a few years ago aged +ninety-four, and whose name should be cherished in one of the downland +villages. She was a native of Barford St. Martin on the Nadder, one of +two villages, the other being Wishford, on the Wylye river, the +inhabitants of which have the right to go into Groveley Wood, an immense +forest on the Wilton estate, to obtain wood for burning, each person +being entitled to take home as much wood as he or she can carry. The +people of Wishford take green wood, but those of Barford only dead, they +having bartered their right at a remote period to cut growing trees for +a yearly sum of five pounds, which the lord of the manor still pays to +the village, and, in addition, the right to take dead wood. + +It will be readily understood that this right possessed by the people of +two villages, both situated within a mile of the forest, has been a +perpetual source of annoyance to the noble owners in modern times, since +the strict preservation of game, especially of pheasants, has grown to +be almost a religion to the landowners. Now it came to pass that about +half a century or longer ago, the Pembroke of that time made the happy +discovery, as he imagined, that there was nothing to show that the +Barford people had any right to the dead wood. They had been graciously +allowed to take it, as was the case all over the country at that time, +and that was all. At once he issued an edict prohibiting the taking of +dead wood from the forest by the villagers, and great as the loss was to +them they acquiesced; not a man of Barford St. Martin dared to disobey +the prohibition or raise his voice against it. Grace Reed then +determined to oppose the mighty earl, and accompanied by four other +women of the village boldly went to the wood and gathered their sticks +and brought them home. They were summoned before the magistrates and +fined, and on their refusal to pay were sent to prison; but the very +next day they were liberated and told that a mistake had been made, that +the matter had been inquired into, and it had been found that the people +of Barford did really have the right they had exercised so long to take +dead wood from the forest. + +As a result of the action of these women the right has not been +challenged since, and on my last visit to Barford, a few days before +writing this chapter, I saw three women coming down from the forest with +as much dead wood as they could carry on their heads and backs. But how +near they came to losing their right! It was a bold, an unheard-of thing +which they did, and if there had not been a poor cottage woman with the +spirit to do it at the proper moment the right could never have been +revived. + +Grace Reed's children's children are living at Barford now; they say +that to the very end of her long life she preserved a very clear memory +of the people and events of the village in the old days early in the +last century. They say, too, that in recalling the far past, the old +people and scenes would present themselves so vividly to her mind that +she would speak of them as of recent things, and would say to some one +fifty years younger than herself, "Can't you remember it? Surely you +haven't forgotten it when 'twas the talk of the village!" + +It is a common illusion of the very aged, and I had an amusing instance +of it in my old Hindon friend when he gave me his first impressions of +Bath as he saw it about the year 1835. What astonished him most were the +sedan-chairs, for he had never even heard of such a conveyance, but here +in this city of wonders you met them in every street. Then he added, +"But you've been to Bath and of course you've seen them, and know all +about it." + +About firewood-gathering by the poor in woods and forests, my old friend +of Fonthill Bishop says that the people of the villages adjacent to the +Fonthill and Great Ridge Woods were allowed to take as much dead wood as +they wanted from those places. She was accustomed to go to the Great +Ridge Wood, which was even wilder and more like a natural forest in +those days than it is now. It was fully two miles from her village, a +longish distance to carry a heavy load, and it was her custom after +getting the wood out to bind it firmly in a large barrel-shaped bundle +or faggot, as in that way she could roll it down the smooth steep slopes +of the down and so get her burden home without so much groaning and +sweating. The great wood was then full of hazel-trees, and produced such +an abundance of nuts that from mid-July to September people flocked to +it for the nutting from all the country round, coming even from Bath and +Bristol to load their carts with nuts in sacks for the market. Later, +when the wood began to be more strictly preserved for sporting purposes, +the rabbits were allowed to increase excessively, and during the hard +winters they attacked the hazel-trees, gnawing off the bark, until this +most useful and profitable wood the forest produced--the scrubby oaks +having little value--was well-nigh extirpated. By and by pheasants as +well as rabbits were strictly preserved, and the firewood-gatherers were +excluded altogether. At present you find dead wood lying about all over +the place, abundantly as in any primitive forest, where trees die of old +age or disease, or are blown down or broken off by the winds and are +left to rot on the ground, overgrown with ivy and brambles. But of all +this dead wood not a stick to boil a kettle may be taken by the +neighbouring poor lest the pheasants should be disturbed or a rabbit be +picked up. + +Some more of the old dame's recollections will be given in the next +chapter, showing what the condition of the people was in this district +about the year 1830, when the poor farm-labourers were driven by hunger +and misery to revolt against their masters--the farmers who were +everywhere breaking up the downs with the plough to sow more and still +more corn, who were growing very fat and paying higher and higher rents +to their fat landlords, while the wretched men that drove the plough had +hardly enough to satisfy their hunger. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +OLD WILTSHIRE DAYS--_CONTINUED_ + + An old Wiltshire woman's memories--Her home--Work on a farm--A little + bird-scarer--Housekeeping--The agricultural labourers' rising--Villagers + out of work--Relief work--A game of ball with barley + bannocks--Sheep-stealing--A poor man hanged--Temptations to steal--A + sheep-stealing shepherd--A sheep-stealing farmer--Story of Ebenezer + Garlick--A sheep-stealer at Chitterne--The law and the judges--A "human + devil" in a black cap--How the revolting labourers were punished--A last + scene at Salisbury Court House--Inquest on a murdered man--Policy of the + farmers + + +The story of her early life told by my old friend Joan, aged +ninety-four, will serve to give some idea of the extreme poverty and +hard suffering life of the agricultural labourers during the thirties of +last century, at a time when farmers were exceedingly prosperous and +landlords drawing high rents. + +She was three years old when her mother died, after the birth of a boy, +the last of eleven children. There was a dame's school in their little +village of Fonthill Abbey, but the poverty of the family would have made +it impossible for Joan to attend had it not been for an unselfish person +residing there, a Mr. King, who was anxious that every child should be +taught its letters. He paid for little Joan's schooling from the age of +four to eight; and now, in the evening of her life, when she sits by the +fire with her book, she blesses the memory of the man, dead these +seventy or eighty years, who made this solace possible for her. + +After the age of eight there could be no more school, for now all the +older children had gone out into the world to make their own poor +living, the boys to work on distant farms, the girls to service or to be +wives, and Joan was wanted at home to keep house for her father, to do +the washing, mending, cleaning, cooking, and to be mother to her little +brother as well. + +Her father was a ploughman, at seven shillings a week; but when Joan was +ten he met with a dreadful accident when ploughing with a couple of +young or intractable oxen; in trying to stop them he got entangled in +the ropes and one of his legs badly broken by the plough. As a result it +was six months before he could leave his cottage. The overseer of the +parish, a prosperous farmer who had a large farm a couple of miles away, +came to inquire into the matter and see what was to be done. His +decision was that the man would receive three shillings a week until +able to start work again, and as that would just serve to keep him, the +children must go out to work. Meanwhile, one of the married daughters +had come to look after her father in the cottage, and that set the +little ones free. + +The overseer said he would give them work on his farm and pay them a few +pence apiece and give them their meals; so to his farm they went, +returning each evening home. That was her first place, and from that +time on she was a toiler, indoors and out, but mainly in the fields, +till she was past eighty-five;--seventy-five years of hard work--then +less and less as her wonderful strength diminished, and her sons and +daughters were getting grey, until now at the age of ninety-four she +does very little--practically nothing. + +In that first place she had a very hard master in the farmer and +overseer. He was known in all the neighbourhood as "Devil Turner," and +even at that time, when farmers had their men under their heel as it +were, he was noted for his savage tyrannical disposition; also for a +curious sardonic humour, which displayed itself in the forms of +punishment he inflicted on the workmen who had the ill-luck to offend +him. The man had to take the punishment, however painful or disgraceful, +without a murmur, or go and starve. Every morning thereafter Joan and +her little brother, aged seven, had to be up in time to get to the farm +at five o'clock in the morning, and if it was raining or snowing or +bitterly cold, so much the worse for them, but they had to be there, for +Devil Turner's bad temper was harder to bear than bad weather. Joan was +a girl of all work, in and out of doors, and, in severe weather, when +there was nothing else for her to do, she would be sent into the fields +to gather flints, the coldest of all tasks for her little hands. + +"But what could your little brother, a child of seven, do in such a +place?" I asked. + +She laughed when she told me of her little brother's very first day at +the farm. The farmer was, for a devil, considerate, and gave him +something very light for a beginning, which was to scare the birds from +the ricks. "And if they will come back you must catch them," he said, +and left the little fellow to obey the difficult command as he could. +The birds that worried him most were the fowls, for however often he +hunted them away they would come back again. Eventually, he found some +string, with which he made some little loops fastened to sticks, and +these he arranged on a spot of ground he had cleared, scattering a few +grains of corn on it to attract the "birds." By this means he succeeded +in capturing three of the robbers, and when the farmer came round at +noon to see how he was getting on, the little fellow showed him his +captures. "These are not birds," said the farmer, "they are fowls, and +don't you trouble yourself any more about them, but keep your eye on the +sparrows and little birds and rooks and jackdaws that come to pull the +straws out." + +That was how he started; then from the ricks to bird-scaring in the +fields and to other tasks suited to one of his age, not without much +suffering and many tears. The worst experience was the punishment of +standing motionless for long hours at a time on a chair placed out in +the yard, full in sight of the windows of the house, so that he could be +seen by the inmates; the hardest, the cruellest task that could be +imposed on him would come as a relief after this. Joan suffered no +punishment of that kind; she was very anxious to please her master and +worked hard; but she was an intelligent and spirited child, and as the +sole result of her best efforts was that more and more work was put on +her, she revolted against such injustice, and eventually, tried beyond +endurance, she ran away home and refused to go back to the farm any +more. She found some work in the village; for now her sister had to go +back to her husband, and Joan had to take her place and look after her +father and the house as well as earn something to supplement the three +shillings a week they had to live on. + +After about nine months her father was up and out again and went back to +the plough; for just then a great deal of down was being broken up and +brought under cultivation on account of the high price of wheat and good +ploughmen were in request. He was lame, the injured limb being now +considerably shorter than the other, and when ploughing he could only +manage to keep on his legs by walking with the longer one in the furrow +and the other on the higher ground. But after struggling on for some +months in this way, suffering much pain and his strength declining, he +met with a fresh accident and was laid up once more in his cottage, and +from that time until his death he did no more farm work. Joan and her +little brother lived or slept at home and worked to keep themselves and +him. + +Now in this, her own little story, and in her account of the condition +of the people at that time; also in the histories of other old men and +women whose memories go back as far as hers, supplemented by a little +reading in the newspapers of that day, I can understand how it came +about that these poor labourers, poor, spiritless slaves as they had +been made by long years of extremest poverty and systematic oppression, +rose at last against their hard masters and smashed the agricultural +machines, and burnt ricks and broke into houses to destroy and plunder +their contents. It was a desperate, a mad adventure--these gatherings of +half-starved yokels, armed with sticks and axes, and they were quickly +put down and punished in a way that even William the Bastard would not +have considered as too lenient. But oppression had made them mad; the +introduction of thrashing machines was but the last straw, the +culminating act of the hideous system followed by landlords and their +tenants--the former to get the highest possible rent for his land, the +other to get his labour at the lowest possible rate. It was a compact +between landlord and tenant aimed against the labourer. It was not +merely the fact that the wages of a strong man were only seven shillings +a week at the outside, a sum barely sufficient to keep him and his +family from starvation and rags (as a fact it was not enough, and but +for a little poaching and stealing he could not have lived), but it was +customary, especially on the small farms, to get rid of the men after +the harvest and leave them to exist the best way they could during the +bitter winter months. Thus every village, as a rule, had its dozen or +twenty or more men thrown out each year--good steady men, with families +dependent on them; and besides these there were the aged and weaklings +and the lads who had not yet got a place. The misery of these +out-of-work labourers was extreme. They would go to the woods and gather +faggots of dead wood, which they would try to sell in the villages; but +there were few who could afford to buy of them; and at night they would +skulk about the fields to rob a swede or two to satisfy the cravings of +hunger. + +In some parishes the farmer overseers were allowed to give relief +work--out of the rates, it goes without saying--to these unemployed men +of the village who had been discharged in October or November and would +be wanted again when the winter was over. They would be put to +flint-gathering in the fields, their wages being four shillings a week. +Some of the very old people of Winterbourne Bishop, when speaking of the +principal food of the labourers at that time, the barley bannock and its +exceeding toughness, gave me an amusing account of a game of balls +invented by the flint-gatherers, just for the sake of a little fun +during their long weary day in the fields, especially in cold, frosty +weather. The men would take their dinners with them, consisting of a few +barley balls or cakes, in their coat pockets, and at noon they would +gather at one spot to enjoy their meal, and seat themselves on the +ground in a very wide circle, the men about ten yards apart, then each +one would produce his bannocks and start throwing, aiming at some other +man's face; there were hits and misses and great excitement and hilarity +for twenty or thirty minutes, after which the earth and gravel adhering +to the balls would be wiped off, and they would set themselves to the +hard task of masticating and swallowing the heavy stuff. + +At sunset they would go home to a supper of more barley bannocks, washed +down with hot water flavoured with some aromatic herb or weed, and then +straight to bed to get warm, for there was little firing. + +It was not strange that sheep-stealing was one of the commonest offences +against the law at that time, in spite of the dreadful penalty. Hunger +made the people reckless. My old friend Joan, and other old persons, +have said to me that it appeared in those days that the men were +strangely indifferent and did not seem to care whether they were hanged +or not. It is true they did not hang very many of them--the judge, as a +rule, after putting on his black cap and ordering them to the gallows, +would send in a recommendation to mercy for most of them; but the mercy +of that time was like that of the wicked, exceedingly cruel. Instead of +swinging, it was transportation for life, or for fourteen, and, at the +very least, seven years. Those who have read Clarke's terrible book "For +the Term of His Natural Life" know (in a way) what these poor Wiltshire +labourers, who in most cases were never more heard of by their wives and +children, were sent to endure in Australia and Tasmania. + +And some were hanged; my friend Joan named some people she knows in the +neighbourhood who are the grandchildren of a young man with a wife and +family of small children who was hanged at Salisbury. She had a vivid +recollection of this case because it had seemed so hard, the man having +been maddened by want when he took a sheep; also because when he was +hanged his poor young wife travelled to the place of slaughter to beg +for his body, and had it brought home and buried decently in the village +churchyard. + +How great the temptation to steal sheep must have been, anyone may know +now by merely walking about among the fields in this part of the country +to see how the sheep are folded and left by night unguarded, often at +long distances from the village, in distant fields and on the downs. +Even in the worst times it was never customary, never thought necessary, +to guard the flock by night. Many cases could be given to show how easy +it was to steal sheep. One quite recent, about twenty years ago, is of a +shepherd who was frequently sent with sheep to the fairs, and who on his +way to Wilton fair with a flock one night turned aside to open a fold +and let out nineteen sheep. On arriving at the fair he took out the +stolen sheep and sold them to a butcher of his acquaintance who sent +them up to London. But he had taken too many from one flock; they were +quickly missed, and by some lucky chance it was found out and the +shepherd arrested. He was sentenced to eight months' hard labour, and it +came out during the trial that this poor shepherd, whose wages were +fourteen shillings a week, had a sum of L400 to his credit in a +Salisbury bank! + +Another case which dates far back is that of a farmer named Day, who +employed a shepherd or drover to take sheep to the fairs and markets and +steal sheep for him on the way. It is said that he went on at this game +for years before it was discovered. Eventually master and man quarrelled +and the drover gave information, whereupon Day was arrested and lodged +in Fisherton Jail at Salisbury. Later he was sent to take his trial at +Devizes, on horseback, accompanied by two constables. At the "Druid's +Head," a public-house on the way, the three travellers alighted for +refreshments, and there Day succeeded in giving them the slip, and +jumping on a fast horse, standing ready saddled for him, made his +escape. Farmer Day never returned to the Plain and was never heard of +again. + +There is an element of humour in some of the sheep-stealing stories of +the old days. At one village where I often stayed, I heard about a +certain Ebenezer Garlick, who was commonly called, in allusion no doubt +to his surname, "Sweet Vi'lets." He was a sober, hard-working man, an +example to most, but there was this against him, that he cherished a +very close friendship with a poor, disreputable, drunken loafer +nicknamed "Flittermouse," who spent most of his time hanging about the +old coaching inn at the place for the sake of tips. Sweet Vi'lets was +always giving coppers and sixpences to this man, but one day they fell +out when Flittermouse begged for a shilling. He must, he said, have a +shilling, he couldn't do with less, and when the other refused he +followed him, demanding the money with abusive words, to everybody's +astonishment. Finally Sweet Vi'lets turned on him and told him to go to +the devil. Flittermouse in a rage went straight to the constable and +denounced his patron as a sheep-stealer. He, Flittermouse, had been his +servant and helper, and on the very last occasion of stealing a sheep he +had got rid of the skin and offal by throwing them down an old disused +well at the top of the village street. To the well the constable went +with ropes and hooks, and succeeded in fishing up the remains described, +and he thereupon arrested Garlick and took him before a magistrate, who +committed him for trial. Flittermouse was the only witness for the +prosecution, and the judge in his summing up said that, taking into +consideration Garlick's known character in the village as a sober, +diligent, honest man, it would be a little too much to hang him on the +unsupported testimony of a creature like Flittermouse, who was half fool +and half scoundrel. The jury, pleased and very much surprised at being +directed to let a man off, obediently returned a verdict of Not Guilty, +and Sweet Vi'lets returned from Salisbury triumphant, to be +congratulated on his escape by all the villagers, who, however, slyly +winked and smiled at one another. + +Of sheep-stealing stories I will relate one more--a case which never +came into court and was never discovered. It was related to me by a +middle-aged man, a shepherd of Warminster, who had it from his father, a +shepherd of Chitterne, one of the lonely, isolated villages on Salisbury +Plain, between the Avon and the Wylye. His father had it from the person +who committed the crime and was anxious to tell it to some one, and knew +that the shepherd was his true friend, a silent, safe man. He was a +farm-labourer, named Shergold--one of the South Wiltshire surnames very +common in the early part of last century, which now appear to be dying +out--described as a very big, powerful man, full of life and energy. He +had a wife and several young children to keep, and the time was near +mid-winter; Shergold was out of work, having been discharged from the +farm at the end of the harvest; it was an exceptionally cold season and +there was no food and no firing in the house. + +One evening in late December a drover arrived at Chitterne with a flock +of sheep which he was driving to Tilshead, another downland village +several miles away. He was anxious to get to Tilshead that night and +wanted a man to help him. Shergold was on the spot and undertook to go +with him for the sum of fourpence. They set out when it was getting +dark; the sheep were put on the road, the drover going before the flock +and Shergold following at the tail. It was a cold, cloudy night, +threatening snow, and so dark that he could hardly distinguish the dim +forms of even the hindmost sheep, and by and by the temptation to steal +one assailed him. For how easy it would be for him to do it! With his +tremendous strength he could kill and hide a sheep very quickly without +making any sound whatever to alarm the drover. He was very far ahead; +Shergold could judge the distance by the sound of his voice when he +uttered a call or shout from time to time, and by the barking of the +dog, as he flew up and down, first on one side of the road, then on the +other, to keep the flock well on it. And he thought of what a sheep +would be to him and to his hungry ones at home until the temptation was +too strong, and suddenly lifting his big, heavy stick he brought it down +with such force on the head of a sheep as to drop it with its skull +crushed, dead as a stone. Hastily picking it up he ran a few yards away, +and placed it among the furze-bushes, intending to take it home on his +way back, and then returned to the flock. + +They arrived at Tilshead in the small hours, and after receiving his +fourpence he started for home, walking rapidly and then running to be in +time, but when he got back to where the sheep was lying the dawn was +coming, and he knew that before he could get to Chitterne with that +heavy burden on his back people would be getting up in the village and +he would perhaps be seen. The only thing to do was to hide the sheep and +return for it on the following night. Accordingly he carried it away a +couple of hundred yards to a pit or small hollow in the down full of +bramble and furze-bushes, and here he concealed it, covering it with a +mass of dead bracken and herbage, and left it. That afternoon the +long-threatening snow began to fall, and with snow on the ground he +dared not go to recover his sheep, since his footprints would betray +him; he must wait once more for the snow to melt. But the snow fell all +night, and what must his feelings have been when he looked at it still +falling in the morning and knew that he could have gone for the sheep +with safety, since all traces would have been quickly obliterated! + +Once more there was nothing to do but wait patiently for the snow to +cease falling and for the thaw. But how intolerable it was; for the +weather continued bitterly cold for many days, and the whole country was +white. During those hungry days even that poor comfort of sleeping or +dozing away the time was denied him, for the danger of discovery was +ever present to his mind, and Shergold was not one of the callous men +who had become indifferent to their fate; it was his first crime, and he +loved his own life and his wife and children, crying to him for food. +And the food for them was lying there on the down, close by, and he +could not get it! Roast mutton, boiled mutton--mutton in a dozen +delicious forms--the thought of it was as distressing, as maddening, as +that of the peril he was in. + +It was a full fortnight before the wished thaw came; then with fear and +trembling he went for his sheep, only to find that it had been pulled to +pieces and the flesh devoured by dogs and foxes! + +From these memories of the old villagers I turn to the newspapers of the +day to make a few citations. + +The law as it was did not distinguish between a case of the kind just +related, of the starving, sorely tempted Shergold, and that of the +systematic thief: sheep-stealing was a capital offence and the man must +hang, unless recommended to mercy, and we know what was meant by "mercy" +in those days. That so barbarous a law existed within memory of people +to be found living in most villages appears almost incredible to us; but +despite the recommendations to "mercy" usual in a large majority of +cases, the law of that time was not more horrible than the temper of the +men who administered it. There are good and bad among all, and in all +professions, but there is also a black spot in most, possibly in all +hearts, which may be developed to almost any extent, and change the +justest, wisest, most moral men into "human devils"--the phrase invented +by Canon Wilberforce in another connexion. In reading the old reports +and the expressions used by the judges in their summings up and +sentences, it is impossible not to believe that the awful power they +possessed, and its constant exercise, had not only produced the +inevitable hardening effect, but had made them cruel in the true sense +of the word. Their pleasure in passing dreadful sentences was very +thinly disguised, indeed, by certain lofty conventional phrases as to +the necessity of upholding the law, morality, and religion; they were, +indeed, as familiar with the name of the Deity as any ranter in a +conventicle, and the "enormity of the crime" was an expression as +constantly used in the case of the theft of a loaf of bread, or of an +old coat left hanging on a hedge, by some ill-clad, half-starved wretch, +as in cases of burglary, arson, rape, and murder. + +It is surprising to find how very few the real crimes were in those +days, despite the misery of the people; that nearly all the "crimes" for +which men were sentenced to the gallows and to transportation for life, +or for long terms, were offences which would now be sufficiently +punished by a few weeks', or even a few days', imprisonment. Thus in +April 1825, I note that Mr. Justice Park commented on the heavy +appearance of the calendar. It was not so much the number (170) of the +offenders that excited his concern as it was the nature of the crimes +with which they were charged. The worst crime in this instance was +sheep-stealing! + +Again, this same Mr. Justice Park, at the Spring Assizes at Salisbury +1827, said that though the calendar was a heavy one, he was happy to +find on looking at the depositions of the principal cases, that they +were not of a very serious character. Nevertheless he passed sentence of +death on twenty-eight persons, among them being one for stealing half a +crown! + +Of the twenty-eight all but three were eventually reprieved, one of the +fated three being a youth of nineteen, who was charged with stealing a +mare and pleaded guilty in spite of a warning from the judge not to do +so. This irritated the great man who had the power of life and death in +his hand. In passing sentence the judge "expatiated on the prevalence of +the crime of horse-stealing and the necessity of making an example. The +enormity of Read's crime rendered him a proper example, and he would +therefore hold out no hope of mercy towards him." As to the plea of +guilty, he remarked that nowadays too many persons pleaded guilty, +deluded with the hope that it would be taken into consideration and they +would escape the severer penalty. He was determined to put a stop to +that sort of thing; if Read had not pleaded guilty no doubt some +extenuating circumstance would have come up during the trial and he +would have saved his life. + +There, if ever, spoke the "human devil" in a black cap! + +I find another case of a sentence of transportation for life on a youth +of eighteen, named Edward Baker, for stealing a pocket-handkerchief. Had +he pleaded guilty it might have been worse for him. + +At the Salisbury Spring Assizes, 1830, Mr. Justice Gazalee, addressing +the grand jury, said that none of the crimes appeared to be marked with +circumstances of great moral turpitude. The prisoners numbered one +hundred and thirty; he passed sentences of death on twenty-nine, life +transportations on five, fourteen years on five, seven years on eleven, +and various terms of hard labour on the others. + +The severity of the magistrates at the quarter-sessions was equally +revolting. I notice in one case, where the leading magistrate on the +bench was a great local magnate, an M.P. for Salisbury, etc., a poor +fellow with the unfortunate name of Moses Snook was charged with +stealing a plank ten feet long, the property of the aforesaid local +magnate, M.P., etc., and sentenced to fourteen years' transportation. +Sentenced by the man who owned the plank, worth perhaps a shilling or +two! + +When such was the law of the land and the temper of those who +administered it--judges and magistrates or landlords--what must the +misery of the people have been to cause them to rise in revolt against +their masters! They did nothing outrageous even in the height of their +frenzy; they smashed the thrashing machines, burnt some ricks, while the +maddest of them broke into a few houses and destroyed their contents; +but they injured no man; yet they knew what they were facing--the +gallows or transportation to the penal settlements ready for their +reception at the Antipodes. It is a pity that the history of this rising +of the agricultural labourer, the most patient and submissive of men, +has never been written. Nothing, in fact, has ever been said of it +except from the point of view of landowners and farmers, but there is +ample material for a truer and a moving narrative, not only in the brief +reports in the papers of the time, but also in the memories of many +persons still living, and of their children and children's children, +preserved in many a cottage throughout the south of England. + +Hopeless as the revolt was and quickly suppressed, it had served to +alarm the landlords and their tenants, and taken in conjunction with +other outbreaks, notably at Bristol, it produced a sense of anxiety in +the mind of the country generally. The feeling found a somewhat amusing +expression in the House of Commons, in a motion of Mr. Perceval, on 14th +February 1831. This was to move an address to His Majesty to appoint a +day for a general fast throughout the United Kingdom. He said that "the +state of the country called for a measure like this--that it was a state +of political and religious disorganization--that the elements of the +Constitution were being hourly loosened--that in this land there was no +attachment, no control, no humility of spirit, no mutual confidence +between the poor man and the rich, the employer and the employed; but +fear and mistrust and aversion, where, in the time of our fathers, there +was nothing but brotherly love and rejoicing before the Lord." + +The House was cynical and smilingly put the matter by, but the anxiety +was manifested plainly enough in the treatment meted out to the poor men +who had been arrested and were tried before the Special Commissions sent +down to Salisbury, Winchester, and other towns. No doubt it was a +pleasant time for the judges; at Salisbury thirty-four poor fellows were +sentenced to death; thirty-three to be transported for life, ten for +fourteen years, and so on. + +And here is one last little scene about which the reports in the +newspapers of the time say nothing, but which I have from one who +witnessed and clearly remembers it, a woman of ninety-five, whose whole +life has been passed at a village within sound of the Salisbury +Cathedral bells. + +It was when the trial was ended, when those who were found guilty and +had been sentenced were brought out of the court-house to be taken back +to prison, and from all over the Plain and from all parts of Wiltshire +their womenfolk had come to learn their fate, and were gathered, a pale, +anxious, weeping crowd, outside the gates. The sentenced men came out +looking eagerly at the people until they recognized their own and cried +out to them to be of good cheer. "'Tis hanging for me," one would say, +"but there'll perhaps be a recommendation to mercy, so don't you fret +till you know." Then another: "Don't go on so, old mother, 'tis only for +life I'm sent." And yet another: "Don't you cry, old girl, 'tis only +fourteen years I've got, and maybe I'll live to see you all again." And +so on, as they filed out past their weeping women on their way to +Fisherton Jail, to be taken thence to the transports in Portsmouth and +Plymouth harbours waiting to convey their living freights to that hell +on earth so far from home. Not criminals but good, brave men were +these!--Wiltshiremen of that strong, enduring, patient class, who not +only as labourers on the land but on many a hard-fought field in many +parts of the world from of old down to our war of a few years ago in +Africa, have shown the stuff that was in them! + +But, alas! for the poor women who were left--for the old mother who +could never hope to see her boy again, and for the wife and her children +who waited and hoped against hope through long toiling years, + + And dreamed and started as they slept + For joy that he was come, + +but waking saw his face no more. Very few, so far as I can make out, not +more than one in five or six, ever returned. + +This, it may be said, was only what they might have expected, the law +being what it was--just the ordinary thing. The hideous part of the +business was that, as an effect of the alarm created in the minds of +those who feared injury to their property and loss of power to oppress +the poor labourers, there was money in plenty subscribed to hire +witnesses for the prosecution. It was necessary to strike terror into +the people. The smell of blood-money brought out a number of scoundrels +who for a few pounds were only too ready to swear away the life of any +man, and it was notorious that numbers of poor fellows were condemned in +this way. + +One incident as to this point may be given in conclusion of this chapter +about old unhappy things. It relates not to one of those who were +sentenced to the gallows or to transportation, but to an inquest and the +treatment of the dead. + +I have spoken in the last chapter of the mob that visited Hindon, +Fonthill, and other villages. They ended their round at Pytt House, near +Tisbury, where they broke up the machinery. On that occasion a body of +yeomanry came on the scene, but arrived only after the mob had +accomplished its purpose of breaking up the thrashing machines. When the +troops appeared the "rioters," as they were called, made off into the +woods and escaped; but before they fled one of them had met his death. A +number of persons from the farms and villages around had gathered at the +spot and were looking on, when one, a farmer from the neighbouring +village of Chilmark, snatched a gun from a gamekeeper's hand and shot +one of the rioters, killing him dead. On 27th January 1831 an inquest +was held on the body, and some one was found to swear that the man had +been shot by one of the yeomanry, although it was known to everybody +that, when the man was shot, the troop had not yet arrived on the scene. +The man, this witness stated, had attacked, or threatened, one of the +soldiers with his stick, and had been shot. This was sufficient for the +coroner; he instructed his jury to bring in a verdict of "Justifiable +homicide," which they obediently did. "This verdict," the coroner then +said, "entailed the same consequences as an act of _felo-de-se_, +and he felt that he could not give a warrant for the burial of the +deceased. However painful the duty devolved on him in thus adding to the +sorrows of the surviving relations, the law appeared too clear to him to +admit of an alternative." + +The coroner was just as eager as the judges to exhibit his zeal for the +gentry, who were being injured in their interests by these disturbances; +and though he could not hang anybody, being only a coroner, he could at +any rate kick the one corpse brought before him. Doubtless the +"surviving relations," for whose sorrows he had expressed sympathy, +carried the poor murdered man off by night to hide him somewhere in the +earth. + +After the law had been thus vindicated and all the business done with, +even to the corpse-kicking by the coroner, the farmers were still +anxious, and began to show it by holding meetings and discussions on the +condition of the labourers. Everybody said that the men had been very +properly punished; but at the same time it was admitted that they had +some reason for their discontent, that, with bread so dear, it was +hardly possible for a man with a family to support himself on seven +shillings a week, and it was generally agreed to raise the wages one +shilling. But by and by when the anxiety had quite died out, when it was +found that the men were more submissive than they had ever been, the +lesson they had received having sunk deep into their minds, they cut off +the extra shilling and wages were what they had been--seven shillings a +week for a hard-working seasoned labourer, with a family to keep, and +from four to six shillings for young unmarried men and for women, even +for those who did as much work in the field as any man. + +But there were no more risings. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +THE SHEPHERD'S RETURN + + Yarnborough Castle sheep-fair--Caleb leaves Doveton and goes into + Dorset--A land of strange happenings--He is home-sick and returns to + Winterbourne Bishop--Joseph, his brother, leaves home--His meeting with + Caleb's old master--Settles in Dorset and is joined by his sister + Hannah--They marry and have children--I go to look for them--Joseph + Bawcombe in extreme old age--Hannah in decline + + +Caleb's shepherding period in Doveton came to a somewhat sudden +conclusion. It was nearing the end of August and he was beginning to +think about the sheep which would have to be taken to the "Castle" +sheep-fair on 5th October, and it appeared strange to him that his +master had so far said nothing to him on the subject. By "Castle" he +meant Yarnborough Castle, the name of a vast prehistoric earthwork on +one of the high downs between Warminster and Amesbury. There is no +village there and no house near; it is nothing but an immense circular +wall and trench, inside of which the fair is held. It was formerly one +of the most important sheep-fairs in the country, but for the last two +or three decades has been falling off and is now of little account. When +Bawcombe was shepherd at Doveton it was still great, and when he first +went there as Mr. Ellerby's head-shepherd he found himself regarded as a +person of considerable importance at the Castle. Before setting out with +the sheep he asked for his master's instructions, and was told that when +he got to the ground he would be directed by the persons in charge to +the proper place. The Ellerbys, he said, had exhibited and sold their +sheep there for a period of eighty-eight years, without missing a year, +and always at the same spot. Every person visiting the fair on business +knew just where to find the Ellerbys' sheep, and, he added with pride, +they expected them to be the best sheep at the Castle. + +One day Mr. Ellerby came to have a talk with his shepherd, and in reply +to a remark of the latter about the October sheep-fair he said that he +would have no sheep to send. "No sheep to send, master!" exclaimed Caleb +in amazement. Then Mr. Ellerby told him that he had taken a notion into +his head that he wanted to go abroad with his wife for a time, and that +some person had just made him so good an offer for all his sheep that he +was going to accept it, so that for the first time in eighty-eight years +there would be no sheep from Doveton Farm at the Castle fair. When he +came back he would buy again; but if he could live away from the farm, +he would probably never come back--he would sell it. + +Caleb went home with a heavy heart and told his wife. It grieved her, +too, because of her feeling for Mrs. Ellerby, but in a little while she +set herself to comfort him. "Why, what's wrong about it?" she asked. +"'Twill be more 'n three months before the year's out, and master'll +pay for all the time sure, and we can go home to Bishop and bide a +little without work, and see if that father of yours has forgiven 'ee +for going away to Warminster." + +So they comforted themselves, and were beginning to think with pleasure +of home when Mr. Ellerby informed his shepherd that a friend of his, a +good man though not a rich one, was anxious to take him as +head-shepherd, with good wages and a good cottage rent free. The only +drawback for the Bawcombes was that it would take them still farther +from home, for the farm was in Dorset, although quite near the Wiltshire +border. + +Eventually they accepted the offer, and by the middle of September were +once more settled down in what was to them a strange land. How strange +it must have seemed to Caleb, how far removed from home and all familiar +things, when even to this day, more than forty years later, he speaks of +it as the ordinary modern man might speak of a year's residence in +Uganda, Tierra del Fuego, or the Andaman Islands! It was a foreign +country, and the ways of the people were strange to him, and it was a +land of very strange things. One of the strangest was an old ruined +church in the neighbourhood of the farm where he was shepherd. It was +roofless, more than half fallen down, and all the standing portion, with +the tower, overgrown with old ivy; the building itself stood in the +centre of a huge round earthwork and trench, with large barrows on the +ground outside the circle. Concerning this church he had a wonderful +story: its decay and ruin had come about after the great bell in the +tower had mysteriously disappeared, stolen one stormy night, it was +believed, by the Devil himself. The stolen bell, it was discovered, had +been flung into a small river at a distance of some miles from the +church, and there in summer-time, when the water was low, it could be +distinctly seen lying half buried in the mud at the bottom. But all the +king's horses and all the king's men couldn't pull it out; the Devil, +who pulled the other way, was strongest. Eventually some wise person +said that a team of white oxen would be able to pull it out, and after +much seeking the white oxen were obtained, and thick ropes were tied to +the sunken bell, and the cattle were goaded and yelled at, and tugged +and strained until the bell came up and was finally drawn right up to +the top of the steep, cliff-like bank of the stream. Then one of the +teamsters shouted in triumph, "Now we've got out the bell, in spite of +all the devils in hell," and no sooner had he spoken the bold words than +the ropes parted, and back tumbled the bell to its old place at the +bottom of the river, where it remains to this day. Caleb had once met a +man in those parts who assured him that he had seen the bell with his +own eyes, lying nearly buried in mud at the bottom of the stream. + +The legend is not in the history of Dorset; a much more prosaic account +of the disappearance of the bell is there given, in which the Devil took +no part unless he was at the back of the bad men who were concerned in +the business. But in this strange, remote country, outside of +"Wiltsheer," Bawcombe was in a region where anything might have +happened, where the very soil and pasture were unlike that of his native +country, and the mud adhered to his boots in a most unaccountable way. +It was almost uncanny. Doubtless he was home-sick, for a month or two +before the end of the year he asked his master to look out for another +shepherd. + +This was a great disappointment to the farmer: he had gone a distance +from home to secure a good shepherd, and had hoped to keep him +permanently, and now after a single year he was going to lose him. What +did the shepherd want? He would do anything to please him, and begged +him to stay another year. But no, his mind was set on going back to his +own native village and to his own people. And so when his long year was +ended he took his crook and set out over the hills and valleys, followed +by a cart containing his "sticks" and wife and children. And at home +with his old parents and his people he was happy once more; in a short +time he found a place as head-shepherd, with a cottage in the village, +and followed his flock on the old familiar down, and everything again +was as it had been from the beginning of life and as he desired it to be +even to the end. + +His return resulted incidentally in other changes and migrations in the +Bawcombe family. His elder brother Joseph, unmarried still although his +senior by about eight years, had not got on well at home. He was a +person of a peculiar disposition, so silent with so fixed and unsmiling +an expression, that he gave the idea of a stolid, thick-skinned man, but +at bottom he was of a sensitive nature, and feeling that his master did +not treat him properly, he gave up his place and was for a long time +without one. He was singularly attentive to all that fell from Caleb +about his wide wanderings and strange experiences, especially in the +distant Dorset country; and at length, about a year after his brother's +return, he announced his intention of going away from his native place +for good to seek his fortune in some distant place where his services +would perhaps be better appreciated. When asked where he intended going, +he answered that he was going to look for a place in that part of Dorset +where Caleb had been shepherd for a year and had been so highly thought +of. + +Now Joseph, being a single man, had no "sticks"; all his possessions +went into a bundle, which he carried tied to his crook, and with his +sheep-dog following at his heels he set forth early one morning on the +most important adventure of his life. Then occurred an instance of what +we call a coincidence, but which the shepherd of the downs, nursed in +the old beliefs and traditions, prefers to regard as an act of +providence. + +About noon he was trudging along in the turnpike road when he was met by +a farmer driving in a trap, who pulled up to speak to him and asked him +if he could say how far it was to Winterbourne Bishop. Joseph replied +that it was about fourteen miles--he had left Bishop that morning. + +Then the farmer asked him if he knew a man there named Caleb Bawcombe, +and if he had a place as shepherd there, as he was now on his way to +look for him and to try and persuade him to go back to Dorset, where he +had been his head-shepherd for the space of a year. + +Joseph said that Caleb had a place as head-shepherd on a farm at Bishop, +that he was satisfied with it, and was, moreover, one that preferred to +bide in his native place. + +The farmer was disappointed, and the other added, "Maybe you've heard +Caleb speak of his elder brother Joseph--I be he." + +"What!" exclaimed the farmer. "You're Caleb's brother! Where be going +then?--to a new place?" + +"I've got no place; I be going to look for a place in Dorsetsheer." + +"'Tis strange to hear you say that," exclaimed the farmer. He was going, +he said, to see Caleb, and if he would not or could not go back to +Dorset himself to ask him to recommend some man of the village to him; +for he was tired of the ways of the shepherds of his own part of the +country, and his heart was set on getting a man from Caleb's village, +where shepherds understood sheep and knew their work. "Now look here, +shepherd," he continued, "if you'll engage yourself to me for a year +I'll go no farther, but take you right back with me in the trap." + +The shepherd was very glad to accept the offer; he devoutly believed +that in making it the farmer was but acting in accordance with the will +of a Power that was mindful of man and kept watch on him, even on His +poor servant Joseph, who had left his home and people to be a stranger +in a strange land. + +So well did servant and master agree that Joseph never had occasion to +look for another place; when his master died an old man, his son +succeeded him as tenant of the farm, and he continued with the son until +he was past work. Before his first year was out, his younger sister, +Hannah, came to live with him and keep house, and eventually they both +got married, Joseph to a young woman of the place, and Hannah to a small +working farmer whose farm was about a mile from the village. Children +were born to both, and in time grew up, Joseph's sons following their +father's vocation, while Hannah's were brought up to work on the farm. +And some of them, too, got married in time and had children of their +own. + +These are the main incidents in the lives of Joseph and Hannah, related +to me at different times by their brother; he had followed their +fortunes from a distance, sometimes getting a message, or hearing of +them incidentally, but he did not see them. Joseph never returned to his +native village, and the visits of Hannah to her old home had been few +and had long ceased. But he cherished a deep enduring affection for +both; he was always anxiously waiting and hoping for tidings of them, +for Joseph was now a feeble old man living with one of his sons, and +Hannah, long a widow, was in declining health, but still kept the farm, +assisted by one of her sons and two unmarried daughters. Though he had +not heard for a long time it never occurred to him to write, nor did +they ever write to him. + +Then, when I was staying at Winterbourne Bishop and had the intention of +shortly paying a visit to Caleb, it occurred to me one day to go into +Dorset and look for these absent ones, so as to be able to give him an +account of their state. It was not a long journey, and arrived at the +village I soon found a son of Joseph, a fine-looking man, who took me to +his cottage, where his wife led me into the old shepherd's room. I found +him very aged in appearance, with a grey face and sunken cheeks, lying +on his bed and breathing with difficulty; but when I spoke to him of +Caleb a light of joy came into his eyes, and he raised himself on his +pillows, and questioned me eagerly about his brother's state and family, +and begged me to assure Caleb that he was still quite well, although too +feeble to get about much, and that his children were taking good care of +him. + +From the old brother I went on to seek the young sister--there was a +difference of more than twenty years in their respective ages--and found +her at dinner in the large old farm-house kitchen. At all events she was +presiding, the others present being her son, their hired labourer, the +farm boy, and two unmarried daughters. She herself tasted no food. I +joined them at their meal, and it gladdened and saddened me at the same +time to be with this woman, for she was Caleb's sister, and was +attractive in herself, looking strangely young for her age, with +beautiful dark, soft eyes and but few white threads in her abundant +black hair. The attraction was also in her voice and speech and manner; +but, alas! there was that in her face which was painful to witness--the +signs of long suffering, of nights that bring no refreshment, an +expression in the eyes of one that is looking anxiously out into the dim +distance--a vast unbounded prospect, but with clouds and darkness +resting on it. + +It was not without a feeling of heaviness at the heart that I said +good-bye to her; nor was I surprised when, less than a year later, Caleb +received news of her death. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +THE DARK PEOPLE OF THE VILLAGE + + How the materials for this book were obtained--The hedgehog-hunter--A + gipsy taste--History of a dark-skinned family--Hedgehog eaters--Half-bred + and true gipsies--Perfect health--Eating carrion--Mysterious knowledge + and faculties--The three dark Wiltshire types--Story of another dark + man of the village--Account of Liddy--His shepherding--A happy life + with horses--Dies of a broken heart--His daughter + + +I have sometimes laughed to myself when thinking how a large part of the +material composing this book was collected. It came to me in +conversations, at intervals, during several years, with the shepherd. In +his long life in his native village, a good deal of it spent on the +quiet down, he had seen many things it was or would be interesting to +hear; the things which had interested him, too, at the time, and had +fallen into oblivion, yet might be recovered. I discovered that it was +of little use to question him: the one valuable recollection he +possessed on any subject would, as a rule, not be available when wanted; +it would lie just beneath the surface so to speak, and he would pass and +repass over the ground without seeing it. He would not know that it was +there; it would be like the acorn which a jay or squirrel has hidden and +forgotten all about, which he will nevertheless recover some day if by +chance something occurs to remind him of it. The only method was to talk +about the things he knew, and when by chance he was reminded of some old +experience or some little observation or incident worth hearing, to make +a note of it, then wait patiently for something else. It was a very slow +process, but it is not unlike the one we practise always with regard to +wild nature. We are not in a hurry, but are always watchful, with eyes +and ears and mind open to what may come; it is a mental habit, and when +nothing comes we are not disappointed--the act of watching has been a +sufficient pleasure: and when something does come we take it joyfully as +if it were a gift--a valuable object picked up by chance in our walks. + +When I turned into the shepherd's cottage, if it was in winter and he +was sitting by the fire, I would sit and smoke with him, and if we were +in a talking mood I would tell him where I had been and what I had heard +and seen, on the heath, in the woods, in the village, or anywhere, on +the chance of its reminding him of something worth hearing in his past +life. + +One Sunday morning, in the late summer, during one of my visits to him, +I was out walking in the woods and found a man of the village, a farm +labourer, with his small boy hunting for hedgehogs. He had caught and +killed two, which the boy was carrying. He told me he was very fond of +the flesh of hedgehogs--"pigs," he called them for short; he said he +would not exchange one for a rabbit. He always spent his holidays +pig-hunting; he had no dog and didn't want one; he found them himself, +and his method was to look for the kind of place in which they were +accustomed to live--a thick mass of bramble growing at the side of an +old ditch as a rule. He would force his way into it and, moving round +and round, trample down the roots and loose earth and dead leaves with +his heavy iron-shod boots until he broke into the nest or cell of the +spiny little beast hidden away under the bush. + +He was a short, broad-faced man, with a brown skin, black hair, and +intensely black eyes. Talking with the shepherd that evening I told him +of the encounter, and remarked that the man was probably a gipsy in +blood, although a labourer, living in the village and married to a woman +with blue eyes who belonged to the place. + +This incident reminded him of a family, named Targett, in his native +village, consisting of four brothers and a sister. He knew them first +when he was a boy himself, but could not remember their parents. "It +seemed as if they didn't have any," he said. The four brothers were very +much alike: short, with broad faces, black eyes and hair, and brown +skins. They were good workers, but somehow they were never treated by +the farmers like the other men. They were paid less wages--as much as +two to four shillings a week less per man--and made to do things that +others would not do, and generally imposed upon. It was known to every +employer of labour in the place that they could be imposed upon; yet +they were not fools, and occasionally if their master went too far in +bullying and abusing them and compelling them to work overtime every +day, they would have sudden violent outbursts of rage and go off without +any pay at all. What became of their sister he never knew: but none of +the four brothers ever married; they lived together always, and two died +in the village, the other two going to finish their lives in the +workhouse. + +One of the curious things about these brothers was that they had a +passion for eating hedgehogs. They had it from boyhood, and as boys used +to go a distance from home and spend the day hunting in hedges and +thickets. When they captured a hedgehog they would make a small fire in +some sheltered spot and roast it, and while it was roasting one of them +would go to the nearest cottage to beg for a pinch of salt, which was +generally given. + +These, too, I said, must have been gipsies, at all events on one side. +Where there is a cross the gipsy strain is generally strongest, although +the children, if brought up in the community, often remain in it all +their lives; but they are never quite of it. Their love of wildness and +of eating wild flesh remains in them, and it is also probable that there +is an instability of character, a restlessness, which the small farmers +who usually employ such men know and trade on; the gipsy who takes to +farm work must not look for the same treatment as the big-framed, +white-skinned man who is as strong, enduring, and unchangeable as a +draught horse or ox, and constant as the sun itself. + +The gipsy element is found in many if not most villages in the south of +England. I know one large scattered village where it appears +predominant--as dirty and disorderly-looking a place as can be imagined, +the ground round every cottage resembling a gipsy camp, but worse owing +to its greater litter of old rags and rubbish strewn about. But the +people, like all gipsies, are not so poor as they look, and most of the +cottagers keep a trap and pony with which they scour the country for +many miles around in quest of bones, rags, and bottles, and anything +else they can buy for a few pence, also anything they can "pick up" for +nothing. + +This is almost the only kind of settled life which a man with a good +deal of gipsy blood in him can tolerate; it affords some scope for his +chaffering and predatory instincts and satisfies the roving passion, +which is not so strong in those of mixed blood. But it is too +respectable or humdrum a life for the true, undegenerate gipsy. One wet +evening in September last I was prowling in a copse near Shrewton, +watching the birds, when I encountered a young gipsy and recognized him +as one of a gang of about a dozen I had met several days before near +Salisbury. They were on their way, they had told me, to a village near +Shaftesbury, where they hoped to remain a week or so. + +"What are you doing here?" I asked my gipsy. + +He said he had been to Idmiston; he had been on his legs out in the rain +and wet to the skin since morning. He didn't mind that much as the wet +didn't hurt him and he was not tired; but he had eight miles to walk yet +over the downs to a village on the Wylye where his people were staying. + +I remarked that I had thought they were staying over Shaftesbury way. + +He then looked sharply at me. "Ah, yes," he said, "I remember we met you +and had some talk a fortnight ago. Yes, we went there, but they wouldn't +have us. They soon ordered us off. They advised us to settle down if we +wanted to stay anywhere. Settle down! I'd rather be dead!" + +There spoke the true gipsy; and they are mostly of that mind. But what a +mind it is for human beings in this climate! It is in a year like this +of 1909, when a long cold winter and a miserable spring, with frosty +nights lasting well into June, was followed by a cold wet summer and a +wet autumn, that we can see properly what a mind and body is his--how +infinitely more perfect the correspondence between organism and +environment in his case than in ours, who have made our own conditions, +who have not only houses to live in, but a vast army of sanitary +inspectors, physicians and bacteriologists to safeguard us from that +wicked stepmother who is anxious to get rid of us before our time! In +all this miserable year, during which I have met and conversed with and +visited many scores of gipsies, I have not found one who was not in a +cheerful frame of mind, even when he was under a cloud with the police +on his track; nor one with a cold, or complaining of an ache in his +bones, or of indigestion. + +The subject of gipsies catching cold connects itself just now in my mind +with that of the gipsy's sense of humour. He has that sense, and it +makes him happy when he is reposing in the bosom of his family and can +give it free vent; but the instant you appear on the scene its gracious +outward signs vanish like lightning and he is once more the sly, subtle +animal, watching you furtively, but with intensity. When you have left +him and he relaxes the humour will come back to him; for it is a humour +similar to that of some of the lower animals, especially birds of the +crow family, and of primitive people, only more highly developed, and is +concerned mainly with the delight of trickery--with getting the better +of some one and the huge enjoyment resulting from the process. + +One morning, between nine and ten o'clock, during the excessively cold +spell near the end of November 1909, I paid a visit to some gipsies I +knew at their camp. The men had already gone off for the day, but some +of the women were there--a young married woman, two big girls, and six +or seven children. It was a hard frost and their sleeping accommodation +was just as in the summer-time--bundles of straw and old rugs placed in +or against little half-open canvas and rag shelters; but they all +appeared remarkably well, and some of the children were standing on the +hard frozen ground with bare feet. They assured me that they were all +well, that they hadn't caught colds and didn't mind the cold. I remarked +that I had thought the severe frost might have proved too much for some +of them in that high, unsheltered spot in the downs, and that if I had +found one of the children down with a cold I should have given it a +sixpence to comfort it. "Oh," cried the young married woman, "there's my +poor six months' old baby half dead of a cold; he's very bad, poor dear, +and I'm in great trouble about him." + +"He is bad, the darling!" cried one of the big girls. "I'll soon show +you how bad he is!" and with that she dived into a pile of straw and +dragged out a huge fat sleeping baby. Holding it up in her arms she +begged me to look at it to see how bad it was; the fat baby slowly +opened its drowsy eyes and blinked at the sun, but uttered no sound, for +it was not a crying baby, but was like a great fat retriever pup pulled +out of its warm bed. + +How healthy they are is hardly known even to those who make a special +study of these aliens, who, albeit aliens, are yet more native than any +Englishman in the land. It is not merely their indifference to wet and +cold; more wonderful still is their dog-like capacity of assimilating +food which to us would be deadly. This is indeed not a nice or pretty +subject, and I will give but one instance to illustrate my point; the +reader with a squeamish stomach may skip the ensuing paragraph. + +An old shepherd of Chitterne relates that a family, or gang, of gipsies +used to turn up from time to time at the village; he generally saw them +at lambing-time, when one of the heads of the party with whom he was +friendly would come round to see what he had to give them. On one +occasion his gipsy friend appeared, and after some conversation on +general subjects, asked him if he had anything in his way. "No, nothing +this time," said the shepherd. "Lambing was over two or three months ago +and there's nothing left--no dead lamb. I hung up a few cauls on a beam +in the old shed, thinking they would do for the dogs, but forgot them +and they went bad and then dried up." + +"They'll do very well for us," said his friend. + +"No, don't you take them!" cried the shepherd in alarm; "I tell you they +went bad months ago, and 'twould kill anyone to eat such stuff. They've +dried up now, and are dry and black as old skin." + +"That doesn't matter--we know how to make them all right," said the +gipsy. "Soaked with a little salt, then boiled, they'll do very well." +And off he carried them. + +In reading the reports of the Assizes held at Salisbury from the late +eighteenth century down to about 1840, it surprised me to find how +rarely a gipsy appeared in that long, sad, monotonous procession of +"criminals" who passed before the man sitting with his black cap on his +head, and were sent to the gallows or to the penal settlements for +stealing sheep and fowls and ducks or anything else. Yet the gipsies +were abundant then as now, living the same wild, lawless life, +quartering the country, and hanging round the villages to spy out +everything stealable. The man caught was almost invariably the poor, +slow-minded, heavy-footed agricultural labourer; the light, +quick-moving, cunning gipsy escaped. In the "Salisbury Journal" for 1820 +I find a communication on this subject, in which the writer says that a +common trick of the gipsies was to dig a deep pit at their camp in which +to bury a stolen sheep, and on this spot they would make their camp +fire. If the sheep was not missed, or if no report of its loss was made +to the police, the thieves would soon be able to dig it up and enjoy it; +but if inquiries were made they would have to wait until the affair had +blown over. + +It amused me to find, from an incident related to me by a workman in a +village where I was staying lately, that this simple, ancient device is +still practised by the gipsies. My informant said that on going out at +about four o'clock one morning during the late summer he was surprised +at seeing two gipsies with a pony and cart at the spot where a party of +them had been encamped a fortnight before. He watched them, himself +unseen, and saw that they were digging a pit on the spot where they had +had their fire. They took out several objects from the ground, but he +was too far away to make out what they were. They put them in the cart +and covered them over, then filled up the pit, trampled the earth well +down, and put the ashes and burnt sticks back in the same place, after +which they got into the cart and drove off. + +Of course a man, even a nomad, must have some place to conceal his +treasures or belongings in, and the gipsy has no cellar nor attic nor +secret cupboard, and as for his van it is about the last place in which +he would bestow anything of value or incriminating, for though he is +always on the move, he is, moving or sitting still, always under a +cloud. The ground is therefore the safest place to hide things in, +especially in a country like the Wiltshire Downs, though he may use +rocks and hollow trees in other districts. His habit is that of the jay +and magpie, and of the dog with a bone to put by till it is wanted. +Possibly the rural police have not yet discovered this habit of the +gipsy. Indeed, the contrast in mind and locomotive powers between the +gipsy and the village policeman has often amused me; the former most +like the thievish jay, ever on mischief bent; the other, who has his eye +on him, is more like the portly Cochin-China fowl of the farmyard, or +the Muscovy duck, or stately gobbler. + +To go back. When the buried sheep had to be kept too long buried and was +found "gone bad" when disinterred, I fancy it made little difference to +the diners. One remembers Thoreau's pleasure at the spectacle of a crowd +of vultures feasting on the carrion of a dead horse; the fine healthy +appetite and boundless vigour of nature filled him with delight. But it +is not only some of the lower animals--dogs and vultures, for +instance--which possess this power and immunity from the effects of +poisons developed in putrid meat; the Greenlanders and African savages, +and many other peoples in various parts of the world, have it as well. + +Sometimes when sitting with gipsies at their wild hearth, I have felt +curious as to the contents of that black pot simmering over the fire. No +doubt it often contains strange meats, but it would not have been +etiquette to speak of such a matter. It is like the pot on the fire of +the Venezuela savage into which he throws whatever he kills with his +little poisoned arrows or fishes out of the river. Probably my only +quarrel with them would be about the little fledgelings: it angers me to +see them beating the bushes in spring in search of small nesties and the +callow young that are in them. After all, the gipsies could retort that +my friends the jays and magpies are at the same business in April and +May. + +It is just these habits of the gipsy which I have described, shocking to +the moralist and sanitarian and disgusting to the person of delicate +stomach, it may be, which please me, rather than the romance and poetry +which the scholar-gipsy enthusiasts are fond of reading into him. He is +to me a wild, untameable animal of curious habits, and interests me as a +naturalist accordingly. It may be objected that being a naturalist +occupied with the appearance of things, I must inevitably miss the one +thing which others find. + +In a talk I had with a gipsy a short time ago, he said to me: "You know +what the books say, and we don't. But we know other things that are not +in the books, and that's what we have. It's ours, our own, and you can't +know it." + +It was well put; but I was not perhaps so entirely ignorant as he +imagined of the nature of that special knowledge, or shall we say +faculty, which he claimed. I take it to be cunning--the cunning of a +wild animal with a man's brain--and a small, an infinitesimal, dose of +something else which eludes us. But that something else is not of a +spiritual nature: the gipsy has no such thing in him; the soul growths +are rooted in the social instinct, and are developed in those in whom +that instinct is strong. I think that if we analyse that dose of +something else, we will find that it is still the animal's cunning, a +special, a sublimated cunning, the fine flower of his whole nature, and +that it has nothing mysterious in it. He is a parasite, but free and as +well able to exist free as the fox or jackal; but the parasitism pays +him well, and he has followed it so long in his intercourse with social +man that it has come to be like an instinct, or secret knowledge, and is +nothing more than a marvellously keen penetration which reveals to him +the character and degree of credulity and other mental weaknesses of his +subject. + +It is not so much the wind on the heath, brother, as the fascination of +lawlessness, which makes his life an everlasting joy to him; to pit +himself against gamekeeper, farmer, policeman, and everybody else, and +defeat them all, to flourish like the parasitic fly on the honey in the +hive and escape the wrath of the bees. + +I must now return from this long digression to my conversation with the +shepherd about the dark people of the village. + +There were, I continued, other black-eyed and black-haired people in the +villages who had no gipsy blood in their veins. So far as I could make +out there were dark people of three originally distinct and widely +different races in the Wiltshire Downs. There was a good deal of mixed +blood, no doubt, and many dark persons could not be identified as +belonging to any particular race. Nevertheless three distinct types +could be traced among the dark people, and I took them to be, first, the +gipsy, rather short of stature, brown-skinned, with broad face and high +cheek-bones, like the men we had just been speaking of. Secondly, the +men and women of white skins and good features, who had rather broad +faces and round heads, and were physically and mentally just as good as +the best blue-eyed people; these were probably the descendants of the +dark, broad-faced Wilsetas, who came over at the time when the country +was being overrun with the English and other nations or tribes, and who +colonized in Wiltshire and gave it their name. The third type differed +widely from both the others. They were smallest in size and had narrow +heads and long or oval faces, and were very dark, with brown skins; they +also differed mentally from the others, being of a more lively +disposition and hotter temper. The characters which distinguish the +ancient British or Iberian race appeared to predominate in persons of +this type. + +The shepherd said he didn't know much about "all that," but he +remembered that they once had a man in the village who was like the last +kind I had described. He was a labourer named Tark, who had several +sons, and when they were grown up there was a last one born: he had to +be the last because his mother died when she gave him birth; and that +last one was like his father, small, very dark-skinned, with eyes like +sloes, and exceedingly lively and active. + +Tark, himself, he said, was the liveliest, most amusing man he had ever +known, and the quickest to do things, whatever it was he was asked to +do, but he was not industrious and not thrifty. The Tarks were always +very poor. He had a good ear for music and was a singer of the old +songs--he seemed to know them all. One of his performances was with a +pair of cymbals which he had made for himself out of some old metal +plates, and with these he used to play while dancing about, clashing +them in time, striking them on his head, his breast, and legs. In these +dances with the cymbals he would whirl and leap about in an astonishing +way, standing sometimes on his hands, then on his feet, so that half the +people in the village used to gather at his cottage to watch his antics +on a summer evening. + +One afternoon he was coming down the village street and saw the +blacksmith standing near his cottage looking up at a tall fir-tree which +grew there on his ground. "What be looking at?" cried Tark. The +blacksmith pointed to a branch, the lowest branch of all, but about +forty feet from the ground, and said a chaffinch had his nest in it, +about three feet from the trunk, which his little son had set his heart +on having. He had promised to get it down for him, but there was no long +ladder and he didn't know how to get it. + +Tark laughed and said that for half a gallon of beer he would go up legs +first and take the nest and bring it down in one hand, which he would +not use in climbing, and would come down as he went up, head first. + +"Do it, then," said the blacksmith, "and I'll stand the half gallon." + +Tark ran to the tree, and turning over and standing on his hands, +clasped the bole with his legs and then with his arms and went up to the +branch, when taking the nest and holding it in one hand, he came down +head first to the ground in safety. + +There were other anecdotes of his liveliness and agility. Then followed +the story of the youngest son, known as Liddy. "I don't rightly know," +said Caleb, "what the name was he was given when they christened 'n; but +he were always called Liddy, and nobody knowed any other name for him." + +Liddy's grown-up brothers all left home when he was a small boy: one +enlisted and was sent to India and never returned; the other two went to +America, so it was said. He was twelve years old when his father died, +and he had to shift for himself; but he was no worse off on that +account, as they had always been very poor owing to poor Tark's love of +beer. Before long he got employed by a small working farmer who kept a +few cows and a pair of horses and used to buy wethers to fatten them, +and these the boy kept on the down. + +Liddy was always a "leetel chap," and looked no more than nine when +twelve, so that he could do no heavy work; but he was a very willing and +active little fellow, with a sweet temper, and so lively and full of fun +as to be a favourite with everybody in the village. The men would laugh +at his pranks, especially when he came from the fields on the old plough +horse and urged him to a gallop, sitting with his face to the tail; and +they would say that he was like his father, and would never be much good +except to make people laugh. But the women had a tender feeling for him, +because, although motherless and very poor, he yet contrived to be +always clean and neat. He took the greatest care of his poor clothes, +washing and mending them himself. He also took an intense interest in +his wethers, and almost every day he would go to Caleb, tending his +flock on the down, to sit by him and ask a hundred questions about sheep +and their management. He looked on Caleb, as head-shepherd on a +good-sized farm, as the most important and most fortunate person he +knew, and was very proud to have him as guide, philosopher, and friend. + +Now it came to pass that once in a small lot of thirty or forty wethers +which the farmer had bought at a sheep-fair and brought home it was +discovered that one was a ewe--a ewe that would perhaps at some future +day have a lamb! Liddy was greatly excited at the discovery; he went to +Caleb and told him about it, almost crying at the thought that his +master would get rid of it. For what use would it be to him? but what a +loss it would be! And at last, plucking up courage, he went to the +farmer and begged and prayed to be allowed to keep the ewe, and the +farmer laughed at him; but he was a little touched at the boy's feeling, +and at last consented. Then Liddy was the happiest boy in the village, +and whenever he got the chance he would go out to Caleb on the down to +talk about and give him news of the one beloved ewe. And one day, after +about nineteen or twenty weeks, Caleb, out with his flock, heard shouts +at a distance, and, turning to look, saw Liddy coming at great speed +towards him, shouting out some great news as he ran; but what it was +Caleb could not make out, even when the little fellow had come to him, +for his excitement made him incoherent. The ewe had lambed, and there +were twins--two strong healthy lambs, most beautiful to see! Nothing so +wonderful had ever happened in his life before! And now he sought out +his friend oftener than ever, to talk of his beloved lambs, and to +receive the most minute directions about their care. Caleb, who is not a +laughing man, could not help laughing a little when he recalled poor +Liddy's enthusiasm. But that beautiful shining chapter in the poor boy's +life could not last, and when the lambs were grown they were sold, and +so were all the wethers, then Liddy, not being wanted, had to find +something else to do. + +I was too much interested in this story to let the subject drop. What +had been Liddy's after-life? Very uneventful: there was, in fact, +nothing in it, nor in him, except an intense love for all things, +especially animals; and nothing happened to him until the end, for he +has been dead now these nine or ten years. In his next place he was +engaged, first, as carter's boy, and then under-carter, and all his love +was lavished on the horses. They were more to him than sheep, and he +could love them without pain, since they were not being prepared for the +butcher with his abhorred knife. Liddy's love and knowledge of horses +became known outside of his own little circle, and he was offered and +joyfully accepted a place in the stables of a wealthy young gentleman +farmer, who kept a large establishment and was a hunting man. From +stable-boy he was eventually promoted to groom. Occasionally he would +reappear in his native place. His home was but a few miles away, and +when out exercising a horse he appeared to find it a pleasure to trot +down the old street, where as a farmer's boy he used to make the village +laugh at his antics. But he was very much changed from the poor boy, who +was often hatless and barefooted, to the groom in his neat, well-fitting +black suit, mounted on a showy horse. + +In this place he continued about thirty years, and was married and had +several children and was very happy, and then came a great disaster. His +employer having met with heavy losses sold all his horses and got rid of +his servants, and Liddy had to go. This great change, and above all his +grief at the loss of his beloved horses, was more than he could endure. +He became melancholy and spent his days in silent brooding, and by and +by, to everybody's surprise, Liddy fell ill, for he was in the prime of +life and had always been singularly healthy. Then to astonish people +still more, he died. What ailed him--what killed him? every one asked of +the doctor; and his answer was that he had no disease--that nothing +ailed him except a broken heart; and that was what killed poor Liddy. + +In conclusion I will relate a little incident which occurred several +months later, when I was again on a visit to my old friend the shepherd. +We were sitting together on a Sunday evening, when his old wife looked +out and said, "Lor, here be Mrs. Taylor with her children coming in to +see us." And Mrs. Taylor soon appeared, wheeling her baby in a +perambulator, with two little girls following. She was a comely, round, +rosy little woman, with black hair, black eyes, and a singularly sweet +expression, and her three pretty little children were like her. She +stayed half an hour in pleasant chat, then went her way down the road to +her home. Who, I asked, was Mrs. Taylor? + +Bawcombe said that in a way she was a native of their old village of +Winterbourne Bishop: at least her father was. She had married a man who +had taken a farm near them, and after having known her as a young girl +they had been glad to have her again as a neighbour. "She's a daughter +of that Liddy I told 'ee about some time ago," he said. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +SOME SHEEP-DOGS + + Breaking a sheep-dog--The shepherd buys a pup--His training--He + refuses to work--He chases a swallow and is put to death--The + shepherd's remorse--Bob, the sheep-dog--How he was bitten by an + adder--Period of the dog's receptivity--Tramp, the sheep-dog--Roaming + lost about the country--A rage of hunger--Sheep-killing dogs--Dogs + running wild--Anecdotes--A Russian sheep-dog--Caleb parts with Tramp + + +To Caleb the proper training of a dog was a matter of the very first +importance. A man, he considered, must have not only a fair amount of +intelligence, but also experience, and an even temper, and a little +sympathy as well, to sum up the animal in hand--its special aptitudes, +its limitations, its disposition, and that something in addition, which +he called a "kink," and would probably have described as its +idiosyncrasy if he had known the word. There was as much individual +difference among dogs as there is in boys; but if the breed was right, +and you went the right way about it, you could hardly fail to get a good +servant. If a dog was not properly broken, if its trainer had not made +the most of it, he was not a "good shepherd": he lacked the +intelligence--"understanding" was his word--or else the knowledge or +patience or persistence to do his part. It was, however, possible for +the best shepherd to make mistakes, and one of the greatest to be made, +which was not uncommon, was to embark on the long and laborious business +of training an animal of mixed blood--a sheep-dog with a taint of +terrier, retriever, or some other unsuitable breed in him. In discussing +this subject with other shepherds I generally found that those who were +in perfect agreement with Caleb on this point were men who were somewhat +like him in character, and who regarded their work with the sheep as so +important that it must be done thoroughly in every detail and in the +best way. One of the best shepherds I know, who is sixty years old and +has been on the same downland sheep-farm all his life, assures me that +he has never had and never would have a dog which was trained by +another. But the shepherd of the ordinary kind says that he doesn't care +much about the animal's parentage, or that he doesn't trouble to inquire +into its pedigree: he breaks the animal, and finds that he does pretty +well, even when he has some strange blood in him; finally, that all dogs +have faults and you must put up with them. Caleb would say of such a man +that he was not a "good shepherd." One of his saddest memories was of a +dog which he bought and broke without having made the necessary +inquiries about its parentage. + +It happened that a shepherd of the village, who had taken a place at a +distant farm, was anxious to dispose of a litter of pups before leaving, +and he asked Caleb to have one. Caleb refused. "My dog's old, I know," +he said, "but I don't want a pup now and I won't have 'n." + +A day or two later the man came back and said he had kept one of the +best of the five for him--he had got rid of all the others. "You can't +do better," he persisted. "No," said Caleb, "what I said I say again. I +won't have 'n, I've no money to buy a dog." + +"Never mind about money," said the other. "You've got a bell I like the +sound of; give he to me and take the pup." And so the exchange was made, +a copper bell for a nice black pup with a white collar; its mother, +Bawcombe knew, was a good sheep-dog, but about the other parent he made +no inquiries. + +On receiving the pup he was told that its name was Tory, and he did not +change it. It was always difficult, he explained, to find a name for a +dog--a name, that is to say, which anyone would say was a proper name +for a dog and not a foolish name. One could think of a good many proper +names--Jack and Watch, and so on--but in each case one would remember +some dog which had been called by that name, and it seemed to belong to +that particular well-remembered dog and to no other, and so in the end +because of this difficulty he allowed the name to remain. + +The dog had not cost him much to buy, but as it was only a few weeks old +he had to keep it at his own cost for fully six months before beginning +the business of breaking it, which would take from three to six months +longer. A dog cannot be put to work before he is quite half a year old +unless he is exceptionally vigorous. Sheep are timid creatures, but not +unintelligent, and they can distinguish between the seasoned old +sheep-dog, whose furious onset and bite they fear, and the raw young +recruit as easily as the rook can distinguish between the man with a gun +and the man of straw with a broomstick under his arm. They will turn +upon and attack the young dog, and chase him away with his tail between +his legs. He will also work too furiously for his strength and then +collapse, with the result that he will make a cowardly sheep-dog, or, as +the shepherds say, "brokenhearted." + +Another thing. He must be made to work at first with an old sheep-dog, +for though he has the impulse to fly about and do something, he does not +know what to do and does not understand his master's gestures and +commands. He must have an object-lesson, he must see the motion and hear +the word and mark how the old dog flies to this or that point and what +he does. The word of command or the gesture thus becomes associated in +his mind with a particular action on his part. But he must not be given +too many object-lessons or he will lose more than he will gain--a +something which might almost be described as a sense of individual +responsibility. That is to say, responsibility to the human master who +delegates his power to him. Instead of taking his power directly from +the man he takes it from the dog, and this becomes a fixed habit so +quickly that many shepherds say that if you give more than from three to +six lessons of this kind to a young dog you will spoil him. He will need +the mastership of the other dog, and will thereafter always be at a loss +and work in an uncertain way. + +A timid or unwilling young dog is often coupled with the old dog two or +three times, but this method has its dangers too, as it may be too much +for the young dog's strength, and give him that "broken-heart" from +which he will never recover; he will never be a good sheep-dog. + +To return to Tory. In due time he was trained and proved quick to learn +and willing to work, so that before long he began to be useful and was +much wanted with the sheep, as the old dog was rapidly growing stiffer +on his legs and harder of hearing. + +One day the lambs were put into a field which was half clover and half +rape, and it was necessary to keep them on the clover. This the young +dog could not or would not understand; again and again he allowed the +lambs to go to the rape, which so angered Caleb that he threw his crook +at him. Tory turned and gave him a look, then came very quietly and +placed himself behind his master. From that moment he refused to obey, +and Bawcombe, after exhausting all his arts of persuasion, gave it up +and did as well as he could without his assistance. + +That evening after folding-time he by chance met a shepherd he was well +acquainted with and told him of the trouble he was in over Tory. + +"You tie him up for a week," said the shepherd, "and treat him well till +he forgets all about it, and he'll be the same as he was before you +offended him. He's just like old Tom--he's got his father's temper." + +"What's that you say?" exclaimed Bawcombe. "Be you saying that Tory's +old Tom's son? I'd never have taken him if I'd known that. Tom's not +pure-bred--he's got retriever's blood." + +"Well, 'tis known, and I could have told 'ee, if thee'd asked me," said +the shepherd. "But you do just as I tell 'ee, and it'll be all right +with the dog." + +Tory was accordingly tied up at home and treated well and spoken kindly +to and patted on the head, so that there would be no unpleasantness +between master and servant, and if he was an intelligent animal he would +know that the crook had been thrown not to hurt but merely to express +disapproval of his naughtiness. + +Then came a busy day for the shepherd, when the lambs were trimmed +before being taken to the Wilton sheep-fair. There was Bawcombe, his +boy, the decrepit old dog, and Tory to do the work, but when the time +came to start Tory refused to do anything. + +When sent to turn the lambs he walked off to a distance of about twenty +yards, sat down and looked at his master. Caleb hoped he would come +round presently when he saw them all at work, and so they did the best +they could without him for a time; but the old dog was stiffer and +harder of hearing than ever, and as they could not get on properly Caleb +went at intervals to Tory and tried to coax him to give them his help; +and every time he was spoken to he would get up and come to his master, +then when ordered to do something he would walk off to the spot where he +had chosen to be and calmly sit down once more and look at them. Caleb +was becoming more and more incensed, but he would not show it to the +dog; he still hoped against hope; and then a curious thing happened. A +swallow came skimming along close to the earth and passed within a yard +of Tory, when up jumped the dog and gave chase, darting across the field +with such speed that he kept very near the bird until it rose and passed +over the hedge at the farther side. The joyous chase over Tory came back +to his old place, and sitting on his haunches began watching them again +struggling with the lambs. It was more than the shepherd could stand; he +went deliberately up to the dog, and taking him by the straw collar +still on his neck drew him quietly away to the hedge-side and bound him +to a bush, then getting a stout stick he came back and gave him one blow +on the head. So great was the blow that the dog made not the slightest +sound: he fell; his body quivered a moment and his legs stretched +out--he was quite dead. Bawcombe then plucked an armful of bracken and +threw it over his body to cover it, and going back to the hurdles sent +the boy home, then spreading his cloak at the hedge-side, laid himself +down on it and covered his head. + +An hour later the fanner appeared on the scene. "What are you doing +here, shepherd?" he demanded in surprise. "Not trimming the lambs!" + +Bawcombe, raising himself on his elbow, replied that he was not trimming +the lambs--that he would trim no lambs that day. + +"Oh, but we must get on with the trimming!" cried the farmer. + +Bawcombe returned that the dog had put him out, and now the dog was +dead--he had killed him in his anger, and he would trim no more lambs +that day. He had said it and would keep to what he had said. + +Then the farmer got angry and said that the dog had a very good nose and +would have been useful to him to take rabbits. + +"Master," said the other, "I got he when he were a pup and broke 'n to +help me with the sheep and not to catch rabbits; and now I've killed 'n +and he'll catch no rabbits." + +The farmer knew his man, and swallowing his anger walked off without +another word. + +Later on in the day he was severely blamed by a shepherd friend who said +that he could easily have sold the dog to one of the drovers, who were +always anxious to pick up a dog in their village, and he would have had +the money to repay him for his trouble; to which Bawcombe returned, "If +he wouldn't work for I that broke 'n he wouldn't work for another. But +I'll never again break a dog that isn't pure-bred." + +But though he justified himself he had suffered remorse for what he had +done; not only at the time, when he covered the dead dog up with bracken +and refused to work any more that day, but the feeling had persisted all +his life, and he could not relate the incident without showing it very +plainly. He bitterly blamed himself for having taken the pup and for +spending long months in training him without having first taken pains to +inform himself that there was no bad blood in him. And although the dog +was perhaps unfit to live he had finally killed him in anger. If it had +not been for that sudden impetuous chase after a swallow he would have +borne with him and considered afterwards what was to be done; but that +dash after the bird was more than he could stand; for it looked as if +Tory had done it purposely, in something of a mocking spirit, to exhibit +his wonderful activity and speed to his master, sweating there at his +task, and make him see what he had lost in offending him. + +The shepherd gave another instance of a mistake he once made which +caused him a good deal of pain. It was the case of a dog named Bob which +he owned when a young man. He was an exceptionally small dog, but his +quick intelligence made up for lack of strength, and he was of a very +lively disposition, so that he was a good companion to a shepherd as +well as a good servant. + +One summer day at noon Caleb was going to his flock in the fields, +walking by a hedge, when he noticed Bob sniffing suspiciously at the +roots of an old holly-tree growing on the bank. It was a low but very +old tree with a thick trunk, rotten and hollow inside, the cavity being +hidden with the brushwood growing up from the roots. As he came abreast +of the tree, Bob looked up and emitted a low whine, that sound which +says so much when used by a dog to his master and which his master does +not always rightly understand. At all events he did not do so in this +case. It was August and the shooting had begun, and Caleb jumped to the +conclusion that a wounded bird had crept into the hollow tree to hide, +and so to Bob's whine, which expressed fear and asked what he was to do, +the shepherd answered, "Get him." Bob dashed in, but quickly recoiled, +whining in a piteous way, and began rubbing his face on his legs. +Bawcombe in alarm jumped down and peered into the hollow trunk and heard +a slight rustling of dead leaves, but saw nothing. His dog had been +bitten by an adder, and he at once returned to the village, bitterly +blaming himself for the mistake he had made and greatly fearing that he +would lose his dog. Arrived at the village his mother at once went off +to the down to inform Isaac of the trouble and ask him what they were to +do. Caleb had to wait some time, as none of the villagers who gathered +round could suggest a remedy, and in the meantime Bob continued rubbing +his cheek against his foreleg, twitching and whining with pain; and +before long the face and head began to swell on one side, the swelling +extending to the nape and downwards to the throat. Presently Isaac +himself, full of concern, arrived on the scene, having left his wife in +charge of the flock, and at the same time a man from a neighbouring +village came riding by and joined the group. The horseman got off and +assisted Caleb in holding the dog while Isaac made a number of incisions +with his knife in the swollen place and let out some blood, after which +they rubbed the wounds and all the swollen part with an oil used for the +purpose. The composition of this oil was a secret: it was made by a man +in one of the downland villages and sold at eighteenpence a small +bottle; Isaac was a believer in its efficacy, and always kept a bottle +hidden away somewhere in his cottage. + +Bob recovered in a few days, but the hair fell out from all the part +which had been swollen, and he was a curious-looking dog with half his +face and head naked until he got his fresh coat, when it grew again. He +was as good and active a dog as ever, and lived to a good old age, but +one result of the poison he never got over: his bark had changed from a +sharp ringing sound to a low and hoarse one. "He always barked," said +the shepherd, "like a dog with a sore throat." + +To go back to the subject of training a dog. Once you make a beginning +it must be carried through to a finish. You take him at the age of six +months, and the education must be fairly complete when he is a year old. +He is then lively, impressionable, exceedingly adaptive; his +intelligence at that period is most like man's; but it would be a +mistake to think that it will continue so--that to what he learns now in +this wonderful half-year, other things may be added by and by as +opportunity arises. At a year he has practically got to the end of his +capacity to learn. He has lost his human-like receptivity, but what he +has been taught will remain with him for the rest of his life. We can +hardly say that he remembers it; it is more like what is called +"inherited memory" or "lapsed intelligence." + +All this is very important to a shepherd, and explains the reason an old +head-shepherd had for saying to me that he had never had, and never +would have, a dog he had not trained himself. No two men follow +precisely the same method in training, and a dog transferred from his +trainer to another man is always a little at a loss; method, voice, +gestures, personality, are all different; his new master must study him +and in a way adapt himself to the dog. The dog is still more at a loss +when transferred from one kind of country to another where the sheep are +worked in a different manner, and one instance Caleb gave me of this is +worth relating. It was, I thought, one of his best dog stories. + +His dogs as a rule were bought as pups; occasionally he had had to get a +dog already trained, a painful necessity to a shepherd, seeing that the +pound or two it costs--the price of an ordinary animal--is a big sum of +money to him. And once in his life he got an old trained sheep-dog for +nothing. He was young then, and acting as under-shepherd in his native +village, when the report came one day that a great circus and menagerie +which had been exhibiting in the west was on its way to Salisbury, and +would be coming past the village about six o'clock on the following +morning. The turnpike was a little over a mile away, and thither Caleb +went with half a dozen other young men of the village at about five +o'clock to see the show pass, and sat on a gate beside a wood to wait +its coming. In due time the long procession of horses and mounted men +and women, and gorgeous vans containing lions and tigers and other +strange beasts, came by, affording them great admiration and delight. +When it had gone on and the last van had disappeared at the turning of +the road, they got down from the gate and were about to set out on their +way back when a big, shaggy sheepdog came out of the wood and running to +the road began looking up and down in a bewildered way. They had no +doubt that he belonged to the circus and had turned aside to hunt a +rabbit in the wood; then, thinking the animal would understand them, +they shouted to it and waved their arms in the direction the procession +had gone. But the dog became frightened, and turning fled back into +cover, and they saw no more of it. + +Two or three days later it was rumoured that a strange dog had been seen +in the neighbourhood of Winterbourne Bishop, in the fields; and women +and children going to or coming from outlying cottages and farms had +encountered it, sometimes appearing suddenly out of the furze-bushes and +staring wildly at them; or they would meet him in some deep lane between +hedges, and after standing still a moment eyeing them he would turn and +fly in terror from their strange faces. Shepherds began to be alarmed +for the safety of their sheep, and there was a good deal of excitement +and talk about the strange dog. Two or three days later Caleb +encountered it. He was returning from his flock at the side of a large +grass field where four or five women were occupied cutting the thistles, +and the dog, which he immediately recognized as the one he had seen at +the turnpike, was following one of the women about. She was greatly +alarmed, and called to him, "Come here, Caleb, for goodness' sake, and +drive this big dog away! He do look so desprit, I'm afeared of he." + +"Don't you be feared," he shouted back. "He won't hurt 'ee; he's +starving--don't you see his bones sticking out? He's asking to be fed." +Then going a little nearer he called to her to take hold of the dog by +the neck and keep him while he approached. He feared that the dog on +seeing him coming would rush away. After a little while she called the +dog, but when he went to her she shrank away from him and called out, +"No, I daren't touch he--he'll tear my hand off. I never see'd such a +desprit-looking beast!" + +"'Tis hunger," repeated Caleb, and then very slowly and cautiously he +approached, the dog all the time eyeing him suspiciously, ready to rush +away on the slightest alarm. And while approaching him he began to speak +gently to him, then coming to a stand stooped and patting his legs +called the dog to him. Presently he came, sinking his body lower as he +advanced and at last crawling, and when he arrived at the shepherd's +feet he turned himself over on his back--that eloquent action which a +dog uses when humbling himself before and imploring mercy from one +mightier than himself, man or dog. + +Caleb stooped, and after patting the dog gripped him firmly by the neck +and pulled him up, while with his free hand he undid his leather belt to +turn it into a dog's collar and leash; then, the end of the strap in his +hand, he said "Come," and started home with the dog at his side. Arrived +at the cottage he got a bucket and mixed as much meal as would make two +good feeds, the dog all the time watching him with his muscles twitching +and the water running from his mouth. The meal well mixed he emptied it +out on the turf, and what followed, he said, was an amazing thing to +see: the dog hurled himself down on the food and started devouring it as +if the mass of meal had been some living savage creature he had captured +and was frenziedly tearing to pieces. He turned round and round, +floundering on the earth, uttering strange noises like half-choking +growls and screams while gobbling down the meal; then when he had +devoured it all he began tearing up and swallowing the turf for the sake +of the little wet meal still adhering to it. + +Such rage of hunger Caleb had never seen, and it was painful to him to +think of what the dog had endured during those days when it had been +roaming foodless about the neighbourhood. Yet it was among sheep all the +time--scores of flocks left folded by night at a distance from the +village; one would have imagined that the old wolf and wild-dog instinct +would have come to life in such circumstances, but the instinct was to +all appearance dead. + +My belief is that the pure-bred sheep-dog is indeed the last dog to +revert to a state of nature; and that when sheep-killing by night is +traced to a sheep-dog, the animal has a bad strain in him, of retriever, +or cur, or "rabbit-dog," as the shepherds call all terriers. When I was +a boy on the pampas sheep-killing dogs were common enough, and they were +always curs, or the common dog of the country, a smooth-haired animal +about the size of a coach-dog, red, or black, or white. I recall one +instance of sheep-killing being traced to our own dogs--we had about six +or eight just then. A native neighbour, a few miles away, caught them at +it one morning; they escaped him in spite of his good horse, with lasso +and bolas also, but his sharp eyes saw them pretty well in the dim +light, and by and by he identified them, and my father had to pay him +for about thirty slain and badly injured sheep; after which a gallows +was erected and our guardians ignominiously hanged. Here we shoot dogs; +in some countries the old custom of hanging them, which is perhaps less +painful, is still followed. + +To go back to our story. From that time the stray dog was Caleb's +obedient and affectionate slave, always watching his face and every +gesture, and starting up at his slightest word in readiness to do his +bidding. When put with the flock he turned out to be a useful sheep-dog, +but unfortunately he had not been trained on the Wiltshire Downs. It was +plain to see that the work was strange to him, that he had been taught +in a different school, and could never forget the old and acquire a new +method. But as to what conditions he had been reared in or in what +district or country no one could guess. Every one said that he was a +sheep-dog, but unlike any sheep-dog they had ever seen; he was not +Wiltshire, nor Welsh, nor Sussex, nor Scotch, and they could say no +more. Whenever a shepherd saw him for the first time his attention was +immediately attracted, and he would stop to speak with Caleb. "What sort +of a dog do you call that?" he would say. "I never see'd one just like +'n before." + +At length one day when passing by a new building which some workmen had +been brought from a distance to erect in the village, one of the men +hailed Caleb and said, "Where did you get that dog, mate?" + +"Why do you ask me that?" said the shepherd. + +"Because I know where he come from: he's a Rooshian, that's what he is. +I've see'd many just like him in the Crimea when I was there. But I +never see'd one before in England." + +Caleb was quite ready to believe it, and was a little proud at having a +sheep-dog from that distant country. He said that it also put something +new into his mind. He didn't know nothing about Russia before that, +though he had been hearing so much of our great war there and of all the +people that had been killed. Now he realized that Russia was a great +country, a land where there were hills and valleys and villages, where +there were flocks and herds, and shepherds and sheepdogs just as in the +Wiltshire Downs. He only wished that Tramp--that was the name he had +given his dog--could have told him his history. + +Tramp, in spite of being strange to the downs and the downland +sheep-dog's work, would probably have been kept by Caleb to the end but +for his ineradicable passion for hunting rabbits. He did not neglect his +duty, but he would slip away too often, and eventually when a man who +wanted a good dog for rabbits one day offered Caleb fifteen shillings +for Tramp, he sold him, and as he was taken away to a distance by his +new master, he never saw him again. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +THE SHEPHERD AS NATURALIST + + General remarks--Great Ridge Wood--Encounter with a roe-deer--A hare + on a stump--A gamekeeper's memory--Talk with a gipsy--A strange story + of a hedgehog--A gipsy on memory--The shepherd's feeling for + animals--Anecdote of a shrew--Anecdote of an owl--Reflex effect of the + gamekeeper's calling--We remember best what we see emotionally + + +It will appear to some of my readers that the interesting facts about +wild life, or rather about animal life, wild and domestic, gathered in +my talks with the old shepherd, do not amount to much. If this is all +there is to show after a long life spent out of doors, or all that is +best worth preserving, it is a somewhat scanty harvest, they will say. +To me it appears a somewhat abundant one. We field naturalists, who set +down what we see and hear in a notebook, lest we forget it, do not +always bear in mind that it is exceedingly rare for those who are not +naturalists, whose senses and minds are occupied with other things, to +come upon a new and interesting fact in animal life, or that these +chance observations are quickly forgotten. This was strongly borne in +upon me lately while staying in the village of Hindon in the +neighbourhood of the Great Ridge Wood, which clothes the summit of the +long high down overlooking the vale of the Wylye. It is an immense wood, +mostly of scrub or dwarf oak, very dense in some parts, in others thin, +with open, barren patches, and like a wild forest, covering altogether +twelve or fourteen square miles--perhaps more. There are no houses near, +and no people in it except a few gamekeepers: I spent long days in it +without meeting a human being. It was a joy to me to find such a spot in +England, so wild and solitary, and I was filled with pleasing +anticipation of all the wild life I should see in such a place, +especially after an experience I had on my second day in it. I was +standing in an open glade when a cock-pheasant uttered a cry of alarm, +and immediately afterwards, startled by the cry perhaps, a roe-deer +rushed out of the close thicket of oak and holly in which it had been +hiding, and ran past me at a very short distance, giving me a good sight +of this shyest of the large wild animals still left to us. He looked +very beautiful to me, in that mouse-coloured coat which makes him +invisible in the deep shade in which he is accustomed to pass the +daylight hours in hiding, as he fled across the green open space in the +brilliant May sunshine. But he was only one, a chance visitor, a +wanderer from wood to wood about the land; and he had been seen once, a +month before my encounter with him, and ever since then the keepers had +been watching and waiting for him, gun in hand, to send a charge of shot +into his side. + +That was the best and the only great thing I saw in the Great Ridge +Wood, for the curse of the pheasant is on it as on all the woods and +forests in Wiltshire, and all wild life considered injurious to the +semi-domestic bird, from the sparrowhawk to the harrier and buzzard and +goshawk, and from the little mousing weasel to the badger; and all the +wild life that is only beautiful, or which delights us because of its +wildness, from the squirrel to the roe-deer, must be included in the +slaughter. + +One very long summer day spent in roaming about in this endless wood, +always on the watch, had for sole result, so far as anything out of the +common goes, the spectacle of a hare sitting on a stump. The hare +started up at a distance of over a hundred yards before me and rushed +straight away at first, then turned, and ran on my left so as to get +round to the side from which I had come. I stood still and watched him +as he moved swiftly over the ground, seeing him not as a hare but as a +dim brown object successively appearing, vanishing, and reappearing, +behind and between the brown tree-trunks, until he had traced half a +circle and was then suddenly lost to sight. Thinking that he had come to +a stand I put my binocular on the spot where he had vanished, and saw +him sitting on an old oak stump about thirty inches long. It was a round +mossy stump, about eighteen inches in diameter, standing in a bed of +brown dead leaves, with the rough brown trunks of other dwarf oak-trees +on either side of it. The animal was sitting motionless, in profile, its +ears erect, seeing me with one eye, and was like a carved figure of a +hare set on a pedestal, and had a very striking appearance. + +As I had never seen such a thing before I thought it was worth +mentioning to a keeper I called to see at his lodge on my way back in +the evening. It had been a blank day, I told him--a hare sitting on a +stump being the only thing I could remember to tell him. "Well," he +said, "you've seen something I've never seen in all the years I've been +in these woods. And yet, when you come to think of it, it's just what +one might expect a hare would do. The wood is full of old stumps, and it +seems only natural a hare should jump on to one to get a better view of +a man or animal at a distance among the trees. But I never saw it." + +What, then, had he seen worth remembering during his long hours in the +wood on that day, or the day before, or on any day during the last +thirty years since he had been policing that wood, I asked him. He +answered that he had seen many strange things, but he was not now able +to remember one to tell me! He said, further, that the only things he +remembered were those that related to his business of guarding and +rearing the birds; all other things he observed in animals, however +remarkable they might seem to him at the moment, were things that didn't +matter and were quickly forgotten. + +On the very next day I was out on the down with a gipsy, and we got +talking about wild animals. He was a middle-aged man and a very perfect +specimen of his race--not one of the blue-eyed and red or light-haired +bastard gipsies, but dark as a Red Indian, with eyes like a hawk, and +altogether a hawk-like being, lean, wiry, alert, a perfectly wild man in +a tame, civilized land. The lean, mouse-coloured lurcher that followed +at his heels was perfect too, in his way--man and dog appeared made for +one another. When this man spoke of his life, spent in roaming about the +country, of his very perfect health, and of his hatred of houses, the +very atmosphere of any indoor place producing a suffocating and +sickening effect on him, I envied him as I envy birds their wings and as +I can never envy men who live in mansions. His was the wild, the real +life, and it seemed to me that there was no other worth living. + +"You know," said he, in the course of our talk about wild animals, "we +are very fond of hedgehogs--we like them better than rabbits." + +"Well, so do I," was my remark. I am not quite sure that I do, but that +is what I told him. "But now you talk of hedgehogs," I said, "it's funny +to think that, common as the animal is, it has some queer habits I can't +find anything about from gamekeepers and others I've talked to on the +subject, or from my own observation. Yet one would imagine that we know +all there is to be known about the little beast; you'll find his history +in a hundred books--perhaps in five hundred. There's one book about our +British animals so big you'd hardly be able to lift its three volumes +from the ground with all your strength, in which its author has raked +together everything known about the hedgehog, but he doesn't give me the +information I want--just what I went to the book to find. Now here's +what a friend of mine once saw. He's not a naturalist, nor a sportsman, +nor a gamekeeper, and not a gipsy; he doesn't observe animals or want to +find out their ways; he is a writer, occupied day and night with his +writing, sitting among books, yet he saw something which the naturalists +and gamekeepers haven't seen, so far as I know. He was going home one +moonlight night by a footpath through the woods when he heard a very +strange noise a little distance ahead, a low whistling sound, very +sharp, like the continuous twittering of a little bird with a voice like +a bat, or a shrew, only softer, more musical. He went on very +cautiously, until he spied two hedgehogs standing on the path facing +each other, with their noses almost or quite touching. He remained +watching and listening to them for some moments, then tried to go a +little nearer and they ran away. + +"Now I've asked about a dozen gamekeepers if they ever saw such a thing, +and all said they hadn't; they never heard hedgehogs make that +twittering sound, like a bird or a singing mouse; they had only heard +them scream like a rabbit when in a trap. Now what do you say about it?" + +"I've never seen anything like that," said the gipsy. "I only know the +hedgehog makes a little whistling sound when he first comes out at +night; I believe it is a sort of call they have." + +"But no doubt," I said, "you've seen other queer things in hedgehogs and +in other little animals which I should like to hear." + +Yes, he had, first and last, seen a good many queer things both by day +and night, in woods and other places, he replied, and then continued: +"But you see it's like this. We see something and say, 'Now that's a +very curious thing!' and then we forget all about it. You see, we don't +lay no store by such things; we ain't scholards and don't know nothing +about what's said in books. We see something and say _That's_ +something we never saw before and never heard tell of, but maybe others +have seen it and you can find it in the books. So that's how 'tis, but +if I hadn't forgotten them I could have told you a lot of queer things." + +That was all he could say, and few can say more. Caleb was one of the +few who could, and one wonders why it was so, seeing that he was +occupied with his own tasks in the fields and on the down where wild +life is least abundant and varied, and that his opportunities were so +few compared with those of the gamekeeper. It was, I take it, because he +had sympathy for the creatures he observed, that their actions had +stamped themselves on his memory, because he had seen them emotionally. +We have seen how well he remembered the many sheep-dogs he had owned, +how vividly their various characters are portrayed in his account of +them. I have met with shepherds who had little to tell about the dogs +they had possessed; they had regarded their dogs as useful servants and +nothing more as long as they lived, and when dead they were forgotten. +But Caleb had a feeling for his dogs which made it impossible for him to +forget them or to recall them without that tenderness which accompanies +the thought of vanished human friends. In a lesser degree he had +something of this feeling for all animals, down even to the most minute +and unconsidered. I recall here one of his anecdotes of a very small +creature--a shrew, or over-runner, as he called it. + +One day when out with his flock a sudden storm of rain caused him to +seek for shelter in an old untrimmed hedge close by. He crept into the +ditch, full of old dead leaves beneath the tangle of thorns and +brambles, and setting his back against the bank he thrust his legs out, +and as he did so was startled by an outburst of shrill little screams at +his feet. Looking down he spied a shrew standing on the dead leaves +close to his boot, screaming with all its might, its long thin snout +pointed upwards and its mouth wide open; and just above it, two or three +inches perhaps, hovered a small brown butterfly. There for a few moments +it continued hovering while the shrew continued screaming; then the +butterfly flitted away and the shrew disappeared among the dead leaves. + +Caleb laughed (a rare thing with him) when he narrated this little +incident, then remarked: "The over-runner was a-crying 'cause he +couldn't catch that leetel butterfly." + +The shepherd's inference was wrong; he did not know--few do--that the +shrew has the singular habit, when surprised on the surface and in +danger, of remaining motionless and uttering shrill cries. His foot, set +down close to it, had set it screaming; the small butterfly, no doubt +disturbed at the same moment, was there by chance. I recall here another +little story he related of a bird--a long-eared owl. + +One summer there was a great drought, and the rooks, unable to get their +usual food from the hard, sun-baked pasture-lands, attacked the roots +and would have pretty well destroyed them if the farmer had not +protected his swedes by driving in stakes and running cotton-thread and +twine from stake to stake all over the field. This kept them off, just +as thread keeps the chaffinches from the seed-beds in small gardens, and +as it keeps the sparrows from the crocuses on lawn and ornamental +grounds. One day Caleb caught sight of an odd-looking, brownish-grey +object out in the middle of the turnip-field, and as he looked it rose +up two or three feet into the air, then dropped back again, and this +curious movement was repeated at intervals of two or three minutes until +he went to see what the thing was. It turned out to be a long-eared owl, +with its foot accidentally caught by a slack thread, which allowed the +bird to rise a couple of feet into the air; but every such attempt to +escape ended in its being pulled back to the ground again. It was so +excessively lean, so weightless in his hand, when he took it up after +disengaging its foot, that he thought it must have been captive for the +space of two or three days. The wonder was that it had kept alive during +those long midsummer days of intolerable heat out there in the middle of +the burning field. Yet it was in very fine feather and beautiful to look +at with its long, black ear-tufts and round, orange-yellow eyes, which +would never lose their fiery lustre until glazed in death. Caleb's first +thought on seeing it closely was that it would have been a prize to +anyone who liked to have a handsome bird stuffed in a glass case. Then +raising it over his head he allowed it to fly, whereupon it flew off a +distance of a dozen or fifteen yards and pitched among the turnips, +after which it ran a little space and rose again with labour, but soon +recovering strength it flew away over the field and finally disappeared +in the deep shade of the copse beyond. + +In relating these things the voice, the manner, the expression in his +eyes were more than the mere words, and displayed the feeling which had +caused these little incidents to endure so long in his memory. + +The gamekeeper cannot have this feeling: he may come to his task with +the liveliest interest in, even with sympathy for, the wild creatures +amidst which he will spend his life, but it is all soon lost. His +business in the woods is to kill, and the reflex effect is to extinguish +all interest in the living animal--in its life and mind. It would, +indeed, be a wonderful thing if he could remember any singular action or +appearance of an animal which he had witnessed before bringing his gun +automatically to his shoulder. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +THE MASTER OF THE VILLAGE + + Moral effect of the great man--An orphaned village--The masters of the + village.--Elijah Raven--Strange appearance and character--Elijah's + house--The owls--Two rooms in the house--Elijah hardens with time--The + village club and its arbitrary secretary--Caleb dips the lambs and falls + ill--His claim on the club rejected--Elijah in court + + +In my roamings about the downs it is always a relief--a positive +pleasure in fact--to find myself in a village which has no squire or +other magnificent and munificent person who dominates everybody and +everything, and, if he chooses to do so, plays providence in the +community. I may have no personal objection to him--he is sometimes +almost if not quite human; what I heartily dislike is the effect of his +position (that of a giant among pigmies) on the lowly minds about him, +and the servility, hypocrisy, and parasitism which spring up and +flourish in his wide shadow whether he likes these moral weeds or not. +As a rule he likes them, since the poor devil has this in common with +the rest of us, that he likes to stand high in the general regard. But +how is he to know it unless he witnesses its outward beautiful signs +every day and every hour on every countenance he looks upon? Better, to +my mind, the severer conditions, the poverty and unmerited sufferings +which cannot be relieved, with the greater manliness and self-dependence +when the people are left to work out their own destiny. On this account +I was pleased to make the discovery on my first visit to Caleb's native +village that there was no magnate, or other big man, and no gentleman +except the parson, who was not a rich man. It was, so to speak, one of +the orphaned villages left to fend for itself and fight its own way in a +hard world, and had nobody even to give the customary blankets and sack +of coals to its old women. Nor was there any very big farmer in the +place, certainly no gentleman farmer; they were mostly small men, some +of them hardly to be distinguished in speech and appearance from their +hired labourers. + +In these small isolated communities it is common to find men who have +succeeded in rising above the others and in establishing a sort of +mastery over them. They are not as a rule much more intelligent than the +others who are never able to better themselves; the main difference is +that they are harder and more grasping and have more self-control. These +qualities tell eventually, and set a man a little apart, a little higher +than the others, and he gets the taste of power, which reacts on him +like the first taste of blood on the big cat. Henceforward he has his +ideal, his definite goal, which is to get the upper hand--to be on top. +He may be, and generally is, an exceedingly unpleasant fellow to have +for a neighbour--mean, sordid, greedy, tyrannous, even cruel, and he may +be generally hated and despised as well, but along with these feelings +there will be a kind of shamefaced respect and admiration for his +courage in following his own line in defiance of what others think and +feel. It is after all with man as with the social animals: he must have +a master--not a policeman, or magistrate, or a vague, far-away, +impersonal something called the authorities or the government; but a +head of the pack or herd, a being like himself whom he knows and sees +and hears and feels every day. A real man, dressed in old familiar +clothes, a fellow-villager, who, wolf or dog-like, has fought his way to +the mastership. + +There was a person of this kind at Winterbourne Bishop who was often +mentioned in Caleb's reminiscences, for he had left a very strong +impression on the shepherd's mind--as strong, perhaps, though in a +disagreeable way, as that of Isaac his father, and of Mr. Ellerby of +Doveton. For not only was he a man of great force of character, but he +was of eccentric habits and of a somewhat grotesque appearance. The +curious name of this person was Elijah Raven. He was a native of the +village and lived till extreme old age in it, the last of his family, in +a small house inherited from his father, situated about the centre of +the village street. It was a quaint, old, timbered house, little bigger +than a cottage, with a thatched roof, and behind it some outbuildings, a +small orchard, and a field of a dozen or fifteen acres. Here he lived +with one other person, an old man who did the cooking and housework, but +after this man died he lived alone. Not only was he a bachelor, but he +would never allow any woman to come inside his house. Elijah's one idea +was to get the advantage of others--to make himself master in the +village. Beginning poor, he worked in a small, cautious, peddling way at +farming, taking a field or meadow or strip of down here and there in the +neighbourhood, keeping a few sheep, a few cows, buying and selling and +breeding horses. The men he employed were those he could get at low +wages--poor labourers who were without a place and wanted to fill up a +vacant time, or men like the Targetts described in a former chapter who +could be imposed upon; also gipsies who flitted about the country, +working in a spasmodic way when in the mood for the farmers who could +tolerate them, and who were paid about half the wages of an ordinary +labourer. If a poor man had to find money quickly, on account of illness +or some other cause, he could get it from Elijah at once--not borrowed, +since Elijah neither lent nor gave--but he could sell him anything he +possessed--a horse or cow, or sheepdog, or a piece of furniture; and if +he had nothing to sell, Elijah would give him something to do and pay +him something for it. The great thing was that Elijah had money which he +was always willing to circulate. At his unlamented death he left several +thousands of pounds, which went to a distant relation, and a name which +does not smell sweet, but is still remembered not only at Winterbourne +Bishop but at many other villages on Salisbury Plain. + +Elijah was short of stature, broad-shouldered, with an abnormally big +head and large dark eyes. They say that he never cut his hair in his +life. It was abundant and curly, and grew to his shoulders, and when he +was old and his great mass of hair and beard became white it was said +that he resembled a gigantic white owl. Mothers frightened their +children into quiet by saying, "Elijah will get you if you don't behave +yourself." He knew and resented this, and though he never noticed a +child, he hated to have the little ones staring in a half-terrified way +at him. To seclude himself more from the villagers he planted holly and +yew bushes before his house, and eventually the entire building was +hidden from sight by the dense evergreen thicket. The trees were cut +down after his death: they were gone when I first visited the village +and by chance found a lodging in the house, and congratulated myself +that I had got the quaintest, old rambling rooms I had ever inhabited. I +did not know that I was in Elijah Raven's house, although his name had +long been familiar to me: it only came out one day when I asked my +landlady, who was a native, to tell me the history of the place. She +remembered how as a little girl, full of mischief and greatly daring, +she had sometimes climbed over the low front wall to hide under the +thick yew bushes and watch to catch a sight of the owlish old man at his +door or window. + +For many years Elijah had two feathered tenants, a pair of white +owls--the birds he so much resembled. They occupied a small garret at +the end of his bedroom, having access to it through a hole under the +thatch. They bred there in peace, and on summer evenings one of the +common sights of the village was Elijah's owls flying from the house +behind the evergreens and returning to it with mice in their talons. At +such seasons the threat to the unruly children would be varied to "Old +Elijah's owls will get you." Naturally, the children grew up with the +idea of the birds and the owlish old man associated in their minds. + +It was odd that the two very rooms which Elijah had occupied during all +those solitary years, the others being given over to spiders and dust, +should have been assigned to me when I came to lodge in the house. The +first, my sitting-room, was so low that my hair touched the ceiling when +I stood up my full height; it had a brick floor and a wide old fireplace +on one side. Though so low-ceilinged it was very large and good to be in +when I returned from a long ramble on the downs, sometimes wet and cold, +to sit by a wood fire and warm myself. At night when I climbed to my +bedroom by means of the narrow, crooked, worm-eaten staircase, with two +difficult and dangerous corners to get round, I would lie awake staring +at the small square patch of greyness in the black interior made by the +latticed window; and listening to the wind and rain outside, would +remember that the sordid, owlish old man had slept there and stared +nightly at that same grey patch in the dark for very many years. If, I +thought, that something of a man which remains here below to haunt the +scene of its past life is more likely to exist and appear to mortal eyes +in the case of a person of strong individuality, then there is a chance +that I may be visited this night by Elijah Raven his ghost. But his +owlish countenance never appeared between me and that patch of pale dim +light; nor did I ever feel a breath of cold unearthly air on me. + +Elijah did not improve with time; the years that made him long-haired, +whiter, and more owl-like also made him more penurious and grasping, and +anxious to get the better of every person about him. There was scarcely +a poor person in the village--not a field labourer nor shepherd nor +farmer's boy, nor any old woman he had employed, who did not consider +that they had suffered at his hands. The very poorest could not escape; +if he got some one to work for fourpence a day he would find a reason to +keep back a portion of the small sum due to him. At the same time he +wanted to be well thought of, and at length an opportunity came to him +to figure as one who did not live wholly for himself but rather as a +person ready to go out of his way to help his neighbours. + +There had long existed a small benefit society or club in the village to +which most of the farm-hands in the parish belonged, the members +numbering about sixty or seventy. Subscriptions were paid quarterly, but +the rules were not strict, and any member could take a week or a +fortnight longer to pay; when a member fell ill he received half the +amount of his wages a week from the funds in hand, and once a year they +had a dinner. The secretary was a labourer, and in time he grew old and +infirm and could not hold a pen in his rheumaticky fingers, and a +meeting was held to consider what was to be done in the matter. It was +not an easy one to settle. There were few members capable of keeping the +books who would undertake the duty, as it was unpaid, and no one among +them well known and trusted by all the members. It was then that Elijah +Raven came to the rescue. He attended the meeting, which he was allowed +to do owing to his being a person of importance--the only one of that +description in the village; and getting up on his legs he made the offer +to act as secretary himself. This came as a great surprise, and the +offer was at once and unanimously accepted, all unpleasant feelings +being forgotten, and for the first time in his life Elijah heard himself +praised as a disinterested person, one it was good to have in the +village. + +Things went on very well for a time, and at the yearly dinner of the +club, a few months later, Elijah gave an account of his stewardship, +showing that the club had a surplus of two hundred pounds. Shortly after +this trouble began; Elijah, it was said, was making use of his position +as secretary for his own private interests and to pay off old scores +against those he disliked. When a man came with his quarterly +subscription Elijah would perhaps remember that this person had refused +to work for him or that he had some quarrel with him, and if the +subscription was overdue he would refuse to take it; he would tell the +man that he was no longer a member, and he also refused to give sick pay +to any applicant whose last subscription was still due, if he happened +to be in Elijah's black book. By and by he came into collision with +Caleb, one of the villagers against whom he cherished a special grudge, +and this small affair resulted in the dissolution of the club. + +At this time Caleb was head-shepherd at Bartle's Cross, a large farm +above a mile and a half from the village. One excessively hot day in +August he had to dip the lambs; it was very hard work to drive them from +the farm over a high down to the stream a mile below the village, where +there was a dipping place, and he was tired and hot, and in a sweat when +he began the work. With his arms bared to the shoulders he took and +plunged his first lamb into the tank. When engaged in dipping, he said, +he always kept his mouth closed tightly for fear of getting even a drop +of the mixture in it, but on this occasion it unfortunately happened +that the man assisting him spoke to him and he was compelled to reply, +but had no sooner opened his mouth to speak than the lamb made a violent +struggle in his arms and splashed the water over his face and into his +mouth. He got rid of it as quickly as he could, but soon began to feel +bad, and before the work was over he had to sit down two or three times +to rest. However, he struggled on to the finish, then took the flock +home and went to his cottage. He could do no more. The farmer came to +see what the matter was, and found him in a fever, with face and throat +greatly swollen. "You look bad," he said; "you must be off to the +doctor." But it was five miles to the village where the doctor lived, +and Bawcombe replied that he couldn't go. "I'm too bad--I couldn't go, +master, if you offered me money for it," he said. + +Then the farmer mounted his horse and went himself, and the doctor came. +"No doubt," he said, "you've got some of the poison into your system and +took a chill at the same time." The illness lasted six weeks, and then +the shepherd resumed work, although still feeling very shaky. By and by +when the opportunity came, he went to claim his sick pay--six shillings +a week for the six weeks, his wages being then twelve shillings. Elijah +flatly refused to pay him; his subscription, he said, had been due for +several weeks and he had consequently forfeited his right to anything. +In vain the shepherd explained that he could not pay when lying ill at +home with no money in the house and receiving no pay from the farmer. +The old man remained obdurate, and with a very heavy heart the shepherd +came out and found three or four of the villagers waiting in the road +outside to hear the result of the application. + +They, too, were men who had been turned away from the club by the +arbitrary secretary. Caleb was telling them about his interview when +Elijah came out of the house and, leaning over the front gate, began to +listen. The shepherd then turned towards him and said in a loud voice: +"Mr. Elijah Raven, don't you think this is a tarrible hard case! I've +paid my subscription every quarter for thirty years and never had +nothing from the fund except two weeks' pay when I were bad some years +ago. Now I've been bad six weeks, and my master giv' me nothing for that +time, and I've got the doctor to pay and nothing to live on. What am I +to do?" + +Elijah stared at him in silence for some time, then spoke: "I told you +in there I wouldn't pay you one penny of the money and I'll hold to what +I said--in there I said it indoors, and I say again that indoors I'll +never pay you--no, not one penny piece. But if I happen some day to meet +you out of doors then I'll pay you. Now go." + +And go he did, very meekly, his wrath going down as he trudged home; for +after all he would have his money by and by, although the hard old man +would punish him for past offences by making him wait for it. + +A week or so went by, and then one day while passing through the village +he saw Elijah coming towards him, and said to himself, Now I'll be paid! +When the two men drew near together he cried out cheerfully, "Good +morning, Mr. Raven." The other without a word and without a pause passed +by on his way, leaving the poor shepherd gazing crestfallen after him. + +After all he would not get his money! The question was discussed in the +cottages, and by and by one of the villagers who was not so poor as most +of them, and went occasionally to Salisbury, said he would ask an +attorney's advice about the matter. He would pay for the advice out of +his own pocket; he wanted to know if Elijah could lawfully do such +things. + +To the man's astonishment the attorney said that as the club was not +registered and the members had themselves made Elijah their head he +could do as he liked--no action would lie against him. But if it was +true and it could be proved that he had spoken those words about paying +the shepherd his money if he met him out of doors, then he could be made +to pay. He also said he would take the case up and bring it into court +if a sum of five pounds was guaranteed to cover expenses in case the +decision went against them. + +Poor Caleb, with twelve shillings a week to pay his debts and live on, +could guarantee nothing, but by and by when the lawyer's opinion had +been discussed at great length at the inn and in all the cottages in the +village, it was found that several of Bawcombe's friends were willing to +contribute something towards a guarantee fund, and eventually the sum of +five pounds was raised and handed over to the person who had seen the +lawyer. + +His first step was to send for Bawcombe, who had to get a day off and +journey in the carrier's cart one market-day to Salisbury. The result +was that action was taken, and in due time the case came on. Elijah +Raven was in court with two or three of his friends--small working +farmers who had some interested motive in desiring to appear as his +supporters. He, too, had engaged a lawyer to conduct his case. The +judge, said Bawcombe, who had never seen one before, was a tarrible +stern-looking old man in his wig. The plaintiff's lawyer he did open the +case and he did talk and talk a lot, but Elijah's counsel he did keep on +interrupting him, and they two argued and argued, but the judge he never +said no word, only he looked blacker and more tarrible stern. Then when +the talk did seem all over, Bawcombe, ignorant of the forms, got up and +said, "I beg your lordship's pardon, but may I speak?" He didn't rightly +remember afterwards what he called him, but 'twere your lordship or your +worship, he was sure. "Yes, certainly, you are here to speak," said the +judge, and Bawcombe then gave an account of his interview with Elijah +and of the conversation outside the house. + +Then up rose Elijah Raven, and in a loud voice exclaimed, "Lord, Lord, +what a sad thing it is to have to sit here and listen to this man's +lies!" + +"Sit down, sir," thundered the judge; "sit down and hold your tongue, or +I shall have you removed." + +Then Elijah's lawyer jumped up, and the judge told him he'd better sit +down too because he knowed who the liar was in this case. "A brutal +case!" he said, and that was the end, and Bawcombe got his six weeks' +sick pay and expenses, and about three pounds besides, being his share +of the society's funds which Elijah had been advised to distribute to +the members. + +And that was the end of the Winterbourne Bishop club, and from that time +it has continued without one. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +ISAAC'S CHILDREN + + Isaac Bawcombe's family--The youngest son--Caleb goes to seek David at + Wilton sheep-fair--Martha, the eldest daughter--Her beauty--She marries + Shepherd Ierat--The name of Ierat--Story of Ellen Ierat--The Ierats go + to Somerset--Martha and the lady of the manor--Martha's travels--Her + mistress dies--Return to Winterbourne Bishop--Shepherd Ierat's end + + +Caleb was one of five, the middle one, with a brother and sister older +and a brother and sister younger than himself--a symmetrical family. I +have already written incidentally of the elder brother and the youngest +sister, and in this chapter will complete the history of Isaac's +children by giving an account of the eldest sister and youngest brother. + +The brother was David, the hot-tempered young shepherd who killed his +dog Monk, and who afterwards followed his brother to Warminster. In +spite of his temper and "want of sense" Caleb was deeply attached to +him, and when as an old man his shepherding days were finished he +followed his wife to their new home, he grieved at being so far removed +from his favourite brother. For some time he managed to make the journey +to visit him once a year. Not to his home near Warminster, but to +Wilton, at the time of the great annual sheep-fair held on 12th +September. From his cottage he would go by the carrier's cart to the +nearest town, and thence by rail with one or two changes by Salisbury to +Wilton. + +After I became acquainted with Caleb he was ill and not likely to +recover, and for over two years could not get about. During all this +time he spoke often to me of his brother and wished he could see him. I +wondered why he did not write; but he would not, nor would the other. +These people of the older generation do not write to each other; years +are allowed to pass without tidings, and they wonder and wish and talk +of this and that absent member of the family, trusting it is well with +them, but to write a letter never enters into their minds. + +At last Caleb began to mend and determined to go again to Wilton +sheep-fair to look for his beloved brother; to Warminster he could not +go; it was too far. September the 12th saw him once more at the old +meeting-place, painfully making his slow way to that part of the ground +where Shepherd David Bawcombe was accustomed to put his sheep. But he +was not there. "I be here too soon," said Caleb, and sat himself +patiently down to wait, but hours passed and David did not appear, so he +got up and made his way about the fair in search of him, but couldn't +find 'n. Returning to the old spot he got into conversation with two +young shepherds and told them he was waiting for his brother who always +put his sheep in that part. "What be his name?" they asked, and when he +gave it they looked at one another and were silent. Then one of them +said, "Be you Shepherd Caleb Bawcombe?" and when he had answered them +the other said, "You'll not see your brother at Wilton to-day. We've +come from Doveton, and knew he. You'll not see your brother no more. He +be dead these two years." + +Caleb thanked them for telling him, and got up and went his way very +quietly, and got back that night to his cottage. He was very tired, said +his wife; he wouldn't eat and he wouldn't talk. Many days passed and he +still sat in his corner and brooded, until the wife was angry and said +she never knowed a man make so great a trouble over losing a brother. +'Twas not like losing a wife or a son, she said; but he answered not a +word, and it was many weeks before that dreadful sadness began to wear +off, and he could talk cheerfully once more of his old life in the +village. + +Of the sister, Martha, there is much more to say; her life was an +eventful one as lives go in this quiet downland country, and she was, +moreover, distinguished above the others of the family by her beauty and +vivacity. I only knew her when her age was over eighty, in her native +village where her life ended some time ago, but even at that age there +was something of her beauty left and a good deal of her charm. She had a +good figure still and was of a good height; and had dark, fine eyes, +clear, dark, unwrinkled skin, a finely shaped face, and her grey hair, +once black, was very abundant. Her manner, too, was very engaging. At +the age of twenty-five she married a shepherd named Thomas Ierat--a +surname I had not heard before and which made me wonder where were the +Ierats in Wiltshire that in all my rambles among the downland villages I +had never come across them, not even in the churchyards. Nobody +knew--there were no Ierats except Martha Ierat, the widow, of +Winterbourne Bishop and her son--nobody had ever heard of any other +family of the name. I began to doubt that there ever had been such a +name until quite recently when, on going over an old downland village +church, the rector took me out to show me "a strange name" on a tablet +let into the wall of the building outside. The name was Ierat and the +date the seventeenth century. He had never seen the name excepting on +that tablet. Who, then, was Martha's husband? It was a queer story which +she would never have told me, but I had it from her brother and his +wife. + +A generation before that of Martha, at a farm in the village of Bower +Chalk on the Ebble, there was a girl named Ellen Ierat employed as a +dairymaid. She was not a native of the village, and if her parentage and +place of birth were ever known they have long passed out of memory. She +was a good-looking, nice-tempered girl, and was much liked by her master +and mistress, so that after she had been about two years in their +service it came as a great shock to find that she was in the family way. +The shock was all the greater when the fresh discovery was made one day +that another unmarried woman in the house, who was also a valued +servant, was in the same condition. The two unhappy women had kept their +secret from every one except from each other until it could be kept no +longer, and they consulted together and determined to confess it to +their mistress and abide the consequences. + +Who were the men? was the first question asked There was only +one--Robert Coombe, the shepherd, who lived at the farm-house, a slow, +silent, almost inarticulate man, with a round head and flaxen hair; a +bachelor of whom people were accustomed to say that he would never marry +because no woman would have such a stolid, dull-witted fellow for a +husband. But he was a good shepherd and had been many years on the farm, +and it was altogether a terrible business. Forthwith the farmer got out +his horse and rode to the downs to have it out with the unconscionable +wretch who had brought that shame and trouble on them. He found him +sitting on the turf eating his midday bread and bacon, with a can of +cold tea at his side, and getting off his horse he went up to him and +damned him for a scoundrel and abused him until he had no words left, +then told his shepherd that he must choose between the two women and +marry at once, so as to make an honest woman of one of the two poor +fools; either he must do that or quit the farm forthwith. + +Coombe heard in silence and without a change in his countenance, +masticating his food the while and washing it down with an occasional +draught from his can, until he had finished his meal; then taking his +crook he got up, and remarking that he would "think of it" went after +his flock. + +The farmer rode back cursing him for a clod; and in the evening Coombe, +after folding his flock, came in to give his decision, and said he had +thought of it and would take Jane to wife. She was a good deal older +than Ellen and not so good-looking, but she belonged to the village and +her people were there, and everybody knowed who Jane was, an' she was an +old servant an' would be wanted on the farm. Ellen was a stranger among +them, and being only a dairymaid was of less account than the other one. + +So it was settled, and on the following morning Ellen, the rejected, was +told to take up her traps and walk. + +What was she to do in her condition, no longer to be concealed, alone +and friendless in the world? She thought of Mrs. Poole, an elderly woman +of Winterbourne Bishop, whose children were grown up and away from home, +who when staying at Bower Chalk some months before had taken a great +liking for Ellen, and when parting with her had kissed her and said: "My +dear, I lived among strangers too when I were a girl and had no one of +my own, and know what 'tis." That was all; but there was nobody else, +and she resolved to go to Mrs. Poole, and so laden with her few +belongings she set out to walk the long miles over the downs to +Winterbourne Bishop where she had never been. It was far to walk in hot +August weather when she went that sad journey, and she rested at +intervals in the hot shade of a furze-bush, haunted all day by the +miserable fear that the woman she sought, of whom she knew so little, +would probably harden her heart and close her door against her. But the +good woman took compassion on her and gave her shelter in her poor +cottage, and kept her till her child was born, in spite of all the +women's bitter tongues. And in the village where she had found refuge +she remained to the end of her life, without a home of her own, but +always in a room or two with her boy in some poor person's cottage. Her +life was hard but not unpeaceful, and the old people, all dead and gone +now, remembered Ellen as a very quiet, staid woman who worked hard for a +living, sometimes at the wash-tub, but mostly in the fields, haymaking +and harvesting and at other times weeding, or collecting flints, or with +a spud or sickle extirpating thistles in the pasture-land. She worked +alone or with other poor women, but with the men she had no friendships; +the sharpest women's eyes in the village could see no fault in her in +this respect; if it had not been so, if she had talked pleasantly with +them and smiled when addressed by them, her life would have been made a +burden to her. She would have been often asked who her brat's father +was. The dreadful experience of that day, when she had been cast out and +was alone in the world, when, burdened with her unborn child, she had +walked over the downs in the hot August weather, in anguish of +apprehension, had sunk into her soul. Her very nature was changed, and +in a man's presence her blood seemed frozen, and if spoken to she +answered in monosyllables with her eyes on the earth. This was noted, +with the result that all the village women were her good friends; they +never reminded her of her fall, and when she died still young they +grieved for her and befriended the little orphan boy she had left on +their hands. + +He was then about eleven years old, and was a stout little fellow with a +round head and flaxen hair like his father; but he was not so stolid and +not like him in character; at all events his old widow in speaking of +him to me said that never in all his life did he do one unkind or unjust +thing. He came from a long line of shepherds, and shepherding was +perhaps almost instinctive in him; from his earliest boyhood the +tremulous bleating of the sheep and half-muffled clink of the copper +bells and the sharp bark of the sheep-dog had a strange attraction for +him. He was always ready when a boy was wanted to take charge of a flock +during a temporary absence of the shepherd, and eventually, when only +about fifteen, he was engaged as under-shepherd, and for the rest of his +life shepherding was his trade. + +His marriage to Martha Bawcombe came as a surprise to the village, for +though no one had any fault to find with Tommy Ierat there was a slur on +him, and Martha, who was the finest girl in the place, might, it was +thought, have looked for some one better. But Martha had always liked +Tommy; they were of the same age and had been playmates in their +childhood; growing up together their childish affection had turned to +love, and after they had waited some years and Tommy had a cottage and +seven shillings a week, Isaac and his wife gave their consent and they +were married. Still they felt hurt at being discussed in this way by the +villagers, so that when Ierat was offered a place as shepherd at a +distance from home, where his family history was not known, he was glad +to take it and his wife to go with him, about a month after her child +was born. + +The new place was in Somerset, thirty-five to forty miles from their +native village, and Ierat as shepherd at the manor-house farm on a large +estate would have better wages than he had ever had before and a nice +cottage to live in. Martha was delighted with her new home--the cottage, +the entire village, the great park and mansion close by, all made it +seem like paradise to her. Better than everything was the pleasant +welcome she received from the villagers, who looked in to make her +acquaintance and seemed very much taken with her appearance and nice, +friendly manner. They were all eager to tell her about the squire and +his lady, who were young, and of how great an interest they took in +their people and how much they did for them and how they were loved by +everybody on the estate. + +It happens, oddly enough, that I became acquainted with this same man, +the squire, over fifty years after the events I am relating, when he was +past eighty. This acquaintance came about by means of a letter he wrote +me in reference to the habits of a bird or some such small matter, a way +in which I have become acquainted with scores--perhaps I should say +hundreds--of persons in many parts of the country. He was a very fine +man, the head of an old and distinguished county family; an ideal +squire, and one of the few large landowners I have had the happiness to +meet who was not devoted to that utterly selfish and degraded form of +sport which consists in the annual rearing and subsequent slaughter of a +host of pheasants. + +Now when Martha was entertaining half a dozen of her new neighbours who +had come in to see her, and exhibited her baby to them and then +proceeded to suckle it, they looked at one another and laughed, and one +said, "Just you wait till the lady at the mansion sees 'ee--she'll soon +want 'ee to nurse her little one." + +What did they mean? They told her that the great lady was a mother too, +and had a little sickly baby and wanted a nurse for it, but couldn't +find a woman to please her. + +Martha fired up at that. Did they imagine, she asked, that any great +lady in the world with all her gold could tempt her to leave her own +darling to nurse another woman's? She would not do such a thing--she +would rather leave the place than submit to it. But she didn't believe +it--they had only said that to tease and frighten her! + +They laughed again, looking admiringly at her as she stood before them +with sparkling eyes, flushed cheeks, and fine full bust, and only +answered, "Just you wait, my dear, till she sees 'ee." + +And very soon the lady did see her. The people at the manor were strict +in their religious observances, and it had been impressed on Martha that +she had better attend at morning service on her first Sunday, and a girl +was found by one of her neighbours to look after the baby in the +meantime. And so when Sunday came she dressed herself in her best +clothes and went to church with the others. The service over, the squire +and his wife came out first and were standing in the path exchanging +greetings with their friends; then as the others came out with Martha in +the midst of the crowd the lady turned and fixed her eyes on her, and +suddenly stepping out from the group she stopped Martha and said, "Who +are you?--I don't remember your face." + +"No, ma'am," said Martha, blushing and curtsying. "I be the new +shepherd's wife at the manor-house farm--we've only been here a few +days." + +The other then said she had heard of her and that she was nursing her +child, and she then told Martha to go to the mansion that afternoon as +she had something to say to her. + +The poor young mother went in fear and trembling, trying to stiffen +herself against the expected blandishments. + +Then followed the fateful interview. The lady was satisfied that she had +got hold of the right person at last--the one in the world who would be +able to save her precious little one "from to die," the poor pining +infant on whose frail little life so much depended! She would feed it +from her full, healthy breasts and give it something of her own +abounding, splendid life. Martha's own baby would do very well--there +was nothing the matter with it, and it would flourish on "the bottle" or +anything else, no matter what. All she had to do was to go back to her +cottage and make the necessary arrangements, then come to stay at the +mansion. + +Martha refused, and the other smiled; then Martha pleaded and cried and +said she would never never leave her own child, and as all that had no +effect she was angry, and it came into her mind that if the lady would +get angry too she would be ordered out and all would be over. But the +lady wouldn't get angry, for when Martha stormed she grew more gentle +and spoke tenderly and sweetly, but would still have it her own way, +until the poor young mother could stand it no longer, and so rushed away +in a great state of agitation to tell her husband and ask him to help +her against her enemy. But Tommy took the lady's side, and his young +wife hated him for it, and was in despair and ready to snatch up her +child and run away from them all, when all at once a carriage appeared +at the cottage, and the great lady herself, followed by a nurse with the +sickly baby in her arms, came in. She had come, she said very gently, +almost pleadingly, to ask Martha to feed her child once, and Martha was +flattered and pleased at the request, and took and fondled the infant in +her arms, then gave it suck at her beautiful breast. And when she had +fed the child, acting very tenderly towards it like a mother, her +visitor suddenly burst into tears, and taking Martha in her arms she +kissed her and pleaded with her again until she could resist no more; +and it was settled that she was to live at the mansion and come once +every day to the village to feed her own child from the breast. + +Martha's connexion with the people at the mansion did not end when she +had safely reared the sickly child. The lady had become attached to her +and wanted to have her always, although Martha could not act again as +wet nurse, for she had no more children herself. And by and by when her +mistress lost her health after the birth of a third child and was +ordered abroad, she took Martha with her, and she passed a whole year +with her on the Continent, residing in France and Italy. They came home +again, but as the lady continued to decline in health she travelled +again, still taking Martha with her, and they visited India and other +distant countries, including the Holy Land; but travel and wealth and +all that the greatest physicians in the world could do for her, and the +tender care of a husband who worshipped her, availed not, and she came +home in the end to die; and Martha went back to her Tommy and the boy, +to be separated no more while their lives lasted. + +The great house was shut up and remained so for years. The squire was +the last man in England to shirk his duties as landlord and to his +people whom he loved, and who loved him as few great landowners are +loved in England, but his grief was too great for even his great +strength to bear up against, and it was long feared by his friends that +he would never recover from his loss. But he was healed in time, and ten +years later married again and returned to his home, to live there until +nigh upon his ninetieth year. Long before this the Ierats had returned +to their native village. When I last saw Martha, then in her +eighty-second year, she gave me the following account of her Tommy's +end. + +He continued shepherding up to the age of seventy-eight. One Sunday, +early in the afternoon, when she was ill with an attack of influenza, he +came home, and putting aside his crook said, "I've done work." + +"It's early," she replied, "but maybe you got the boy to mind the sheep +for you." + +"I don't mean I've done work for the day," he returned. "I've done for +good--I'll not go with the flock no more." + +"What be saying?" she cried in sudden alarm. "Be you feeling bad--what +be the matter?" + +"No, I'm not bad," he said. "I'm perfectly well, but I've done work;" +and more than that he would not say. + +She watched him anxiously but could see nothing wrong with him; his +appetite was good, he smoked his pipe, and was cheerful. + +Three days later she noticed that he had some difficulty in pulling on a +stocking when dressing in the morning, and went to his assistance. He +laughed and said, "Here's a funny thing! You be ill and I be well, and +you've got to help me put on a stocking!" and he laughed again. + +After dinner that day he said he wanted a drink and would have a glass +of beer. There was no beer in the house, and she asked him if he would +have a cup of tea. + +"Oh, yes, that'll do very well," he said, and she made it for him. + +After drinking his cup of tea he got a footstool, and placing it at her +feet sat down on it and rested his head on her knees; he remained a long +time in this position so perfectly still that she at length bent over +and felt and examined his face, only to discover that he was dead. + +And that was the end of Tommy Ierat, the son of Ellen. He died, she +said, like a baby that has been fed and falls asleep on its mother's +breast. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +LIVING IN THE PAST + + Evening talks--On the construction of sheep-folds--Making + hurdles--Devil's guts--Character in sheep-dogs--Sally the spiteful + dog--Dyke the lost dog who returned--Strange recovery of a lost + dog--Badger the playful dog--Badger shepherds the fowls--A ghost + story--A Sunday-evening talk--Parsons and ministers--Noisy + religion--The shepherd's love of his calling--Mark Dick and the + giddy sheep--Conclusion + + +During our frequent evening talks, often continued till a late hour, it +was borne in on Caleb Bawcombe that his anecdotes of wild creatures +interested me more than anything else he had to tell; but in spite of +this, or because he could not always bear it in mind, the conversation +almost invariably drifted back to the old subject of sheep, of which he +was never tired. Even in his sleep he does not forget them; his dreams, +he says, are always about sheep; he is with the flock, shifting the +hurdles, or following it out on the down. A troubled dream when he is +ill or uneasy in his sleep is invariably about some difficulty with the +flock; it gets out of his control, and the dog cannot understand him or +refuses to obey when everything depends on his instant action. The +subject was so much to him, so important above all others, that he would +not spare the listener even the minutest details of the shepherd's life +and work. His "hints on the construction of sheep-folds" would have +filled a volume; and if any farmer had purchased the book he would not +have found the title a misleading one and that he had been defrauded of +his money. But with his singular fawn-like face and clear eyes on his +listener it was impossible to fall asleep, or even to let the attention +wander; and incidentally even in his driest discourse there were little +bright touches which one would not willingly have missed. + +About hurdles he explained that it was common for the downland shepherds +to repair the broken and worn-out ones with the long woody stems of the +bithywind from the hedges; and when I asked what the plant was he +described the wild clematis or traveller's-joy; but those names he did +not know--to him the plant had always been known as _bithywind_ or +else _Devil's guts_. It struck me that bithywind might have come by +the transposition of two letters from withybind, as if one should say +flutterby for butterfly, or flagondry for dragonfly. Withybind is one of +the numerous vernacular names of the common convolvulus. Lilybind is +another. But what would old Gerarde, who invented the pretty name of +traveller's-joy for that ornament of the wayside hedges, have said to +such a name as Devil's guts? + +There was, said Caleb, an old farmer in the parish of Bishop who had a +peculiar fondness for this plant, and if a shepherd pulled any of it out +of one of his hedges after leafing-time he would be very much put out; +he would shout at him, "Just you leave my Devil's guts alone or I'll not +keep you on the farm." And the shepherds in revenge gave him the +unpleasant nickname of "Old Devil's Guts," by which he was known in that +part of the country. + +As a rule, talk about sheep, or any subject connected with sheep, would +suggest something about sheepdogs individual dogs he had known or +possessed, and who always had their own character and peculiarities, +like human beings. They were good and bad and indifferent; a really bad +dog was a rarity; but a fairly good dog might have some trick or vice or +weakness. There was Sally, for example, a stump-tail bitch, as good a +dog with sheep as he ever possessed, but you had to consider her +feelings. She would keenly resent any injustice from her master. If he +spoke too sharply to her, or rebuked her unnecessarily for going a +little out of her way just to smell at a rabbit burrow, she would nurse +her anger until an opportunity came of inflicting a bite on some erring +sheep. Punishing her would have made matters worse: the only way was to +treat her as a reasonable being and never to speak to her as a dog--a +mere slave. + +Dyke was another dog he remembered well. He belonged to old Shepherd +Matthew Titt, who was head-shepherd at a farm near Warminster, adjacent +to the one where Caleb worked. Old Mat and his wife lived alone in their +cottage out of the village, all their children having long grown up and +gone away to a distance from home, and being so lonely "by their two +selves" they loved their dog just as others love their relations. But +Dyke deserved it, for he was a very good dog. One year Mat was sent by +his master with lambs to Weyhill, the little village near Andover, where +a great sheep-fair is held in October every year. It was distant over +thirty miles, but Mat though old was a strong man still and greatly +trusted by his master. From this journey he returned with a sad heart, +for he had lost Dyke. He had disappeared one night while they were at +Weyhill. Old Mrs. Titt cried for him as she would have cried for a lost +son, and for many a long day they went about with heavy hearts. + +Just a year had gone by when one night the old woman was roused from +sleep by loud knocks on the window-pane of the living-room below. "Mat! +Mat!" she cried, shaking him vigorously, "wake up--old Dyke has come +back to us!" "What be you talking about?" growled the old shepherd. "Lie +down and go to sleep--you've been dreaming." "'Tain't no dream; 'tis +Dyke--I know his knock," she cried, and getting up she opened the window +and put her head well out, and there sure enough was Dyke, standing up +against the wall and gazing up at her, and knocking with his paw against +the window below. + +Then Mat jumped up, and going together downstairs they unbarred the door +and embraced the dog with joy, and the rest of the night was spent in +feeding and caressing him, and asking him a hundred questions, which he +could only answer by licking their hands and wagging his tail. + +It was supposed that he had been stolen at the fair, probably by one of +the wild, little, lawless men called "general dealers," who go flying +about the country in a trap drawn by a fast-trotting pony; that he had +been thrown, muffled up, into the cart and carried many a mile away, and +sold to some shepherd, and that he had lost his sense of direction. But +after serving a stranger a full year he had been taken with sheep to +Weyhill Fair once more, and once there he knew where he was, and had +remembered the road leading to his old home and master, and making his +escape had travelled the thirty long miles back to Warminster. + +The account of Dyke's return reminded me of an equally good story of the +recovery of a lost dog which I heard from a shepherd on the Avon. He had +been lost over a year, when one day the shepherd, being out on the down +with his flock, stood watching two drovers travelling with a flock on +the turnpike road below, nearly a mile away, and by and by hearing one +of their dogs bark he knew at that distance that it was his dog. "I +haven't a doubt," he said to himself, "and if I know his bark he'll know +my whistle." With that he thrust two fingers in his mouth and blew his +shrillest and longest whistle, then waited the result. Presently he +spied a dog, still at a great distance, coming swiftly towards him; it +was his own dog, mad with joy at finding his old master. + +Did ever two friends, long sundered by unhappy chance, recognize each +other's voices at such a distance and so come together once more! + +Whether the drovers had seen him desert them or not, they did not follow +to recover him, nor did the shepherd go to them to find out how they had +got possession of him; it was enough that he had got his dog back. + +No doubt in this case the dog had recognized his old home when taken by +it, but he was in another man's hands now, and the habits and discipline +of a life made it impossible for him to desert until that old, familiar, +and imperative call reached his ears and he could not disobey. + +Then (to go on with Caleb's reminiscences) there was Badger, owned by a +farmer and worked for some years by Caleb--the very best stump-tail he +ever had to help him. This dog differed from others in his vivacious +temper and ceaseless activity. When the sheep were feeding quietly and +there was little or nothing to do for hours at a time, he would not lie +down and go to sleep like any other sheep-dog, but would spend his +vacant time "amusing of hisself" on some smooth slope where he could +roll over and over; then run back and roll over again and again, playing +by himself just like a child. Or he would chase a butterfly or scamper +about over the down hunting for large white flints, which he would bring +one by one and deposit them at his master's feet, pretending they were +something of value and greatly enjoying the game. This dog, Caleb said, +would make him laugh every day with his games and capers. + +When Badger got old his sight and hearing failed; yet when he was very +nearly blind and so deaf that he could not hear a word of command, even +when it was shouted out quite close to him, he was still kept with the +flock because he was so intelligent and willing. But he was too old at +last; it was time for him to be put out of the way. The farmer, however, +who owned him, would not consent to have him shot, and so the wistful +old dog was ordered to keep at home at the farm-house. Still he refused +to be superannuated, and not allowed to go to the flock he took to +shepherding the fowls. In the morning he would drive them out to their +run and keep them there in a flock, going round and round them by the +hour, and furiously hunting back the poor hens that tried to steal off +to lay their eggs in some secret place. This could not be allowed, and +so poor old Badger, who would have been too miserable if tied up, had to +be shot after all. + +These were always his best stories--his recollections of sheep-dogs, for +of all creatures, sheep alone excepted, he knew and loved them best. Yet +for one whose life had been spent in that small isolated village and on +the bare down about it, his range was pretty wide, and it even included +one memory of a visitor from the other world. Let him tell it in his own +words. + +"Many say they don't believe there be such things as ghosties. They +niver see'd 'n. An' I don't say I believe or disbelieve what I hear +tell. I warn't there to see. I only know what I see'd myself: but I +don't say that it were a ghostie or that it wasn't one. I was coming +home late one night from the sheep; 'twere close on 'leven o'clock, a +very quiet night, with moonsheen that made it a'most like day. Near th' +end of the village I come to the stepping-stones, as we call 'n, where +there be a gate and the road, an' just by the road the four big white +stones for people going from the village to the copse an' the down on +t'other side to step over the water. In winter 'twas a stream there, but +the water it dried in summer, and now 'twere summer-time and there wur +no water. When I git there I see'd two women, both on 'em tall, with +black gowns on, an' big bonnets they used to wear; an' they were +standing face to face so close that the tops o' their bonnets wur a'most +touching together. Who be these women out so late? says I to myself. +Why, says I, they be Mrs. Durk from up in the village an' Mrs. Gaarge +Durk, the keeper's wife down by the copse. Then I thought I know'd how +'twas: Mrs. Gaarge, she'd a been to see Mrs. Durk in the village, and +Mrs. Durk she were coming out a leetel way with her, so far as the +stepping-stones, and they wur just having a last leetel talk before +saying Good night. But mind, I hear'd no talking when I passed 'n. An' +I'd hardly got past 'n before I says, Why, what a fool be I! Mrs. Durk +she be dead a twelvemonth, an' I were in the churchyard and see'd her +buried myself. Whatever be I thinking of? That made me stop and turn +round to look at 'n agin. An' there they was just as I see'd 'n at +first--Mrs. Durk, who was dead a twelvemonth, an' Mrs. Gaarge Durk from +the copse, standing there with their bonnets a'most touching together. +An' I couldn't hear nothing--no talking, they were so still as two +posties. Then something came over me like a tarrible coldness in the +blood and down my back, an' I were afraid, and turning I runned faster +than I ever runned in my life, an' never stopped--not till I got to the +cottage." + +It was not a bad ghost story: but then such stories seldom are when +coming from those who have actually seen, or believe they have seen, an +immaterial being. Their principal charm is in their infinite variety; +you never find two real or true ghost stories quite alike, and in this +they differ from the weary inventions of the fictionist. + +But invariably the principal subject was sheep. + +"I did always like sheep," said Caleb. "Some did say to me that they +couldn't abide shepherding because of the Sunday work. But I always +said, Someone must do it; they must have food in winter and water in +summer, and must be looked after, and it can't be worse for me to do +it." + +It was on a Sunday afternoon, and the distant sound of the church bells +had set him talking on this subject. He told me how once, after a long +interval, he went to the Sunday morning service in his native village, +and the vicar preached a sermon about true religion. Just going to +church, he said, did not make men religious. Out there on the downs +there were shepherds who seldom saw the inside of a church, who were +sober, righteous men and walked with God every day of their lives. Caleb +said that this seemed to touch his heart because he knowed it was true. + +When I asked him if he would not change the church for the chapel, now +he was ill and his vicar paid him no attention, while the minister came +often to see and talk to him, as I had witnessed, he shook his head and +said that he would never change. He then added: "We always say that the +chapel ministers are good men: some say they be better than the parsons; +but all I've knowed--all them that have talked to me--have said bad +things of the Church, and that's not true religion: I say that the Bible +teaches different." + +Caleb could not have had a very wide experience, and most of us know +Dissenting ministers who are wholly free from the fault he pointed out; +but in the purely rural districts, in the small villages where the small +men are found, it is certainly common to hear unpleasant things said of +the parish priest by his Nonconformist rival; and should the parson have +some well-known fault or make a slip, the other is apt to chuckle over +it with a very manifest and most unchristian delight. + +The atmosphere on that Sunday afternoon was very still, and by and by +through the open window floated a strain of music; it was from the brass +band of the Salvationists who were marching through the next village, +about two miles away. We listened, then Caleb remarked: "Somehow I never +cared to go with them Army people. Many say they've done a great good, +and I don't disbelieve it, but there was too much what I call--NOISE; +if, sir, you can understand what I mean." + +I once heard the great Dr. Parker speak the word imagination, or, as he +pronounced it, im-madge-i-na-shun, with a volume of sound which filled a +large building and made the quality he named seem the biggest thing in +the universe. That in my experience was his loftiest oratorical feat; +but I think the old shepherd rose to a greater height when, after a long +pause during which he filled his lungs with air, he brought forth the +tremendous word, dragging it out gratingly, so as to illustrate the +sense in the prolonged harsh sound. + +To show him that I understood what he meant very well, I explained the +philosophy of the matter as follows: He was a shepherd of the downs, who +had lived always in a quiet atmosphere, a noiseless world, and from +lifelong custom had become a lover of quiet. The Salvation Army was born +in a very different world, in East London--the dusty, busy, crowded +world of streets, where men wake at dawn to sounds that are like the +opening of hell's gates, and spend their long strenuous days and their +lives in that atmosphere peopled with innumerable harsh noises, until +they, too, acquire the noisy habit, and come at last to think that if +they have anything to say to their fellows, anything to sell or advise +or recommend, from the smallest thing--from a mackerel or a cabbage or a +penn'orth of milk, to a newspaper or a book or a picture or a +religion--they must howl and yell it out at every passer-by. And the +human voice not being sufficiently powerful, they provide themselves +with bells and gongs and cymbals and trumpets and drums to help them in +attracting the attention of the public. + +He listened gravely to this outburst, and said he didn't know exactly +'bout that, but agreed that it was very quiet on the downs, and that he +loved their quiet. "Fifty years," he said, "I've been on the downs and +fields, day and night, seven days a week, and I've been told that it's a +poor way to spend a life, working seven days for ten or twelve, or at +most thirteen shillings. But I never seen it like that; I liked it, and +I always did my best. You see, sir, I took a pride in it. I never left a +place but I was asked to stay. When I left it was because of something I +didn't like. I couldn't never abide cruelty to a dog or any beast. And I +couldn't abide bad language. If my master swore at the sheep or the dog +I wouldn't bide with he--no, not for a pound a week. I liked my work, +and I liked knowing things about sheep. Not things in books, for I never +had no books, but what I found out with my own sense, if you can +understand me. + +"I remember, when I were young, a very old shepherd on the farm; he had +been more 'n forty years there, and he was called Mark Dick. He told me +that when he were a young man he was once putting the sheep in the fold, +and there was one that was giddy--a young ewe. She was always a-turning +round and round and round, and when she got to the gate she wouldn't go +in but kept on a-turning and turning, until at last he got angry and, +lifting his crook, gave her a crack on the head, and down she went, and +he thought he'd killed her. But in a little while up she jumps and +trotted straight into the fold, and from that time she were well. Next +day he told his master, and his master said, with a laugh, 'Well, now +you know what to do when you gits a giddy sheep.' Some time after that +Mark Dick he had another giddy one, and remembering what his master had +said, he swung his stick and gave her a big crack on the skull, and down +went the sheep, dead. He'd killed it this time, sure enough. When he +tells of this one his master said, 'You've cured one and you've killed +one; now don't you try to cure no more,' he says. + +"Well, some time after that I had a giddy one in my flock. I'd been +thinking of what Mark Dick had told me, so I caught the ewe to see if I +could find out anything. I were always a tarrible one for examining +sheep when they were ill. I found this one had a swelling at the back of +her head; it were like a soft ball, bigger 'n a walnut. So I took my +knife and opened it, and out ran a lot of water, quite clear; and when I +let her go she ran quite straight, and got well. After that I did cure +other giddy sheep with my knife, but I found out there were some I +couldn't cure. They had no swelling, and was giddy because they'd got a +maggot on the brain or some other trouble I couldn't find out." + +Caleb could not have finished even this quiet Sunday afternoon +conversation, in the course of which we had risen to lofty matters, +without a return to his old favourite subjects of sheep and his +shepherding life on the downs. He was long miles away from his beloved +home now, lying on his back, a disabled man who would never again follow +a flock on the hills nor listen to the sounds he loved best to hear--the +multitudinous tremulous bleatings of the sheep, the tinklings of +numerous bells, and crisp ringing bark of his dog. But his heart was +there still, and the images of past scenes were more vivid in him than +they can ever be in the minds of those who live in towns and read books. +"I can see it now," was a favourite expression of his when relating some +incident in his past life. Whenever a sudden light, a kind of smile, +came into his eyes, I knew that it was at some ancient memory, a touch +of quaintness or humour in some farmer or shepherd he had known in the +vanished time--his father, perhaps, or old John, or Mark Dick, or Liddy, +or Dan'l Burdon, the solemn seeker after buried treasure. + +After our long Sunday talk we were silent for a time, and then he +uttered these impressive words: "I don't say that I want to have my life +again, because 'twould be sinful. We must take what is sent. But if +'twas offered to me and I was told to choose my work, I'd say, Give me +my Wiltsheer Downs again and let me be a shepherd there all my life long." + + + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of A Shepherd's Life, by W. H. 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Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: A Shepherd's Life + +Author: W. H. Hudson + +Release Date: February, 2005 [EBook #7415] +[This file was first posted on April 26, 2003] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: US-ASCII + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, A SHEPHERD'S LIFE *** + + + + +Eric Eldred, David Garcia, Charles Franks, and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team + + + +A SHEPHERD'S LIFE + +IMPRESSIONS OF THE SOUTH WILTSHIRE DOWNS + +BY W. H. HUDSON + + + + + + + +NOTE + +I an obliged to Messrs. Longmans, Green, & Co. for permission to make +use of an article entitled "A Shepherd of the Downs," which appeared in +the October and November numbers of _Longmans' Magazine_ in 1902. +With the exception of that article, portions of which I have +incorporated in different chapters, the whole of the matter contained in +this work now appears for the first time. + + + + + + +CONTENTS + +Chapter. + + I. SALISBURY PLAIN + + II. SALISBURY AS I SEE IT + + III. WINTERBOURNE BISHOP + + IV. A SHEPHERD OF THE DOWNS + + V. EARLY MEMORIES + + VI. SHEPHERD ISAAC BAWCOMBE + + VII. THE DEER-STEALERS + + VIII. SHEPHERDS AND POACHING + + IX. THE SHEPHERD ON FOXES + + X. BIRD LIFE ON THE DOWNS + + XI. STARLINGS AND SHEEP-BELLS + + XII. THE SHEPHERD AND THE BIBLE + + XIII. VALE OF THE WYLYE + + XIV. A SHEEP-DOG'S LIFE + + XV. THE ELLERBYS OF DOVETON + + XVI. OLD WILTSHIRE DAYS + + XVII. OLD WILTSHIRE DAYS (_continued_) + + XVIII. THE SHEPHERD'S RETURN + + XIX. THE DARK PEOPLE OF THE VILLAGE + + XX. SOME SHEEP-DOGS + + XXI. THE SHEPHERD AS NATURALIST + + XXII. THE MASTER OF THE VILLAGE + + XXIII. ISAAC'S CHILDREN + + XXIV. LIVING IN THE PAST + + + + + + + +A SHEPHERD'S LIFE + +SALISBURY PLAIN + +CHAPTER I + + Introductory remarks--Wiltshire little favoured by tourists--Aspect of + the downs--Bad weather--Desolate aspect--The bird-scarer--Fascination + of the downs--The larger Salisbury Plain--Effect of the military + occupation--A century's changes--Birds--Old Wiltshire sheep--Sheep-horns + in a well--Changes wrought by cultivation--Rabbit-warrens on the + downs--Barrows obliterated by the plough and by rabbits + + +Wiltshire looks large on the map of England, a great green county, yet +it never appears to be a favourite one to those who go on rambles in the +land. At all events I am unable to bring to mind an instance of a lover +of Wiltshire who was not a native or a resident, or had not been to +Marlborough and loved the country on account of early associations. Nor +can I regard myself as an exception, since, owing to a certain kind of +adaptiveness in me, a sense of being at home wherever grass grows, I am +in a way a native too. Again, listen to any half-dozen of your friends +discussing the places they have visited, or intend visiting, comparing +notes about the counties, towns, churches, castles, scenery--all that +draws them and satisfies their nature, and the chances are that they +will not even mention Wiltshire. They all know it "in a way"; they have +seen Salisbury Cathedral and Stonehenge, which everybody must go to look +at once in his life; and they have also viewed the country from the +windows of a railroad carriage as they passed through on their flight to +Bath and to Wales with its mountains, and to the west country, which +many of us love best of all--Somerset, Devon, and Cornwall. For there is +nothing striking in Wiltshire, at all events to those who love nature +first; nor mountains, nor sea, nor anything to compare with the places +they are hastening to, west or north. The downs! Yes, the downs are +there, full in sight of your window, in their flowing forms resembling +vast, pale green waves, wave beyond wave, "in fluctuation fixed"; a fine +country to walk on in fine weather for all those who regard the mere +exercise of walking as sufficient pleasure. But to those who wish for +something more, these downs may be neglected, since, if downs are +wanted, there is the higher, nobler Sussex range within an hour of +London. There are others on whom the naked aspect of the downs has a +repelling effect. Like Gilpin they love not an undecorated earth; and +false and ridiculous as Gilpin's taste may seem to me and to all those +who love the chalk, which "spoils everything" as Gilpin said, he +certainly expresses a feeling common to those who are unaccustomed to +the emptiness and silence of these great spaces. + +As to walking on the downs, one remembers that the fine days are not so +many, even in the season when they are looked for--they have certainly +been few during this wet and discomfortable one of 1909. It is indeed +only on the chalk hills that I ever feel disposed to quarrel with this +English climate, for all weathers are good to those who love the open +air, and have their special attractions. What a pleasure it is to be out +in rough weather in October when the equinoctial gales are on, "the wind +Euroclydon," to listen to its roaring in the bending trees, to watch the +dead leaves flying, the pestilence-stricken multitudes, yellow and black +and red, whirled away in flight on flight before the volleying blast, +and to hear and see and feel the tempests of rain, the big silver-grey +drops that smite you like hail! And what pleasure too, in the still grey +November weather, the time of suspense and melancholy before winter, a +strange quietude, like a sense of apprehension in nature! And so on +through the revolving year, in all places in all weathers, there is +pleasure in the open air, except on these chalk hills because of their +bleak nakedness. There the wind and driving rain are not for but against +you, and may overcome you with misery. One feels their loneliness, +monotony, and desolation on many days, sometimes even when it is not +wet, and I here recall an amusing encounter with a bird-scarer during +one of these dreary spells. + +It was in March, bitterly cold, with an east wind which had been blowing +many days, and overhead the sky was of a hard, steely grey. I was +cycling along the valley of the Ebble, and finally leaving it pushed up +a long steep slope and set off over the high plain by a dusty road with +the wind hard against me. A more desolate scene than the one before me +it would be hard to imagine, for the land was all ploughed and stretched +away before me, an endless succession of vast grey fields, divided by +wire fences. On all that space there was but one living thing in sight, +a human form, a boy, far away on the left side, standing in the middle +of a big field with something which looked like a gun in his hand. +Immediately after I saw him he, too, appeared to have caught sight of +me, for turning he set off running as fast as he could over the ploughed +ground towards the road, as if intending to speak to me. The distance he +would have to run was about a quarter of a mile and I doubted that he +would be there in time to catch me, but he ran fast and the wind was +against me, and he arrived at the road just as I got to that point. +There by the side of the fence he stood, panting from his race, his +handsome face glowing with colour, a boy about twelve or thirteen, with +a fine strong figure, remarkably well dressed for a bird-scarer. For +that was what he was, and he carried a queer, heavy-looking old gun. I +got off my wheel and waited for him to speak, but he was silent, and +continued regarding me with the smiling countenance of one well pleased +with himself. "Well?" I said, but there was no answer; he only kept on +smiling. + +"What did you want?" I demanded impatiently. + +"I didn't want anything." + +"But you started running here as fast as you could the moment you caught +sight of me." + +"Yes, I did." + +"Well, what did you do it for--what was your object in running here?" + +"Just to see you pass," he answered. + +It was a little ridiculous and vexed me at first, but by and by when I +left him, after some more conversation, I felt rather pleased; for it +was a new and somewhat flattering experience to have any person run a +long distance over a ploughed field, burdened with a heavy gun, "just to +see me pass." + +But it was not strange in the circumstances; his hours in that grey, +windy desolation must have seemed like days, and it was a break in the +monotony, a little joyful excitement in getting to the road in time to +see a passer-by more closely, and for a few moments gave him a sense of +human companionship. I began even to feel a little sorry for him, alone +there in his high, dreary world, but presently thought he was better off +and better employed than most of his fellows poring over miserable books +in school, and I wished we had a more rational system of education for +the agricultural districts, one which would not keep the children shut +up in a room during all the best hours of the day, when to be out of +doors, seeing, hearing, and doing, would fit them so much better for the +life-work before them. Squeers' method was a wiser one. We think less of +it than of the delightful caricature, which makes Squeers "a joy for +ever," as Mr. Lang has said of Pecksniff. But Dickens was a Londoner, +and incapable of looking at this or any other question from any other +than the Londoner's standpoint. Can you have a better system for the +children of all England than this one which will turn out the most +perfect draper's assistant in Oxford Street, or, to go higher, the most +efficient Mr. Guppy in a solicitor's office? It is true that we have +Nature's unconscious intelligence against us; that by and by, when at +the age of fourteen the boy is finally released, she will set to work to +undo the wrong by discharging from his mind its accumulations of useless +knowledge as soon as he begins the work of life. But what a waste of +time and energy and money! One can only hope that the slow intellect of +the country will wake to this question some day, that the countryman +will say to the townsman, Go on making your laws and systems of +education for your own children, who will live as you do indoors; while +I shall devise a different one for mine, one which will give them hard +muscles and teach them to raise the mutton and pork and cultivate the +potatoes and cabbages on which we all feed. + +To return to the downs. Their very emptiness and desolation, which +frightens the stranger from them, only serves to make them more +fascinating to those who are intimate with and have learned to love +them. That dreary aspect brings to mind the other one, when, on waking +with the early sunlight in the room, you look out on a blue sky, +cloudless or with white clouds. It may be fancy, or the effect of +contrast, but it has always seemed to me that just as the air is purer +and fresher on these chalk heights than on the earth below, and as the +water is of a more crystal purity, and the sky perhaps bluer, so do all +colours and all sounds have a purity and vividness and intensity beyond +that of other places. I see it in the yellows of hawkweed, rock-rose, +and birds'-foot-trefoil, in the innumerable specks of brilliant +colour--blue and white and rose--of milk-wort and squinancy-wort, and in +the large flowers of the dwarf thistle, glowing purple in its green +setting; and I hear it in every bird-sound, in the trivial songs of +yellow-hammer and corn-bunting, and of dunnock and wren and whitethroat. + +The pleasure of walking on the downs is not, however, a subject which +concerns me now; it is one I have written about in a former work, +"Nature in Downland," descriptive of the South Downs. The theme of the +present work is the life, human and other, of the South Wiltshire Downs, +or of Salisbury Plain. It is the part of Wiltshire which has most +attracted me. Most persons would say that the Marlborough Downs are +greater, more like the great Sussex range as it appears from the Weald: +but chance brought me farther south, and the character and life of the +village people when I came to know them made this appear the best place +to be in. + +The Plain itself is not a precisely denned area, and may be made to +include as much or little as will suit the writer's purpose. If you want +a continuous plain, with no dividing valley cutting through it, you must +place it between the Avon and Wylye Rivers, a distance about fifteen +miles broad and as many long, with the village of Tilshead in its +centure; or, if you don't mind the valleys, you can say it extends from +Downton and Tollard Royal south of Salisbury to the Pewsey vale in the +north, and from the Hampshire border on the east side to Dorset and +Somerset on the west, about twenty-five to thirty miles each way. My own +range is over this larger Salisbury Plain, which includes the River +Ebble, or Ebele, with its numerous interesting villages, from Odstock +and Combe Bisset, near Salisbury and "the Chalks," to pretty Alvediston +near the Dorset line, and all those in the Nadder valley, and westward +to White Sheet Hill above Mere. You can picture this high chalk country +as an open hand, the left hand, with Salisbury in the hollow of the +palm, placed nearest the wrist, and the five valleys which cut through +it as the five spread fingers, from the Bourne (the little finger) +succeeded by Avon, Wylye, and Nadder, to the Ebble, which comes in lower +down as the thumb and has its junction with the main stream below +Salisbury. + +A very large portion of this high country is now in a transitional +state, that was once a sheep-walk and is now a training ground for the +army. Where the sheep are taken away the turf loses the smooth, elastic +character which makes it better to walk on than the most perfect lawn. +The sheep fed closely, and everything that grew on the down--grasses, +clovers, and numerous small creeping herbs--had acquired the habit of +growing and flowering close to the ground, every species and each +individual plant striving, with the unconscious intelligence that is in +all growing things, to hide its leaves and pushing sprays under the +others, to escape the nibbling teeth by keeping closer to the surface. +There are grasses and some herbs, the plantain among them, which keep +down very close but must throw up a tall stem to flower and seed. Look +at the plantain when its flowering time comes; each particular plant +growing with its leaves so close down on the surface as to be safe from +the busy, searching mouths, then all at once throwing up tall, straight +stems to flower and ripen its seeds quickly. Watch a flock at this time, +and you will see a sheep walking about, rapidly plucking the flowering +spikes, cutting them from the stalk with a sharp snap, taking them off +at the rate of a dozen or so in twenty seconds. But the sheep cannot be +all over the downs at the same time, and the time is short, myriads of +plants throwing up their stems at once, so that many escape, and it has +besides a deep perennial root so that the plant keeps its own life +though it may be unable to sow any seeds for many seasons. So with other +species which must send up a tall flower stem; and by and by, the +flowering over and the seeds ripened or lost, the dead, scattered stems +remain like long hairs growing out of a close fur. The turf remains +unchanged; but take the sheep away and it is like the removal of a +pressure, or a danger: the plant recovers liberty and confidence and +casts off the old habit; it springs and presses up to get the better of +its fellows--to get all the dew and rain and sunshine that it can--and +the result is a rough surface. + +Another effect of the military occupation is the destruction of the wild +life of the Plain, but that is a matter I have written about in my last +book, "Afoot in England," in a chapter on Stonehenge, and need not dwell +on here. To the lover of Salisbury Plain as it was, the sight of +military camps, with white tents or zinc houses, and of bodies of men in +khaki marching and drilling, and the sound of guns, now informs him that +he is in a district which has lost its attraction, where nature has been +dispossessed. + +Meanwhile, there is a corresponding change going on in the human life of +the district. Let anyone describe it as he thinks best, as an +improvement or a deterioration, it is a great change nevertheless, which +in my case and probably that of many others is as disagreeable to +contemplate as that which we are beginning to see in the down, which was +once a sheep-walk and is so no longer. On this account I have ceased to +frequent that portion of the Plain where the War Office is in possession +of the land, and to keep to the southern side in my rambles, out of +sight and hearing of the "white-tented camps" and mimic warfare. Here is +Salisbury Plain as it has been these thousand years past, or ever since +sheep were pastured here more than in any other district in England, and +that may well date even more than ten centuries back. + +Undoubtedly changes have taken place even here, some very great, chiefly +during the last, or from the late eighteenth century. Changes both in +the land and the animal life, wild and domestic. Of the losses in wild +bird life there will be something to say in another chapter; they relate +chiefly to the extermination of the finest species, the big bird, +especially the soaring bird, which is now gone out of all this wide +Wiltshire sky. As a naturalist I must also lament the loss of the old +Wiltshire breed of sheep, although so long gone. Once it was the only +breed known in Wilts, and extended over the entire county; it was a big +animal, the largest of the fine-woolled sheep in England, but for looks +it certainly compared badly with modern downland breeds and possessed, +it was said, all the points which the breeder, or improver, was against. +Thus, its head was big and clumsy, with a round nose, its legs were long +and thick, its belly without wool, and both sexes were horned. Horns, +even in a ram, are an abomination to the modern sheep-farmer in Southern +England. Finally, it was hard to fatten. On the other hand it was a +sheep which had been from of old on the bare open downs and was modified +to suit the conditions, the scanty feed, the bleak, bare country, and +the long distances it had to travel to and from the pasture ground. It +was a strong, healthy, intelligent animal, in appearance and character +like the old original breed of sheep on the pampas of South America, +which I knew as a boy, a coarse-woolled sheep with naked belly, tall and +hardy, a greatly modified variety of the sheep introduced by the Spanish +colonist three centuries ago. At all events the old Wiltshire sheep had +its merits, and when the Southdown breed was introduced during the late +eighteenth century the farmer viewed it with disfavour; they liked their +old native animal, and did not want to lose it. But it had to go in +time, just as in later times the Southdown had to go when the Hampshire +Down took its place--the breed which is now universal, in South Wilts at +all events. + +A solitary flock of the pure-bred old Wiltshire sheep existed in the +county as late as 1840, but the breed has now so entirely disappeared +from the country that you find many shepherds who have never even heard +of it. Not many days ago I met with a curious instance of this ignorance +of the past. I was talking to a shepherd, a fine intelligent fellow, +keenly interested in the subjects of sheep and sheep-dogs, on the high +down above the village of Broad Chalk on the Ebble, and he told me that +his dog was of mixed breed, but on its mother's side came from a Welsh +sheep-dog, that his father had always had the Welsh dog, once common in +Wiltshire, and he wondered why it had gone out as it was so good an +animal. This led me to say something about the old sheep having gone out +too, and as he had never heard of the old breed I described the animal +to him. + +What I told him, he said, explained something which had been a puzzle to +him for some years. There was a deep hollow in the down near the spot +where we were standing, and at the bottom he said there was an old well +which had been used in former times to water the sheep, but masses of +earth had fallen down from the sides, and in that condition it had +remained for no one knew how long--perhaps fifty, perhaps a hundred +years. Some years ago it came into his master's head to have this old +well cleaned out, and this was done with a good deal of labour, the +sides having first been boarded over to make it safe for the workmen +below. At the bottom of the well a vast store of rams' horns was +discovered and brought out; and it was a mystery to the fanner and the +men how so large a number of sheep's horns had been got together; for +rams are few and do not die often, and here there were hundreds of +horns. He understood it now, for if all the sheep, ewes as well as rams, +were horned in the old breed, a collection like this might easily have +been made. + +The greatest change of the last hundred years is no doubt that which the +plough has wrought in the aspect of the downs. There is a certain +pleasure to the eye in the wide fields of golden corn, especially of +wheat, in July and August; but a ploughed down is a down made ugly, and +it strikes one as a mistake, even from a purely economic point of view, +that this old rich turf, the slow product of centuries, should be ruined +for ever as sheep-pasture when so great an extent of uncultivated land +exists elsewhere, especially the heavy clays of the Midlands, better +suited for corn. The effect of breaking up the turf on the high downs is +often disastrous; the thin soil which was preserved by the close, hard +turf is blown or washed away, and the soil becomes poorer year by year, +in spite of dressing, until it is hardly worth cultivating. Clover may +be grown on it but it continues to deteriorate; or the tenant or +landlord may turn it into a rabbit-warren, the most fatal policy of all. +How hideous they are--those great stretches of downland, enclosed in big +wire fences and rabbit netting, with little but wiry weeds, moss, and +lichen growing on them, the earth dug up everywhere by the disorderly +little beasts! For a while there is a profit--"it will serve me my +time," the owner says--but the end is utter barrenness. + +One must lament, too, the destruction of the ancient earth-works, +especially of the barrows, which is going on all over the downs, most +rapidly where the land is broken up by the plough. One wonders if the +ever-increasing curiosity of our day with regard to the history of the +human race in the land continues to grow, what our descendants of the +next half of the century, to go no farther, will say of us and our +incredible carelessness in the matter! So small a matter to us, but one +which will, perhaps, be immensely important to them! It is, perhaps, +better for our peace that we do not know; it would not be pleasant to +have our children's and children's children's contemptuous expressions +sounding in our prophetic ears. Perhaps we have no right to complain of +the obliteration of these memorials of antiquity by the plough; the +living are more than the dead, and in this case it may be said that we +are only following the Artemisian example in consuming (in our daily +bread) minute portions of the ashes of our old relations, albeit +untearfully, with a cheerful countenance. Still one cannot but +experience a shock on seeing the plough driven through an ancient, +smooth turf, curiously marked with barrows, lynchetts, and other +mysterious mounds and depressions, where sheep have been pastured for a +thousand years, without obscuring these chance hieroglyphs scored by men +on the surface of the hills. + +It is not, however, only on the cultivated ground that the destruction +is going on; the rabbit, too, is an active agent in demolishing the +barrows and other earth-works. He burrows into the mound and throws out +bushels of chalk and clay, which is soon washed down by the rains; he +tunnels it through and through and sometimes makes it his village; then +one day the farmer or keeper, who is not an archaeologist, comes along +and puts his ferrets into the holes, and one of them, after drinking his +fill of blood, falls asleep by the side of his victim, and the keeper +sets to work with pick and shovel to dig him out, and demolishes half +the barrow to recover his vile little beast. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +SALISBURY AS I SEE IT + + The Salisbury of the villager--The cathedral from the meadows--Walks to + Wilton and Old Sarum--The spire and a rainbow--Charm of Old Sarum--The + devastation--Salisbury from Old Sarum--Leland's description--Salisbury + and the village mind--Market-day--The infirmary--The cathedral--The + lesson of a child's desire--In the streets again--An Apollo of the downs + + +To the dwellers on the Plain, Salisbury itself is an exceedingly +important place--the most important in the world. For if they have seen +a greater--London, let us say--it has left but a confused, a +phantasmagoric image on the mind, an impression of endless thoroughfares +and of innumerable people all apparently in a desperate hurry to do +something, yet doing nothing; a labyrinth of streets and wilderness of +houses, swarming with beings who have no definite object and no more to +do with realities than so many lunatics, and are unconfined because they +are so numerous that all the asylums in the world could not contain +them. But of Salisbury they have a very clear image: inexpressibly rich +as it is in sights, in wonders, full of people--hundreds of people in +the streets and market-place--they can take it all in and know its +meaning. Every man and woman, of all classes, in all that concourse, is +there for some definite purpose which they can guess and understand; and +the busy street and market, and red houses and soaring spire, are all +one, and part and parcel too of their own lives in their own distant +little village by the Avon or Wylye, or anywhere on the Plain. And that +soaring spire which, rising so high above the red town, first catches +the eye, the one object which gives unity and distinction to the whole +picture, is not more distinct in the mind than the entire Salisbury with +its manifold interests and activities. + +There is nothing in the architecture of England more beautiful than that +same spire. I have seen it many times, far and near, from all points of +view, and am never in or near the place but I go to some spot where I +look at and enjoy the sight; but I will speak here of the two best +points of view. + +The nearest, which is the artist's favourite point, is from the meadows; +there, from the waterside, you have the cathedral not too far away nor +too near for a picture, whether on canvas or in the mind, standing +amidst its great old trees, with nothing but the moist green meadows and +the river between. One evening, during the late summer of this wettest +season, when the rain was beginning to cease, I went out this way for my +stroll, the pleasantest if not the only "walk" there is in Salisbury. It +is true, there are two others: one to Wilton by its long, shady avenue; +the other to Old Sarum; but these are now motor-roads, and until the +loathed hooting and dusting engines are thrust away into roads of their +own there is little pleasure in them for the man on foot. The rain +ceased, but the sky was still stormy, with a great blackness beyond the +cathedral and still other black clouds coming up from the west behind +me. Then the sun, near its setting, broke out, sending a flame of orange +colour through the dark masses around it, and at the same time flinging +a magnificent rainbow on that black cloud against which the immense +spire stood wet with rain and flushed with light, so that it looked like +a spire built of a stone impregnated with silver. Never had Nature so +glorified man's work! It was indeed a marvellous thing to see, an effect +so rare that in all the years I had known Salisbury, and the many times +I had taken that stroll in all weathers, it was my first experience of +such a thing. How lucky, then, was Constable to have seen it, when he +set himself to paint his famous picture! And how brave he was and even +wise to have attempted such a subject, one which, I am informed by +artists with the brush, only a madman would undertake, however great a +genius he might be. It was impossible, we know, even to a Constable, but +we admire his failure nevertheless, even as we admire Turner's many +failures; but when we go back to Nature we are only too glad to forget +all about the picture. + +The view from the meadows will not, in the future, I fear, seem so +interesting to me; I shall miss the rainbow, and shall never see again +except in that treasured image the great spire as Constable saw and +tried to paint it. In like manner, though for a different reason, my +future visits to Old Sarum will no longer give me the same pleasure +experienced on former occasions. + +Old Sarum stands over the Avon, a mile and a half from Salisbury; a +round chalk hill about 300 feet high, in its round shape and isolation +resembling a stupendous tumulus in which the giants of antiquity were +buried, its steeply sloping, green sides ringed about with vast, +concentric earth-works and ditches, the work of the "old people," as +they say on the Plain, when referring to the ancient Britons, but how +ancient, whether invading Celts or Aborigines--the true Britons, who +possessed the land from neolithic times--even the anthropologists, the +wise men of to-day, are unable to tell us. Later, it was a Roman +station, one of the most important, and in after ages a great Norman +castle and cathedral city, until early in the thirteenth century, when +the old church was pulled down and a new and better one to last for ever +was built in the green plain by many running waters. Church and people +gone, the castle fell into ruin, though some believe it existed down to +the fifteenth century; but from that time onwards the site has been a +place of historical memories and a wilderness. Nature had made it a +sweet and beautiful spot; the earth over the old buried ruins was +covered with an elastic turf, jewelled with the bright little flowers of +the chalk, the ramparts and ditches being all overgrown with a dense +thicket of thorn, holly, elder, bramble, and ash, tangled up with ivy, +briony, and traveller's-joy. Once only during the last five or six +centuries some slight excavations were made when, in 1834, as the result +of an excessively dry summer, the lines of the cathedral foundations +were discernible on the surface. But it will no longer be the place it +was, the Society of Antiquaries having received permission from the Dean +and Chapter of Salisbury to work their sweet will on the site. That +ancient, beautiful carcass, which had long made their mouths water, on +which they have now fallen like a pack of hungry hyenas to tear off the +old hide of green turf and burrow down to open to the light or drag out +the deep, stony framework. The beautiful surrounding thickets, too, must +go, they tell me, since you cannot turn the hill inside out without +destroying the trees and bushes that crown it. What person who has known +it and has often sought that spot for the sake of its ancient +associations, and of the sweet solace they have found in the solitude, +or for the noble view of the sacred city from its summit, will not +deplore this fatal amiability of the authorities, this weak desire to +please every one and inability to say no to such a proposal! + +But let me now return to the object which brings me to this spot; it was +not to lament the loss of the beautiful, which cannot be preserved in +our age--even this best one of all which Salisbury possessed cannot be +preserved--but to look at Salisbury from this point of view. It is not +as from "the meadows" a view of the cathedral only, but of the whole +town, amidst its circle of vast green downs. It has a beautiful aspect +from that point: a red-brick and red-tiled town, set low on that +circumscribed space, whose soft, brilliant green is in lovely contrast +with the paler hue of the downs beyond, the perennial moist green of its +water-meadows. For many swift, clear currents flow around and through +Salisbury, and doubtless in former days there were many more channels in +the town itself. Leland's description is worth quoting: "There be many +fair streates in the Cite Saresbyri, and especially the High Streate and +Castle Streate.... Al the Streates in a maner, in New Saresbyri, hath +little streamlettes and arms derivyd out of Avon that runneth through +them. The site of the very town of Saresbyri and much ground thereabout +is playne and low, and as a pan or receyvor of most part of the waters +of Wiltshire." + +On this scene, this red town with the great spire, set down among +water-meadows, encircled by paler green chalk hills, I look from the top +of the inner and highest rampart or earth-work; or going a little +distance down sit at ease on the turf to gaze at it by the hour. Nor +could a sweeter resting-place be found, especially at the time of ripe +elder-berries, when the thickets are purple with their clusters and the +starlings come in flocks to feed on them, and feeding keep up a +perpetual, low musical jangle about me. + +It is not, however, of "New Saresbyri" as seen by the tourist, with a +mind full of history, archaeology, and the aesthetic delight in +cathedrals, that I desire to write, but of Salisbury as it appears to +the dweller on the Plain. For Salisbury is the capital of the Plain, the +head and heart of all those villages, too many to count, scattered far +and wide over the surrounding country. It is the villager's own peculiar +city, and even as the spot it stands upon is the "pan or receyvor of +most part of the waters of Wiltshire," so is it the receyvor of all he +accomplishes in his laborious life, and thitherward flow all his +thoughts and ambitions. Perhaps it is not so difficult for me as it +would be for most persons who are not natives to identify myself with +him and see it as he sees it. That greater place we have been in, that +mighty, monstrous London, is ever present to the mind and is like a mist +before the sight when we look at other places; but for me there is no +such mist, no image so immense and persistent as to cover and obscure +all others, and no such mental habit as that of regarding people as a +mere crowd, a mass, a monstrous organism, in and on which each +individual is but a cell, a scale. This feeling troubles and confuses my +mind when I am in London, where we live "too thick"; but quitting it I +am absolutely free; it has not entered my soul and coloured me with its +colour or shut me out from those who have never known it, even of the +simplest dwellers on the soil who, to our sophisticated minds, may seem +like beings of another species. This is my happiness--to feel, in all +places, that I am one with them. To say, for instance, that I am going +to Salisbury to-morrow, and catch the gleam in the children's eye and +watch them, furtively watching me, whisper to one another that there +will be something for them, too, on the morrow. To set out betimes and +overtake the early carriers' carts on the road, each with its little +cargo of packages and women with baskets and an old man or two, to +recognize acquaintances among those who sit in front, and as I go on +overtaking and passing carriers and the half-gipsy, little "general +dealer" in his dirty, ramshackle, little cart drawn by a rough, +fast-trotting pony, all of us intent on business and pleasure, bound for +Salisbury--the great market and emporium and place of all delights for +all the great Plain. I remember that on my very last expedition, when I +had come twelve miles in the rain and was standing at a street corner, +wet to the skin, waiting for my carrier, a man in a hurry said to me, "I +say, just keep an eye on my cart for a minute or two while I run round +to see somebody. I've got some fowls in it, and if you see anyone come +poking round just ask them what they want--you can't trust every one. +I'll be back in a minute." And he was gone, and I was very pleased to +watch his cart and fowls till he came back. + +Business is business and must be attended to, in fair or foul weather, +but for business with pleasure we prefer it fine on market-day. The one +great and chief pleasure, in which all participate, is just to be there, +to be in the crowd--a joyful occasion which gives a festive look to +every face. The mere sight of it exhilarates like wine. The numbers--the +people and the animals! The carriers' carts drawn up in rows on +rows--carriers from a hundred little villages on the Bourne, the Avon, +the Wylye, the Nadder, the Ebble, and from all over the Plain, each +bringing its little contingent. Hundreds and hundreds more coming by +train; you see them pouring down Fisherton Street in a continuous +procession, all hurrying market-wards. And what a lively scene the +market presents now, full of cattle and sheep and pigs and crowds of +people standing round the shouting auctioneers! And horses, too, the +beribboned hacks, and ponderous draught horses with manes and tails +decorated with golden straw, thundering over the stone pavement as they +are trotted up and down! And what a profusion of fruit and vegetables, +fish and meat, and all kinds of provisions on the stalls, where women +with baskets on their arms are jostling and bargaining! The Corn +Exchange is like a huge beehive, humming with the noise of talk, full of +brown-faced farmers in their riding and driving clothes and leggings, +standing in knots or thrusting their hands into sacks of oats and +barley. You would think that all the farmers from all the Plain were +congregated there. There is a joyful contagion in it all. Even the +depressed young lover, the forlornest of beings, repairs his wasted +spirits and takes heart again. Why, if I've seen a girl with a pretty +face to-day I've seen a hundred--and more. And she thinks they be so few +she can treat me like that and barely give me a pleasant word in a +month! Let her come to Salisbury and see how many there be! + +And so with every one in that vast assemblage--vast to the dweller in +the Plain. Each one is present as it were in two places, since each has +in his or her heart the constant image of home--the little, peaceful +village in the remote valley; of father and mother and neighbours and +children, in school just now, or at play, or home to dinner--home cares +and concerns and the business in Salisbury. The selling and buying; +friends and relations to visit or to meet in the market-place, and--how +often!--the sick one to be seen at the Infirmary. This home of the +injured and ailing, which is in the mind of so many of the people +gathered together, is indeed the cord that draws and binds the city and +the village closest together and makes the two like one. + +That great, comely building of warm, red brick in Fisherton Street, set +well back so that you can see it as a whole, behind its cedar and +beech-trees--how familiar it is to the villagers! In numberless humble +homes, in hundreds of villages of the Plain, and all over the +surrounding country, the "Infirmary" is a name of the deepest meaning, +and a place of many gad and tender and beautiful associations. I heard +it spoken of in a manner which surprised me at first, for I know some of +the London poor and am accustomed to their attitude towards the +metropolitan hospitals. The Londoner uses them very freely; they have +come to be as necessary to him as the grocer's shop and the +public-house, but for all the benefits he receives from them he has no +faintest sense of gratitude, and it is my experience that if you speak +to him of this he is roused to anger and demands, "What are they for?" +So far is he from having any thankful thoughts for all that has been +given him for nothing and done for him and for his, if he has anything +to say at all on the matter it is to find fault with the hospitals and +cast blame on them for not having healed him more quickly or thoroughly. + +This country town hospital and infirmary is differently regarded by the +villagers of the Plain. It is curious to find how many among them are +personally acquainted with it; perhaps it is not easy for anyone, even +in this most healthy district, to get through life without sickness, and +all are liable to accidents. The injured or afflicted youth, taken +straight from his rough, hard life and poor cottage, wonders at the +place he finds himself in--the wide, clean, airy room and white, easy +bed, the care and skill of the doctors, the tender nursing by women, and +comforts and luxuries, all without payment, but given as it seems to him +out of pure divine love and compassion--all this comes to him as +something strange, almost incredible. He suffers much perhaps, but can +bear pain stoically and forget it when it is past, but the loving +kindness he has experienced is remembered. + +That is one of the very great things Salisbury has for the villagers, +and there are many more which may not be spoken of, since we do not want +to lose sight of the wood on account of the trees; only one must be +mentioned for a special reason, and that is the cathedral. The villager +is extremely familiar with it as he sees it from the market and the +street and from a distance, from all the roads which lead him to +Salisbury. Seeing it he sees everything beneath it--all the familiar +places and objects, all the streets--High and Castle and Crane Streets, +and many others, including Endless Street, which reminds one of Sydney +Smith's last flicker of fun before that candle went out; and the "White +Hart" and the "Angel" and "Old George," and the humbler "Goat" and +"Green Man" and "Shoulder of Mutton," with many besides; and the great, +red building with its cedar-tree, and the knot of men and boys standing +on the bridge gazing down on the trout in the swift river below; and the +market-place and its busy crowds--all the familiar sights and scenes +that come under the spire like a flock of sheep on a burning day in +summer, grouped about a great tree growing in the pasture-land. But he +is not familiar with the interior of the great fane; it fails to draw +him, doubtless because he has no time in his busy, practical life for +the cultivation of the aesthetic faculties. There is a crust over that +part of his mind; but it need not always and ever be so; the crust is +not on the mind of the child. + +Before a stall in the market-place a child is standing with her +mother--a commonplace-looking, little girl of about twelve, blue-eyed, +light-haired, with thin arms and legs, dressed, poorly enough, for her +holiday. The mother, stoutish, in her best but much-worn black gown and +a brown straw, out-of-shape hat, decorated with bits of ribbon and a few +soiled and frayed artificial flowers. Probably she is the wife of a +labourer who works hard to keep himself and family on fourteen shillings +a week; and she, too, shows, in her hard hands and sunburnt face, with +little wrinkles appearing, that she is a hard worker; but she is very +jolly, for she is in Salisbury on market-day, in fine weather, with +several shillings in her purse--a shilling for the fares, and perhaps +eightpence for refreshments, and the rest to be expended in necessaries +for the house. And now to increase the pleasure of the day she has +unexpectedly run against a friend! There they stand, the two friends, +basket on arm, right in the midst of the jostling crowd, talking in +their loud, tinny voices at a tremendous rate; while the girl, with a +half-eager, half-listless expression, stands by with her hand on her +mother's dress, and every time there is a second's pause in the eager +talk she gives a little tug at the gown and ejaculates "Mother!" The +woman impatiently shakes off the hand and says sharply, "What now, +Marty! Can't 'ee let me say just a word without bothering!" and on the +talk runs again; then another tug and "Mother!" and then, "You promised, +mother," and by and by, "Mother, you said you'd take me to the cathedral +next time." + +Having heard so much I wanted to hear more, and addressing the woman I +asked her why her child wanted to go. She answered me with a +good-humoured laugh, "'Tis all because she heard 'em talking about it +last winter, and she'd never been, and I says to her, 'Never you mind, +Marty, I'll take you there the next time I go to Salisbury.'" + +"And she's never forgot it," said the other woman. + +"Not she--Marty ain't one to forget." + +"And you been four times, mother," put in the girl. + +"Have I now! Well, 'tis too late now--half-past two, and we must be't' +Goat' at four." + +"Oh, mother, you promised!" + +"Well, then, come along, you worriting child, and let's have it over or +you'll give me no peace"; and away they went. And I would have followed +to know the result if it had been in my power to look into that young +brain and see the thoughts and feelings there as the crystal-gazer sees +things in a crystal. In a vague way, with some very early memories to +help me, I can imagine it--the shock of pleased wonder at the sight of +that immense interior, that far-extending nave with pillars that stand +like the tall trunks of pines and beeches, and at the end the light +screen which allows the eye to travel on through the rich choir, to see, +with fresh wonder and delight, high up and far off, that glory of +coloured glass as of a window half-open to an unimaginable place +beyond--a heavenly cathedral to which all this is but a dim porch or +passage! + +We do not properly appreciate the educational value of such early +experiences; and I use that dismal word not because it is perfectly +right or for want of a better one, but because it is in everybody's +mouth and understood by all. For all I know to the contrary, village +schools may be bundled in and out of the cathedral from time to time, +but that is not the right way, seeing that the child's mind is not the +crowd-of-children's mind. But I can imagine that when we have a wiser, +better system of education in the villages, in which books will not be +everything, and to be shut up six or seven hours every day to prevent +the children from learning the things that matter most--I can imagine at +such a time that the schoolmaster or mistress will say to the village +woman, "I hear you are going to Salisbury to-morrow, or next Tuesday, +and I want you to take Janie or little Dan or Peter, and leave him for +an hour to play about on the cathedral green and watch the daws flying +round the spire, and take a peep inside while you are doing your +marketing." + +Back from the cathedral once more, from the infirmary, and from shops +and refreshment-houses, out in the sun among the busy people, let us +delay a little longer for the sake of our last scene. + +It was past noon on a hot, brilliant day in August, and that splendid +weather had brought in more people than I had ever before seen +congregated in Salisbury, and never had the people seemed so talkative +and merry and full of life as on that day. I was standing at a busy spot +by a row of carriers' carts drawn up at the side of the pavement, just +where there are three public-houses close together, when I caught sight +of a young man of about twenty-two or twenty-three, a shepherd in a grey +suit and thick, iron-shod, old boots and brown leggings, with a soft +felt hat thrust jauntily on the back of his head, coming along towards +me with that half-slouching, half-swinging gait peculiar to the men of +the downs, especially when they are in the town on pleasure bent. +Decidedly he was there on pleasure and had been indulging in a glass or +two of beer (perhaps three) and was very happy, trolling out a song in a +pleasant, musical voice as he swung along, taking no notice of the +people stopping and turning round to stare after him, or of those of his +own party who were following and trying to keep up with him, calling to +him all the time to stop, to wait, to go slow, and give them a chance. +There were seven following him: a stout, middle-aged woman, then a +grey-haired old woman and two girls, and last a youngish, married woman +with a small boy by the hand; and the stout woman, with a red, laughing +face, cried out, "Oh, Dave, do stop, can't 'ee! Where be going so fast, +man--don't 'ee see we can't keep up with 'ee?" But he would not stop nor +listen. It was his day out, his great day in Salisbury, a very rare +occasion, and he was very happy. Then she would turn back to the others +and cry, "'Tisn't no use, he won't bide for us--did 'ee ever see such a +boy!" and laughing and perspiring she would start on after him again. + +Now this incident would have been too trivial to relate had it not been +for the appearance of the man himself--his powerful and perfect physique +and marvellously handsome face--such a face as the old Greek sculptors +have left to the world to be universally regarded and admired for all +time as the most perfect. I do not think that this was my feeling only; +I imagine that the others in that street who were standing still and +staring after him had something of the same sense of surprise and +admiration he excited in me. Just then it happened that there was a +great commotion outside one of the public-houses, where a considerable +party of gipsies in their little carts had drawn up, and were all +engaged in a violent, confused altercation. Probably they, or one of +them, had just disposed of a couple of stolen ducks, or a sheepskin, or +a few rabbits, and they were quarrelling over the division of the spoil. +At all events they were violently excited, scowling at each other and +one or two in a dancing rage, and had collected a crowd of amused +lookers-on; but when the young man came singing by they all turned to +stare at him. + +As he came on I placed myself directly in his path and stared straight +into his eyes--grey eyes and very beautiful; but he refused to see me; +he stared through me like an animal when you try to catch its eyes, and +went by still trolling out his song, with all the others streaming after +him. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +WINTERBOURNE BISHOP + + A favourite village--Isolated situation--Appearance of the + village--Hedge-fruit--The winterbourne--Human interest--The home + feeling--Man in harmony with nature--Human bones thrown out by a + rabbit--A spot unspoiled and unchanged + + +Of the few widely separated villages, hidden away among the lonely downs +in the large, blank spaces between the rivers, the one I love best is +Winterbourne Bishop. Yet of the entire number--I know them all +intimately--I daresay it would be pronounced by most persons the least +attractive. It has less shade from trees in summer and is more exposed +in winter to the bleak winds of this high country, from whichever +quarter they may blow. Placed high itself on a wide, unwooded valley or +depression, with the low, sloping downs at some distance away, the +village is about as cold a place to pass a winter in as one could find +in this district. And, it may be added, the most inconvenient to live in +at any time, the nearest town, or the easiest to get to, being +Salisbury, twelve miles distant by a hilly road. The only means of +getting to that great centre of life which the inhabitants possess is by +the carrier's cart, which makes the weary four-hours' journey once a +week, on market-day. Naturally, not many of them see that place of +delights oftener than once a year, and some but once in five or more +years. + +Then, as to the village itself, when you have got down into its one +long, rather winding street, or road. This has a green bank, five or +six feet high, on either side, on which stand the cottages, mostly +facing the road. Real houses there are none--buildings worthy of +being called houses in these great days--unless the three small +farm-houses are considered better than cottages, and the rather +mean-looking rectory--the rector, poor man, is very poor. Just in +the middle part, where the church stands in its green churchyard, +the shadiest spot in the village, a few of the cottages are close +together, almost touching, then farther apart, twenty yards or so, +then farther still, forty or fifty yards. They are small, old cottages; +a few have seventeenth-century dates cut on stone tablets on their +fronts, but the undated ones look equally old; some thatched, +others tiled, but none particularly attractive. Certainly they are +without the added charm of a green drapery--creeper or ivy rose, +clematis, and honeysuckle; and they are also mostly without the +cottage-garden flowers, unprofitably gay like the blossoming furze, +but dear to the soul: the flowers we find in so many of the villages +along the rivers, especially in those of the Wylye valley to be +described in a later chapter. + +The trees, I have said, are few, though the churchyard is shady, where +you can refresh yourself beneath its ancient beeches and its one +wide-branching yew, or sit on a tomb in the sun when you wish for warmth +and brightness. The trees growing by or near the street are mostly ash +or beech, with a pine or two, old but not large; and there are small or +dwarf yew-, holly-, and thorn-trees. Very little fruit is grown; two or +three to half a dozen apple- and damson-trees are called an orchard, and +one is sorry for the children. But in late summer and autumn they get +their fruit from the hedges. These run up towards the downs on either +side of the village, at right angles with its street; long, unkept +hedges, beautiful with scarlet haws and traveller's-joy, rich in bramble +and elder berries and purple sloes and nuts--a thousand times more nuts +than the little dormice require for their own modest wants. + +Finally, to go back to its disadvantages, the village is waterless; at +all events in summer, when water is most wanted. Water is such a +blessing and joy in a village--a joy for ever when it flows throughout +the year, as at Nether Stowey and Winsford and Bourton-on-the-Water, to +mention but three of all those happy villages in the land which are +known to most of us! What man on coming to such places and watching the +rushing, sparkling, foaming torrent by day and listening to its +splashing, gurgling sounds by night, does not resolve that he will live +in no village that has not a perennial stream in it! This unblessed, +high and dry village has nothing but the winter bourne which gives it +its name; a sort of surname common to a score or two of villages in +Wiltshire, Dorset, Somerset, and Hants. Here the bed of the stream lies +by the bank on one side of the village street, and when the autumn and +early winter rains have fallen abundantly, the hidden reservoirs within +the chalk hills are filled to overflowing; then the water finds its way +out and fills the dry old channel and sometimes turns the whole street +into a rushing river, to the immense joy of the village children. They +are like ducks, hatched and reared at some upland farm where there was +not even a muddy pool to dibble in. For a season (the wet one) the +village women have water at their own doors and can go out and dip pails +in it as often as they want. When spring comes it is still flowing +merrily, trying to make you believe that it is going to flow for ever; +beautiful, green water-loving plants and grasses spring up and flourish +along the roadside, and you may see comfrey and water forget-me-not in +flower. Pools, too, have been formed in some deep, hollow places; they +are fringed with tall grasses, whitened over with bloom of +water-crowfoot, and poa grass grows up from the bottom to spread its +green tresses over the surface. Better still, by and by a couple of +stray moorhens make their appearance in the pool--strange birds, +coloured glossy olive-brown, slashed with white, with splendid scarlet +and yellow beaks! If by some strange chance a shining blue kingfisher +were to appear it could not create a greater excitement. So much +attention do they receive that the poor strangers have no peace of their +lives. It is a happy time for the children, and a good time for the busy +housewife, who has all the water she wants for cooking and washing and +cleaning--she may now dash as many pailfuls over her brick floors as she +likes. Then the clear, swift current begins to diminish, and scarcely +have you had time to notice the change than it is altogether gone! The +women must go back to the well and let the bucket down, and laboriously +turn and turn the handle of the windlass till it mounts to the top +again. The pretty moist, green herbage, the graceful grasses, quickly +wither away; dust and straws and rubbish from the road lie in the dry +channel, and by and by it is filled with a summer growth of dock and +loveless nettles which no child may touch with impunity. + +No, I cannot think that any person for whom it had no association, no +secret interest, would, after looking at this village with its dried-up +winterbourne, care to make his home in it. And no person, I imagine, +wants to see it; for it has no special attraction and is away from any +road, at a distance from everywhere. I knew a great many villages in +Salisbury Plain, and was always adding to their number, but there was no +intention of visiting this one. Perhaps there is not a village on the +Plain, or anywhere in Wiltshire for that matter, which sees fewer +strangers. Then I fell in with the old shepherd whose life will be +related in the succeeding chapters, and who, away from his native place, +had no story about his past life and the lives of those he had known--no +thought in his mind, I might almost say, which was not connected with +the village of Winterbourne Bishop. And many of his anecdotes and +reflections proved so interesting that I fell into the habit of putting +them down in my notebook; until in the end the place itself, where he +had followed his "homely trade" so long, seeing and feeling so much, +drew me to it. I knew there was "nothing to see" in it, that it was +without the usual attractions; that there was, in fact, nothing but the +human interest, but that was enough. So I came to it to satisfy an idle +curiosity--just to see how it would accord with the mental picture +produced by his description of it. I came, I may say, prepared to like +the place for the sole but sufficient reason that it had been his home. +Had it not been for this feeling he had produced in me I should not, I +imagine, have cared to stay long in it. As it was, I did stay, then came +again and found that it was growing on me. I wondered why; for the mere +interest in the old shepherd's life memories did not seem enough to +account for this deepening attachment. It began to seem to me that I +liked it more and more because of its very barrenness--the entire +absence of all the features which make a place attractive, noble +scenery, woods, and waters; deer parks and old houses, Tudor, +Elizabethan, Jacobean, stately and beautiful, full of art treasures; +ancient monuments and historical associations. There were none of these +things; there was nothing here but that wide, vacant expanse, very +thinly populated with humble, rural folk--farmers, shepherds, +labourers--living in very humble houses. England is so full of riches in +ancient monuments and grand and interesting and lovely buildings and +objects and scenes, that it is perhaps too rich. For we may get into the +habit of looking for such things, expecting them at every turn, every +mile of the way. + +I found it a relief, at Winterbourne Bishop, to be in a country which +had nothing to draw a man out of a town. A wide, empty land, with +nothing on it to look at but a furze-bush; or when I had gained the +summit of the down, and to get a little higher still stood on the top of +one of its many barrows, a sight of the distant village, its low, grey +or reddish-brown cottages half hidden among its few trees, the square, +stone tower of its little church looking at a distance no taller than a +milestone. That emptiness seemed good for both mind and body: I could +spend long hours idly sauntering or sitting or lying on the turf, +thinking of nothing, or only of one thing--that it was a relief to have +no thought about anything. + +But no, something was secretly saying to me all the time, that it was +more than what I have said which continued to draw me to this vacant +place--more than the mere relief experienced on coming back to nature +and solitude, and the freedom of a wide earth and sky. I was not fully +conscious of what the something more was until after repeated visits. On +each occasion it was a pleasure to leave Salisbury behind and set out on +that long, hilly road, and the feeling would keep with me all the +journey, even in bad weather, sultry or cold, or with the wind hard +against me, blowing the white chalk dust into my eyes. From the time I +left the turnpike to go the last two and a half to three miles by the +side-road I would gaze eagerly ahead for a sight of my destination long +before it could possibly be seen; until, on gaining the summit of a low, +intervening down, the wished scene would be disclosed--the vale-like, +wide depression, with its line of trees, blue-green in the distance, +flecks of red and grey colour of the houses among them--and at that +sight there would come a sense of elation, like that of coming home. + +This in fact was the secret! This empty place was, in its aspect, +despite the difference in configuration between down and undulating +plain, more like the home of my early years than any other place known +to me in the country. I can note many differences, but they do not +deprive me of this home feeling; it is the likenesses that hold me, the +spirit of the place, one which is not a desert with the desert's +melancholy or sense of desolation, but inhabited, although thinly and by +humble-minded men whose work and dwellings are unobtrusive. The final +effect of this wide, green space with signs of human life and labour on +it, and sight of animals--sheep and cattle--at various distances, is +that we are not aliens here, intruders or invaders on the earth, living +in it but apart, perhaps hating and spoiling it, but with the other +animals are children of Nature, like them living and seeking our +subsistence under her sky, familiar with her sun and wind and rain. + +If some ostentatious person had come to this strangely quiet spot and +raised a staring, big house, the sight of it in the landscape would have +made it impossible to have such a feeling as I have described--this +sense of man's harmony and oneness with nature. From how much of England +has this expression which nature has for the spirit, which is so much +more to us than beauty of scenery, been blotted out! This quiet spot in +Wiltshire has been inhabited from of old, how far back in time the +barrows raised by an ancient, barbarous people are there to tell us, and +to show us how long it is possible for the race of men, in all stages of +culture, to exist on the earth without spoiling it. + +One afternoon when walking on Bishop Down I noticed at a distance of a +hundred yards or more that a rabbit had started making a burrow in a new +place and had thrown out a vast quantity of earth. Going to the spot to +see what kind of chalk or soil he was digging so deeply in, I found that +he had thrown out a human thigh-bone and a rib or two. They were of a +reddish-white colour and had been embedded in a hard mixture of chalk +and red earth. The following day I went again, and there were more +bones, and every day after that the number increased until it seemed to +me that he had brought out the entire skeleton, minus the skull, which I +had been curious to see. Then the bones disappeared. The man who looked +after the game had seen them, and recognizing that they were human +remains had judiciously taken them away to destroy or stow them away in +some safe place. For if the village constable had discovered them, or +heard of their presence, he would perhaps have made a fuss and even +thought it necessary to communicate with the coroner of the district. +Such things occasionally happen, even in Wiltshire where the chalk hills +are full of the bones of dead men, and a solemn Crowner's quest is held +on the remains of a Saxon or Dane or an ancient Briton. When some +important person--a Sir Richard Colt Hoare, for example, who dug up 379 +barrows in Wiltshire, or a General Pitt Rivers throws out human remains +nobody minds, but if an unauthorized rabbit kicks out a lot of bones the +matter should be inquired into. + +But the man whose bones had been thus thrown out into the sunlight after +lying so long at that spot, which commanded a view of the distant, +little village looking so small in that immense, green space--who and +what was he, and how long ago did he live on the earth--at Winterbourne +Bishop, let us say? There were two barrows in that part of the down, but +quite a stone's-throw away from the spot where the rabbit was working, +so that he may not have been one of the people of that period. Still, it +is probable that he was buried a very long time ago, centuries back, +perhaps a thousand years, perhaps longer, and by chance there was a +slope there which prevented the water from percolating, and the soil in +which he had been deposited, under that close-knit turf which looked as +if it had never been disturbed, was one in which bones might keep +uncrumbled for ever. + +The thought that occurred to me at the time was that if the man himself +had come back to life after so long a period, to stand once more on that +down surveying the scene, he would have noticed little change in it, +certainly nothing of a startling description. The village itself, +looking so small at that distance, in the centre of the vast depression, +would probably not be strange to him. It was doubtless there as far back +as history goes and probably still farther back in time. For at that +point, just where the winterbourne gushes out from the low hills, is the +spot man would naturally select to make his home. And he would see no +mansion or big building, no puff of white steam and sight of a long, +black train creeping over the earth, nor any other strange thing. It +would appear to him even as he knew it before he fell asleep--the same +familiar scene, with furze and bramble and bracken on the slope, the +wide expanse with sheep and cattle grazing in the distance, and the dark +green of trees in the hollows, and fold on fold of the low down beyond, +stretching away to the dim, farthest horizon. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +A SHEPHERD OF THE DOWNS + + Caleb Bawcombe--An old shepherd's love of his home--Fifty years' + shepherding--Bawcombe's singular appearance--A tale of a titlark--Caleb + Bawcombe's father--Father and son--A grateful sportsman and Isaac + Bawcombe's pension--Death following death in old married couples--In a + village churchyard--A farm-labourer's gravestone and his story + + +It is now several years since I first met Caleb Bawcombe, a shepherd of +the South Wiltshire Downs, but already old and infirm and past work. I +met him at a distance from his native village, and it was only after I +had known him a long time and had spent many afternoons and evenings in +his company, listening to his anecdotes of his shepherding days, that I +went to see his own old home for myself--the village of Winterbourne +Bishop already described, to find it a place after my own heart. But as +I have said, if I had never known Caleb and heard so much from him about +his own life and the lives of many of his fellow-villagers, I should +probably never have seen this village. + +One of his memories was of an old shepherd named John, whose +acquaintance he made when a very young man--John being at that time +seventy-eight years old--on the Winterbourne Bishop farm, where he had +served for an unbroken period of close on sixty years. Though so aged he +was still head shepherd, and he continued to hold that place seven years +longer--until his master, who had taken over old John with the place, +finally gave up the farm and farming at the same time. He, too, was +getting past work and wished to spend his declining years in his native +village in an adjoining parish, where he owned some house and cottage +property. And now what was to become of the old shepherd, since the new +tenant had brought his own men with him?--and he, moreover, considered +that John, at eighty-five, was too old to tend a flock on the hills, +even of tegs. His old master, anxious to help him, tried to get him some +employment in the village where he wished to stay; and failing in this, +he at last offered him a cottage rent free in the village where he was +going to live himself, and, in addition, twelve shillings a week for the +rest of his life. It was in those days an exceedingly generous offer, +but John refused it. "Master," he said, "I be going to stay in my own +native village, and if I can't make a living the parish'll have to keep +I; but keep or not keep, here I be and here I be going to stay, where I +were borned." + +From this position the stubborn old man refused to be moved, and there +at Winterbourne Bishop his master had to leave him, although not without +having first made him a sufficient provision. + +The way in which my old friend, Caleb Bawcombe, told the story plainly +revealed his own feeling in the matter. He understood and had the +keenest sympathy with old John, dead now over half a century; or rather, +let us say, resting very peacefully in that green spot under the old +grey tower of Winterbourne Bishop church where as a small boy he had +played among the old gravestones as far back in time as the middle of +the eighteenth century. But old John had long survived wife and +children, and having no one but himself to think of was at liberty to +end his days where he pleased. Not so with Caleb, for, although his +undying passion for home and his love of the shepherd's calling were as +great as John's, he was not so free, and he was compelled at last to +leave his native downs, which he may never see again, to settle for the +remainder of his days in another part of the country. + +Early in life he "caught a chill" through long exposure to wet and cold +in winter; this brought on rheumatic fever and a malady of the thigh, +which finally affected the whole limb and made him lame for life. Thus +handicapped he had continued as shepherd for close on fifty years, +during which time his sons and daughters had grown up, married, and gone +away, mostly to a considerable distance, leaving their aged parents +alone once more. Then the wife, who was a strong woman and of an +enterprising temper, found an opening for herself at a distance from +home where she could start a little business. Caleb indignantly refused +to give up shepherding in his place to take part in so unheard-of an +adventure; but after a year or more of life in his lonely hut among the +hills and cold, empty cottage in the village, he at length tore himself +away from that beloved spot and set forth on the longest journey of his +life--about forty-five miles--to join her and help in the work of her +new home. Here a few years later I found him, aged seventy-two, but +owing to his increasing infirmities looking considerably more. When he +considered that his father, a shepherd before him on those same +Wiltshire Downs, lived to eighty-six, and his mother to eighty-four, and +that both were vigorous and led active lives almost to the end, he +thought it strange that his own work should be so soon done. For in +heart and mind he was still young; he did not want to rest yet. + +Since that first meeting nine years have passed, and as he is actually +better in health to-day than he was then, there is good reason to hope +that his staying power will equal that of his father. + +I was at first struck with the singularity of Caleb's appearance, and +later by the expression of his eyes. A very tall, big-boned, lean, +round-shouldered man, he was uncouth almost to the verge of +grotesqueness, and walked painfully with the aid of a stick, dragging +his shrunken and shortened bad leg. His head was long and narrow, and +his high forehead, long nose, long chin, and long, coarse, grey +whiskers, worn like a beard on his throat, produced a goat-like effect. +This was heightened by the ears and eyes. The big ears stood out from +his head, and owing to a peculiar bend or curl in the membrane at the +top they looked at certain angles almost pointed. The hazel eyes were +wonderfully clear, but that quality was less remarkable than the unhuman +intelligence in them--fawn-like eyes that gazed steadily at you as one +may gaze through the window, open back and front, of a house at the +landscape beyond. This peculiarity was a little disconcerting at first, +when, after making his acquaintance out of doors, I went in uninvited +and sat down with him at his own fireside. The busy old wife talked of +this and that, and hinted as politely as she knew how that I was in her +way. To her practical, peasant mind there was no sense in my being +there. "He be a stranger to we, and we be strangers to he." Caleb was +silent, and his clear eyes showed neither annoyance nor pleasure but +only their native, wild alertness, but the caste feeling is always less +strong in the hill shepherd than in other men who are on the land; in +some cases it will vanish at a touch, and it was so in this one. A +canary in a cage hanging in the kitchen served to introduce the subject +of birds captive and birds free. I said that I liked the little yellow +bird, and was not vexed to see him in a cage, since he was cage-born; +but I considered that those who caught wild birds and kept them +prisoners did not properly understand things. This happened to be +Caleb's view. He had a curiously tender feeling about the little wild +birds, and one amusing incident of his boyhood which he remembered came +out during our talk. He was out on the down one summer day in charge of +his father's flock, when two boys of the village on a ramble in the +hills came and sat down on the turf by his side. One of them had a +titlark, or meadow pipit, which he had just caught, in his hand, and +there was a hot argument as to which of the two was the lawful owner of +the poor little captive. The facts were as follows. One of the boys +having found the nest became possessed with the desire to get the bird. +His companion at once offered to catch it for him, and together they +withdrew to a distance and sat down and waited until the bird returned +to sit on the eggs. Then the young birdcatcher returned to the spot, and +creeping quietly up to within five or six feet of the nest threw his hat +so that it fell over the sitting titlark; but after having thus secured +it he refused to give it up. The dispute waxed hotter as they sat there, +and at last when it got to the point of threats of cuffs on the ear and +slaps on the face they agreed to fight it out, the victor to have the +titlark. The bird was then put under a hat for safety on the smooth turf +a few feet away, and the boys proceeded to take off their jackets and +roll up their shirt-sleeves, after which they faced one another, and +were just about to begin when Caleb, thrusting out his crook, turned the +hat over and away flew the titlark. + +The boys, deprived of their bird and of an excuse for a fight, would +gladly have discharged their fury on Caleb, but they durst not, seeing +that his dog was lying at his side; they could only threaten and abuse +him, call him bad names, and finally put on their coats and walk off. + +That pretty little tale of a titlark was but the first of a long +succession of memories of his early years, with half a century of +shepherding life on the downs, which came out during our talks on many +autumn and winter evenings as we sat by his kitchen fire. The earlier of +these memories were always the best to me, because they took one back +sixty years or more, to a time when there was more wildness in the earth +than now, and a nobler wild animal life. Even more interesting were some +of the memories of his father, Isaac Bawcombe, whose time went back to +the early years of the nineteenth century. Caleb cherished an admiration +and reverence for his father's memory which were almost a worship, and +he loved to describe him as he appeared in his old age, when upwards of +eighty. He was erect and tall, standing six feet two in height, well +proportioned, with a clean-shaved, florid face, clear, dark eyes, and +silver-white hair; and at this later period of his life he always wore +the dress of an old order of pensioners to which he had been admitted--a +soft, broad, white felt hat, thick boots and brown leather leggings, and +a long, grey cloth overcoat with red collar and brass buttons. + +According to Caleb, he must have been an exceedingly fine specimen of a +man, both physically and morally. Born in 1800, he began following a +flock as a boy, and continued as shepherd on the same farm until he was +sixty, never rising to more than seven shillings a week and nothing +found, since he lived in the cottage where he was born and which he +inherited from his father. That a man of his fine powers, a +head-shepherd on a large hill-farm, should have had no better pay than +that down to the year 1860, after nearly half a century of work in one +place, seems almost incredible. Even his sons, as they grew up to man's +estate, advised him to ask for an increase, but he would not. Seven +shillings a week he had always had; and that small sum, with something +his wife earned by making highly finished smock-frocks, had been +sufficient to keep them all in a decent way; and his sons were now all +earning their own living. But Caleb got married, and resolved to leave +the old farm at Bishop to take a better place at a distance from home, +at Warminster, which had been offered him. He would there have a cottage +to live in, nine shillings a week, and a sack of barley for his dog. At +that time the shepherd had to keep his own dog--no small expense to him +when his wages were no more than six to eight shillings a week. But +Caleb was his father's favourite son, and the old man could not endure +the thought of losing sight of him; and at last, finding that he could +not persuade him not to leave the old home, he became angry, and told +him that if he went away to Warminster for the sake of the higher wages +and barley for the dog he would disown him! This was a serious matter to +Caleb, in spite of the fact that a shepherd has no money to leave to his +children when he passes away. He went nevertheless, for, though he loved +and reverenced his father, he had a young wife who pulled the other way; +and he was absent for years, and when he returned the old man's heart +had softened, so that he was glad to welcome him back to the old home. + +Meanwhile at that humble cottage at Winterbourne Bishop great things had +happened; old Isaac was no longer shepherding on the downs, but living +very comfortably in his own cottage in the village. The change came +about in this way. + +The downland shepherds, Caleb said, were as a rule clever poachers; and +it is really not surprising, when one considers the temptation to a man +with a wife and several hungry children, besides himself and a dog, to +feed out of about seven shillings a week. But old Bawcombe was an +exception: he would take no game, furred or feathered, nor, if he could +prevent it, allow another to take anything from the land fed by his +flock. Caleb and his brothers, when as boys and youths they began their +shepherding, sometimes caught a rabbit, or their dog caught and killed +one without their encouragement; but, however the thing came into their +hands, they could not take it home on account of their father. Now it +happened that an elderly gentleman who had the shooting was a keen +sportsman, and that in several successive years he found a wonderful +difference in the amount of game at one spot among the hills and in all +the rest of his hill property. The only explanation the keeper could +give was that Isaac Bawcombe tended his flock on that down where +rabbits, hares, and partridges were so plentiful. One autumn day the +gentleman was shooting over that down, and seeing a big man in a +smock-frock standing motionless, crook in hand, regarding him, he called +out to his keeper, who was with him, "Who is that big man?" and was told +that it was Shepherd Bawcombe. The old gentleman pulled some money out +of his pocket and said, "Give him this half-crown, and thank him for the +good sport I've had to-day." But after the coin had been given the giver +still remained standing there, thinking, perhaps, that he had not yet +sufficiently rewarded the man; and at last, before turning away, he +shouted, "Bawcombe, that's not all. You'll get something more by and +by." + +Isaac had not long to wait for the something more, and it turned out not +to be the hare or brace of birds he had half expected. It happened that +the sportsman was one of the trustees of an ancient charity which +provided for six of the most deserving old men of the parish of Bishop; +now, one of the six had recently died, and on this gentleman's +recommendation Bawcombe had been elected to fill the vacant place. The +letter from Salisbury informing him of his election and commanding his +presence in that city filled him with astonishment; for, though he was +sixty years old and the father of three sons now out in the world, he +could not yet regard himself as an old man, for he had never known a +day's illness, nor an ache, and was famed in all that neighbourhood for +his great physical strength and endurance. And now, with his own cottage +to live in, eight shillings a week, and his pensioners' garments, with +certain other benefits, and a shilling a day besides which his old +master paid him for some services at the farm-house in the village, +Isaac found himself very well off indeed, and he enjoyed his prosperous +state for twenty-six years. Then, in 1886, his old wife fell ill and +died, and no sooner was she in her grave than he, too, began to droop; +and soon, before the year was out, he followed her, because, as the +neighbours said, they had always been a loving pair and one could not +'bide without the other. + +This chapter has already had its proper ending and there was no +intention of adding to it, but now for a special reason, which I trust +the reader will pardon when he hears it, I must go on to say something +about that strange phenomenon of death succeeding death in old married +couples, one dying for no other reason than that the other has died. For +it is our instinct to hold fast to life, and the older a man gets if he +be sane the more he becomes like a newborn child in the impulse to grip +tightly. A strange and a rare thing among people generally (the people +we know), it is nevertheless quite common among persons of the labouring +class in the rural districts. I have sometimes marvelled at the number +of such cases to be met with in the villages; but when one comes to +think about it one ceases to wonder that it should be so. For the +labourer on the land goes on from boyhood to the end of life in the same +everlasting round, the changes from task to task, according to the +seasons, being no greater than in the case of the animals that alter +their actions and habits to suit the varying conditions of the year. +March and August and December, and every month, will bring about the +changes in the atmosphere and earth and vegetation and in the animals, +which have been from of old, which he knows how to meet, and the old, +familiar task, lambing-time, shearing-time, root and seed crops hoeing, +haymaking, harvesting. It is a life of the extremest simplicity, without +all those interests outside the home and the daily task, the innumerable +distractions, common to all persons in other classes and to the workmen +in towns as well. Incidentally it may be said that it is also the +healthiest, that, speaking generally, the agricultural labourer is the +healthiest and sanest man in the land, if not also the happiest, as some +believe. + +It is this life of simple, unchanging actions and of habits that are +like instincts, of hard labour in sun and wind and rain from day to day, +with its weekly break and rest, and of but few comforts and no luxuries, +which serves to bind man and wife so closely. And the longer their life +goes on together the closer and more unbreakable the union grows. They +are growing old: old friends and companions have died or left them; +their children have married and gone away and have their own families +and affairs, so that the old folks at home are little remembered, and to +all others they have become of little consequence in the world. But they +do not know it, for they are together, cherishing the same memories, +speaking of the same old, familiar things, and their lost friends and +companions, their absent, perhaps estranged, children, are with them +still in mind as in the old days. The past is with them more than the +present, to give an undying interest to life; for they share it, and it +is only when one goes, when the old wife gets the tea ready and goes +mechanically to the door to gaze out, knowing that her tired man will +come in no more to take his customary place and listen to all the things +she has stored up in her mind during the day to tell him; and when the +tired labourer comes in at dusk to find no old wife waiting to give him +his tea and talk to him while he refreshes himself, he all at once +realizes his position; he finds himself cut off from the entire world, +from all of his kind. Where are they all? The enduring sympathy of that +one soul that was with him till now had kept him in touch with life, had +made it seem unchanged and unchangeable, and with that soul has vanished +the old, sweet illusion as well as all ties, all common, human +affection. He is desolate, indeed, alone in a desert world, and it is +not strange that in many and many a case, even in that of a man still +strong, untouched by disease and good for another decade or two, the +loss, the awful solitude, has proved too much for him. + +Such cases, I have said, are common, but they are not recorded, though +it is possible with labour to pick them out in the church registers; but +in the churchyards you do not find them, since the farm-labourer has +only a green mound to mark the spot where he lies. Nevertheless, he is +sometimes honoured with a gravestone, and last August I came by chance +on one on which was recorded a case like that of Isaac Bawcombe and his +life-mate. + +The churchyard is in one of the prettiest and most secluded villages in +the downland country described in this book. The church is ancient and +beautiful and interesting in many ways, and the churchyard, too, is one +of the most interesting I know, a beautiful, green, tree-shaded spot, +with an extraordinary number of tombs and gravestones, many of them +dated in the eighteenth and seventeenth centuries, inscribed with names +of families which have long died out. + +I went on that afternoon to pass an hour in the churchyard, and finding +an old man in labourer's clothes resting on a tomb, I sat down and +entered into conversation with him. He was seventy-nine, he told me, and +past work, and he had three shillings a week from the parish; but he was +very deaf and it fatigued me to talk to him, and seeing the church open +I went in. On previous visits I had had a good deal of trouble to get +the key, and to find it open now was a pleasant surprise. An old woman +was there dusting the seats, and by and by, while I was talking with +her, the old labourer came stumping in with his ponderous, iron-shod +boots and without taking off his old, rusty hat, and began shouting at +the church-cleaner about a pair of trousers he had given her to mend, +which he wanted badly. Leaving them to their arguing I went out and +began studying the inscriptions on the stones, so hard to make out in +some instances; the old man followed and went his way; then the +church-cleaner came out to where I was standing. "A tiresome old man!" +she said. "He's that deaf he has to shout to hear himself speak, then +you've got to shout back--and all about his old trousers!" + +"I suppose he wants them," I returned, "and you promised to do them, so +he has some reason for going at you about it." + +"Oh no, he hasn't," she replied. "The girl brought them for me to mend, +and I said, 'Leave them and I'll do them when I've time'--how did I know +he wanted them in a hurry? A troublesome old man!" + +By and by, taking a pair of spectacles out of her pocket, she put them +on, and going down on her knees she began industriously picking the old, +brown, dead moss out of the lettering on one side of the tomb. "I'd like +to know what it says on this stone," she said. + +"Well, you can read it for yourself, now you've got your glasses on." + +"I can't read. You see, I'm old--seventy-six years, and when I were +little we were very poor and I couldn't get no schooling. I've got these +glasses to do my sewing, and only put them on to get this stuff out so's +you could read it. I'd like to hear you read it." + +I began to get interested in the old dame who talked to me so freely. +She was small and weak-looking, and appeared very thin in her limp, old, +faded gown; she had a meek, patient expression on her face, and her +voice, too, like her face, expressed weariness and resignation. + +"But if you have always lived here you must know what is said on this +stone?" + +"No, I don't; nobody never read it to me, and I couldn't read it because +I wasn't taught to read. But I'd like to hear you read it." + +It was a long inscription to a person named Ash, gentleman, of this +parish, who departed this life over a century ago, and was a man of a +noble and generous disposition, good as a husband, a father, a friend, +and charitable to the poor. Under all were some lines of verse, scarcely +legible in spite of the trouble she had taken to remove the old moss +from the letters. + +She listened with profound interest, then said, "I never heard all that +before; I didn't know the name, though I've known this stone since I was +a child. I used to climb on to it then. Can you read me another?" + +I read her another and several more, then came to one which she said she +knew--every word of it, for this was the grave of the sweetest, kindest +woman that ever lived. Oh, how good this dear woman had been to her in +her young married life more'n fifty years ago! If that dear lady had +only lived it would not have been so hard for her when her trouble come! + +"And what was your trouble?" + +"It was the loss of my poor man. He was such a good man, a thatcher; and +he fell from a rick and injured his spine, and he died, poor fellow, and +left me with our five little children." Then, having told me her own +tragedy, to my surprise she brightened up and begged me to read other +inscriptions to her. + +I went on reading, and presently she said, "No, that's wrong. There +wasn't ever a Lampard in this parish. That I know." + +"You don't know! There certainly was a Lampard or it would not be stated +here, cut in deep letters on this stone." + +"No, there wasn't a Lampard. I've never known such a name and I've lived +here all my life." + +"But there were people living here before you came on the scene. He died +a long time ago, this Lampard--in 1714, it says. And you are only +seventy-six, you tell me; that is to say, you were born in 1835, and +that would be one hundred and twenty-one years after he died." + +"That's a long time! It must be very old, this stone. And the church +too. I've heard say it was once a Roman Catholic church. Is that true?" + +"Why, of course it's true--all the old churches were, and we were all of +that faith until a King of England had a quarrel with the Pope and +determined he would be Pope himself as well as king in his own country. +So he turned all the priests and monks out, and took their property and +churches and had his own men put in. That was Henry VIII." + +"I've heard something about that king and his wives. But about Lampard, +it do seem strange I've never heard that name before." + +"Not strange at all; it was a common name in this part of Wiltshire in +former days; you find it in dozens of churchyards, but you'll find very +few Lampards living in the villages. Why, I could tell you a dozen or +twenty surnames, some queer, funny names, that were common in these +parts not more than a century ago which seem to have quite died out." + +"I should like to hear some of them if you'll tell me." + +"Let me think a moment: there was Thorr, Pizzie, Gee, Every, Pottle, +Kiddle, Toomer, Shergold, and--" + +Here she interrupted to say that she knew three of the names I had +mentioned. Then, pointing to a small, upright gravestone about twenty +feet away, she added, "And there's one." + +"Very well," I said, "but don't keep putting me out--I've got more names +in my mind to tell you. Maidment, Marchmont, Velvin, Burpitt, Winzur, +Rideout, Cullurne." + +Of these she only knew one--Rideout. + +Then I went over to the stone she had pointed to and read the +inscription to John Toomer and his wife Rebecca. She died first, in +March 1877, aged 72; he in July the same year, aged 75. + +"You knew them, I suppose?" + +"Yes, they belonged here, both of them." + +"Tell me about them." + +"There's nothing to tell; he was only a labourer and worked on the same +farm all his life." + +"Who put a stone over them--their children?" + +"No, they're all poor and live away. I think it was a lady who lived +here; she'd been good to them, and she came and stood here when they put +old John in the ground." + +"But I want to hear more." + +"There's no more, I've said; he was a labourer, and after she died he +died." + +"Yes? go on." + +"How can I go on? There's no more. I knew them so well; they lived in +the little thatched cottage over there, where the Millards live now." + +"Did they fall ill at the same time?" + +"Oh no, he was as well as could be, still at work, till she died, then +he went on in a strange way. He would come in of an evening and call his +wife. 'Mother! Mother, where are you?' you'd hear him call, 'Mother, be +you upstairs? Mother, ain't you coming down for a bit of bread and +cheese before you go to bed?' And then in a little while he just died." + +"And you said there was nothing to tell!" + +"No, there wasn't anything. He was just one of us, a labourer on the +farm." + +I then gave her something, and to my surprise after taking it she made +me an elaborate curtsy. It rather upset me, for I had thought we had got +on very well together and were quite free and easy in our talk, very +much on a level. But she was not done with me yet. She followed to the +gate, and holding out her open hand with that small gift in it, she said +in a pathetic voice, "Did you think, sir, I was expecting this? I had no +such thought and didn't want it." + +And I had no thought of saying or writing a word about her. But since +that day she has haunted me--she and her old John Toomer, and it has +just now occurred to me that by putting her in my book I may be able to +get her out of my mind. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +EARLY MEMORIES + + A child shepherd--Isaac and his children--Shepherding in boyhood--Two + notable sheep-dogs--Jack, the adder-killer--Sitting on an adder--Rough + and the drovers--The Salisbury coach--A sheep-dog suckling a lamb + + +Caleb's shepherding began in childhood; at all events he had his first +experience of it at that time. Many an old shepherd, whose father was +shepherd before him, has told me that he began to go with the flock very +early in life, when he was no more than ten to twelve years of age. +Caleb remembered being put in charge of his father's flock at the tender +age of six. It was a new and wonderful experience, and made so vivid and +lasting an impression on his mind that now, when he is past eighty, he +speaks of it very feelingly as of something which happened yesterday. + +It was harvesting time, and Isaac, who was a good reaper, was wanted in +the field, but he could find no one, not even a boy, to take charge of +his flock in the meantime, and so to be able to reap and keep an eye on +the flock at the same time he brought his sheep down to the part of the +down adjoining the field. It was on his "liberty," or that part of the +down where he was entitled to have his flock. He then took his very +small boy, Caleb, and placing him with the sheep told him they were now +in his charge; that he was not to lose sight of them, and at the same +time not to run about among the furze-bushes for fear of treading on an +adder. By and by the sheep began straying off among the furze-bushes, +and no sooner would they disappear from sight than he imagined they were +lost for ever, or would be unless he quickly found them, and to find +them he had to run about among the bushes with the terror of adders in +his mind, and the two troubles together kept him crying with misery all +the time. Then, at intervals, Isaac would leave his reaping and come to +see how he was getting on, and the tears would vanish from his eyes, and +he would feel very brave again, and to his father's question he would +reply that he was getting on very well. + +Finally his father came and took him to the field, to his great relief; +but he did not carry him in his arms; he strode along at his usual pace +and let the little fellow run after him, stumbling and falling and +picking himself up again and running on. And by and by one of the women +in the field cried out, "Be you not ashamed, Isaac, to go that pace and +not bide for the little child! I do b'lieve he's no more'n seven +year--poor mite!" + +"No more'n six," answered Isaac proudly, with a laugh. + +But though not soft or tender with his children he was very fond of +them, and when he came home early in the evening he would get them round +him and talk to them, and sing old songs and ballads he had learnt in +his young years--"Down in the Village," "The Days of Queen Elizabeth," +"The Blacksmith," "The Gown of Green," "The Dawning of the Day," and +many others, which Caleb in the end got by heart and used to sing, too, +when he was grown up. + +Caleb was about nine when he began to help regularly with the flock; +that was in the summer-time, when the flock was put every day on the +down and when Isaac's services were required for the haymaking and later +for harvesting and other work. His best memories of this period relate +to his mother and to two sheepdogs, Jack at first and afterwards Rough, +both animals of original character. Jack was a great favourite of his +master, who considered him a "tarrable good dog." He was rather +short-haired, like the old Welsh sheepdog once common in Wiltshire, but +entirely black instead of the usual colour--blue with a sprinkling of +black spots. This dog had an intense hatred of adders and never failed +to kill every one he discovered. At the same time he knew that they were +dangerous enemies to tackle, and on catching sight of one his hair would +instantly bristle up, and he would stand as if paralysed for some +moments, glaring at it and gnashing his teeth, then springing like a cat +upon it he would seize it in his mouth, only to hurl it from him to a +distance. This action he would repeat until the adder was dead, and +Isaac would then put it under a furze-bush to take it home and hang it +on a certain gate. The farmer, too, like the dog, hated adders, and paid +his shepherd sixpence for every one his dog killed. + +One day Caleb, with one of his brothers, was out with the flock, amusing +themselves in their usual way on the turf with nine morris-men and the +shepherd's puzzle, when all at once their mother appeared unexpectedly +on the scene. It was her custom, when the boys were sent out with the +flock, to make expeditions to the down just to see what they were up to; +and hiding her approach by keeping to a hedge-side or by means of the +furze-bushes, she would sometimes come upon them with disconcerting +suddenness. On this occasion just where the boys had been playing there +was a low, stout furze-bush, so dense and flat-topped that one could use +it as a seat, and his mother taking off and folding her shawl placed it +on the bush, and sat down on it to rest herself after her long walk. "I +can see her now," said Caleb, "sitting on that furze-bush, in her smock +and leggings, with a big hat like a man's on her head--for that's how +she dressed." But in a few moments she jumped up, crying out that she +felt a snake under her, and snatched off the shawl, and there, sure +enough, out of the middle of the flat bush-top appeared the head of an +adder, flicking out its tongue. The dog, too, saw it, dashed at the +bush, forcing his muzzle and head into the middle of it, seized the +serpent by its body and plucked it out and threw it from him, only to +follow it up and kill it in the usual way. + +Rough was a large, shaggy, grey-blue bobtail bitch with a white collar. +She was a clever, good all-round dog, but had originally been trained +for the road, and one of the shepherd's stories about her relates of her +intelligence in her own special line--the driving of sheep. + +One day he and his smaller brother were in charge of the flock on the +down, and were on the side where it dips down to the turnpike-road about +a mile and a half from the village, where a large flock, driven by two +men and two dogs, came by. They were going to the Britford sheep-fair +and were behind time; Isaac had started at daylight that morning with +sheep for the same fair, and that was the reason of the boys being with +the flock. As the flock on the down was feeding quietly the boys +determined to go to the road to watch the sheep and men pass, and +arriving at the roadside they saw that the dogs were too tired to work +and the men were getting on with great difficulty. One of them, looking +intently at Rough, asked if she would work. "Oh, yes, she'll work," said +the boy proudly, and calling Rough he pointed to the flock moving very +slowly along the road and over the turf on either side of it. Rough knew +what was wanted; she had been looking on and had taken the situation in +with her professional eye; away she dashed, and running up and down, +first on one side then on the other, quickly put the whole flock, +numbering 800, into the road and gave them a good start. + +"Why, she be a road dog!" exclaimed the drover delightedly. "She's +better for me on the road than for you on the down; I'll buy her of +you." + +"No, I mustn't sell her," said Caleb. + +"Look here, boy," said the other, "I'll give 'ee a sovran and this young +dog, an' he'll be a good one with a little more training." + +"No, I mustn't," said Caleb, distressed at the other's persistence. + +"Well, will you come a little way on the road with us?" asked the +drover. + +This the boys agreed to and went on for about a quarter of a mile, when +all at once the Salisbury coach appeared on the road, coming to meet +them. This new trouble was pointed out to Rough, and at once when her +little master had given the order she dashed barking into the midst of +the mass of sheep and drove them furiously to the side from end to end +of the extended flock, making a clear passage for the coach, which was +not delayed a minute. And no sooner was the coach gone than the sheep +were put back into the road. + +Then the drover pulled out his sovereign once more and tried to make the +boy take it. + +"I mustn't," he repeated, almost in tears. "What would father say?" + +"Say! He won't say nothing. He'll think you've done well." + +But Caleb thought that perhaps his father would say something, and when +he remembered certain whippings he had experienced in the past he had an +uncomfortable sensation about his back. "No, I mustn't," was all he +could say, and then the drovers with a laugh went on with their sheep. + +When Isaac came home and the adventure was told to him he laughed and +said that he meant to sell Rough some day. He used to say this +occasionally to tease his wife because of the dog's intense devotion to +her; and she, being without a sense of humour and half thinking that he +meant it, would get up out of her seat and solemnly declare that if he +ever sold Rough she would never again go out to the down to see what the +boys were up to. + +One day she visited the boys when they had the flock near the turnpike, +and seating herself on the turf a few yards from the road got out her +work and began sewing. Presently they spied a big, singular-looking man +coming at a swinging pace along the road. He was in shirt-sleeves, +barefooted, and wore a straw hat without a rim. Rough eyed the strange +being's approach with suspicion, and going to her mistress placed +herself at her side. The man came up and sat down at a distance of three +or four yards from the group, and Rough, looking dangerous, started up +and put her forepaws on her mistress's lap and began uttering a low +growl. + +"Will that dog bite, missus?" said the man. + +"Maybe he will," said she. "I won't answer for he if you come any +nearer." + +The two boys had been occupied cutting a faggot from a furze-bush with a +bill-hook, and now held a whispered consultation as to what they would +do if the man tried to "hurt mother," and agreed that as soon as Rough +had got her teeth in his leg they would attack him about the head with +the bill-hook. They were not required to go into action; the stranger +could not long endure Rough's savage aspect, and very soon he got up and +resumed his travels. + +The shepherd remembered another curious incident in Rough's career. At +one time when she had a litter of pups at home she was yet compelled to +be a great part of the day with the flock of ewes as they could not do +without her. The boys just then were bringing up a motherless lamb by +hand and they would put it with the sheep, and to feed it during the day +were obliged to catch a ewe with milk. The lamb trotted at Caleb's heels +like a dog, and one day when it was hungry and crying to be fed, when +Rough happened to be sitting on her haunches close by, it occurred to +him that Rough's milk might serve as well as a sheep's. The lamb was put +to her and took very kindly to its canine foster-mother, wriggling its +tail and pushing vigorously with its nose. Rough submitted patiently to +the trial, and the result was that the lamb adopted the sheep-dog as its +mother and sucked her milk several times every day, to the great +admiration of all who witnessed it. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +SHEPHERD ISAAC BAWCOMBE + + A noble shepherd--A fighting village blacksmith--Old Joe the collier--A + story of his strength--Donkeys poisoned by yew--The shepherd without his + sheep--How the shepherd killed a deer + + +To me the most interesting of Caleb's old memories were those relating +to his father, partly on account of the man's fine character, and partly +because they went so far back, beginning in the early years of the last +century. + +Altogether he must have been a very fine specimen of a man, both +physically and morally. In Caleb's mind he was undoubtedly the first +among men morally, but there were two other men supposed to be his +equals in bodily strength, one a native of the village, the other a +periodical visitor. The first was Jarvis the blacksmith, a man of an +immense chest and big arms, one of Isaac's greatest friends, and very +good-tempered except when in his cups, for he did occasionally get +drunk, and then he quarrelled with anyone and every one. + +One afternoon he had made himself quite tipsy at the inn, and when going +home, swaying about and walking all over the road, he all at once caught +sight of the big shepherd coming soberly on behind. No sooner did he see +him than it occurred to his wild and muddled mind that he had a quarrel +with this very man, Shepherd Isaac, a quarrel of so pressing a nature +that there was nothing to do but to fight it out there and then. He +planted himself before the shepherd and challenged him to fight. Isaac +smiled and said nothing. + +"I'll fight thee about this," he repeated, and began tugging at his +coat, and after getting it off again made up to Isaac, who still smiled +and said no word. Then he pulled his waistcoat off, and finally his +shirt, and with nothing but his boots and breeches on once more squared +up to Isaac and threw himself into his best fighting attitude. + +"I doan't want to fight thee," said Isaac at length, "but I be thinking +'twould be best to take thee home." And suddenly dashing in he seized +Jarvis round the waist with one arm, grasped him round the legs with the +other, and flung the big man across his shoulder, and carried him off, +struggling and shouting, to his cottage. There at the door, pale and +distressed, stood the poor wife waiting for her lord, when Isaac +arrived, and going straight in dropped the smith down on his own floor, +and with the remark, "Here be your man," walked off to his cottage and +his tea. + +The other powerful man was Old Joe the collier, who flourished and was +known in every village in the Salisbury Plain district during the first +thirty-five years of the last century. I first heard of this once famous +man from Caleb, whose boyish imagination had been affected by his +gigantic figure, mighty voice, and his wandering life over all that wide +world of Salisbury Plain. Afterwards when I became acquainted with a +good many old men, aged from 75 to 90 and upwards, I found that Old +Joe's memory is still green in a good many villages of the district, +from the upper waters of the Avon to the borders of Dorset. But it is +only these ancients who knew him that keep it green; by and by when they +are gone Old Joe and his neddies will be remembered no more. + +In those days--down to about 1840, it was customary to burn peat in the +cottages, the first cost of which was about four and sixpence the +wagon-load--as much as I should require to keep me warm for a month in +winter; but the cost of its conveyance to the villages of the Plain was +about five to six shillings per load, as it came from a considerable +distance, mostly from the New Forest. How the labourers at that time, +when they were paid seven or eight shillings a week, could afford to buy +fuel at such prices to bake their rye bread and keep the frost out of +their bones is a marvel to us. Isaac was a good deal better off than +most of the villagers in this respect, as his master--for he never had +but one--allowed him the use of a wagon and the driver's services for +the conveyance of one load of peat each year. The wagon-load of peat and +another of faggots lasted him the year with the furze obtained from his +"liberty" on the down. Coal at that time was only used by the +blacksmiths in the villages, and was conveyed in sacks on ponies or +donkeys, and of those who were engaged in this business the best known +was Old Joe. He appeared periodically in the villages with his eight +donkeys, or neddies as he called them, with jingling bells on their +headstalls and their burdens of two sacks of small coal on each. In +stature he was a giant of about six feet three, very broad-chested, and +invariably wore a broad-brimmed hat, a slate-coloured smock-frock, and +blue worsted stockings to his knees. He walked behind the donkeys, a +very long staff in his hand, shouting at them from time to time, and +occasionally swinging his long staff and bringing it down on the back of +a donkey who was not keeping up the pace. In this way he wandered from +village to village from end to end of the Plain, getting rid of his +small coal and loading his animals with scrap iron which the blacksmiths +would keep for him, and as he continued his rounds for nearly forty +years he was a familiar figure to every inhabitant throughout the +district. + +There are some stories still told of his great strength, one of which is +worth giving. He was a man of iron constitution and gave himself a hard +life, and he was hard on his neddies, but he had to feed them well, and +this he often contrived to do at some one else's expense. One night at a +village on the Wylye it was discovered that he had put his eight donkeys +in a meadow in which the grass was just ripe for mowing. The enraged +farmer took them to the village pound and locked them up, but in the +morning the donkeys and Joe with them had vanished and the whole village +wondered how he had done it. The stone wall of the pound was four feet +and a half high and the iron gate was locked, yet he had lifted the +donkeys up and put them over and had loaded them and gone before anyone +was up. + +Once Joe met with a very great misfortune. He arrived late at a village, +and finding there was good feed in the churchyard and that everybody was +in bed, he put his donkeys in and stretched himself out among the +gravestones to sleep. He had no nerves and no imagination; and was +tired, and slept very soundly until it was light and time to put his +neddies out before any person came by and discovered that he had been +making free with the rector's grass. Glancing round he could see no +donkeys, and only when he stood up he found they had not made their +escape but were there all about him, lying among the gravestones, stone +dead every one! He had forgotten that a churchyard was a dangerous place +to put hungry animals in. They had browsed on the luxuriant yew that +grew there, and this was the result. + +In time he recovered from his loss and replaced his dead neddies with +others, and continued for many years longer on his rounds. + +To return to Isaac Bawcombe. He was born, we have seen, in 1800, and +began following a flock as a boy and continued as shepherd on the same +farm for a period of fifty-five years. The care of sheep was the one +all-absorbing occupation of his life, and how much it was to him appears +in this anecdote of his state of mind when he was deprived of it for a +time. The flock was sold and Isaac was left without sheep, and with +little to do except to wait from Michaelmas to Candlemas, when there +would be sheep again at the farm. It was a long time to Isaac, and he +found his enforced holiday so tedious that he made himself a nuisance to +his wife in the house. Forty times a day he would throw off his hat and +sit down, resolved to be happy at his own fireside, but after a few +minutes the desire to be up and doing would return, and up he would get +and out he would go again. One dark cloudy evening a man from the farm +put his head in at the door. "Isaac," he said, "there be sheep for 'ee +up't the farm--two hunderd ewes and a hunderd more to come in dree days. +Master, he sent I to say you be wanted." And away the man went. + +Isaac jumped up and hurried forth without taking his crook from the +corner and actually without putting on his hat! His wife called out +after him, and getting no response sent the boy with his hat to overtake +him. But the little fellow soon returned with the hat--he could not +overtake his father! + +He was away three or four hours at the farm, then returned, his hair +very wet, his face beaming, and sat down with a great sigh of pleasure. +"Two hunderd ewes," he said, "and a hunderd more to come--what d'you +think of that?" + +"Well, Isaac," said she, "I hope thee'll be happy now and let I alone." + +After all that had been told to me about the elder Bawcombe's life and +character, it came somewhat as a shock to learn that at one period +during his early manhood he had indulged in one form of poaching--a +sport which had a marvellous fascination for the people of England in +former times, but was pretty well extinguished during the first quarter +of the last century. Deer he had taken; and the whole tale of the +deer-stealing, which was a common offence in that part of Wiltshire down +to about 1834, sounds strange at the present day. + +Large herds of deer were kept at that time at an estate a few miles from +Winterbourne Bishop, and it often happened that many of the animals +broke bounds and roamed singly and in small bands over the hills. When +deer were observed in the open, certain of the villagers would settle on +some plan of action; watchers would be sent out not only to keep an eye +on the deer but on the keepers too. Much depended on the state of the +weather and the moon, as some light was necessary; then, when the +conditions were favourable and the keepers had been watched to their +cottages, the gang would go out for a night's hunting. But it was a +dangerous sport, as the keepers also knew that deer were out of bounds, +and they would form some counter-plan, and one peculiarly nasty plan +they had was to go out about three or four o'clock in the morning and +secrete themselves somewhere close to the village to intercept the +poachers on their return. + +Bawcombe, who never in his life associated with the village idlers and +frequenters of the alehouse, had no connexion with these men. His +expeditions were made alone on some dark, unpromising night, when the +regular poachers were in bed and asleep. He would steal away after +bedtime, or would go out ostensibly to look after the sheep, and, if +fortunate, would return in the small hours with a deer on his back. +Then, helped by his mother, with whom he lived (for this was when he was +a young unmarried man, about 1820), he would quickly skin and cut up the +carcass, stow the meat away in some secret place, and bury the head, +hide, and offal deep in the earth; and when morning came it would find +Isaac out following his flock as usual, with no trace of guilt or +fatigue in his rosy cheeks and clear, honest eyes. + +This was a very astonishing story to hear from Caleb, but to suspect him +of inventing or of exaggerating was impossible to anyone who knew him. +And we have seen that Isaac Bawcombe was an exceptional man--physically +a kind of Alexander Selkirk of the Wiltshire Downs. And he, moreover, +had a dog to help him--one as superior in speed and strength to the +ordinary sheep-dog as he himself was to the rack of his fellow-men. It +was only after much questioning on my part that Caleb brought himself to +tell me of these ancient adventures, and finally to give a detailed +account of how his father came to take his first deer. It was in the +depth of winter--bitterly cold, with a strong north wind blowing on the +snow-covered downs--when one evening Isaac caught sight of two deer out +on his sheep-walk. In that part of Wiltshire there is a famous monument +of antiquity, a vast mound-like wall, with a deep depression or fosse +running at its side. Now it happened that on the highest part of the +down, where the wall or mound was most exposed to the blast, the snow +had been blown clean off the top, and the deer were feeding here on the +short turf, keeping to the ridge, so that, outlined against the sky, +they had become visible to Isaac at a great distance. + +He saw and pondered. These deer, just now, while out of bounds, were no +man's property, and it would be no sin to kill and eat one--if he could +catch it!--and it was a season of bitter want. For many many days he had +eaten his barley bread, and on some days barley-flour dumplings, and had +been content with this poor fare; but now the sight of these animals +made him crave for meat with an intolerable craving, and he determined +to do something to satisfy it. + +He went home and had his poor supper, and when it was dark set forth +again with his dog. He found the deer still feeding on the mound. +Stealing softly along among the furze-bushes, he got the black line of +the mound against the starry sky, and by and by, as he moved along, the +black figures of the deer, with their heads down, came into view. He +then doubled back and, proceeding some distance, got down into the fosse +and stole forward to them again under the wall. His idea was that on +taking alarm they would immediately make for the forest which was their +home, and would probably pass near him. They did not hear him until he +was within sixty yards, and then bounded down from the wall, over the +dyke, and away, but in almost opposite directions--one alone making for +the forest; and on this one the dog was set. Out he shot like an arrow +from the bow, and after him ran Isaac "as he had never runned afore in +all his life." For a short space deer and dog in hot pursuit were +visible on the snow, then the darkness swallowed them up as they rushed +down the slope; but in less than half a minute a sound came back to +Isaac, flying, too, down the incline--the long, wailing cry of a deer in +distress. The dog had seized his quarry by one of the front legs, a +little above the hoof, and held it fast, and they were struggling on the +snow when Isaac came up and flung himself upon his victim, then thrust +his knife through its windpipe "to stop its noise." Having killed it, he +threw it on his back and went home, not by the turnpike, nor by any road +or path, but over fields and through copses until he got to the back of +his mother's cottage. There was no door on that side, but there was a +window, and when he had rapped at it and his mother opened it, without +speaking a word he thrust the dead deer through, then made his way round +to the front. + +That was how he killed his first deer. How the others were taken I do +not know; I wish I did, since this one exploit of a Wiltshire shepherd +has more interest for me than I find in fifty narratives of elephants +slaughtered wholesale with explosive bullets, written for the delight +and astonishment of the reading public by our most glorious Nimrods. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +THE DEER-STEALERS + + Deer-stealing on Salisbury Plain--The head-keeper Harbutt--Strange + story of a baby--Found as a surname--John Barter the village + carpenter--How the keeper was fooled--A poaching attack planned--The + fight--Head-keeper and carpenter--The carpenter hides his son--The + arrest--Barter's sons forsake the village + + +There were other memories of deer-taking handed down to Caleb by his +parents, and the one best worth preserving relates to the head-keeper of +the preserves, or chase, and to a great fight in which he was engaged +with two brothers of the girl who was afterwards to be Isaac's wife. + +Here it may be necessary to explain that formerly the owner of +Cranbourne Chase, at that time Lord Rivers, claimed the deer and the +right to preserve and hunt deer over a considerable extent of country +outside of his own lands. On the Wiltshire side these rights extended +from Cranbourne Chase over the South Wiltshire Downs to Salisbury, and +the whole territory, about thirty miles broad, was divided into beats or +walks, six or eight in number, each beat provided with a keeper's lodge. +This state of things continued to the year 1834, when the chase was +"disfranchised" by Act of Parliament. + +The incident I am going to relate occurred about 1815 or perhaps two or +three years later. The border of one of the deer walks was at a spot +known as Three Downs Place, two miles and a half from Winterbourne +Bishop. Here in a hollow of the downs there was an extensive wood, and +just within the wood a large stone house, said to be centuries old but +long pulled down, called Rollston House, in which the head-keeper lived +with two under-keepers. He had a wife but no children, and was a +middle-aged, thick-set, very dark man, powerful and vigilant, a +"tarrable" hater and persecutor of poachers, feared and hated by them in +turn, and his name was Harbutt. + +It happened that one morning, when he had unbarred the front door to go +out, he found a great difficulty in opening it, caused by a heavy object +having been fastened to the door-handle. It proved to be a basket or +box, in which a well-nourished, nice-looking boy baby was sleeping, well +wrapped up and covered with a cloth. On the cloth a scrap of paper was +pinned with the following lines written on it: + + Take me in and treat me well, + For in this house my father dwell. + + +Harbutt read the lines and didn't even smile at the grammar; on the +contrary, he appeared very much upset, and was still standing holding +the paper, staring stupidly at it, when his wife came on the scene. +"What be this?" she exclaimed, and looked first at the paper, then at +him, then at the rosy child fast asleep in its cradle; and instantly, +with a great cry, she fell on it and snatched it up in her arms, and +holding it clasped to her bosom, began lavishing caresses and endearing +expressions on it, tears of rapture in her eyes! Not one word of inquiry +or bitter, jealous reproach--all that part of her was swallowed up and +annihilated in the joy of a woman who had been denied a child of her own +to love and nourish and worship. And now one had come to her and it +mattered little how. Two or three days later the infant was baptized at +the village church with the quaint name of Moses Found. + +Caleb was a little surprised at my thinking it a laughable name. It was +to his mind a singularly appropriate one; he assured me it was not the +only case he knew of in which the surname Found had been bestowed on a +child of unknown parentage, and he told me the story of one of the +Founds who had gone to Salisbury as a boy and worked and saved and +eventually become quite a prosperous and important person. There was +really nothing funny in it. + +The story of Moses Found had been told him by his old mother; she, he +remarked significantly, had good cause to remember it. She was herself a +native of the village, born two or three years later than the mysterious +Moses; her father, John Barter by name was a carpenter and lived in an +old, thatched house which still exists and is very familiar to me. He +had five sons; then, after an interval of some years, a daughter was +born, who in due time was to be Isaac's wife. When she was a little girl +her brothers were all grown up or on the verge of manhood, and Moses, +too, was a young man--"the spit of his father" people said, meaning the +head-keeper--and he was now one of Harbutt's under-keepers. + +About this time some of the more ardent spirits in the village, not +satisfied with an occasional hunt when a deer broke out and roamed over +the downs, took to poaching them in the woods. One night, a hunt having +been arranged, one of the most daring of the men secreted himself close +to the keeper's house, and having watched the keepers go in and the +lights put out, he actually succeeded in fastening up the doors from the +outside with screws and pieces of wood without creating an alarm. He +then met his confederates at an agreed spot and the hunting began, +during which one deer was chased to the house and actually pulled down +and killed on the lawn. + +Meanwhile the inmates were in a state of great excitement; the +under-keepers feared that a force it would be dangerous to oppose had +taken possession of the woods, while Harbutt raved and roared like a +maddened wild beast in a cage, and put forth all his strength to pull +the doors open. Finally he smashed a window and leaped out, gun in hand, +and calling the others to follow rushed into the wood. But he was too +late; the hunt was over and the poachers had made good their escape, +taking the carcasses of two or three deer they had succeeded in killing. + +The keeper was not to be fooled in the same way a second time, and +before very long he had his revenge. A fresh raid was planned, and on +this occasion two of the five brothers were in it, and there were four +more, the blacksmith of Winterbourne Bishop, their best man, two famous +shearers, father and son, from a neighbouring village, and a young farm +labourer. + +They knew very well that with the head-keeper in his present frame of +mind it was a risky affair, and they made a solemn compact that if +caught they would stand by one another to the end. And caught they were, +and on this occasion the keepers were four. + +At the very beginning the blacksmith, their ablest man and virtual +leader, was knocked down senseless with a blow on his head with the butt +end of a gun. Immediately on seeing this the two famous shearers took to +their heels and the young labourer followed their example. The brothers +were left but refused to be taken, although Harbutt roared at them in +his bull's voice that he would shoot them unless they surrendered. They +made light of his threats and fought against the four, and eventually +were separated. By and by the younger of the two was driven into a +brambly thicket where his opponents imagined that it would be impossible +for him to escape. But he was a youth of indomitable spirit, strong and +agile as a wild cat; and returning blow for blow he succeeded in tearing +himself from them, then after a running fight through the darkest part +of the wood for a distance of two or three hundred yards they at length +lost him or gave him up and went back to assist Harbutt and Moses +against the other man. Left to himself he got out of the wood and made +his way back to the village. It was long past midnight when he turned up +at his father's cottage, a pitiable object covered with mud and blood, +hatless, his clothes torn to shreds, his face and whole body covered +with bruises and bleeding wounds. + +The old man was in a great state of distress about his other son, and +early in the morning went to examine the ground where the fight had +been. It was only too easily found; the sod was trampled down and +branches broken as though a score of men had been engaged. Then he found +his eldest son's cap, and a little farther away a sleeve of his coat; +shreds and rags were numerous on the bramble bushes, and by and by he +came on a pool of blood. "They've kill 'n!" he cried in despair, +"they've killed my poor boy!" and straight to Rollston House he went to +inquire, and was met by Harbutt himself, who came out limping, one boot +on, the other foot bound up with rags, one arm in a sling and a cloth +tied round his head. He was told that his son was alive and safe indoors +and that he would be taken to Salisbury later in the day. "His clothes +be all torn to pieces," added the keeper. "You can just go home at once +and git him others before the constable comes to take him." + +"You've tored them to pieces yourself and you can git him others," +retorted the old man in a rage. + +"Very well," said the keeper. "But bide a moment--I've something more +to say to you. When your son comes out of jail in a year or so you tell +him from me that if he'll just step up this way I'll give him five +shillings and as much beer as he likes to drink. I never see'd a better +fighter!" + +It was a great compliment to his son, but the old men was troubled in +his mind. "What dost mean, keeper, by a year or so?" he asked. + +"When I said that," returned the other, with a grin, "I was just +thinking what 'twould be he deserves to git." + +"And you'd agot your deserts, by God," cried the angry father, "if that +boy of mine hadn't a-been left alone to fight ye!" + +Harbutt regarded him with a smile of gratified malice. + +"You can go home now," he said. "If you'd see your son you'll find'n in +Salisbury jail. Maybe you'll be wanting new locks on your doors; you can +git they in Salisbury too--you've no blacksmith in your village now. No, +your boy weren't alone and you know that damned well." + +"I know naught about that," he returned, and started to walk home with a +heavy heart. Until now he had been clinging to the hope that the other +son had not been identified in the dark wood. And now what could he do +to save one of the two from hateful imprisonment? The boy was not in a +fit condition to make his escape; he could hardly get across the room +and could not sit or lie down without groaning. He could only try to +hide him in the cottage and pray that they would not discover him. The +cottage was in the middle of the village and had but little ground to +it, but there was a small, boarded-up cavity or cell at one end of an +attic, and it might be possible to save him by putting him in there. +Here, then, in a bed placed for him on the floor, his bruised son was +obliged to lie, in the close, dark hole, for some days. + +One day, about a week later, when he was recovering from his hurts, he +crawled out of his box and climbed down the narrow stairs to the ground +floor to see the light and breathe a better air for a short time, and +while down he was tempted to take a peep at the street through the +small, latticed window. But he quickly withdrew his head and by and by +said to his father, "I'm feared Moses has seen me. Just now when I was +at the window he came by and looked up and see'd me with my head all +tied up, and I'm feared he knew 'twas I." + +After that they could only wait in fear and trembling, and on the next +day quite early there came a loud rap at the door, and on its being +opened by the old man the constable and two keepers appeared standing +before him. + +"I've come to take your son," said the constable. + +The old man stepped back without a word and took down his gun from its +place on the wall, then spoke: "It you've got a search-warrant you may +come in; if you haven't got 'n I'll blow the brains out of the first man +that puts a foot inside my door." + +They hesitated a few moments then silently withdrew. After consulting +together the constable went off to the nearest magistrate, leaving the +two keepers to keep watch on the house: Moses Found was one of them. +Later in the day the constable returned armed with a warrant and was +thereupon admitted, with the result that the poor youth was soon +discovered in his hiding-place and carried off. And that was the last he +saw of his home, his young sister crying bitterly and his old father +white and trembling with grief and impotent rage. + +A month or two later the two brothers were tried and sentenced each to +six months' imprisonment. They never came home. On their release they +went to Woolwich, where men were wanted and the pay was good. And by and +by the accounts they sent home induced first one then the other brother +to go and join them, and the poor old father, who had been very proud of +his five sons, was left alone with his young daughter--Isaac's destined +wife. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +SHEPHERDS AND POACHING + + General remarks on poaching--Farmer, shepherd, and dog--A sheep-dog + that would not hunt--Taking a partridge from a hawk--Old Gaarge and + Young Gaarge--Partridge-poaching--The shepherd robbed of his + rabbits--Wisdom of Shepherd Gathergood--Hare-trapping on the + down--Hare-taking with a crook + + +When Caleb was at length free from his father's tutelage, and as an +under-shepherd practically independent, he did not follow Isaac's strict +example with regard to wild animals, good for the pot, which came by +chance in his way; he even allowed himself to go a little out of his way +on occasion to get them. + +We know that about this matter the law of the land does not square with +the moral law as it is written in the heart of the peasant. A wounded +partridge or other bird which he finds in his walks abroad or which +comes by chance to him is his by a natural right, and he will take and +eat or dispose of it without scruple. With rabbits he is very free--he +doesn't wait to find a distressed one with a stoat on its track--stoats +are not sufficiently abundant; and a hare, too, may be picked up at any +moment; only in this case he must be very sure that no one is looking. +Knowing the law, and being perhaps a respectable, religious person, he +is anxious to abstain from all appearance of evil. This taking a hare or +rabbit or wounded partridge is in his mind a very different thing from +systematic poaching; but he is aware that to the classes above him it is +not so--the law has made them one. It is a hard, arbitrary, unnatural +law, made by and for them, his betters, and outwardly he must conform to +it. Thus you will find the best of men among the shepherds and labourers +freely helping themselves to any wild creature that falls in their way, +yet sharing the game-preserver's hatred of the real poacher. The village +poacher as a rule is an idle, dissolute fellow, and the sober, +industrious, righteous shepherd or ploughman or carter does not like to +be put on a level with such a person. But there is no escape from the +hard and fast rule in such things, and however open and truthful he may +be in everything else, in this one matter he is obliged to practise a +certain amount of deception. Here is a case to serve as an illustration; +I have only just heard it, after putting together the material I had +collected for this chapter, in conversation with an old shepherd friend +of mine. + +He is a fine old man who has followed a flock these fifty years, and +will, I have no doubt, carry his crook for yet another ten. Not only is +he a "good shepherd," in the sense in which Caleb uses that phrase, with +a more intimate knowledge of sheep and all the ailments they are subject +to than I have found in any other, but he is also a truly religious man, +one that "walks with God." He told me this story of a sheep-dog he owned +when head-shepherd on a large farm on the Dorsetshire border with a +master whose chief delight in life was in coursing hares. They abounded +on his land, and he naturally wanted the men employed on the farm to +regard them as sacred animals. One day he came out to the shepherd to +complain that some one had seen his dog hunting a hare. + +The shepherd indignantly asked who had said such a thing. + +"Never mind about that," said the farmer. "Is it true?" + +"It is a lie," said the shepherd. "My dog never hunts a hare or anything +else. 'Tis my belief the one that said that has got a dog himself that +hunts the hares and he wants to put the blame on some one else." + +"May be so," said the farmer, unconvinced. + +Just then a hare made its appearance, coming across the field directly +towards them, and either because they never moved or it did not smell +them it came on and on, stopping at intervals to sit for a minute or so +on its haunches, then on again until it was within forty yards of where +they were standing. The farmer watched it approach and at the same time +kept an eye on the dog sitting at their feet and watching the hare too, +very steadily. "Now, shepherd," said the farmer, "don't you say one word +to the dog and I'll see for myself." Not a word did he say, and the hare +came and sat for some seconds near them, then limped away out of sight, +and the dog made not the slightest movement. "That's all right," said +the farmer, well pleased. "I know now 'twas a lie I heard about your +dog. I've seen for myself and I'll just keep a sharp eye on the man that +told me." + +My comment on this story was that the farmer had displayed an almost +incredible ignorance of a sheepdog--and a shepherd. "How would it have +been if you had said, 'Catch him, Bob,' or whatever his name was?" I +asked. + +He looked at me with a twinkle in his eye and replied, "I do b'lieve +he'd ha' got 'n, but he'd never move till I told 'n." + +It comes to this: the shepherd refuses to believe that by taking a hare +he is robbing any man of his property, and if he is obliged to tell a +lie to save himself from the consequences he does not consider that it +is a lie. + +When he understood that I was on his side in this question, he told me +about a good sheep-dog he once possessed which he had to get rid of +because he would not take a hare! + +A dog when broken is made to distinguish between the things he must and +must not do. He is "feelingly persuaded" by kind words and caresses in +one case and hard words and hard blows in the other. He learns that if +he hunts hares and rabbits it will be very bad for him, and in due time, +after some suffering, he is able to overcome this strongest instinct of +a dog. He acquires an artificial conscience. Then, when his education is +finished, he must be made to understand that it is not quite finished +after all--that he must partially unlearn one of the saddest of the +lessons instilled in him. He must hunt a hare or rabbit when told by his +master to do so. It is a compact between man and dog. Thus, they have +got a law which the dog has sworn to obey; but the man who made it is +above the law and can when he thinks proper command his servant to break +it. The dog, as a rule, takes it all in very readily and often allows +himself more liberty than his master gives him; the most highly +accomplished animal is one that, like my shepherd's dog in the former +instance, will not stir till he is told. In the other case the poor +brute could not rise to the position; it was too complex for him, and +when ordered to catch a rabbit he could only put his tail between his +legs and look in a puzzled way at his master. "Why do you tell me to do +a thing for which I shall be thrashed?" + +It was only after Caleb had known me some time, when we were fast +friends, that he talked with perfect freedom of these things and told me +of his own small, illicit takings without excuse or explanation. + +One day he saw a sparrowhawk dash down upon a running partridge and +struggle with it on the ground. It was in a grass field, divided from +the one he was walking in by a large, unkept hedge without a gap in it +to let him through. Presently the hawk rose up with the partridge still +violently struggling in its talons, and flew over the hedge to Caleb's +side, but was no sooner over than it came down again and the struggle +went on once more on the ground. On Caleb running to the spot the hawk +flew off, leaving his prey behind. He had grasped it in its sides, +driving his sharp claws well in, and the partridge, though unable to +fly, was still alive. The shepherd killed it and put it in his pocket, +and enjoyed it very much when he came to eat it. + +From this case, a most innocent form of poaching, he went on to relate +how he had once been able to deprive a cunning poacher and bad man, a +human sparrowhawk, of his quarry. + +There were two persons in the village, father and son, he very heartily +detested, known respectively as Old Gaarge and Young Gaarge, inveterate +poachers both. They were worse than the real reprobate who haunted the +public-house and did no work and was not ashamed of his evil ways, for +these two were hypocrites and were outwardly sober, righteous men, who +kept themselves a little apart from their neighbours and were very +severe in their condemnation of other people's faults. + +One Sunday morning Caleb was on his way to his ewes folded at a distance +from the village, walking by a hedgerow at the foot of the down, when he +heard a shot fired some way ahead, and after a minute or two a second +shot. This greatly excited his curiosity and caused him to keep a sharp +look-out in the direction the sounds had come from, and by and by he +caught sight of a man walking towards him. It was Old Gaarge in his long +smock-frock, proceeding in a leisurely way towards the village, but +catching sight of the shepherd he turned aside through a gap in the +hedge and went off in another direction to avoid meeting him. No doubt, +thought Caleb, he has got his gun in two pieces hidden under his smock. +He went on until he came to a small field of oats which had grown badly +and had only been half reaped, and here he discovered that Old Gaarge +had been lying in hiding to shoot at the partridges that came to feed. +He had been screened from the sight of the birds by a couple of hurdles +and some straw, and there were feathers of the birds he had shot +scattered about. He had finished his Sunday morning's sport and was +going back, a little too late on this occasion as it turned out. + +Caleb went on to his flock, but before getting to it his dog discovered +a dead partridge in the hedge; it had flown that far and then dropped, +and there was fresh blood on its feathers. He put it in his pocket and +carried it about most of the day while with his sheep on the down. Late +in the afternoon he spied two magpies pecking at something out in the +middle of a field and went to see what they had found. It was a second +partridge which Old Gaarge had shot in the morning and had lost, the +bird having flown to some distance before dropping. The magpies had +probably found it already dead, as it was cold; they had begun tearing +the skin at the neck and had opened it down to the breast-bone. Caleb +took this bird, too, and by and by, sitting down to examine it, he +thought he would try to mend the torn skin with the needle and thread he +always carried inside his cap. He succeeded in stitching it neatly up, +and putting back the feathers in their place the rent was quite +concealed. That evening he took the two birds to a man in the village +who made a livelihood by collecting bones, rags, and things of that +kind; the man took the birds in his hand, held them up, felt their +weight, examined them carefully, and pronounced them to be two good, fat +birds, and agreed to pay two shillings for them. + +Such a man may be found in most villages; he calls himself a "general +dealer," and keeps a trap and pony--in some cases he keeps the +ale-house--and is a useful member of the small, rural community--a sort +of human carrion-crow. + +The two shillings were very welcome, but more than the money was the +pleasing thought that he had got the bird shot by the hypocritical old +poacher for his own profit. Caleb had good cause to hate him. He, Caleb, +was one of the shepherds who had his master's permission to take rabbits +on the land, and having found his snares broken on many occasions he +came to the conclusion that they were visited in the night time by some +very cunning person who kept a watch on his movements. One evening he +set five snares in a turnip field and went just before daylight next +morning in a dense fog to visit them. Every one was broken! He had just +started on his way back, feeling angry and much puzzled at such a thing, +when the fog all at once passed away and revealed the figures of two men +walking hurriedly off over the down. They were at a considerable +distance, but the light was now strong enough to enable him to identify +Old Gaarge and Young Gaarge. In a few moments they vanished over the +brow. Caleb was mad at being deprived of his rabbits in this mean way, +but pleased at the same time in having discovered who the culprits were; +but what to do about it he did not know. + +On the following day he was with his flock on the down and found himself +near another shepherd, also with his sheep, one he knew very well, a +quiet but knowing old man named Joseph Gathergood. He was known to be a +skilful rabbit-catcher, and Caleb thought he would go over to him and +tell him about how he was being tricked by the two Gaarges and ask him +what to do in the matter. + +The old man was very friendly and at once told him what to do. "Don't +you set no more snares by the hedges and in the turmots," he said. "Set +them out on the open down where no one would go after rabbits and +they'll not find the snares." And this was how it had to be done. First +he was to scrape the ground with the heel of his boot until the fresh +earth could be seen through the broken turf; then he was to sprinkle a +little rabbit scent on the scraped spot, and plant his snare. The scent +and smell of the fresh earth combined would draw the rabbits to the +spot; they would go there to scratch and would inevitably get caught if +the snare was properly placed. + +Caleb tried this plan with one snare, and on the following morning found +that he had a rabbit. He set it again that evening, then again, until he +had caught five rabbits on five consecutive nights, all with the same +snare. That convinced him that he had been taught a valuable lesson and +that old Gathergood was a very wise man about rabbits; and he was very +happy to think that he had got the better of his two sneaking enemies. + +But Shepherd Gathergood was just as wise about hares, and, as in the +other case, he took them out on the down in the most open places. His +success was due to his knowledge of the hare's taste for blackthorn +twigs. He would take a good, strong blackthorn stem or shoot with twigs +on it, and stick it firmly down in the middle of a large grass field or +on the open down, and place the steel trap tied to the stick at a +distance of a foot or so from it, the trap concealed under grass or moss +and dead leaves. The smell of the blackthorn would draw the hare to the +spot, and he would move round and round nibbling the twigs until caught. + +Caleb never tried this plan, but was convinced that Gathergood was right +about it. + +He told me of another shepherd who was clever at taking hares in another +way, and who was often chaffed by his acquaintances on account of the +extraordinary length of his shepherd's crook. It was like a lance or +pole, being twice the usual length. But he had a use for it. This +shepherd used to make hares' forms on the downs in all suitable places, +forming them so cunningly that no one seeing them by chance would have +believed they were the work of human hands. The hares certainly made use +of them. When out with his flock he would visit these forms, walking +quietly past them at a distance of twenty to thirty feet, his dog +following at his heels. On catching sight of a hare crouching in a form +he would drop a word, and the dog would instantly stand still and remain +fixed and motionless, while the shepherd went on but in a circle so as +gradually to approach the form. Meanwhile the hare would keep his eyes +fixed on the dog, paying no attention to the man, until by and by the +long staff would be swung round and a blow descend on the poor, silly +head from the opposite side, and if the blow was not powerful enough to +stun or disable the hare, the dog would have it before it got many yards +from the cosy nest prepared for its destruction. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +THE SHEPHERD ON FOXES + + A fox-trapping shepherd--Gamekeepers and foxes--Fox and stoat--A + gamekeeper off his guard--Pheasants and foxes--Caleb kills a fox--A + fox-hunting sheep-dog--Two varieties of foxes--Rabbits playing with + little foxes--How to expel foxes--A playful spirit in the + fox--Fox-hunting a danger to sheep + + +Caleb related that his friend Shepherd Gathergood was a great fox-killer +and, as with hares, he took them in a way of his own. He said that the +fox will always go to a heap of ashes in any open place, and his plan +was to place a steel trap concealed among the ashes, made fast to a +stick about three feet high, firmly planted in the middle of the heap, +with a piece of strong-smelling cheese tied to the top. The two +attractions of an ash-heap and the smell of strong cheese was more than +any fox could resist. When he caught a fox he killed and buried it on +the down and said "nothing to nobody" about it. He killed them to +protect himself from their depredations; foxes, like Old Gaarge and his +son in Caleb's case, went round at night to rob him of the rabbits he +took in his snares. + +Caleb never blamed him for this; on the contrary, he greatly admired him +for his courage, seeing that if it had been found out he would have been +a marked man. It was perhaps intelligence or cunning rather than +courage; he did not believe that he would be found out, and he never +was; he told Caleb of these things because he was sure of his man. Those +who were interested in the hunt never suspected him, and as to +gamekeepers, they hardly counted. He was helping them; no one hates a +fox more than they do. The farmer gets compensation for damage, and the +hen-wife is paid for her stolen chickens by the hunt, The keeper is +required to look after the game, and at the same time to spare his chief +enemy, the fox. Indeed, the keeper's state of mind with regard to foxes +has always been a source of amusement to me, and by long practice I am +able to talk to him on that delicate subject in a way to make him +uncomfortable and self-contradictory. There are various, quite innocent +questions which the student of wild life may put to a keeper about foxes +which have a disturbing effect on his brain. How to expel foxes from a +covert, for example; and here is another: Is it true that the fox +listens for the distressed cries of a rabbit pursued by a stoat and that +he will deprive the stoat of his captive? Perhaps; Yes; No, I don't +think so, because one hunts by night, the other by day, he will answer, +but you see that the question troubles him. One keeper, off his guard, +promptly answered, "I've no doubt of it; I can always bring a fox to me +by imitating the cry of a rabbit hunted by a stoat." But he did not say +what his object was in attracting the fox. + +I say that the keeper was off his guard in this instance, because the +fiction that foxes were preserved on the estate was kept up, though as a +fact they were systematically destroyed by the keepers. As the +pheasant-breeding craze appears to increase rather than diminish, +notwithstanding the disastrous effect it has had in alienating the +people from their lords and masters, the conflict of interest between +fox-hunter and pheasant-breeder will tend to become more and more acute, +and the probable end will be that fox-hunting will have to go. A +melancholy outlook to those who love the country and old country sports, +and who do not regard pheasant-shooting as now followed as sport at all. +It is a delusion of the landlords that the country people think most +highly of the great pheasant-preserver who has two or three big shoots +in a season, during which vast numbers of birds are slaughtered--every +bird "costing a guinea," as the saying is. It brings money into the +country, he or his apologist tells you, and provides employment for the +village poor in October and November, when there is little doing. He +does not know the truth of the matter. A certain number of the poorer +people of the village are employed as beaters for the big shoots at a +shilling a day or so, and occasionally a labourer, going to or from his +work, finds a pheasant's nest and informs the keeper and receives some +slight reward. If he "keeps his eyes open" and shows himself anxious at +all times to serve the keeper he will sometimes get a rabbit for his +Sunday dinner. + +This is not a sufficient return for the freedom to walk on the land and +in woods, which the villager possessed formerly, even in his worst days +of his oppression, a liberty which has now been taken from him. The +keeper is there now to prevent him; he was there before, and from of +old, but the pheasant was not yet a sacred bird, and it didn't matter +that a man walked on the turf or picked up a few fallen sticks in a +wood. The keeper is there to tell him to keep to the road and sometimes +to ask him, even when he is on the road, what is he looking over the +hedge for. He slinks obediently away; he is only a poor labourer with +his living to get, and he cannot afford to offend the man who stands +between him and the lord and the lord's tenant. And he is inarticulate; +but the insolence and injustice rankle in his heart, for he is not +altogether a helot in soul; and the result is that the sedition-mongers, +the Socialists, the furious denouncers of all landlords, who are now +quartering the country, and whose vans I meet in the remotest villages, +are listened to, and their words--wild and whirling words they may +be--are sinking into the hearts of the agricultural labourers of the new +generation. + +To return to foxes and gamekeepers. There are other estates where the +fiction of fox-preserving is kept up no longer, where it is notorious +that the landlord is devoted exclusively to the gun and to +pheasant-breeding. On one of the big estates I am familiar with in +Wiltshire the keepers openly say they will not suffer a fox, and every +villager knows it and will give information of a fox to the keepers, and +looks to be rewarded with a rabbit. All this is undoubtedly known to the +lord of the manor; his servants are only carrying out his own wishes, +although he still subscribes to the hunt and occasionally attends the +meet. The entire hunt may unite in cursing him, but they must do so +below their breath; it would have a disastrous effect to spread it +abroad that he is a persecutor of foxes. + +Caleb disliked foxes, too, but not to the extent of killing them. He did +once actually kill one, when a young under-shepherd, but it was accident +rather than intention. + +One day he found a small gap in a hedge, which had been made or was +being used by a hare, and, thinking to take it, he set a trap at the +spot, tying it securely to a root and covering it over with dead leaves. +On going to the place the next morning he could see nothing until his +feet were on the very edge of the ditch, when with startling suddenness +a big dog fox sprang up at him with a savage snarl. It was caught by a +hind-leg, and had been lying concealed among the dead leaves close under +the bank. Caleb, angered at finding a fox when he had looked for a hare, +and at the attack the creature had made on him, dealt it a blow on the +head with his heavy stick--just one blow given on the impulse of the +moment, but it killed the fox! He felt very bad at what he had done and +began to think of consequences. He took it from the trap and hid it away +under the dead leaves beneath the hedge some yards from the gap, and +then went to his work. During the day one of the farm hands went out to +speak to him. He was a small, quiet old man, a discreet friend, and +Caleb confided to him what he had done. "Leave it to me," said his old +friend, and went back to the farm. In the afternoon Caleb was standing +on the top of the down looking towards the village, when he spied at a +great distance the old man coming out to the hills, and by and by he +could make out that he had a sack on his back and a spade in his hand. +When half-way up the side of the hill he put his burden down and set to +work digging a deep pit. Into this he put the dead fox, and threw in and +trod down the earth, then carefully put back the turf in its place, +then, his task done, shouldered the spade and departed. Caleb felt +greatly relieved, for now the fox was buried out on the downs, and no +one would ever know that he had wickedly killed it. + +Subsequently he had other foxes caught in traps set for hares, but was +always able to release them. About one he had the following story. The +dog he had at that time, named Monk, hated foxes as Jack hated adders, +and would hunt them savagely whenever he got a chance. One morning Caleb +visited a trap he had set in a gap in a hedge and found a fox in it. The +fox jumped up, snarling and displaying his teeth, ready to fight for +dear life, and it was hard to restrain Monk from flying at him. So +excited was he that only when his master threatened him with his crook +did he draw back and, sitting on his haunches, left him to deal with the +difficult business in his own way. The difficulty was to open the steel +trap without putting himself in the way of a bite from those "tarrable +sharp teeth." After a good deal of manoeuvring he managed to set the +butt end of his crook on the handle of the gin, and forcing it down +until the iron teeth relaxed their grip, the fox pulled his foot out, +and darting away along the hedge side vanished into the adjoining copse. +Away went Monk after him, in spite of his master's angry commands to him +to come back, and fox and dog disappeared almost together among the +trees. Sounds of yelping and of crashing through the undergrowth came +back fainter and fainter, and then there was silence. Caleb waited at +the spot full twenty minutes before the disobedient dog came back, +looking very pleased. He had probably succeeded in overtaking and +killing his enemy. + +About that same Monk a sad story will have to be told in another +chapter. + +When speaking of foxes Caleb always maintained that in his part of the +country there were two sorts: one small and very red, the larger one of +a lighter colour with some grey in it. And it is possible that the hill +foxes differed somewhat in size and colour from those of the lower +country. He related that one year two vixens littered at one spot, a +deep bottom among the downs, so near together that when the cubs were +big enough to come out they mixed and played in company; the vixens +happened to be of the different sorts, and the difference in colour +appeared in the little ones as well. + +Caleb was so taken with the pretty sight of all these little foxes, +neighbours and playmates, that he went evening after evening to sit for +an hour or longer watching them. One thing he witnessed which will +perhaps be disbelieved by those who have not closely observed animals +for themselves, and who still hold to the fable that all wild creatures +are born with an inherited and instinctive knowledge and dread of their +enemies. Rabbits swarmed at that spot, and he observed that when the old +foxes were not about the young, half-grown rabbits would freely mix and +play with the little foxes. He was so surprised at this, never having +heard of such a thing, that he told his master of it, and the farmer +went with him on a moonlight night and the two sat for a long time +together, and saw rabbits and foxes playing, pursuing one another round +and round, the rabbits when pursued often turning very suddenly and +jumping clean over their pursuer. + +The rabbits at this place belonged to the tenant, and the farmer, after +enjoying the sight of the little ones playing together, determined to +get rid of the foxes in the usual way by exploding a small quantity of +gunpowder in the burrows. Four old foxes with nine cubs were too many +for him to have. The powder was duly burned, and the very next day the +foxes had vanished. + +In Berkshire I once met with that rare being, an intelligent gamekeeper +who took an interest in wild animals and knew from observation a great +deal about their habits. During an after-supper talk, kept up till past +midnight, we discussed the subject of strange, erratic actions in +animals, which in some cases appear contrary to their own natures. He +gave an instance of such behaviour in a fox that had its earth at a spot +on the border of a wood where rabbits were abundant. One evening he was +at this spot, standing among the trees and watching a number of rabbits +feeding and gambolling on the green turf, when the fox came trotting by +and the rabbits paid no attention. Suddenly he stopped and made a dart +at a rabbit; the rabbit ran from him a distance of twenty to thirty +yards, then suddenly turning round went for the fox and chased it back +some distance, after which the fox again chased the rabbit, and so they +went on, turn and turn about, half a dozen times. It was evident, he +said, that the fox had no wish to catch and kill a rabbit, that it was +nothing but play on his part, and that the rabbits responded in the same +spirit, knowing that there was nothing to fear. + +Another instance of this playful spirit of the fox with an enemy, which +I heard recently, is of a gentleman who was out with his dog, a +fox-terrier, for an evening walk in some woods near his house. On his +way back he discovered on coming out of the woods that a fox was +following him, at a distance of about forty yards. When he stood still +the fox sat down and watched the dog. The dog appeared indifferent to +its presence until his master ordered him to go for the fox, whereupon +he charged him and drove him back to the edge of the wood, but at that +point the fox turned and chased the dog right back to its master, then +once more sat down and appeared very much at his ease. Again the dog was +encouraged to go for him and hunted him again back to the wood, and was +then in turn chased back to its master, After several repetitions of +this performance, the gentleman went home, the fox still following, and +on going in closed the gate behind him, leaving the fox outside, sitting +in the road as if waiting for him to come out again to have some more +fun. + +This incident serves to remind me of an experience I had one evening in +King's Copse, an immense wood of oak and pine in the New Forest near +Exbury. It was growing dark when I heard on or close to the ground, some +twenty to thirty yards before me, a low, wailing cry, resembling the +hunger-cry of the young, long-eared owl. I began cautiously advancing, +trying to see it, but as I advanced the cry receded, as if the bird was +flitting from me. Now, just after I had begun following the sound, a fox +uttered his sudden, startlingly loud scream about forty yards away on my +right hand, and the next moment a second fox screamed on my left, and +from that time I was accompanied, or shadowed, by the two foxes, always +keeping abreast of me, always at the same distance, one screaming and +the other replying about every half-minute. The distressful bird-sound +ceased, and I turned and went off in another direction, to get out of +the wood on the side nearest the place where I was staying, the foxes +keeping with me until I was out. + +What moved them to act in such a way is a mystery, but it was perhaps +play to them. + +Another curious instance of foxes playing was related to me by a +gentleman at the little village of Inkpen, near the Beacon, in +Berkshire. He told me that when it happened, a good many years ago, he +sent an account of it to the "Field." His gamekeeper took him one day +"to see a strange thing," to a spot in the woods where a fox had a +litter of four cubs, near a long, smooth, green slope. A little distance +from the edge of the slope three round swedes were lying on the turf. +"How do you think these swedes came here?" said the keeper, and then +proceeded to say that the old fox must have brought them there from the +field a long distance away, for her cubs to play with. He had watched +them of an evening, and wanted his master to come and see too. +Accordingly they went in the evening, and hiding themselves among the +bushes near waited till the young foxes came out and began rolling the +swedes about and jumping at and tumbling over them. By and by one rolled +down the slope, and the young foxes went after it all the way down, and +then, when they had worried it sufficiently, they returned to the top +and played with another swede until that was rolled down, then with the +third one in the same way. Every morning, the keeper said, the swedes +were found back on top of the ground, and he had no doubt that they were +taken up by the old fox again and left there for her cubs to play with. + +Caleb was not so eager after rabbits as Shepherd Gathergood, but he +disliked the fox for another reason. He considered that the hunted fox +was a great danger to sheep when the ewes were heavy with lambs and when +the chase brought the animal near if not right into the flock. He had +one dreadful memory of a hunted fox trying to lose itself in his flock +of heavy-sided ewes and the hounds following it and driving the poor +sheep mad with terror. The result was that a large number of lambs were +cast before their time and many others were poor, sickly things; many of +the sheep also suffered in health. He had no extra money from the lambs +that year. He received but a shilling (half a crown is often paid now) +for every lamb above the number of ewes, and as a rule received from +three to six pounds a year from this source. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +BIRD LIFE ON THE DOWNS + + Great bustard--Stone curlew--Big hawks--Former abundance of the + raven--Dogs fed on carrion--Ravens fighting--Ravens' breeding-places + in Wilts--Great Ridge Wood ravens--Field-fare breeding in + Wilts--Pewit--Mistle-thrush--Magpie and turtledove--Gamekeepers and + magpies--Rooks and farmers--Starling, the shepherd's favourite + bird--Sparrowhawk and "brown thrush" + + +Wiltshire, like other places in England, has long been deprived of its +most interesting birds--the species that were best worth preserving. Its +great bustard, once our greatest bird--even greater than the golden and +sea eagles and the "giant crane" with its "trumpet sound" once heard in +the land--is now but a memory. Or a place name: Bustard Inn, no longer +an inn, is well known to the many thousands who now go to the mimic wars +on Salisbury Plain; and there is a Trappist monastery in a village on +the southernmost border of the county, which was once called, and is +still known to old men as, "Bustard Farm." All that Caleb Bawcombe knew +of this grandest bird is what his father had told him; and Isaac knew of +it only from hearsay, although it was still met with in South Wilts when +he was a young man. + +The stone curlew, our little bustard with the long wings, big, yellow +eyes, and wild voice, still frequents the uncultivated downs, unhappily +in diminishing numbers. For the private collector's desire to possess +British-taken birds' eggs does not diminish; I doubt if more than one +clutch in ten escapes the searching eyes of the poor shepherds and +labourers who are hired to supply the cabinets. One pair haunted a +flinty spot at Winterbourne Bishop until a year or two ago; at other +points a few miles away I watched other pairs during the summer of 1909, +but in every instance their eggs were taken. + +The larger hawks and the raven, which bred in all the woods and forests +of Wiltshire, have, of course, been extirpated by the gamekeepers. The +biggest forest in the county now affords no refuge to any hawk above the +size of a kestrel. Savernake is extensive enough, one would imagine, for +condors to hide in, but it is not so. A few years ago a buzzard made its +appearance there--just a common buzzard, and the entire surrounding +population went mad with excitement about it, and every man who +possessed a gun flew to the forest to join in the hunt until the +wretched bird, after being blazed at for two or three days, was brought +down. I heard of another case at Fonthill Abbey. Nobody could say what +this wandering hawk was--it was very big, blue above with a white breast +barred with black--a "tarrable" fierce-looking bird with fierce, yellow +eyes. All the gamekeepers and several other men with guns were in hot +pursuit of it for several days, until some one fatally wounded it, but +it could not be found where it was supposed to have fallen. A fortnight +later its carcass was discovered by an old shepherd, who told me the +story. It was not in a fit state to be preserved, but he described it to +me, and I have no doubt that it was a goshawk. + +The raven survived longer, and the Shepherd Bawcombe talks about its +abundance when he was a boy, seventy or more years ago. His way of +accounting for its numbers at that time and its subsequent, somewhat +rapid disappearance greatly interested me. + +We have seen his account of deer-stealing, by the villagers in those +brave, old, starvation days when Lord Rivers owned the deer and hunting +rights over a large part of Wiltshire, extending from Cranborne Chase to +Salisbury, and when even so righteous a man as Isaac Bawcombe was +tempted by hunger to take an occasional deer, discovered out of bounds. +At that time, Caleb said, a good many dogs used for hunting the deer +were kept a few miles from Winterbourne Bishop and were fed by the +keepers in a very primitive manner. Old, worn-out horses were bought and +slaughtered for the dogs. A horse would be killed and stripped of his +hide somewhere away in the woods, and left for the hounds to batten on +its flesh, tearing at and fighting over it like so many jackals. When +only partially consumed the carcass would become putrid; then another +horse would be killed and skinned at another spot perhaps a mile away, +and the pack would start feeding afresh there. The result of so much +carrion lying about was that ravens were attracted in numbers to the +place and were so numerous as to be seen in scores together. Later, when +the deer-hunting sport declined in the neighbourhood, and dogs were no +longer fed on carrion, the birds decreased year by year, and when Caleb +was a boy of nine or ten their former great abundance was but a memory. +But he remembers that they were still fairly common, and he had much to +say about the old belief that the raven "smells death," and when seen +hovering over a flock, uttering its croak, it is a sure sign that a +sheep is in a bad way and will shortly die. + +One of his recollections of the bird may be given here. It was one of +those things seen in boyhood which had very deeply impressed him. One +fine day he was on the down with an elder brother, when they heard the +familiar croak and spied three birds at a distance engaged in a fight in +the air. Two of the birds were in pursuit of the third, and rose +alternately to rush upon and strike at their victim from above. They +were coming down from a considerable height, and at last were directly +over the boys, not more than forty or fifty feet from the ground; and +the youngsters were amazed at their fury, the loud, rushing sound of +their wings, as of a torrent, and of their deep, hoarse croaks and +savage, barking cries. Then they began to rise again, the hunted bird +trying to keep above his enemies, they in their turn striving to rise +higher still so as to rush down upon him from overhead; and in this way +they towered higher and higher, their barking cries coming fainter and +fainter back to earth, until the boys, not to lose sight of them, cast +themselves down flat on their backs, and, continuing to gaze up, saw +them at last no bigger than three "leetle blackbirds." Then they +vanished; but the boys, still lying on their backs, kept their eyes +fixed on the same spot, and by and by first one black speck reappeared, +then a second, and they soon saw that two birds were swiftly coming down +to earth. They fell swiftly and silently, and finally pitched upon the +down not more than a couple of hundred yards from the boys. The hunted +bird had evidently succeeded in throwing them off and escaping. Probably +it was one of their own young, for the ravens' habit is when their young +are fully grown to hunt them out of the neighbourhood, or, when they +cannot drive them off, to kill them. + +There is no doubt that the carrion did attract ravens in numbers to this +part of Wiltshire, but it is a fact that up to that date--about +1830--the bird had many well-known, old breeding-places in the county. +The Rev. A. C. Smith, in his "Birds of Wiltshire," names twenty-three +breeding-places, no fewer than nine of them on Salisbury Plain; but at +the date of the publication of his work, 1887, only three of all these +nesting-places were still in use: South Tidworth, Wilton Park, and +Compton Park, Compton Chamberlain. Doubtless there were other ancient +breeding-places which the author had not heard of: one was at the Great +Ridge Wood, overlooking the Wylye valley, where ravens bred down to +about thirty-five or forty years ago. I have found many old men in that +neighbourhood who remember the birds, and they tell that the raven tree +was a great oak which was cut down about sixty years ago, after which +the birds built their nest in another tree not far away. A London friend +of mine, who was born in the neighbourhood of the Great Ridge Wood, +remembers the ravens as one of the common sights of the place when he +was a boy. He tells of an unlucky farmer in those parts whose sheep fell +sick and died in numbers, year after year, bringing him down to the +brink of ruin, and how his old head-shepherd would say, solemnly shaking +his head, "'Tis not strange--master, he shot a raven." + +There was no ravens' breeding-place very near Winterbourne Bishop. Caleb +had "never heared tell of a nestie"; but he had once seen the nest of +another species which is supposed never to breed in this country. He was +a small boy at the time, when one day an old shepherd of the place going +out from the village saw Caleb, and calling to him said, "You're the boy +that likes birds; if you'll come with me, I'll show 'ee what no man ever +seed afore"; and Caleb, fired with curiosity, followed him away to a +distance from home, out from the downs, into the woods and to a place +where he had never been, where there were bracken and heath with birch +and thorn-trees scattered about. On cautiously approaching a clump of +birches they saw a big, thrush-like bird fly out of a large nest about +ten feet from the ground, and settle on a tree close by, where it was +joined by its mate. The old man pointed out that it was a felt or +fieldfare, a thrush nearly as big as the mistle-thrush but different in +colour, and he said that it was a bird that came to England in flocks in +winter from no man knows where, far off in the north, and always went +away before breeding-time. This was the only felt he had ever seen +breeding in this country, and he "didn't believe that no man had ever +seed such a thing before." He would not climb the tree to see the eggs, +or even go very near it, for fear of disturbing the birds. + +This man, Caleb said, was a great one for birds: he knew them all, but +seldom said anything about them; he watched and found out a good deal +about them just for his private pleasure. + +The characteristic species of this part of the down country, comprising +the parish of Winterbourne Bishop, are the pewit, magpie, turtledove, +mistle-thrush, and starling. The pewit is universal on the hills, but +will inevitably be driven away from all that portion of Salisbury Plain +used for military purposes. The mistle-thrush becomes common in summer +after its early breeding season is ended, when the birds in small flocks +resort to the downs, where they continue until cold weather drives them +away to the shelter of the wooded, low country. + +In this neighbourhood there are thickets of thorn, holly, bramble, and +birch growing over hundreds of acres of down, and here the hill-magpie, +as it is called, has its chief breeding-ground, and is so common that +you can always get a sight of at least twenty birds in an afternoon's +walk. Here, too, is the metropolis of the turtledove, and the low sound +of its crooning is heard all day in summer, the other most common sound +being that of magpies--their subdued, conversational chatter and their +solo-singing, the chant or call which a bird will go on repeating for a +hundred times. The wonder is how the doves succeed in such a place in +hatching any couple of chalk-white eggs, placed on a small platform of +sticks, or of rearing any pair of young, conspicuous in their blue skins +and bright yellow down! + +The keepers tell me they get even with these kill-birds later in the +year, when they take to roosting in the woods, a mile away in the +valley. The birds are waited for at some point where they are accustomed +to slip in at dark, and one keeper told me that on one evening alone +assisted by a friend he had succeeded in shooting thirty birds. + +On Winterbourne Bishop Down and round the village the magpies are not +persecuted, probably because the gamekeepers, the professional +bird-killers, have lost heart in this place. It is a curious and rather +pretty story. There is no squire, as we have seen; the farmers have the +rabbits, and for game the shooting is let, or to let, by some one who +claims to be lord of the manor, who lives at a distance or abroad. At +all events he is not known personally to the people, and all they know +about the overlordship is that, whereas in years gone by every villager +had certain rights in the down--to cut furze and keep a cow, or pony, or +donkey, or half a dozen sheep or goats--now they have none; but how and +why and when these rights were lost nobody knows. Naturally there is no +sympathy between the villagers and the keepers sent from a distance to +protect the game, so that the shooting may be let to some other +stranger. On the contrary, they religiously destroy every nest they can +find, with the result that there are too few birds for anyone to take +the shooting, and it remains year after year unlet. + +This unsettled state of things is all to the advantage of the black and +white bird with the ornamental tail, and he flourishes accordingly and +builds his big, thorny nests in the roadside trees about the village. + +The one big bird on these downs, as in so many other places in England, +is the rook, and let us humbly thank the gods who own this green earth +and all the creatures which inhabit it that they have in their goodness +left us this one. For it is something to have a rook, although he is not +a great bird compared with the great ones lost--bustard and kite and +raven and goshawk, and many others. His abundance on the cultivated +downs is rather strange when one remembers the outcry made against him +in some parts on account of his injurious habits; but here it appears +the sentiment in his favour is just as strong in the farmer, or in a +good many farmers, as in the great landlord. The biggest rookery I know +on Salisbury Plain is at a farm-house where the farmer owns the land +himself and cultivates about nine hundred acres. One would imagine that +he would keep his rooks down in these days when a boy cannot be hired to +scare the birds from the crops. + +One day, near West Knoyle, I came upon a vast company of rooks busily +engaged on a ploughed field where everything short of placing a +bird-scarer on the ground had been done to keep the birds off. A score +of rooks had been shot and suspended to long sticks planted about the +field, and there were three formidable-looking men of straw and rags +with hats on their heads and wooden guns under their arms. But the rooks +were there all the same; I counted seven at one spot, prodding the earth +close to the feet of one of the scarecrows. I went into the field to see +what they were doing, and found that it was sown with vetches, just +beginning to come up, and the birds were digging the seed up. + +Three months later, near the same spot, on Mere Down, I found these +birds feasting on the corn, when it had been long cut but could not be +carried on account of the wet weather. It was a large field of fifty to +sixty acres, and as I walked by it the birds came flying leisurely over +my head to settle with loud cawings on the stocks. It was a magnificent +sight--the great, blue-black bird-forms on the golden wheat, an animated +group of three or four to half a dozen on every stock, while others +walked about the ground to pick up the scattered grain, and others were +flying over them, for just then the sun was shining on the field and +beyond it the sky was blue. Never had I witnessed birds so manifestly +rejoicing at their good fortune, with happy, loud caw-caw. Or rather +haw-haw! what a harvest, what abundance! was there ever a more perfect +August and September! Rain, rain, by night and in the morning; then sun +and wind to dry our feathers and make us glad, but never enough to dry +the corn to enable them to carry it and build it up in stacks where it +would be so much harder to get at. Could anything be better! + +But the commonest bird, the one which vastly outnumbers all the others I +have named together, is the starling. It was Caleb Bawcombe's favourite +bird, and I believe it is regarded with peculiar affection by all +shepherds on the downs on account of its constant association with sheep +in the pasture. The dog, the sheep, and the crowd of starlings--these +are the lonely man's companions during his long days on the hills from +April or May to November. And what a wise bird he is, and how well he +knows his friends and his enemies! There was nothing more beautiful to +see, Caleb would say, than the behaviour of a flock of starlings when a +hawk was about. If it was a kestrel they took little or no notice of it, +but if a sparrowhawk made its appearance, instantly the crowd of birds +could be seen flying at furious speed towards the nearest flock of +sheep, and down into the flock they would fall like a shower of stones +and instantly disappear from sight. There they would remain on the +ground, among the legs of the grazing sheep, until the hawk had gone on +his way and passed out of sight. + +The sparrowhawk's victims are mostly made among the young birds that +flock together in summer and live apart from the adults during the +summer months after the breeding season is over. + +When I find a dead starling on the downs ranged over by sparrowhawks, it +is almost always a young bird--a "brown thrush" as it used to be called +by the old naturalists. You may know that the slayer was a sparrowhawk +by the appearance of the bird, its body untouched, but the flesh picked +neatly from the neck and the head gone. That was swallowed whole, after +the beak had been cut off. You will find the beak lying by the side of +the body. In summertime, when birds are most abundant, after the +breeding season, the sparrowhawk is a fastidious feeder. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +STARLINGS AND SHEEP-BELLS + + Starlings' singing--Native and borrowed sounds--Imitations of + sheep-bells--The shepherd on sheep-bells--The bells for pleasure, + not use--A dog in charge of the flock--Shepherd calling his + sheep--Richard Warner of Bath--Ploughmen singing to their oxen + in Cornwall--A shepherd's loud singing + + +The subject of starlings associating with sheep has served to remind me +of something I have often thought when listening to their music. It +happens that I am writing this chapter in a small village on Salisbury +Plain, the time being mid-September 1909, and that just outside my door +there is a group of old elder-bushes laden just now with clusters of +ripe berries on which the starlings come to feed, filling the room all +day with that never-ending medley of sounds which is their song. They +sing in this way not only when they sing--that is to say, when they make +a serious business of it, standing motionless and a-shiver on the tiles, +wings drooping and open beak pointing upwards, but also when they are +feasting on fruit--singing and talking and swallowing elderberries +between whiles to wet their whistles. If the weather is not too cold you +will hear this music daily, wet or dry, all the year round. We may say +that of all singing birds they are most vocal, yet have no set song. I +doubt if they have more than half a dozen to a dozen sounds or notes +which are the same in every individual and their very own. One of them +is a clear, soft, musical whistle, slightly inflected; another a kissing +sound, usually repeated two or three times or oftener, a somewhat +percussive smack; still another, a sharp, prolonged hissing or sibilant +but at the same time metallic note, compared by some one to the sound +produced by milking a cow into a tin pail--a very good description. +There are other lesser notes: a musical, thrush-like chirp, repeated +slowly, and sometimes rapidly till it runs to a bubbling sound; also +there is a horny sound, which is perhaps produced by striking upon the +edges of the lower mandible with those of the upper. But it is quite +unlike the loud, hard noise made by the stork; the poor stork being a +dumb bird has made a sort of policeman's rattle of his huge beak. These +sounds do not follow each other; they come from time to time, the +intervals being filled up with others in such endless variety, each bird +producing its own notes, that one can but suppose that they are +imitations. We know, in fact, that the starling is our greatest mimic, +and that he often succeeds in recognizable reproductions of single +notes, of phrases, and occasionally of entire songs, as, for instance, +that of the blackbird. But in listening to him we are conscious of his +imitations; even when at his best he amuses rather than delights--he is +not like the mocking-bird. His common starling pipe cannot produce +sounds of pure and beautiful quality, like the blackbird's "oboe-voice," +to quote Davidson's apt phrase: he emits this song in a strangely +subdued tone, producing the effect of a blackbird heard singing at a +considerable distance. And so with innumerable other notes, calls, and +songs--they are often to their originals what a man's voice heard on a +telephone is to his natural voice. He succeeds best, as a rule, in +imitations of the coarser, metallic sounds, and as his medley abounds in +a variety of little, measured, tinkling, and clinking notes, as of +tappings on a metal plate, it has struck me at times that these are +probably borrowed from the sheep-bells of which the bird hears so much +in his feeding-grounds. It is, however, not necessary to suppose that +every starling gets these sounds directly from the bells; the birds +undoubtedly mimic one another, as is the case with mocking-birds, and +the young might easily acquire this part of their song language from the +old birds without visiting the flocks in the pastures. + +The sheep-bell, in its half-muffled strokes, as of a small hammer +tapping on an iron or copper plate, is, one would imagine, a sound well +within the starling's range, easily imitated, therefore specially +attractive to him. + +But--to pass to another subject--what does the shepherd himself think or +feel about it; and why does he have bells on his sheep? + +He thinks a great deal of his bells. He pipes not like the shepherd of +fable or of the pastoral poets, nor plays upon any musical instrument, +and seldom sings, or even whistles--that sorry substitute for song; he +loves music nevertheless, and gets it in his sheep-bells; and he likes +it in quantity. "How many bells have you got on your sheep--it sounds as +if you had a great many?" I asked of a shepherd the other day, feeding +his flock near Old Sarum, and he replied, "Just forty, and I wish there +were eighty." Twenty-five or thirty is a more usual number, but only +because of their cost, for the shepherd has very little money for bells +or anything else. Another told me that he had "only thirty," but he +intended getting more. The sound cheers him; it is not exactly +monotonous, owing to the bells being of various sizes and also greatly +varying in thickness, so that they produce different tones, from the +sharp tinkle-tinkle of the smallest to the sonorous klonk-klonk of the +big, copper bell. Then, too, they are differently agitated, some quietly +when the sheep are grazing with heads down, others rapidly as the animal +walks or trots on; and there are little bursts or peals when a sheep +shakes its head, all together producing a kind of rude harmony--a music +which, like that of bagpipes or of chiming church-bells, heard from a +distance, is akin to natural music and accords with rural scenes. + +As to use, there is little or none. A shepherd will sometimes say, when +questioned on the subject, that the bells tell him just where the flock +is or in which direction they are travelling; but he knows better. The +one who is not afraid to confess the simple truth of the matter to a +stranger will tell you that he does not need the bells to tell him where +the sheep are or in which direction they are grazing. His eyes are good +enough for that. The bells are for his solace or pleasure alone. It may +be that the sheep like the tinkling too--it is his belief that they do +like it. A shepherd said to me a few days ago: "It is lonesome with the +flock on the downs; more so in cold, wet weather, when you perhaps don't +see a person all day--on some days not even at a distance, much less to +speak to. The bells keep us from feeling it too much. We know what we +have them for, and the more we have the better we like it. They are +company to us." + +Even in fair weather he seldom has anyone to speak to. A visit from an +idle man who will sit down and have a pipe and talk with him is a day to +be long remembered and even to date events from. "'Twas the month--May, +June, or October--when the stranger came out to the down and talked to I." + +One day, in September, when sauntering over Mere Down, one of the most +extensive and loneliest-looking sheep-walks in South Wilts--a vast, +elevated plain or table-land, a portion of which is known as White Sheet +Hill--I passed three flocks of sheep, all with many bells, and noticed +that each flock produced a distinctly different sound or effect, owing +doubtless to a different number of big and little bells in each; and it +struck me that any shepherd on a dark night, or if taken blindfolded +over the downs, would be able to identify his own flock by the sound. At +the last of the three flocks a curious thing occurred. There was no +shepherd with it or anywhere in sight, but a dog was in charge; I found +him lying apparently asleep in a hollow, by the side of a stick and an +old sack. I called to him, but instead of jumping up and coming to me, +as he would have done if his master had been there, he only raised his +head, looked at me, then put his nose down on his paws again. I am on +duty--in sole charge--and you must not speak to me, was what he said. +After walking a little distance on, I spied the shepherd with a second +dog at his heels, coming over the down straight to the flock, and I +stayed to watch. When still over a hundred yards from the hollow the dog +flew ahead, and the other jumping up ran to meet him, and they stood +together, wagging their tails as if conversing. When the shepherd had +got up to them he stood and began uttering a curious call, a somewhat +musical cry in two notes, and instantly the sheep, now at a considerable +distance, stopped feeding and turned, then all together began running +towards him, and when within thirty yards stood still, massed together, +and all gazing at him. He then uttered a different call, and turning +walked away, the dogs keeping with him and the sheep closely following. +It was late in the day, and he was going to fold them down at the foot +of the slope in some fields half a mile away. + +As the scene I had witnessed appeared unusual I related it to the very +next shepherd I talked with. + +"Oh, there was nothing in that," he said. "Of course the dog was behind +the flock." + +I said, "No, the peculiar thing was that both dogs were with their +master, and the flock followed." + +"Well, my sheep would do the same," he returned. "That is, they'll do it +if they know there's something good for them--something they like in the +fold. They are very knowing." And other shepherds to whom I related the +incident said pretty much the same, but they apparently did not quite +like to hear that any shepherd could control his sheep with his voice +alone; their way of receiving the story confirmed me in the belief that +I had witnessed something unusual. + +Before concluding this short chapter I will leave the subject of the +Wiltshire shepherd and his sheep to quote a remarkable passage about men +singing to their cattle in Cornwall, from a work on that county by +Richard Warner of Bath, once a well-known and prolific writer of +topographical and other books. They are little known now, I fancy, but +he was great in his day, which lasted from about the middle of the +eighteenth to about the middle of the nineteenth century--at all events, +he died in 1857, aged ninety-four. But he was not great at first, and +finding when nearing middle age that he was not prospering, he took to +the Church and had several livings, some of them running concurrently, +as was the fashion in those dark days. His topographical work included +Walks in Wales, in Somerset, in Devon, Walks in many places, usually +taken in a stage-coach or on horseback, containing nothing worth +remembering except perhaps the one passage I have mentioned, which is as +follows:-- + +"We had scarcely entered Cornwall before our attention was agreeably +arrested by a practice connected with the agriculture of the people, +which to us was entirely novel. The farmers judiciously employ the fine +oxen of the country in ploughing, and other processes of husbandry, to +which the strength of this useful animal can be employed"--the Rev. +Richard Warner is tedious, but let us be patient and see what +follows--"to which the strength of this useful animal can be employed; +and while the hinds are thus driving their patient slaves along the +furrows, they continually cheer them with conversation, denoting +approbation and pleasure. This encouragement is conveyed to them in a +sort of chaunt, of very agreeable modulation, which, floating through +the air from different distances, produces a striking effect both on the +ear and imagination. The notes are few and simple, and when delivered by +a clear, melodious voice, have something expressive of that tenderness +and affection which man naturally entertains for the companions of his +labours, in a _pastoral state_ of society, when, feeling more +forcibly his dependence upon domesticated animals for support, he gladly +reciprocates with them kindness and protection for comfort and +subsistence. This wild melody was to me, I confess, peculiarly +affecting. It seemed to draw more closely the link of friendship between +man and the humbler tribes of _fellow mortals_. It solaced my heart +with the appearance of humanity, in a world of violence and in times of +universal hostile rage; and it gladdened my fancy with the contemplation +of those days of heavenly harmony, promised in the predictions of +eternal truth, when man, freed at length from prejudice and passion, +shall seek his happiness in cultivating the mild, the benevolent, and +the merciful sensibilities of his nature; and when the animal world, +catching the virtues of its lord and master, shall soften into +gentleness and love; when the wolf".... + +And so on, clause after clause, with others to be added, until the whole +sentence becomes as long as a fishing-rod. But apart from the +fiddlededee, is the thing he states believable? It is a charming +picture, and one would like to know more about that "chaunt," that "wild +melody." The passage aroused my curiosity when in Cornwall, as it had +appeared to me that in no part of England are the domestic animals so +little considered by their masters. The R.S.P.C.A. is practically +unknown there, and when watching the doings of shepherds or drovers with +their sheep the question has occurred to me, What would my Wiltshire +shepherd friends say of such a scene if they had witnessed it? There is +nothing in print which I can find to confirm Warner's observations, and +if you inquire of very old men who have been all their lives on the soil +they will tell you that there has never been such a custom in their +time, nor have they ever heard of it as existing formerly. Warner's Tour +through Cornwall is dated 1808. + +I take it that he described a scene he actually witnessed, and that he +jumped to the conclusion that it was a common custom for the ploughman +to sing to his oxen. It is not unusual to find a man anywhere singing to +his oxen, or horses, or sheep, if he has a voice and is fond of +exercising it. I remember that in a former book--"Nature in Downland"--I +described the sweet singing of a cow-boy when tending his cows on a +heath near Trotton, in West Sussex; and here in Wiltshire it amused me +to listen, at a vast distance, to the robust singing of a shepherd while +following his flock on the great lonely downs above Chitterne. He was a +sort of Tamagno of the downs, with a tremendous voice audible a mile +away. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +THE SHEPHERD AND THE BIBLE + + Dan'l Burdon, the treasure-seeker--The shepherd's feeling for the + Bible--Effect of the pastoral life--The shepherd's story of Isaac's + boyhood--The village on the Wylye + + +One of the shepherd's early memories was of Dan'l Burdon, a labourer on +the farm where Isaac Bawcombe was head-shepherd. He retained a vivid +recollection of this person, who had a profound gravity and was the most +silent man in the parish. He was always thinking about hidden treasure, +and all his spare time was spent in seeking for it. On a Sunday morning, +or in the evening after working hours, he would take a spade or pick and +go away over the hills on his endless search after "something he could +not find." He opened some of the largest barrows, making trenches six to +ten feet deep through them, but found nothing to reward him. One day he +took Caleb with him, and they went to a part of the down where there +were certain depressions in the turf of a circular form and six to seven +feet in circumference. Burdon had observed these basin-like depressions +and had thought it possible they marked the place where things of value +had been buried in long-past ages. To begin he cut the turf all round +and carefully removed it, then dug and found a thick layer of flints. +These removed, he came upon a deposit of ashes and charred wood. And +that was all. Burdon without a word set to work to put it all back in +its place again--ashes and wood, and earth and flints--and having trod +it firmly down he carefully replaced the turf, then leaning on his spade +gazed silently at the spot for a space of several minutes. At last he +spoke. "Maybe, Caleb, you've beared tell about what the Bible says of +burnt sacrifice. Well now, I be of opinion that it were here. They +people the Bible says about, they come up here to sacrifice on White +Bustard Down, and these be the places where they made their fires." + +Then he shouldered his spade and started home, the boy following. +Caleb's comment was: "I didn't say nothing to un because I were only a +leetel boy and he were a old man; but I knowed better than that all the +time, because them people in the Bible they was never in England at all, +so how could they sacrifice on White Bustard Down in Wiltsheer?" + +It was no idle boast on his part. Caleb and his brothers had been taught +their letters when small, and the Bible was their one book, which they +read not only in the evenings at home but out on the downs during the +day when they were with the flock. His extreme familiarity with the +whole Scripture narrative was a marvel to me; it was also strange, +considering how intelligent a man he was, that his lifelong reading of +that one book had made no change in his rude "Wiltsheer" speech. + +Apart from the feeling which old, religious country people, who know +nothing about the Higher Criticism, have for the Bible, taken literally +as the Word of God, there is that in the old Scriptures which appeals in +a special way to the solitary man who feeds his flock on the downs. I +remember well in the days of my boyhood and youth, when living in a +purely pastoral country among a semi-civilized and very simple people, +how understandable and eloquent many of the ancient stories were to me. +The life, the outlook, the rude customs, and the vivid faith in the +Unseen, were much the same in that different race in a far-distant age, +in a remote region of the earth, and in the people I mixed with in my +own home. That country has been changed now; it has been improved and +civilized and brought up to the European standard; I remember it when it +was as it had existed for upwards of two centuries before it had caught +the contagion. The people I knew were the descendants of the Spanish +colonists of the seventeenth century, who had taken kindly to the life +of the plains, and had easily shed the traditions and ways of thought of +Europe and of towns. Their philosophy of life, their ideals, their +morality, were the result of the conditions they existed in, and wholly +unlike ours; and the conditions were like those of the ancient people of +which the Bible tells us. Their very phraseology was strongly +reminiscent of that of the sacred writings, and their character in the +best specimens was like that of the men of the far past who lived nearer +to God, as we say, and certainly nearer to nature than it is possible +for us in this artificial state. Among these sometimes grand old men who +were large landowners, rich in flocks and herds, these fine old, +dignified "natives," the substantial and leading men of the district who +could not spell their own names, there were those who reminded you of +Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and Esau and Joseph and his brethren, and +even of David the passionate psalmist, with perhaps a guitar for a harp. + +No doubt the Scripture lessons read in the thousand churches on every +Sunday of the year are practically meaningless to the hearers. These old +men, with their sheep and goats and wives, and their talk about God, are +altogether out of our ways of thought, in fact as far from us--as +incredible or unimaginable, we may say--as the neolithic men or the +inhabitants of another planet. They are of the order of mythical heroes +and the giants of antiquity. To read about them is an ancient custom, +but we do not listen. + +Even to myself the memories of my young days came to be regarded as very +little more than mere imaginations, and I almost ceased to believe in +them until, after years of mixing with modern men, mostly in towns, I +fell in with the downland shepherds, and discovered that even here, in +densely populated and ultra-civilized England, something of the ancient +spirit had survived. In Caleb, and a dozen old men more or less like +him, I seemed to find myself among the people of the past, and sometimes +they were so much like some of the remembered, old, sober, and +slow-minded herders of the plains that I could not help saying to +myself, Why, how this man reminds me of Tio Isidoro, or of Don Pascual +of the "Three Poplar Trees," or of Marcos who would always have three +black sheep in a flock. And just as they reminded me of these men I had +actually known, so did they bring back the older men of the Bible +history--Abraham and Jacob and the rest. + +The point here is that these old Bible stories have a reality and +significance for the shepherd of the down country which they have lost +for modern minds; that they recognize their own spiritual lineaments in +these antique portraits, and that all these strange events might have +happened a few years ago and not far away. + +One day I said to Caleb Bawcombe that his knowledge of the Bible, +especially of the old part, was greater than that of the other shepherds +I knew on the downs, and I would like to hear why it was so. This led to +the telling of a fresh story about his father's boyhood, which he had +heard in later years from his mother. Isaac was an only child and not +the son of a shepherd; his father was a rather worthless if not a wholly +bad man; he was idle and dissolute, and being remarkably dexterous with +his fists he was persuaded by certain sporting persons to make a +business of fighting--quite a common thing in those days. He wanted +nothing better, and spent the greater part of the time in wandering +about the country; the money he made was spent away from home, mostly in +drink, while his wife was left to keep herself and child in the best way +she could at home or in the fields. By and by a poor stranger came to +the village in search of work and was engaged for very little pay by a +small farmer, for the stranger confessed that he was without experience +of farm work of any description. The cheapest lodging he could find was +in the poor woman's cottage, and then Isaac's mother, who pitied him +because he was so poor and a stranger alone in the world, a very silent, +melancholy man, formed the opinion that he had belonged to another rank +in life. His speech and hands and personal habits betrayed it. +Undoubtedly he was a gentleman; and then from something in his manner, +his voice, and his words whenever he addressed her, and his attention to +religion, she further concluded that he had been in the Church; that, +owing to some trouble or disaster, he had abandoned his place in the +world to live away from all who had known him, as a labourer. + +One day he spoke to her about Isaac; he said he had been observing him +and thought it a great pity that such a fine, intelligent boy should be +allowed to grow up without learning his letters. She agreed that it was, +but what could she do? The village school was kept by an old woman, and +though she taught the children very little it had to be paid for, and +she could not afford it. He then offered to teach Isaac himself and she +gladly consented, and from that day he taught Isaac for a couple of +hours every evening until the boy was able to read very well, after +which they read the Bible through together, the poor man explaining +everything, especially the historical parts, so clearly and beautifully, +with such an intimate knowledge of the countries and peoples and customs +of the remote East, that it was all more interesting than a fairy tale. +Finally he gave his copy of the Bible to Isaac, and told him to carry it +in his pocket every day when he went out on the downs, and when he sat +down to take it out and read in it. For by this time Isaac, who was now +ten years old, had been engaged as a shepherd-boy to his great +happiness, for to be a shepherd was his ambition. + +Then one day the stranger rolled up his few belongings in a bundle and +put them on a stick which he placed on his shoulder, said good-bye, and +went away, never to return, taking his sad secret with him. + +Isaac followed the stranger's counsel, and when he had sons of his own +made them do as he had done from early boyhood. Caleb had never gone +with his flock on the down without the book, and had never passed a day +without reading a portion. + +The incidents and observations gathered in many talks with the old +shepherd, which I have woven into the foregoing chapters, relate mainly +to the earlier part of his life, up to the time when, a married man and +father of three small children, he migrated to Warminster. There he was +in, to him, a strange land, far away from friends and home and the old +familiar surroundings, amid new scenes and new people, But the few years +he spent at that place had furnished him with many interesting memories, +some of which will be narrated in the following chapters. + +I have told in the account of Winterbourne Bishop how I first went to +that village just to see his native place, and later I visited Doveton +for no other reason than that he had lived there, to find it one of the +most charming of the numerous pretty villages in the vale. I looked for +the cottage in which he had lived and thought it as perfect a home as a +quiet, contemplative man who loved nature could have had: a small, +thatched cottage, very old looking, perhaps inconvenient to live in, but +situated in the prettiest spot, away from other houses, near and within +sight of the old church with old elms and beech-trees growing close to +it, and the land about it green meadow. The clear river, fringed with a +luxuriant growth of sedges, flag, and reeds, was less than a +stone's-throw away. + +So much did I like the vale of the Wylye when I grew to know it well +that I wish to describe it fully in the chapter that follows. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +VALE OF THE WYLYE + + Warminster--Vale of the Wylye--Counting the villages--A lost + church--Character of the villages--Tytherington church--Story of the + dog--Lord Lovell--Monuments in churches--Manor-houses--Knook--The + cottages--Yellow stonecrop--Cottage gardens--Marigolds--Golden-rod--Wild + flowers of the water-side--Seeking for the characteristic expression + + +The prettily-named Wylye is a little river not above twenty miles in +length from its rise to Salisbury, where, after mixing with the Nadder +at Wilton, it joins the Avon. At or near its source stands Warminster, a +small, unimportant town with a nobler-sounding name than any other in +Wiltshire. Trowbridge, Devizes, Marlborough, Salisbury, do not stir the +mind in the same degree; and as for Chippenham, Melksham, Mere, Calne, +and Corsham, these all are of no more account than so many villages in +comparison. Yet Warminster has no associations--no place in our mental +geography; at all events one remembers nothing about it. Its name, which +after all may mean nothing more than the monastery on the Were--one of +the three streamlets which flow into the Wylye at its source--is its +only glory. It is not surprising that Caleb Bawcombe invariably speaks +of his migration to, and of the time he passed at Warminster, when, as a +fact, he was not there at all, but at Doveton, a little village on the +Wylye a few miles below the town with the great name. + +It is a green valley--the greenness strikes one sharply on account of +the pale colour of the smooth, high downs on either side--half a mile to +a mile in width, its crystal current showing like a bright serpent for a +brief space in the green, flat meadows, then vanishing again among the +trees. So many are the great shade trees, beeches and ashes and elms, +that from some points the valley has the appearance of a continuous +wood--a contiguity of shade. And the wood hides the villages, at some +points so effectually that looking down from the hills you may not catch +a glimpse of one and imagine it to be a valley where no man dwells. As a +rule you do see something of human occupancy--the red or yellow roofs of +two or three cottages, a half-hidden grey church tower, or column of +blue smoke, but to see the villages you must go down and look closely, +and even so you will find it difficult to count them all. I have tried, +going up and down the valley several times, walking or cycling, and have +never succeeded in getting the same number on two occasions. There are +certainly more then twenty, without counting the hamlets, and the right +number is probably something between twenty-five and thirty, but I do +not want to find out by studying books and maps. I prefer to let the +matter remain unsettled so as to have the pleasure of counting or trying +to count them again at some future time. But I doubt that I shall ever +succeed. On one occasion I caught sight of a quaint, pretty little +church standing by itself in the middle of a green meadow, where it +looked very solitary with no houses in sight and not even a cow grazing +near it. The river was between me and the church, so I went up-stream, a +mile and a half, to cross by the bridge, then doubled back to look for +the church, and couldn't find it! Yet it was no illusory church; I have +seen it again on two occasions, but again from the other side of the +river, and I must certainly go back some day in search of that lost +church, where there may be effigies, brasses, sad, eloquent +inscriptions, and other memorials of ancient tragedies and great +families now extinct in the land. + +This is perhaps one of the principal charms of the Wylye--the sense of +beautiful human things hidden from sight among the masses of foliage. +Yet another lies in the character of the villages. Twenty-five or +twenty-eight of them in a space of twenty miles; yet the impression, +left on the mind is that these small centres of population are really +few and far between. For not only are they small, but of the old, quiet, +now almost obsolete type of village, so unobtrusive as to affect the +mind soothingly, like the sight of trees and flowery banks and grazing +cattle. The churches, too, as is fit, are mostly small and ancient and +beautiful, half-hidden in their tree-shaded churchyards, rich in +associations which go back to a time when history fades into myth and +legend. Not all, however, are of this description; a few are naked, +dreary little buildings, and of these I will mention one which, albeit +ancient, has no monuments and no burial-ground. This is the church of +Tytherington, a small, rustic village, which has for neighbours Codford +St. Peter one one side and Sutton Veny and Norton Bavant on the other. +To get into this church, where there was nothing but naked walls to look +at, I had to procure the key from the clerk, a nearly blind old man of +eighty. He told me that he was shoemaker but could no longer see to make +or mend shoes; that as a boy he was a weak, sickly creature, and his +father, a farm bailiff, made him learn shoemaking because he was unfit +to work out of doors. "I remember this church," he said, "when there was +only one service each quarter," but, strange to say, he forgot to tell +me the story of the dog! "What, didn't he tell you about the dog?" +exclaimed everybody. There was really nothing else to tell. + +It happened about a hundred years ago that once, after the quarterly +service had been held, a dog was missed, a small terrier owned by the +young wife of a farmer of Tytherington named Case. She was fond of her +dog, and lamented its loss for a little while, then forgot all about it. +But after three months, when the key was once more put into the rusty +lock and the door thrown open, there was the dog, a living "skelington" +it was said, dazed by the light of day, but still able to walk! It was +supposed that he had kept himself alive by "licking the moisture from +the walls." The walls, they said, were dripping with wet and covered +with a thick growth of mould. I went back to interrogate the ancient +clerk, and he said that the dog died shortly after its deliverance; Mrs. +Case herself told him all about it. She was an old woman then, but was +always willing to relate the sad story of her pet. + +That picture of the starving dog coming out, a living skeleton, from the +wet, mouldy church, reminds us sharply of the changed times we live in +and of the days when the Church was still sleeping very peacefully, not +yet turning uneasily in its bed before opening its eyes; and when a +comfortable rector of Codford thought it quite enough that the people of +Tytherington, a mile away, should have one service every three months. + +As a fact, the Tytherington dog interested me as much as the story of +the last Lord Lovell's self-incarceration in his own house in the +neighbouring little village of Upton Lovell. He took refuge there from +his enemies who were seeking his life, and concealed himself so +effectually that he was never seen again. Centuries later, when +excavations were made on the site of the ruined mansion, a secret +chamber was discovered, containing a human skeleton seated in a chair at +a table, on which were books and papers crumbling into dust. + +A volume might be filled with such strange and romantic happenings in +the little villages of the Wylye, and for the natural man they have a +lasting fascination; but they invariably relate to great people of their +day--warriors and statesmen and landowners of old and noble lineage, +the smallest and meanest you will find being clothiers, or merchants, +who amassed large fortunes and built mansions for themselves and +almshouses for the aged poor, and, when dead, had memorials placed to +them in the churches. But of the humble cottagers, the true people of +the vale who were rooted in the soil, and nourished and died like trees +in the same place--of these no memory exists. We only know that they +lived and laboured; that when they died, three or four a year, three or +four hundred in a century, they were buried in the little shady +churchyard, each with a green mound over him to mark the spot. But in +time these "mouldering heaps" subsided, the bodies turned to dust, and +another and yet other generations were laid in the same place among the +forgotten dead, to be themselves in turn forgotten. Yet I would rather +know the histories of these humble, unremembered lives than of the great +ones of the vale who have left us a memory. + +It may be for this reason that I was little interested in the +manor-houses of the vale. They are plentiful enough, some gone to decay +or put to various uses; others still the homes of luxury, beauty, +culture: stately rooms, rich fabrics; pictures, books, and manuscripts, +gold and silver ware, china and glass, expensive curios, suits of +armour, ivory and antlers, tiger-skins, stuffed goshawks and peacocks' +feathers. Houses, in some cases built centuries ago, standing +half-hidden in beautiful wooded grounds, isolated from the village; and +even as they thus stand apart, sacred from intrusion, so the life that +is in them does not mix with or form part of the true native life. They +are to the cottagers of to-day what the Roman villas were to the native +population of some eighteen centuries ago. This will seem incredible to +some: to me, an untrammelled person, familiar in both hall and cottage, +the distance between them appears immense. + +A reader well acquainted with the valley will probably laugh to be told +that the manor-house which most interested me was that of Knook, a poor +little village between Heytesbury and Upton Lovell. Its ancient and +towerless little church with rough, grey walls is, if possible, even +more desolate-looking than that of Tytherington. In my hunt for the +key to open it I disturbed a quaint old man, another octogenarian, +picturesque in a vast white beard, who told me he was a thatcher, or had +been one before the evil days came when he could work no more and was +compelled to seek parish relief. "You must go to the manor-house for the +key," he told me. A strange place in which to look for the key, and it +was stranger still to see the house, close to the church, and so like it +that but for the small cross on the roof of the latter one could not +have known which was the sacred building. First a monks' house, it fell +at the Reformation to some greedy gentleman who made it his dwelling, +and doubtless in later times it was used as a farm-house. Now a house +most desolate, dirty, and neglected, with cracks in the walls which +threaten ruin, standing in a wilderness of weeds, tenanted by a poor +working-man whose wages are twelve shillings a week, and his wife and +eight small children. The rent is eighteen-pence a week--probably the +lowest-rented manor-house in England, though it is not very rare to +find such places tenanted by labourers. + +But let us look at the true cottages. There are, I imagine, +few places in England where the humble homes of the people +have so great a charm. Undoubtedly they are darker inside, and not so +convenient to live in as the modern box-shaped, red-brick, slate-roofed +cottages, which have spread a wave of ugliness over the country; +but they do not offend--they please the eye. They are smaller than +the modern-built habitations; they are weathered and coloured by +sun and wind and rain and many lowly vegetable forms to a harmony +with nature. They appear related to the trees amid which they +stand, to the river and meadows, to the sloping downs at the side, +and to the sky and clouds over all. And, most delightful feature, +they stand among, and are wrapped in, flowers as in a garment--rose +and vine and creeper and clematis. They are mostly thatched, but some +have tiled roofs, their deep, dark red clouded and stained with lichen +and moss; and these roofs, too, have their flowers in summer. They are +grown over with yellow stonecrop, that bright cheerful flower that +smiles down at you from the lowly roof above the door, with such an +inviting expression, so delighted to see you no matter how poor and +worthless a person you may be or what mischief you may have been at, +that you begin to understand the significance of a strange vernacular +name of this plant--Welcome-home-husband-though-never-so-drunk. + +But its garden flowers, clustering and nestling round it, amid which its +feet are set--they are to me the best of all flowers. These are the +flowers we know and remember for ever. The old, homely, cottage-garden +blooms, so old that they have entered the soul. The big house garden, or +gardener's garden, with everything growing in it I hate, but these I +love--fragrant gillyflower and pink and clove-smelling carnation; +wallflower, abundant periwinkle, sweet-william, larkspur, +love-in-a-mist, and love-lies-bleeding, old-woman's-nightcap, and +kiss-me-John-at-the-garden-gate, some times called pansy. And best of +all and in greatest profusion, that flower of flowers, the marigold. + +How the townsman, town born and bred, regards this flower, I do not +know. He is, in spite of all the time I have spent in his company, a +comparative stranger to me--the one living creature on the earth who +does not greatly interest me. Some over-populated planet in our system +discovered a way to relieve itself by discharging its superfluous +millions on our globe--a pale people with hurrying feet and eager, +restless minds, who live apart in monstrous, crowded camps, like wood +ants that go not out to forage for themselves--six millions of them +crowded together in one camp alone! I have lived in these colonies, +years and years, never losing the sense of captivity, of exile, ever +conscious of my burden, taking no interest in the doings of that +innumerable multitude, its manifold interests, its ideals and +philosophy, its arts and pleasures. What, then, does it matter how they +regard this common orange-coloured flower with a strong smell? For me it +has an atmosphere, a sense or suggestion of something immeasurably +remote and very beautiful--an event, a place, a dream perhaps, which has +left no distinct image, but only this feeling unlike all others, +imperishable, and not to be described except by the one word Marigold. + +But when my sight wanders away from the flower to others blooming with +it--to all those which I have named and to the taller ones, so tall that +they reach half-way up, and some even quite up, to the eaves of the +lowly houses they stand against--hollyhocks and peonies and crystalline +white lilies with powdery gold inside, and the common sunflower--I begin +to perceive that they all possess something of that same magical +quality. + +These taller blooms remind me that the evening primrose, long +naturalized in our hearts, is another common and very delightful +cottage-garden flower; also that here, on the Wylye, there is yet +another stranger from the same western world which is fast winning our +affections. This is the golden-rod, grandly beautiful in its great, +yellow, plume-like tufts. But it is not quite right to call the tufts +yellow: they are green, thickly powdered with the minute golden florets. +There is no flower in England like it, and it is a happiness to know +that it promises to establish itself with us as a wild flower. + +Where the village lies low in the valley and the cottage is near the +water, there are wild blooms, too, which almost rival those of the +garden in beauty--water agrimony and comfrey with ivory-white and dim +purple blossoms, purple and yellow loosestrife and gem-like, water +forget-me-not; all these mixed with reeds and sedges and water-grasses, +forming a fringe or border to the potato or cabbage patch, dividing it +from the stream. + +But now I have exhausted the subject of the flowers, and enumerated and +dwelt upon the various other components of the scene, it comes to me +that I have not yet said the right thing and given the Wylye its +characteristic expression. In considering the flowers we lose sight of +the downs, and so in occupying ourselves with the details we miss the +general effect. Let me then, once more, before concluding this chapter, +try to capture the secret of this little river. + +There are other chalk streams in Wiltshire and Hampshire and +Dorset--swift crystal currents that play all summer long with the +floating poa grass fast held in their pebbly beds, flowing through +smooth downs, with small ancient churches in their green villages, and +pretty thatched cottages smothered in flowers--which yet do not produce +the same effect as the Wylye. Not Avon for all its beauty, nor Itchen, +nor Test. Wherein, then, does the "Wylye bourne" differ from these +others, and what is its special attraction? It was only when I set +myself to think about it, to analyse the feeling in my own mind, that I +discovered the secret--that is, in my own case, for of its effect on +others I cannot say anything. What I discovered was that the various +elements of interest, all of which may be found in other chalk-stream +valleys, are here concentrated, or comprised in a limited space, and +seen together produce a combined effect on the mind. It is the +narrowness of the valley and the nearness of the high downs standing +over it on either side, with, at some points, the memorials of antiquity +carved on their smooth surfaces, the barrows and lynchetts or terraces, +and the vast green earth-works crowning their summit. Up here on the +turf, even with the lark singing his shrill music in the blue heavens, +you are with the prehistoric dead, yourself for the time one of that +innumerable, unsubstantial multitude, invisible in the sun, so that the +sheep travelling as they graze, and the shepherd following them, pass +through their ranks without suspecting their presence. And from that +elevation you look down upon the life of to-day--the visible life, so +brief in the individual, which, like the swift silver stream beneath, +yet flows on continuously from age to age and for ever. And even as you +look down you hear, at that distance, the bell of the little hidden +church tower telling the hour of noon, and quickly following, a shout of +freedom and joy from many shrill voices of children just released from +school. Woke to life by those sounds, and drawn down by them, you may +sit to rest or sun yourself on the stone table of a tomb overgrown on +its sides with moss, the two-century-old inscription well-nigh +obliterated, in the little grass-grown, flowery churchyard which serves +as village green and playground in that small centre of life, where the +living and the dead exist in a neighbourly way together. For it is not +here as in towns, where the dead are away and out of mind and the past +cut off. And if after basking too long in the sun in that tree-sheltered +spot you go into the little church to cool yourself, you will probably +find in a dim corner not far from the altar a stone effigy of one of an +older time; a knight in armour, perhaps a crusader with legs crossed, +lying on his back, dimly seen in the dim light, with perhaps a coloured +sunbeam on his upturned face. For this little church where the villagers +worship is very old; Norman on Saxon foundations; and before they were +ever laid there may have been a temple to some ancient god at that spot, +or a Roman villa perhaps. For older than Saxon foundations are found in +the vale, and mosaic floors, still beautiful after lying buried so long. + +All this--the far-removed events and periods in time--are not in the +conscious mind when we are in the vale or when we are looking down on it +from above: the mind is occupied with nothing but visible nature. Thus, +when I am sitting on the tomb, listening to the various sounds of life +about me, attentive to the flowers and bees and butterflies, to man or +woman or child taking a short cut through the churchyard, exchanging a +few words with them; or when I am by the water close by, watching a +little company of graylings, their delicately-shaded, silver-grey scales +distinctly seen as they lie in the crystal current watching for flies; +or when I listen to the perpetual musical talk and song combined of a +family of green-finches in the alders or willows, my mind is engaged +with these things. But if one is familiar with the vale; if one has +looked with interest and been deeply impressed with the signs and +memorials of past life and of antiquity everywhere present and forming +part of the scene, something of it and of all that it represents remains +in the subconscious mind to give a significance and feeling to the +scene, which affects us here more than in most places; and that, I take +it, is the special charm of this little valley. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +A SHEEP-DOG'S LIFE + + Watch--His visits to a dew-pond--David and his dog Monk--Watch goes to + David's assistance--Caleb's new master objects to his dog--Watch and the + corn-crake--Watch plays with rabbits and guinea-pigs--Old Nance the + rook-scarer--The lost pair of spectacles--Watch in decline--Grey hairs + in animals--A grey mole--Last days of Watch--A shepherd on old + sheep-dogs + + +Perhaps the most interesting of the many sheep-dog histories the +shepherd related was that of Watch, a dog he had at Winterbourne Bishop +for three years before he migrated to Warminster. Watch, he said, was +more "like a Christian," otherwise a reasonable being, than any other +dog he had owned. He was exceedingly active, and in hot weather suffered +more from heat than most dogs. Now the only accessible water when they +were out on the down was in the mist-pond about a quarter of a mile from +his "liberty," as he called that portion of the down on which he was +entitled to pasture his sheep. When Watch could stand his sufferings no +longer, he would run to his master, and sitting at his feet look up at +his face and emit a low, pleading whine. + +"What be you wanting, Watch--a drink or a swim?" the shepherd would say, +and Watch, cocking up his ears, would repeat the whine. + +"Very well, go to the pond," Bawcombe would say, and off Watch would +rush, never pausing until he got to the water, and dashing in he would +swim round and round, lapping the water as he bathed. + +At the side of the pond there was a large, round sarsen-stone, and +invariably on coming out of his bath Watch would jump upon it, and with +his four feet drawn up close together would turn round and round, +surveying the country from that elevation; then jumping down he would +return in all haste to his duties. + +Another anecdote, which relates to the Winterbourne Bishop period, is a +somewhat painful one, and is partly about Monk, the sheep-dog already +described as a hunter of foxes, and his tragic end. Caleb had worked him +for a time, but when he came into possession of Watch he gave Monk to +his younger brother David, who was under-shepherd on the same farm. + +One morning Caleb was with the ewes in a field, when David, who was in +charge of the lambs two or three fields away, came to him looking very +strange--very much put out. + +"What are you here for--what's wrong with 'ee?" demanded Caleb. + +"Nothing's wrong," returned the other. + +"Where's Monk then?" asked Caleb. + +"Dead," said David. + +"Dead! How's he dead?" + +"I killed'n. He wouldn't mind me and made me mad, and I up with my stick +and gave him one crack on the head and it killed'n." + +"You killed 'n!" exclaimed Caleb. "An' you come here an' tell I +nothing's wrong! Is that a right way to speak of such a thing as that? +What be you thinking of? And what be you going to do with the lambs?" + +"I'm just going back to them--I'm going to do without a dog. I'm going +to put them in the rape and they'll be all right." + +"What! put them in the rape and no dog to help 'ee?" cried the other. +"You are not doing things right, but master mustn't pay for it. Take +Watch to help 'ee--I must do without'n this morning." + +"No, I'll not take'n," he said, for he was angry because he had done an +evil thing and he would have no one, man or dog, to help him. "I'll do +better without a dog," he said, and marched off. + +Caleb cried after him: "If you won't have the dog don't let the lambs +suffer but do as I tell 'ee. Don't you let 'em bide in the rape more 'n +ten minutes; then chase them out, and let 'em stand twenty minutes to +half an hour; then let them in another ten minutes and out again for +twenty minutes, then let them go back and feed in it quietly, for the +danger 'll be over. If you don't do as I tell 'ee you'll have many +blown." + +David listened, then without a word went his way. But Caleb was still +much troubled in his mind. How would he get that flock of hungry lambs +out of the rape without a dog? And presently he determined to send +Watch, or try to send him, to save the situation. David had been gone +half an hour when he called the dog, and pointing in the direction he +had taken he cried, "Dave wants 'ee--go to Dave." + +Watch looked at him and listened, then bounded away, and after running +full speed about fifty yards stopped to look back to make sure he was +doing the right thing. "Go to Dave," shouted Caleb once more; and away +went Watch again, and arriving at a very high gate at the end of the +field dashed at and tried two or three times to get over it, first by +jumping, then by climbing, and falling back each time. But by and by he +managed to force his way through the thick hedge and was gone from +sight. + +When David came back that evening he was in a different mood, and said +that Watch had saved him from a great misfortune: he could never have +got the lambs out by himself, as they were mad for the rape. For some +days after this Watch served two masters. Caleb would take him to his +ewes, and after a while would say, "Go--Dave wants 'ee," and away Watch +would go to the other shepherd and flock. + +When Bawcombe had taken up his new place at Doveton, his master, Mr. +Ellerby, watched him for a while with sharp eyes, but he was soon +convinced that he had not made a mistake in engaging a head-shepherd +twenty-five miles away without making the usual inquiries but merely on +the strength of something heard casually in conversation about this man. +But while more than satisfied with the man he remained suspicious of the +dog. "I'm afraid that dog of yours must hurt the sheep," he would say, +and he even advised him to change him for one that worked in a quieter +manner. Watch was too excitable, too impetuous--he could not go after +the sheep in that violent way and grab them as he did without injuring +them with his teeth. + +"He did never bite a sheep in his life," Bawcombe assured him, and +eventually he was able to convince his master that Watch could make a +great show of biting the sheep without doing them the least hurt--that +it was actually against his nature to bite or injure anything. + +One day in the late summer, when the corn had been cut but not carried, +Bawcombe was with his flock on the edge of a newly reaped cornfield in a +continuous, heavy rain, when he spied his master coming to him. He was +in a very light summer suit and straw hat, and had no umbrella or other +protection from the pouring rain. "What be wrong with master to-day?" +said Bawcombe. "He's tarrably upset to be out like this in such a rain +in a straw hat and no coat." + +Mr. Ellerby had by that time got into the habit when troubled in his +mind of going out to his shepherd to have a long talk with him. Not a +talk about his trouble--that was some secret bitterness in his +heart--but just about the sheep and other ordinary topics, and the talk, +Caleb said, would seem to do him good. But this habit he had got into +was observed by others, and the farm-men would say, "Something's wrong +to-day--the master's gone off to the head-shepherd." + +When he came to where Bawcombe was standing, in a poor shelter by the +side of a fence, he at once started talking on indifferent subjects, +standing there quite unconcerned, as if he didn't even know that it was +raining, though his thin clothes were wet through, and the water coming +through his straw hat was running in streaks down his face. By and by he +became interested in the dog's movements, playing about in the rain +among the stocks. "What has he got in his mouth?" he asked presently. + +"Come here, Watch," the shepherd called, and when Watch came he bent +down and took a corncrake from his mouth. He had found the bird hiding +in one of the stocks and had captured without injuring it. + +"Why, it's alive--the dog hasn't hurt it," said the farmer, taking it in +his hands to examine it. + +"Watch never hurted any creature yet," said Bawcombe. He caught things +just for his own amusement, but never injured them--he always let them +go again. He would hunt mice in the fields, and when he captured one he +would play with it like a cat, tossing it from him, then dashing after +and recapturing it. Finally, he would let it go. He played with rabbits +in the same way, and if you took a rabbit from him and examined it you +would find it quite uninjured. + +The farmer said it was wonderful--he had never heard of a case like it +before; and talking of Watch he succeeded in forgetting the trouble in +his mind which had sent him out in the rain in his thin clothes and +straw hat, and he went away in a cheerful mood. + +Caleb probably forgot to mention during this conversation with his +master that in most cases when Watch captured a rabbit he took it to his +master and gave it into his hands, as much as to say, Here is a very big +sort of field-mouse I have caught, rather difficult to manage--perhaps +_you_ can do something with it? + +The shepherd had many other stories about this curious disposition of +his dog. When he had been some months in his new place his brother David +followed him to the Wylye, having obtained a place as shepherd on a farm +adjoining Mr. Ellerby's. His cottage was a little out of the village and +had some ground to it, with a nice lawn or green patch. David was fond +of keeping animal pets--birds in cages, and rabbits and guinea-pigs in +hutches, the last so tame that he would release them on the grass to see +them play with one another. When Watch first saw these pets he was very +much attracted, and wanted to get to them, and after a good deal of +persuasion on the part of Caleb, David one day consented to take them +out and put them on the grass in the dog's presence. They were a little +alarmed at first, but in a surprisingly short time made the discovery +that this particular dog was not their enemy but a playmate. He rolled +on the grass among them, and chased them round and round, and sometimes +caught and pretended to worry them, and they appeared to think it very +good fun. + +"Watch," said Bawcombe, "in the fifteen years I had 'n, never killed and +never hurt a creature, no, not even a leetel mouse, and when he caught +anything 'twere only to play with it." + +Watch comes into a story of an old woman employed at the farm at this +period. She had been in the Warminster workhouse for a short time, and +had there heard that a daughter of a former mistress in another part of +the county had long been married and was now the mistress of Doveton +Farm, close by. Old Nance thereupon obtained her release and trudged to +Doveton, and one very rough, cold day presented herself at the farm to +beg for something to do which would enable her to keep herself. If there +was nothing for her she must, she said, go back and end her days in the +Warminster workhouse. Mrs. Ellerby remembered and pitied her, and going +in to her husband begged him earnestly to find some place on the farm +for the forlorn old creature. He did not see what could be done for her: +they already had one old woman on their hands, who mended sacks and did +a few other trifling things, but for another old woman there would be +nothing to do. Then he went in and had a good long look at her, +revolving the matter in his mind, anxious to please his wife, and +finally, he asked her if she could scare the crows. He could think of +nothing else. Of course she could scare crows--it was the very thing for +her! Well, he said, she could go and look after the swedes; the rooks +had just taken a liking to them, and even if she was not very active +perhaps she would be able to keep them off. + +Old Nance got up to go and begin her duties at once. Then the farmer, +looking at her clothes, said he would give her something more to protect +her from the weather on such a bleak day. He got her an old felt hat, a +big old frieze overcoat, and a pair of old leather leggings. When she +had put on these somewhat cumbrous things, and had tied her hat firmly +on with a strip of cloth, and fastened the coat at the waist with a +cord, she was told to go to the head-shepherd and ask him to direct her +to the field where the rooks were troublesome. Then when she was setting +out the farmer called her back and gave her an ancient, rusty gun to +scare the birds. "It isn't loaded," he said, with a grim smile. "I don't +allow powder and shot, but if you'll point it at them they'll fly fast +enough." + +Thus arrayed and armed she set forth, and Caleb seeing her approach at a +distance was amazed at her grotesque appearance, and even more amazed +still when she explained who and what she was and asked him to direct +her to the field of swedes. + +Some hours later the farmer came to him and asked him casually if he had +seen an old gallus-crow about. + +"Well," replied the shepherd, "I seen an old woman in man's coat and +things, with an old gun, and I did tell she where to bide." + +"I think it will be rather cold for the old body in that field," said +the farmer. "I'd like you to get a couple of padded hurdles and put them +up for a shelter for her." + +And in the shelter of the padded or thatched hurdles, by the hedge-side, +old Nance spent her days keeping guard over the turnips, and afterwards +something else was found for her to do, and in the meanwhile she lodged +in Caleb's cottage and became like one of the family. She was fond of +the children and of the dog, and Watch became so much attached to her +that had it not been for his duties with the flock he would have +attended her all day in the fields to help her with the crows. + +Old Nance had two possessions she greatly prized--a book and a pair of +spectacles, and it was her custom to spend the day sitting, spectacles +on nose and book in hand, reading among the turnips. Her spectacles were +so "tarrable" good that they suited all old eyes, and when this was +discovered they were in great request in the village, and every person +who wanted to do a bit of fine sewing or anything requiring young vision +in old eyes would borrow them for the purpose. One day the old woman +returned full of trouble from the fields--she had lost her spectacles; +she must, she thought, have lent them to some one in the village on the +previous evening and then forgotten all about it. But no one had them, +and the mysterious loss of the spectacles was discussed and lamented by +everybody. A day or two later Caleb came through the turnips on his way +home, the dog at his heels, and when he got to his cottage Watch came +round and placed himself square before his master and deposited the lost +spectacles at his feet. He had found them in the turnip-field over a +mile from home, and though but a dog he remembered that he had seen them +on people's noses and in their hands, and knew that they must therefore +be valuable--not to himself, but to that larger and more important kind +of dog that goes about on its hind legs. + +There is always a sad chapter in the life-history of a dog; it is the +last one, which tells of his decline; and it is ever saddest in the case +of the sheep-dog, because he has lived closer to man and has served him +every day of his life with all his powers, all his intelligence, in the +one useful and necessary work he is fitted for or which we have found +for him to do. The hunting and the pet, or parasite, dogs--the "dogs for +sport and pleasure"--though one in species with him are not like beings +of the same order; they are like professional athletes and performers, +and smart or fashionable people compared to those who do the work of the +world--who feed us and clothe us. We are accustomed to speak of dogs +generally as the servants and the friends of man; it is only of the +sheep-dog that this can be said with absolute truth. Not only is he the +faithful servant of the solitary man who shepherds his flock, but the +dog's companionship is as much to him as that of a fellow-being would +be. + +Before his long and strenuous life was finished. Watch, originally +jet-black without a spot, became quite grey, the greyness being most +marked on the head, which became at last almost white. + +It is undoubtedly the case that some animals, like men, turn grey with +age, and Watch when fifteen was relatively as old as a man at sixty-five +or seventy. But grey hairs do not invariably come with age, even in our +domestic animals, which are more subject to this change than those in a +state of nature. But we are never so well able to judge of this in the +case of wild animals, as in most cases their lives end prematurely. + +The shepherd related a curious instance in a mole. He once noticed +mole-heaps of a peculiar kind in a field of sainfoin, and it looked to +him as if this mole worked in a way of his own, quite unlike the others. +The hills he threw up were a good distance apart, and so large that you +could fill a bushel measure with the mould from any one of them. He +noticed that this mole went on burrowing every day in the same manner; +every morning there were new chains or ranges of the huge mounds. The +runs were very deep, as he found when setting a mole-trap--over two feet +beneath the surface. He set his trap, filling the deep hole he had made +with sods, and on opening it next day he found his mole and was +astonished at its great size. He took no measurements, but it was +bigger, he affirmed, than he could have believed it possible for a mole +to be. And it was grey instead of black, the grey hairs being so +abundant on the head as to make it almost white, as in the case of old +Watch. He supposed that it was a very old mole, that it was a more +powerful digger than most of its kind, and had perhaps escaped death so +long on account of its strength and of its habit of feeding deeper in +the earth than the others. + +To return to Watch. His hearing and eyesight failed as he grew older +until he was practically blind and too deaf to hear any word given in +the ordinary way. But he continued strong as ever on his legs, and his +mind was not decayed, nor was he in the least tired. On the contrary, he +was always eager to work, and as his blindness and deafness had made him +sharper in other ways he was still able to make himself useful with the +sheep. Whenever the hurdles were shifted to a fresh place and the sheep +had to be kept in a corner of the enclosure until the new place was +ready for them, it was old Watch's duty to keep them from breaking away. +He could not see nor hear, but in some mysterious way he knew when they +tried to get out, even if it was but one. Possibly the slight vibration +of the ground informed him of the movement and the direction as well. He +would make a dash and drive the sheep back, then run up and down before +the flock until all was quiet again. But at last it became painful to +witness his efforts, especially when the sheep were very restless, and +incessantly trying to break away; and Watch finding them so hard to +restrain would grow angry and rush at them with such fury that he would +come violently against the hurdles at one side, then getting up, howling +with pain, he would dash to the other side, when he would strike the +hurdles there and cry out with pain once more. + +It could not be allowed to go on; yet Watch could not endure to be +deprived of his work; if left at home he would spend the time whining +and moaning, praying to be allowed to go to the flock, until at last his +master with a very heavy heart was compelled to have him put to death. + +This is indeed almost invariably the end of a sheepdog; however zealous +and faithful he may have been, and however much valued and loved, he +must at last be put to death. I related the story of this dog to a +shepherd in the very district where Watch had lived and served his +master so well--one who had been head-shepherd for upwards of forty +years at Imber Court, the principal farm at the small downland village +of Imber. He told me that during all his shepherding years he had never +owned a dog which had passed out of his hands to another; every dog had +been acquired as a pup and trained by himself; and he had been very fond +of his dogs, but had always been compelled to have them shot in the end. +Not because he would have found them too great a burden when they had +become too old and their senses decayed, but because it was painful to +see them in their decline, perpetually craving to be at their old work +with the sheep, incapable of doing it any longer, yet miserable if kept +from it. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +THE ELLERBYS OF DOVETON + + The Bawcombes at Doveton Farm--Caleb finds favour with his master--Mrs. + Ellerby and the shepherd's wife--The passion of a childless wife--The + curse--A story of the "mob"--The attack on the farm--A man transported + for life--The hundred and ninth Psalm--The end of the Ellerbys + + +Caleb and his wife invariably spoke of their time at Doveton Farm in a +way which gave one the idea that they regarded it as the most important +period of their lives. It had deeply impressed them, and doubtless it +was a great change for them to leave their native village for the first +time in their lives and go long miles from home among strangers to serve +a new master. Above everything they felt leaving the old father who was +angry with them, and had gone to the length of disowning them for taking +such a step. But there was something besides all this which had served +to give Doveton an enduring place in their memories, and after many +talks with the old couple about their Warminster days I formed the idea +that it was more to them than any other place where they had lived, +because of a personal feeling they cherished for their master and +mistress there. + +Hitherto Caleb had been in the service of men who were but a little way +removed in thought and feeling from those they employed. They were +mostly small men, born and bred in the parish, some wholly self-made, +with no interest or knowledge of anything outside their own affairs, and +almost as far removed as the labourers themselves from the ranks above. +The Ellerbys were of another stamp, or a different class. If not a +gentleman, Mr. Ellerby was very like one and was accustomed to associate +with gentlemen. He was a farmer, descended from a long line of farmers; +but he owned his own land, and was an educated and travelled man, +considered wealthy for a farmer; at all events he was able to keep his +carriage and riding and hunting horses in his stables, and he was +regarded as the best breeder of sheep in the district. He lived in a +good house, which with its pictures and books and beautiful decorations +and furniture appeared to their simple minds extremely luxurious. This +atmosphere was somewhat disconcerting to them at first, for although he +knew his own value, priding himself on being a "good shepherd," Caleb +had up till now served with farmers who were in a sense on an equality +with him, and they understood him and he them. But in a short time the +feeling of strangeness vanished: personally, as a fellow-man, his master +soon grew to be more to him than any farmer he had yet been with. And he +saw a good deal of his master. Mr. Ellerby cultivated his acquaintance, +and, as we have seen, got into the habit of seeking him out and talking +to him even when he was at a distance out on the down with his flock. +And Caleb could not but see that in this respect he was preferred above +the other men employed on the farm--that he had "found favour" in his +master's eyes. + +When he had told me that story about Watch and the corn-crake, it stuck +in my mind, and on the first opportunity I went back to that subject to +ask what it really was that made his master act in such an extraordinary +manner--to go out on a pouring wet day in a summer suit and straw hat, +and walk a mile or two just to stand there in the rain talking to him +about nothing in particular. What secret trouble had he--was it that his +affairs were in a bad way, or was he quarrelling with his wife? No, +nothing of the kind; it was a long story--this secret trouble of the +Ellerbys, and with his unconquerable reticence in regard to other +people's private affairs he would have passed it off with a few general +remarks. + +But there was his old wife listening to us, and, woman-like, eager to +discuss such a subject, she would not let it pass. She would tell it and +would not be silenced by him: they were all dead and gone--why should I +not be told if I wanted to hear it? And so with a word put in here and +there by him when she talked, and with a good many words interposed by +her when he took up the tale, they unfolded the story, which was very +long as they told it and must be given briefly here. + +It happened that when the Bawcombes settled at Doveton, just as Mr. +Ellerby had taken to the shepherd, making a friend of him, so Mrs. +Ellerby took to the shepherd's wife, and fell into the habit of paying +frequent visits to her in her cottage. She was a very handsome woman, of +a somewhat stately presence, dignified in manner, and she wore her +abundant hair in curls hanging on each side to her shoulders--a fashion +common at that time. From the first she appeared to take a particular +interest in the Bawcombes, and they could not but notice that she was +more gracious and friendly towards them than to the others of their +station on the farm. The Bawcombes had three children then, aged six, +four, and two years respectively, all remarkably healthy, with rosy +cheeks and black eyes, and they were merry-tempered little things. Mrs. +Ellerby appeared much taken with the children; praised their mother for +always keeping them so clean and nicely dressed, and wondered how she +could manage it on their small earnings. The carter and his wife lived +in a cottage close by, and they, too, had three little children, and +next to the carter's was the bailiff's cottage, and he, too, was married +and had children; but Mrs. Ellerby never went into their cottages, and +the shepherd and his wife concluded that it was because in both cases +the children were rather puny, sickly-looking little things and were +never very clean. The carter's wife, too, was a slatternly woman. One +day when Mrs. Ellerby came in to see Mrs. Bawcombe the carter's wife was +just going out of the door, and Mrs. Ellerby appeared displeased, and +before leaving she said, "I hope, Mrs. Bawcombe, you are not going to +mix too freely with your neighbours or let your children go too much +with them and fall into their ways." They also observed that when she +passed their neighbours' children in the lane she spoke no word and +appeared not to see them. Yet she was kind to them too, and whenever she +brought a big parcel of cakes, fruit, and sweets for the children, which +she often did, she would tell the shepherd's wife to divide it into +three lots, one for her own children and the others for those of her two +neighbours. It was clear to see that Mrs. Ellerby had grown fond of her +children, especially of the eldest, the little rosy-cheeked six-year-old +boy. Sitting in the cottage she would call him to her side and would +hold his hand while conversing with his mother; she would also bare the +child's arm just for the pleasure of rubbing it with her hand and +clasping it round with her fingers, and sometimes when caressing the +child in this way she would turn her face aside to hide the tears that +dropped from her eyes. + +She had no child of her own--the one happiness which she and her husband +desired above all things. Six times in their ten married years they had +hoped and rejoiced, although with fear and trembling, that their prayer +would be answered, but in vain--every child born to them came lifeless +into the world. "And so 'twould always be, for sure," said the +villagers, "because of the curse." + +For it was a cause of wonder to the shepherd and his wife that this +couple, so strong and healthy, so noble-looking, so anxious to have +children, should have been so unfortunate, and still the villagers +repeated that it was the curse that was on them. + +This made the shepherd angry. "What be you saying about a curse that is +on them?--a good man and a good woman!" he would exclaim, and taking up +his crook go out and leave them to their gossip. He would not ask them +what they meant; he refused to listen when they tried to tell him; but +in the end he could not help knowing, since the idea had become a fixed +one in the minds of all the villagers, and he could not keep it out. +"Look at them," the gossipers would say, "as fine a couple as you ever +saw, and no child; and look at his two brothers, fine, big, strong, +well-set-up men, both married to fine healthy women, and never a child +living to any of them. And the sisters unmarried! 'Tis the curse and +nothing else." + +The curse had been uttered against Mr. Ellerby's father, who was in his +prime in the year 1831 at the time of the "mob," when the introduction +of labour-saving machinery in agriculture sent the poor farm-labourers +mad all over England. Wheat was at a high price at that time, and the +farmers were exceedingly prosperous, but they paid no more than seven +shillings a week to their miserable labourers. And if they were +half-starved when there was work for all, when the corn was reaped with +sickles, what would their condition be when reaping machines and other +new implements of husbandry came into use? They would not suffer it; +they would gather in bands everywhere and destroy the machinery, and +being united they would be irresistible; and so it came about that there +were risings or "mobs" all over the land. + +Mr. Ellerby, the most prosperous and enterprising farmer in the parish, +had been the first to introduce the new methods. He did not believe that +the people would rise against him, for he well knew that he was regarded +as a just and kind man and was even loved by his own labourers, but even +if it had not been so he would not have hesitated to carry out his +resolution, as he was a high-spirited man. But one day the villagers got +together and came unexpectedly to his barns, where they set to work to +destroy his new thrashing machine. When he was told he rushed out and +went in hot haste to the scene, and as he drew near some person in the +crowd threw a heavy hammer at him, which struck him on the head and +brought him senseless to the ground. + +He was not seriously injured, but when he recovered the work of +destruction had been done and the men had gone back to their homes, and +no one could say who had led them and who had thrown the hammer. But by +and by the police discovered that the hammer was the property of a +shoemaker in the village, and he was arrested and charged with injuring +with intent to murder. Tried with many others from other villages in the +district at the Salisbury Assizes, he was found guilty and sentenced to +transportation for life. Yet the Doveton shoemaker was known to every +one as a quiet, inoffensive young man, and to the last he protested his +innocence, for although he had gone with the others to the farm he had +not taken the hammer and was guiltless of having thrown it. + +Two years after he had been sent away Mr. Ellerby received a letter with +an Australian postmark on it, but on opening it found nothing but a long +denunciatory passage from the Bible enclosed, with no name or address. +Mr. Ellerby was much disturbed in his mind, and instead of burning the +paper and holding his peace, he kept it and spoke about it to this +person and that, and every one went to his Bible to find out what +message the poor shoemaker had sent, for it had been discovered that it +was the one hundred and ninth Psalm, or a great portion of it, and this +is what they read:-- + +"Let the iniquity of his fathers be remembered with the Lord; and let +not the sin of his mother be blotted out. + +"Let them be before the Lord continually, that he may cut off the memory +of them from the earth. + +"Because that he remembered not to show mercy, but persecuted the poor +and needy man, that he might even slay the broken in heart. + +"As he loved cursing, so let it come unto him; as he delighted not in +blessing, so let it be far from him. + +"As he clothed himself with cursing like as with a garment, so let it +come into his bowels like water, and like oil into his bones. + +"Let it be unto him as a garment which covereth him, and for a girdle +wherewith he is girded continually. + +"But do Thou for me, O God the Lord, for Thy name's sake. For I am poor +and needy, and my heart is wounded within me. + +"I am come like the shadow when it declineth: I am tossed up and down as +the locust. + +"My knees are weak through fasting; and my flesh faileth of fatness." + +From that time the hundred and ninth Psalm became familiar to the +villagers, and there were probably not many who did not get it by heart. +There was no doubt in their minds of the poor shoemaker's innocence. +Every one knew that he was incapable of hurting a fly. The crowd had +gone into his shop and swept him away with them--all were in it; and +some person seeing the hammer had taken it to help in smashing the +machinery. And Mr. Ellerby had known in his heart that he was innocent, +and if he had spoken a word for him in court he would have got the +benefit of the doubt and been discharged. But no, he wanted to have his +revenge on some one, and he held his peace and allowed this poor fellow +to be made the victim. Then, when he died, and his eldest son succeeded +him at Doveton Farm, and he and the other sons got married, and there +were no children, or none born alive, they went back to the Psalm again +and read and re-read and quoted the words: "Let his posterity be cut +off; and in the generation following let their name be blotted out." +Undoubtedly the curse was on them! + +Alas! it was; the curse was their belief in the curse, and the dreadful +effect of the knowledge of it on a woman's mind--all the result of Mr. +Ellerby the father's fatal mistake in not having thrown the scrap of +paper that came to him from the other side of the world into the fire. +All the unhappiness of the "generation following" came about in this +way, and the family came to an end; for when the last of the Ellerbys +died at a great age there was not one person of the name left in that +part of Wiltshire. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +OLD WILTSHIRE DAYS + + Old memories--Hindon as a borough and as a village--The Lamb Inn and its + birds--The "mob" at Hindon--The blind smuggler--Rawlings of Lower + Pertwood Farm--Reed, the thresher and deer-stealer--He leaves a + fortune--Devotion to work--Old Father Time--Groveley Wood and the + people's rights--Grace Reed and the Earl of Pembroke--An illusion of the + very aged--Sedan-chairs in Bath--Stick-gathering by the + poor--Game-preserving + + +The incident of the unhappy young man who was transported to Australia +or Tasmania, which came out in the shepherd's history of the Ellerby +family, put it in my mind to look up some of the very aged people of the +downland villages, whose memories could go back to the events of eighty +years ago. I found a few, "still lingering here," who were able to +recall that miserable and memorable year of 1830 and had witnessed the +doings of the "mobs." One was a woman, my old friend of Fonthill Bishop, +now aged ninety-four, who was in her teens when the poor labourers, "a +thousand strong," some say, armed with cudgels, hammers, and axes, +visited her village and broke up the thrashing machines they found +there. + +Another person who remembered that time was an old but remarkably +well-preserved man of eighty-nine at Hindon, a village a couple of miles +distant from Fonthill Bishop. Hindon is a delightful little village, so +rustic and pretty amidst its green, swelling downs, with great woods +crowning the heights beyond, that one can hardly credit the fact that it +was formerly an important market and session town and a Parliamentary +borough returning two members; also that it boasted among other +greatnesses thirteen public-houses. Now it has two, and not flourishing +in these tea- and mineral-water drinking days. Naturally it was an +exceeedingly corrupt little borough, where free beer for all was the +order of the day for a period of four to six weeks before an election, +and where every householder with a vote looked to receive twenty guineas +from the candidate of his choice. It is still remembered that when a +householder in those days was very hard up, owing, perhaps, to his too +frequent visits to the thirteen public-houses, he would go to some +substantial tradesman in the place and pledge his twenty guineas, due at +the next election! In due time, after the Reform Bill, it was deprived +of its glory, and later when the South-Western Railway built their line +from Salisbury to Yeovil and left Hindon some miles away, making their +station at Tisbury, it fell into decay, dwindling to the small village +it now is; and its last state, sober and purified, is very much better +than the old. For although sober, it is contented and even merry, and +exhibits such a sweet friendliness toward the stranger within its gates +as to make him remember it with pleasure and gratitude. + +What a quiet little place Hindon has become, after its old noisy period, +the following little bird story will show. For several weeks during the +spring and summer of 1909 my home was at the Lamb Inn, a famous +posting-house of the great old days, and we had three pairs of +birds--throstle, pied wagtail, and flycatcher--breeding in the ivy +covering the wall facing the village street, just over my window. I +watched them when building, incubating, feeding their young, and +bringing their young off. The villagers, too, were interested in the +sight, and sometimes a dozen or more men and boys would gather and stand +for half an hour watching the birds flying in and out of their nests +when feeding their young. The last to come off were the flycatchers, on +18th June. It was on the morning of the day I left, and one of the +little things flitted into the room where I was having my breakfast. I +succeeded in capturing it before the cats found out, and put it back on +the ivy. There were three young birds; I had watched them from the time +they hatched, and when I returned a fortnight later, there were the +three, still being fed by their parents in the trees and on the roof, +their favourite perching-place being on the swinging sign of the "Lamb." +Whenever an old bird darted at and captured a fly the three young would +flutter round it like three butterflies to get the fly. This continued +until 18th July, after which date I could not detect their feeding the +young, although the hunger-call was occasionally heard. + +If the flycatcher takes a month to teach its young to catch their own +flies, it is not strange that it breeds but once in the year. It is a +delicate art the bird practises and takes long to learn, but how +different with the martin, which dismisses its young in a few days and +begins breeding again, even to the third time! + +These three broods over my window were not the only ones in the place; +there were at least twenty other pairs in the garden and outhouses of +the inn--sparrows, thrushes, blackbirds, dunnocks, wrens, starlings, and +swallows. Yet the inn was in the very centre of the village, and being +an inn was the most frequented and noisiest spot. + +To return to my old friend of eighty-nine. He was but a small boy, +attending the Hindon school, when the rioters appeared on the scene, and +he watched their entry from the schoolhouse window. It was market-day, +and the market was stopped by the invaders, and the agricultural +machines brought for sale and exhibition were broken up. The picture +that remains in his mind is of a great excited crowd in which men and +cattle and sheep were mixed together in the wide street, which was the +market-place, and of shouting and noise of smashing machinery, and +finally of the mob pouring forth over the down on its way to the next +village, he and other little boys following their march. + +The smuggling trade flourished greatly at that period, and there were +receivers and distributors of smuggled wine, spirits, and other +commodities in every town and in very many villages throughout the +county in spite of its distance from the sea-coast. One of his memories +is of a blind man of the village, or town as it was then, who was used +as an assistant in this business. He had lost his sight in childhood, +one eye having been destroyed by a ferret which got into his cradle; +then, when he was about six years old he was running across the room one +day with a fork it his hand when he stumbled, and falling on the floor +had the other eye pierced by the prongs. But in spite of his blindness +he became a good worker, and could make a fence, reap, trim hedges, feed +the animals, and drive a horse as well as any man. His father had a +small farm and was a carrier as well, a quiet, sober, industrious man +who was never suspected by his neighbours of being a smuggler, for he +never left his house and work, but from time to time he had little +consignments of rum and brandy in casks received on a dark night and +carefully stowed away in his manure heap and in a pit under the floor of +his pigsty. Then the blind son would drive his old mother in the +carrier's cart to Bath and call at a dozen or twenty private houses, +leaving parcels which had been already ordered and paid for--a gallon of +brandy at one, two or four gallons of rum at another, and so on, until +all was got rid of, and on the following day they would return with +goods to Hindon. This quiet little business went on satisfactorily for +some years, during which the officers of the excise had stared a +thousand times with their eagle's eyes at the quaint old woman in her +poke bonnet and shawl, driven by a blind man with a vacant face, and had +suspected nothing, when a little mistake was made and a jar of brandy +delivered at a wrong address. The recipient was an honest gentleman, and +in his anxiety to find the rightful owner of the brandy made extensive +inquiries in his neighbourhood, and eventually the excisemen got wind of +the affair, and on the very next visit of the old woman and her son to +Bath they were captured. After an examination before a magistrate the +son was discharged on account of his blindness, but the cart and horses, +as well as the smuggled spirits, were confiscated, and the poor blind +man had to make his way on foot to Hindon. + +Another of his recollections is of a family named Rawlings, tenants of +Lower Pertwood Farm, near Hindon, a lonely, desolate-looking house +hidden away in a deep hollow among the high downs. The Farmer Rawlings +of seventy or eighty years ago was a man of singular ideas, and that he +was permitted to put them in practice shows that severe as was the law +in those days, and dreadful the punishments inflicted on offenders, +there was a kind of liberty which does not exist now--the liberty a man +had of doing just what he thought proper in his own house. This Rawlings +had a numerous family, and some died at home and others lived to grow up +and go out into the world under strange names--Faith, Hope, and Charity +were three of his daughters, and Justice, Morality, and Fortitude three +of his sons. Now, for some reason Rawlings objected to the burial of his +dead in the churchyard of the nearest village--Monkton Deverill, and the +story is that he quarrelled with the rector over the question of the +church bell being tolled for the funeral. He would have no bell tolled, +he swore, and the rector would bury no one without the bell. Thereupon +Rawlings had the coffined corpse deposited on a table in an outhouse and +the door made fast. Later there was another death, then a third, and all +three were kept in the same place for several years, and although it was +known to the whole countryside no action was taken by the local +authorities. + +My old informant says that he was often at the farm when he was a young +man, and he used to steal round to the "Dead House," as it was called, +to peep through a crack in the door and see the three coffins resting on +the table in the dim interior. + +Eventually the dead disappeared a little while before the Rawlings gave +up the farm, and it was supposed that the old farmer had buried them in +the night-time in one of the neighbouring chalk-pits, but the spot has +never been discovered. + +One of the stories of the old Wiltshire days I picked up was from an old +woman, aged eighty-seven, in the Wilton workhouse. She has a vivid +recollection of a labourer named Reed, in Odstock, a village on the +Ebble near Salisbury, a stern, silent man, who was a marvel of strength +and endurance. The work in which he most delighted was precisely that +which most labourers hated, before threshing machines came in despite +the action of the "mobs"--threshing out corn with the flail. From +earliest dawn till after dark he would sit or stand in a dim, dusty +barn, monotonously pounding away, without an interval to rest, and +without dinner, and with no food but a piece of bread and a pinch of +salt. Without the salt he would not eat the bread. An hour after all +others had ceased from work he would put on his coat and trudge home to +his wife and family. + +The woman in the workhouse remembers that once, when Reed was a very old +man past work, he came to their cottage for something, and while he +stood waiting at the entrance, a little boy ran in and asked his mother +for a piece of bread and butter with sugar on it. Old Reed glared at +him, and shaking his big stick, exclaimed, "I'd give you sugar with this +if you were my boy!" and so terrible did he look in his anger at the +luxury of the times, that the little boy burst out crying and ran away! + +What chiefly interested me about this old man was that he was a +deer-stealer of the days when that offence was common in the country. It +was not so great a crime as sheep-stealing, for which men were hanged; +taking a deer was punished with nothing worse than hard labour, as a +rule. But Reed was never caught; he would labour his full time and steal +away after dark over the downs, to return in the small hours with a deer +on his back. It was not for his own consumption; he wanted the money for +which he sold it in Salisbury; and it is probable that he was in league +with other poachers, as it is hard to believe that he could capture the +animals single-handed. + +After his death it was found that old Reed had left a hundred pounds to +each of his two surviving daughters, and it was a wonder to everybody +how he had managed not only to bring up a family and keep himself out of +the workhouse to the end of his long life, but to leave so large a sum +of money. One can only suppose that he was a rigid economist and never +had a week's illness, and that by abstaining from beer and tobacco he +was able to save a couple of shillings each week out of his wages of +seven or eight shillings; this, in forty years, would make the two +hundred pounds with something over. + +It is not a very rare thing to find a farm-labourer like old Reed of +Odstock, with not only a strong preference for a particular kind of +work, but a love of it as compelling as that of an artist for his art. +Some friends of mine whom I went to visit over the border in Dorset told +me of an enthusiast of this description who had recently died in the +village. "What a pity you did not come sooner," they said. Alas! it is +nearly always so; on first coming to stay at a village one is told that +it has but just lost its oldest and most interesting inhabitant--a +relic of the olden time. + +This man had taken to the scythe as Reed had to the flail, and was never +happy unless he had a field to mow. He was a very tall old man, so lean +that he looked like a skeleton, the bones covered with a skin as brown +as old leather, and he wore his thin grey hair and snow-white beard very +long. He rode on a white donkey, and was usually seen mounted galloping +down the village street, hatless, his old brown, bare feet and legs +drawn up to keep them from the ground, his scythe over his shoulder. +"Here comes old Father Time," they would cry, as they called him, and +run to the door to gaze with ever fresh delight at the wonderful old man +as he rushed by, kicking and shouting at his donkey to make him go +faster. He was always in a hurry, hunting for work with furious zeal, +and when he got a field to mow so eager was he that he would not sleep +at home, even if it was close by, but would lie down on the grass at the +side of the field and start working at dawn, between two and three +o'clock, quite three hours before the world woke up to its daily toil. + +The name of Reed, the zealous thresher with the flail, serves to remind +me of yet another Reed, a woman who died a few years ago aged +ninety-four, and whose name should be cherished in one of the downland +villages. She was a native of Barford St. Martin on the Nadder, one of +two villages, the other being Wishford, on the Wylye river, the +inhabitants of which have the right to go into Groveley Wood, an immense +forest on the Wilton estate, to obtain wood for burning, each person +being entitled to take home as much wood as he or she can carry. The +people of Wishford take green wood, but those of Barford only dead, they +having bartered their right at a remote period to cut growing trees for +a yearly sum of five pounds, which the lord of the manor still pays to +the village, and, in addition, the right to take dead wood. + +It will be readily understood that this right possessed by the people of +two villages, both situated within a mile of the forest, has been a +perpetual source of annoyance to the noble owners in modern times, since +the strict preservation of game, especially of pheasants, has grown to +be almost a religion to the landowners. Now it came to pass that about +half a century or longer ago, the Pembroke of that time made the happy +discovery, as he imagined, that there was nothing to show that the +Barford people had any right to the dead wood. They had been graciously +allowed to take it, as was the case all over the country at that time, +and that was all. At once he issued an edict prohibiting the taking of +dead wood from the forest by the villagers, and great as the loss was to +them they acquiesced; not a man of Barford St. Martin dared to disobey +the prohibition or raise his voice against it. Grace Reed then +determined to oppose the mighty earl, and accompanied by four other +women of the village boldly went to the wood and gathered their sticks +and brought them home. They were summoned before the magistrates and +fined, and on their refusal to pay were sent to prison; but the very +next day they were liberated and told that a mistake had been made, that +the matter had been inquired into, and it had been found that the people +of Barford did really have the right they had exercised so long to take +dead wood from the forest. + +As a result of the action of these women the right has not been +challenged since, and on my last visit to Barford, a few days before +writing this chapter, I saw three women coming down from the forest with +as much dead wood as they could carry on their heads and backs. But how +near they came to losing their right! It was a bold, an unheard-of thing +which they did, and if there had not been a poor cottage woman with the +spirit to do it at the proper moment the right could never have been +revived. + +Grace Reed's children's children are living at Barford now; they say +that to the very end of her long life she preserved a very clear memory +of the people and events of the village in the old days early in the +last century. They say, too, that in recalling the far past, the old +people and scenes would present themselves so vividly to her mind that +she would speak of them as of recent things, and would say to some one +fifty years younger than herself, "Can't you remember it? Surely you +haven't forgotten it when 'twas the talk of the village!" + +It is a common illusion of the very aged, and I had an amusing instance +of it in my old Hindon friend when he gave me his first impressions of +Bath as he saw it about the year 1835. What astonished him most were the +sedan-chairs, for he had never even heard of such a conveyance, but here +in this city of wonders you met them in every street. Then he added, +"But you've been to Bath and of course you've seen them, and know all +about it." + +About firewood-gathering by the poor in woods and forests, my old friend +of Fonthill Bishop says that the people of the villages adjacent to the +Fonthill and Great Ridge Woods were allowed to take as much dead wood as +they wanted from those places. She was accustomed to go to the Great +Ridge Wood, which was even wilder and more like a natural forest in +those days than it is now. It was fully two miles from her village, a +longish distance to carry a heavy load, and it was her custom after +getting the wood out to bind it firmly in a large barrel-shaped bundle +or faggot, as in that way she could roll it down the smooth steep slopes +of the down and so get her burden home without so much groaning and +sweating. The great wood was then full of hazel-trees, and produced such +an abundance of nuts that from mid-July to September people flocked to +it for the nutting from all the country round, coming even from Bath and +Bristol to load their carts with nuts in sacks for the market. Later, +when the wood began to be more strictly preserved for sporting purposes, +the rabbits were allowed to increase excessively, and during the hard +winters they attacked the hazel-trees, gnawing off the bark, until this +most useful and profitable wood the forest produced--the scrubby oaks +having little value--was well-nigh extirpated. By and by pheasants as +well as rabbits were strictly preserved, and the firewood-gatherers were +excluded altogether. At present you find dead wood lying about all over +the place, abundantly as in any primitive forest, where trees die of old +age or disease, or are blown down or broken off by the winds and are +left to rot on the ground, overgrown with ivy and brambles. But of all +this dead wood not a stick to boil a kettle may be taken by the +neighbouring poor lest the pheasants should be disturbed or a rabbit be +picked up. + +Some more of the old dame's recollections will be given in the next +chapter, showing what the condition of the people was in this district +about the year 1830, when the poor farm-labourers were driven by hunger +and misery to revolt against their masters--the farmers who were +everywhere breaking up the downs with the plough to sow more and still +more corn, who were growing very fat and paying higher and higher rents +to their fat landlords, while the wretched men that drove the plough had +hardly enough to satisfy their hunger. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +OLD WILTSHIRE DAYS--_CONTINUED_ + + An old Wiltshire woman's memories--Her home--Work on a farm--A little + bird-scarer--Housekeeping--The agricultural labourers' rising--Villagers + out of work--Relief work--A game of ball with barley + bannocks--Sheep-stealing--A poor man hanged--Temptations to steal--A + sheep-stealing shepherd--A sheep-stealing farmer--Story of Ebenezer + Garlick--A sheep-stealer at Chitterne--The law and the judges--A "human + devil" in a black cap--How the revolting labourers were punished--A last + scene at Salisbury Court House--Inquest on a murdered man--Policy of the + farmers + + +The story of her early life told by my old friend Joan, aged +ninety-four, will serve to give some idea of the extreme poverty and +hard suffering life of the agricultural labourers during the thirties of +last century, at a time when farmers were exceedingly prosperous and +landlords drawing high rents. + +She was three years old when her mother died, after the birth of a boy, +the last of eleven children. There was a dame's school in their little +village of Fonthill Abbey, but the poverty of the family would have made +it impossible for Joan to attend had it not been for an unselfish person +residing there, a Mr. King, who was anxious that every child should be +taught its letters. He paid for little Joan's schooling from the age of +four to eight; and now, in the evening of her life, when she sits by the +fire with her book, she blesses the memory of the man, dead these +seventy or eighty years, who made this solace possible for her. + +After the age of eight there could be no more school, for now all the +older children had gone out into the world to make their own poor +living, the boys to work on distant farms, the girls to service or to be +wives, and Joan was wanted at home to keep house for her father, to do +the washing, mending, cleaning, cooking, and to be mother to her little +brother as well. + +Her father was a ploughman, at seven shillings a week; but when Joan was +ten he met with a dreadful accident when ploughing with a couple of +young or intractable oxen; in trying to stop them he got entangled in +the ropes and one of his legs badly broken by the plough. As a result it +was six months before he could leave his cottage. The overseer of the +parish, a prosperous farmer who had a large farm a couple of miles away, +came to inquire into the matter and see what was to be done. His +decision was that the man would receive three shillings a week until +able to start work again, and as that would just serve to keep him, the +children must go out to work. Meanwhile, one of the married daughters +had come to look after her father in the cottage, and that set the +little ones free. + +The overseer said he would give them work on his farm and pay them a few +pence apiece and give them their meals; so to his farm they went, +returning each evening home. That was her first place, and from that +time on she was a toiler, indoors and out, but mainly in the fields, +till she was past eighty-five;--seventy-five years of hard work--then +less and less as her wonderful strength diminished, and her sons and +daughters were getting grey, until now at the age of ninety-four she +does very little--practically nothing. + +In that first place she had a very hard master in the farmer and +overseer. He was known in all the neighbourhood as "Devil Turner," and +even at that time, when farmers had their men under their heel as it +were, he was noted for his savage tyrannical disposition; also for a +curious sardonic humour, which displayed itself in the forms of +punishment he inflicted on the workmen who had the ill-luck to offend +him. The man had to take the punishment, however painful or disgraceful, +without a murmur, or go and starve. Every morning thereafter Joan and +her little brother, aged seven, had to be up in time to get to the farm +at five o'clock in the morning, and if it was raining or snowing or +bitterly cold, so much the worse for them, but they had to be there, for +Devil Turner's bad temper was harder to bear than bad weather. Joan was +a girl of all work, in and out of doors, and, in severe weather, when +there was nothing else for her to do, she would be sent into the fields +to gather flints, the coldest of all tasks for her little hands. + +"But what could your little brother, a child of seven, do in such a +place?" I asked. + +She laughed when she told me of her little brother's very first day at +the farm. The farmer was, for a devil, considerate, and gave him +something very light for a beginning, which was to scare the birds from +the ricks. "And if they will come back you must catch them," he said, +and left the little fellow to obey the difficult command as he could. +The birds that worried him most were the fowls, for however often he +hunted them away they would come back again. Eventually, he found some +string, with which he made some little loops fastened to sticks, and +these he arranged on a spot of ground he had cleared, scattering a few +grains of corn on it to attract the "birds." By this means he succeeded +in capturing three of the robbers, and when the farmer came round at +noon to see how he was getting on, the little fellow showed him his +captures. "These are not birds," said the farmer, "they are fowls, and +don't you trouble yourself any more about them, but keep your eye on the +sparrows and little birds and rooks and jackdaws that come to pull the +straws out." + +That was how he started; then from the ricks to bird-scaring in the +fields and to other tasks suited to one of his age, not without much +suffering and many tears. The worst experience was the punishment of +standing motionless for long hours at a time on a chair placed out in +the yard, full in sight of the windows of the house, so that he could be +seen by the inmates; the hardest, the cruellest task that could be +imposed on him would come as a relief after this. Joan suffered no +punishment of that kind; she was very anxious to please her master and +worked hard; but she was an intelligent and spirited child, and as the +sole result of her best efforts was that more and more work was put on +her, she revolted against such injustice, and eventually, tried beyond +endurance, she ran away home and refused to go back to the farm any +more. She found some work in the village; for now her sister had to go +back to her husband, and Joan had to take her place and look after her +father and the house as well as earn something to supplement the three +shillings a week they had to live on. + +After about nine months her father was up and out again and went back to +the plough; for just then a great deal of down was being broken up and +brought under cultivation on account of the high price of wheat and good +ploughmen were in request. He was lame, the injured limb being now +considerably shorter than the other, and when ploughing he could only +manage to keep on his legs by walking with the longer one in the furrow +and the other on the higher ground. But after struggling on for some +months in this way, suffering much pain and his strength declining, he +met with a fresh accident and was laid up once more in his cottage, and +from that time until his death he did no more farm work. Joan and her +little brother lived or slept at home and worked to keep themselves and +him. + +Now in this, her own little story, and in her account of the condition +of the people at that time; also in the histories of other old men and +women whose memories go back as far as hers, supplemented by a little +reading in the newspapers of that day, I can understand how it came +about that these poor labourers, poor, spiritless slaves as they had +been made by long years of extremest poverty and systematic oppression, +rose at last against their hard masters and smashed the agricultural +machines, and burnt ricks and broke into houses to destroy and plunder +their contents. It was a desperate, a mad adventure--these gatherings of +half-starved yokels, armed with sticks and axes, and they were quickly +put down and punished in a way that even William the Bastard would not +have considered as too lenient. But oppression had made them mad; the +introduction of thrashing machines was but the last straw, the +culminating act of the hideous system followed by landlords and their +tenants--the former to get the highest possible rent for his land, the +other to get his labour at the lowest possible rate. It was a compact +between landlord and tenant aimed against the labourer. It was not +merely the fact that the wages of a strong man were only seven shillings +a week at the outside, a sum barely sufficient to keep him and his +family from starvation and rags (as a fact it was not enough, and but +for a little poaching and stealing he could not have lived), but it was +customary, especially on the small farms, to get rid of the men after +the harvest and leave them to exist the best way they could during the +bitter winter months. Thus every village, as a rule, had its dozen or +twenty or more men thrown out each year--good steady men, with families +dependent on them; and besides these there were the aged and weaklings +and the lads who had not yet got a place. The misery of these +out-of-work labourers was extreme. They would go to the woods and gather +faggots of dead wood, which they would try to sell in the villages; but +there were few who could afford to buy of them; and at night they would +skulk about the fields to rob a swede or two to satisfy the cravings of +hunger. + +In some parishes the farmer overseers were allowed to give relief +work--out of the rates, it goes without saying--to these unemployed men +of the village who had been discharged in October or November and would +be wanted again when the winter was over. They would be put to +flint-gathering in the fields, their wages being four shillings a week. +Some of the very old people of Winterbourne Bishop, when speaking of the +principal food of the labourers at that time, the barley bannock and its +exceeding toughness, gave me an amusing account of a game of balls +invented by the flint-gatherers, just for the sake of a little fun +during their long weary day in the fields, especially in cold, frosty +weather. The men would take their dinners with them, consisting of a few +barley balls or cakes, in their coat pockets, and at noon they would +gather at one spot to enjoy their meal, and seat themselves on the +ground in a very wide circle, the men about ten yards apart, then each +one would produce his bannocks and start throwing, aiming at some other +man's face; there were hits and misses and great excitement and hilarity +for twenty or thirty minutes, after which the earth and gravel adhering +to the balls would be wiped off, and they would set themselves to the +hard task of masticating and swallowing the heavy stuff. + +At sunset they would go home to a supper of more barley bannocks, washed +down with hot water flavoured with some aromatic herb or weed, and then +straight to bed to get warm, for there was little firing. + +It was not strange that sheep-stealing was one of the commonest offences +against the law at that time, in spite of the dreadful penalty. Hunger +made the people reckless. My old friend Joan, and other old persons, +have said to me that it appeared in those days that the men were +strangely indifferent and did not seem to care whether they were hanged +or not. It is true they did not hang very many of them--the judge, as a +rule, after putting on his black cap and ordering them to the gallows, +would send in a recommendation to mercy for most of them; but the mercy +of that time was like that of the wicked, exceedingly cruel. Instead of +swinging, it was transportation for life, or for fourteen, and, at the +very least, seven years. Those who have read Clarke's terrible book "For +the Term of His Natural Life" know (in a way) what these poor Wiltshire +labourers, who in most cases were never more heard of by their wives and +children, were sent to endure in Australia and Tasmania. + +And some were hanged; my friend Joan named some people she knows in the +neighbourhood who are the grandchildren of a young man with a wife and +family of small children who was hanged at Salisbury. She had a vivid +recollection of this case because it had seemed so hard, the man having +been maddened by want when he took a sheep; also because when he was +hanged his poor young wife travelled to the place of slaughter to beg +for his body, and had it brought home and buried decently in the village +churchyard. + +How great the temptation to steal sheep must have been, anyone may know +now by merely walking about among the fields in this part of the country +to see how the sheep are folded and left by night unguarded, often at +long distances from the village, in distant fields and on the downs. +Even in the worst times it was never customary, never thought necessary, +to guard the flock by night. Many cases could be given to show how easy +it was to steal sheep. One quite recent, about twenty years ago, is of a +shepherd who was frequently sent with sheep to the fairs, and who on his +way to Wilton fair with a flock one night turned aside to open a fold +and let out nineteen sheep. On arriving at the fair he took out the +stolen sheep and sold them to a butcher of his acquaintance who sent +them up to London. But he had taken too many from one flock; they were +quickly missed, and by some lucky chance it was found out and the +shepherd arrested. He was sentenced to eight months' hard labour, and it +came out during the trial that this poor shepherd, whose wages were +fourteen shillings a week, had a sum of L400 to his credit in a +Salisbury bank! + +Another case which dates far back is that of a farmer named Day, who +employed a shepherd or drover to take sheep to the fairs and markets and +steal sheep for him on the way. It is said that he went on at this game +for years before it was discovered. Eventually master and man quarrelled +and the drover gave information, whereupon Day was arrested and lodged +in Fisherton Jail at Salisbury. Later he was sent to take his trial at +Devizes, on horseback, accompanied by two constables. At the "Druid's +Head," a public-house on the way, the three travellers alighted for +refreshments, and there Day succeeded in giving them the slip, and +jumping on a fast horse, standing ready saddled for him, made his +escape. Farmer Day never returned to the Plain and was never heard of +again. + +There is an element of humour in some of the sheep-stealing stories of +the old days. At one village where I often stayed, I heard about a +certain Ebenezer Garlick, who was commonly called, in allusion no doubt +to his surname, "Sweet Vi'lets." He was a sober, hard-working man, an +example to most, but there was this against him, that he cherished a +very close friendship with a poor, disreputable, drunken loafer +nicknamed "Flittermouse," who spent most of his time hanging about the +old coaching inn at the place for the sake of tips. Sweet Vi'lets was +always giving coppers and sixpences to this man, but one day they fell +out when Flittermouse begged for a shilling. He must, he said, have a +shilling, he couldn't do with less, and when the other refused he +followed him, demanding the money with abusive words, to everybody's +astonishment. Finally Sweet Vi'lets turned on him and told him to go to +the devil. Flittermouse in a rage went straight to the constable and +denounced his patron as a sheep-stealer. He, Flittermouse, had been his +servant and helper, and on the very last occasion of stealing a sheep he +had got rid of the skin and offal by throwing them down an old disused +well at the top of the village street. To the well the constable went +with ropes and hooks, and succeeded in fishing up the remains described, +and he thereupon arrested Garlick and took him before a magistrate, who +committed him for trial. Flittermouse was the only witness for the +prosecution, and the judge in his summing up said that, taking into +consideration Garlick's known character in the village as a sober, +diligent, honest man, it would be a little too much to hang him on the +unsupported testimony of a creature like Flittermouse, who was half fool +and half scoundrel. The jury, pleased and very much surprised at being +directed to let a man off, obediently returned a verdict of Not Guilty, +and Sweet Vi'lets returned from Salisbury triumphant, to be +congratulated on his escape by all the villagers, who, however, slyly +winked and smiled at one another. + +Of sheep-stealing stories I will relate one more--a case which never +came into court and was never discovered. It was related to me by a +middle-aged man, a shepherd of Warminster, who had it from his father, a +shepherd of Chitterne, one of the lonely, isolated villages on Salisbury +Plain, between the Avon and the Wylye. His father had it from the person +who committed the crime and was anxious to tell it to some one, and knew +that the shepherd was his true friend, a silent, safe man. He was a +farm-labourer, named Shergold--one of the South Wiltshire surnames very +common in the early part of last century, which now appear to be dying +out--described as a very big, powerful man, full of life and energy. He +had a wife and several young children to keep, and the time was near +mid-winter; Shergold was out of work, having been discharged from the +farm at the end of the harvest; it was an exceptionally cold season and +there was no food and no firing in the house. + +One evening in late December a drover arrived at Chitterne with a flock +of sheep which he was driving to Tilshead, another downland village +several miles away. He was anxious to get to Tilshead that night and +wanted a man to help him. Shergold was on the spot and undertook to go +with him for the sum of fourpence. They set out when it was getting +dark; the sheep were put on the road, the drover going before the flock +and Shergold following at the tail. It was a cold, cloudy night, +threatening snow, and so dark that he could hardly distinguish the dim +forms of even the hindmost sheep, and by and by the temptation to steal +one assailed him. For how easy it would be for him to do it! With his +tremendous strength he could kill and hide a sheep very quickly without +making any sound whatever to alarm the drover. He was very far ahead; +Shergold could judge the distance by the sound of his voice when he +uttered a call or shout from time to time, and by the barking of the +dog, as he flew up and down, first on one side of the road, then on the +other, to keep the flock well on it. And he thought of what a sheep +would be to him and to his hungry ones at home until the temptation was +too strong, and suddenly lifting his big, heavy stick he brought it down +with such force on the head of a sheep as to drop it with its skull +crushed, dead as a stone. Hastily picking it up he ran a few yards away, +and placed it among the furze-bushes, intending to take it home on his +way back, and then returned to the flock. + +They arrived at Tilshead in the small hours, and after receiving his +fourpence he started for home, walking rapidly and then running to be in +time, but when he got back to where the sheep was lying the dawn was +coming, and he knew that before he could get to Chitterne with that +heavy burden on his back people would be getting up in the village and +he would perhaps be seen. The only thing to do was to hide the sheep and +return for it on the following night. Accordingly he carried it away a +couple of hundred yards to a pit or small hollow in the down full of +bramble and furze-bushes, and here he concealed it, covering it with a +mass of dead bracken and herbage, and left it. That afternoon the +long-threatening snow began to fall, and with snow on the ground he +dared not go to recover his sheep, since his footprints would betray +him; he must wait once more for the snow to melt. But the snow fell all +night, and what must his feelings have been when he looked at it still +falling in the morning and knew that he could have gone for the sheep +with safety, since all traces would have been quickly obliterated! + +Once more there was nothing to do but wait patiently for the snow to +cease falling and for the thaw. But how intolerable it was; for the +weather continued bitterly cold for many days, and the whole country was +white. During those hungry days even that poor comfort of sleeping or +dozing away the time was denied him, for the danger of discovery was +ever present to his mind, and Shergold was not one of the callous men +who had become indifferent to their fate; it was his first crime, and he +loved his own life and his wife and children, crying to him for food. +And the food for them was lying there on the down, close by, and he +could not get it! Roast mutton, boiled mutton--mutton in a dozen +delicious forms--the thought of it was as distressing, as maddening, as +that of the peril he was in. + +It was a full fortnight before the wished thaw came; then with fear and +trembling he went for his sheep, only to find that it had been pulled to +pieces and the flesh devoured by dogs and foxes! + +From these memories of the old villagers I turn to the newspapers of the +day to make a few citations. + +The law as it was did not distinguish between a case of the kind just +related, of the starving, sorely tempted Shergold, and that of the +systematic thief: sheep-stealing was a capital offence and the man must +hang, unless recommended to mercy, and we know what was meant by "mercy" +in those days. That so barbarous a law existed within memory of people +to be found living in most villages appears almost incredible to us; but +despite the recommendations to "mercy" usual in a large majority of +cases, the law of that time was not more horrible than the temper of the +men who administered it. There are good and bad among all, and in all +professions, but there is also a black spot in most, possibly in all +hearts, which may be developed to almost any extent, and change the +justest, wisest, most moral men into "human devils"--the phrase invented +by Canon Wilberforce in another connexion. In reading the old reports +and the expressions used by the judges in their summings up and +sentences, it is impossible not to believe that the awful power they +possessed, and its constant exercise, had not only produced the +inevitable hardening effect, but had made them cruel in the true sense +of the word. Their pleasure in passing dreadful sentences was very +thinly disguised, indeed, by certain lofty conventional phrases as to +the necessity of upholding the law, morality, and religion; they were, +indeed, as familiar with the name of the Deity as any ranter in a +conventicle, and the "enormity of the crime" was an expression as +constantly used in the case of the theft of a loaf of bread, or of an +old coat left hanging on a hedge, by some ill-clad, half-starved wretch, +as in cases of burglary, arson, rape, and murder. + +It is surprising to find how very few the real crimes were in those +days, despite the misery of the people; that nearly all the "crimes" for +which men were sentenced to the gallows and to transportation for life, +or for long terms, were offences which would now be sufficiently +punished by a few weeks', or even a few days', imprisonment. Thus in +April 1825, I note that Mr. Justice Park commented on the heavy +appearance of the calendar. It was not so much the number (170) of the +offenders that excited his concern as it was the nature of the crimes +with which they were charged. The worst crime in this instance was +sheep-stealing! + +Again, this same Mr. Justice Park, at the Spring Assizes at Salisbury +1827, said that though the calendar was a heavy one, he was happy to +find on looking at the depositions of the principal cases, that they +were not of a very serious character. Nevertheless he passed sentence of +death on twenty-eight persons, among them being one for stealing half a +crown! + +Of the twenty-eight all but three were eventually reprieved, one of the +fated three being a youth of nineteen, who was charged with stealing a +mare and pleaded guilty in spite of a warning from the judge not to do +so. This irritated the great man who had the power of life and death in +his hand. In passing sentence the judge "expatiated on the prevalence of +the crime of horse-stealing and the necessity of making an example. The +enormity of Read's crime rendered him a proper example, and he would +therefore hold out no hope of mercy towards him." As to the plea of +guilty, he remarked that nowadays too many persons pleaded guilty, +deluded with the hope that it would be taken into consideration and they +would escape the severer penalty. He was determined to put a stop to +that sort of thing; if Read had not pleaded guilty no doubt some +extenuating circumstance would have come up during the trial and he +would have saved his life. + +There, if ever, spoke the "human devil" in a black cap! + +I find another case of a sentence of transportation for life on a youth +of eighteen, named Edward Baker, for stealing a pocket-handkerchief. Had +he pleaded guilty it might have been worse for him. + +At the Salisbury Spring Assizes, 1830, Mr. Justice Gazalee, addressing +the grand jury, said that none of the crimes appeared to be marked with +circumstances of great moral turpitude. The prisoners numbered one +hundred and thirty; he passed sentences of death on twenty-nine, life +transportations on five, fourteen years on five, seven years on eleven, +and various terms of hard labour on the others. + +The severity of the magistrates at the quarter-sessions was equally +revolting. I notice in one case, where the leading magistrate on the +bench was a great local magnate, an M.P. for Salisbury, etc., a poor +fellow with the unfortunate name of Moses Snook was charged with +stealing a plank ten feet long, the property of the aforesaid local +magnate, M.P., etc., and sentenced to fourteen years' transportation. +Sentenced by the man who owned the plank, worth perhaps a shilling or +two! + +When such was the law of the land and the temper of those who +administered it--judges and magistrates or landlords--what must the +misery of the people have been to cause them to rise in revolt against +their masters! They did nothing outrageous even in the height of their +frenzy; they smashed the thrashing machines, burnt some ricks, while the +maddest of them broke into a few houses and destroyed their contents; +but they injured no man; yet they knew what they were facing--the +gallows or transportation to the penal settlements ready for their +reception at the Antipodes. It is a pity that the history of this rising +of the agricultural labourer, the most patient and submissive of men, +has never been written. Nothing, in fact, has ever been said of it +except from the point of view of landowners and farmers, but there is +ample material for a truer and a moving narrative, not only in the brief +reports in the papers of the time, but also in the memories of many +persons still living, and of their children and children's children, +preserved in many a cottage throughout the south of England. + +Hopeless as the revolt was and quickly suppressed, it had served to +alarm the landlords and their tenants, and taken in conjunction with +other outbreaks, notably at Bristol, it produced a sense of anxiety in +the mind of the country generally. The feeling found a somewhat amusing +expression in the House of Commons, in a motion of Mr. Perceval, on 14th +February 1831. This was to move an address to His Majesty to appoint a +day for a general fast throughout the United Kingdom. He said that "the +state of the country called for a measure like this--that it was a state +of political and religious disorganization--that the elements of the +Constitution were being hourly loosened--that in this land there was no +attachment, no control, no humility of spirit, no mutual confidence +between the poor man and the rich, the employer and the employed; but +fear and mistrust and aversion, where, in the time of our fathers, there +was nothing but brotherly love and rejoicing before the Lord." + +The House was cynical and smilingly put the matter by, but the anxiety +was manifested plainly enough in the treatment meted out to the poor men +who had been arrested and were tried before the Special Commissions sent +down to Salisbury, Winchester, and other towns. No doubt it was a +pleasant time for the judges; at Salisbury thirty-four poor fellows were +sentenced to death; thirty-three to be transported for life, ten for +fourteen years, and so on. + +And here is one last little scene about which the reports in the +newspapers of the time say nothing, but which I have from one who +witnessed and clearly remembers it, a woman of ninety-five, whose whole +life has been passed at a village within sound of the Salisbury +Cathedral bells. + +It was when the trial was ended, when those who were found guilty and +had been sentenced were brought out of the court-house to be taken back +to prison, and from all over the Plain and from all parts of Wiltshire +their womenfolk had come to learn their fate, and were gathered, a pale, +anxious, weeping crowd, outside the gates. The sentenced men came out +looking eagerly at the people until they recognized their own and cried +out to them to be of good cheer. "'Tis hanging for me," one would say, +"but there'll perhaps be a recommendation to mercy, so don't you fret +till you know." Then another: "Don't go on so, old mother, 'tis only for +life I'm sent." And yet another: "Don't you cry, old girl, 'tis only +fourteen years I've got, and maybe I'll live to see you all again." And +so on, as they filed out past their weeping women on their way to +Fisherton Jail, to be taken thence to the transports in Portsmouth and +Plymouth harbours waiting to convey their living freights to that hell +on earth so far from home. Not criminals but good, brave men were +these!--Wiltshiremen of that strong, enduring, patient class, who not +only as labourers on the land but on many a hard-fought field in many +parts of the world from of old down to our war of a few years ago in +Africa, have shown the stuff that was in them! + +But, alas! for the poor women who were left--for the old mother who +could never hope to see her boy again, and for the wife and her children +who waited and hoped against hope through long toiling years, + + And dreamed and started as they slept + For joy that he was come, + +but waking saw his face no more. Very few, so far as I can make out, not +more than one in five or six, ever returned. + +This, it may be said, was only what they might have expected, the law +being what it was--just the ordinary thing. The hideous part of the +business was that, as an effect of the alarm created in the minds of +those who feared injury to their property and loss of power to oppress +the poor labourers, there was money in plenty subscribed to hire +witnesses for the prosecution. It was necessary to strike terror into +the people. The smell of blood-money brought out a number of scoundrels +who for a few pounds were only too ready to swear away the life of any +man, and it was notorious that numbers of poor fellows were condemned in +this way. + +One incident as to this point may be given in conclusion of this chapter +about old unhappy things. It relates not to one of those who were +sentenced to the gallows or to transportation, but to an inquest and the +treatment of the dead. + +I have spoken in the last chapter of the mob that visited Hindon, +Fonthill, and other villages. They ended their round at Pytt House, near +Tisbury, where they broke up the machinery. On that occasion a body of +yeomanry came on the scene, but arrived only after the mob had +accomplished its purpose of breaking up the thrashing machines. When the +troops appeared the "rioters," as they were called, made off into the +woods and escaped; but before they fled one of them had met his death. A +number of persons from the farms and villages around had gathered at the +spot and were looking on, when one, a farmer from the neighbouring +village of Chilmark, snatched a gun from a gamekeeper's hand and shot +one of the rioters, killing him dead. On 27th January 1831 an inquest +was held on the body, and some one was found to swear that the man had +been shot by one of the yeomanry, although it was known to everybody +that, when the man was shot, the troop had not yet arrived on the scene. +The man, this witness stated, had attacked, or threatened, one of the +soldiers with his stick, and had been shot. This was sufficient for the +coroner; he instructed his jury to bring in a verdict of "Justifiable +homicide," which they obediently did. "This verdict," the coroner then +said, "entailed the same consequences as an act of _felo-de-se_, +and he felt that he could not give a warrant for the burial of the +deceased. However painful the duty devolved on him in thus adding to the +sorrows of the surviving relations, the law appeared too clear to him to +admit of an alternative." + +The coroner was just as eager as the judges to exhibit his zeal for the +gentry, who were being injured in their interests by these disturbances; +and though he could not hang anybody, being only a coroner, he could at +any rate kick the one corpse brought before him. Doubtless the +"surviving relations," for whose sorrows he had expressed sympathy, +carried the poor murdered man off by night to hide him somewhere in the +earth. + +After the law had been thus vindicated and all the business done with, +even to the corpse-kicking by the coroner, the farmers were still +anxious, and began to show it by holding meetings and discussions on the +condition of the labourers. Everybody said that the men had been very +properly punished; but at the same time it was admitted that they had +some reason for their discontent, that, with bread so dear, it was +hardly possible for a man with a family to support himself on seven +shillings a week, and it was generally agreed to raise the wages one +shilling. But by and by when the anxiety had quite died out, when it was +found that the men were more submissive than they had ever been, the +lesson they had received having sunk deep into their minds, they cut off +the extra shilling and wages were what they had been--seven shillings a +week for a hard-working seasoned labourer, with a family to keep, and +from four to six shillings for young unmarried men and for women, even +for those who did as much work in the field as any man. + +But there were no more risings. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +THE SHEPHERD'S RETURN + + Yarnborough Castle sheep-fair--Caleb leaves Doveton and goes into + Dorset--A land of strange happenings--He is home-sick and returns to + Winterbourne Bishop--Joseph, his brother, leaves home--His meeting with + Caleb's old master--Settles in Dorset and is joined by his sister + Hannah--They marry and have children--I go to look for them--Joseph + Bawcombe in extreme old age--Hannah in decline + + +Caleb's shepherding period in Doveton came to a somewhat sudden +conclusion. It was nearing the end of August and he was beginning to +think about the sheep which would have to be taken to the "Castle" +sheep-fair on 5th October, and it appeared strange to him that his +master had so far said nothing to him on the subject. By "Castle" he +meant Yarnborough Castle, the name of a vast prehistoric earthwork on +one of the high downs between Warminster and Amesbury. There is no +village there and no house near; it is nothing but an immense circular +wall and trench, inside of which the fair is held. It was formerly one +of the most important sheep-fairs in the country, but for the last two +or three decades has been falling off and is now of little account. When +Bawcombe was shepherd at Doveton it was still great, and when he first +went there as Mr. Ellerby's head-shepherd he found himself regarded as a +person of considerable importance at the Castle. Before setting out with +the sheep he asked for his master's instructions, and was told that when +he got to the ground he would be directed by the persons in charge to +the proper place. The Ellerbys, he said, had exhibited and sold their +sheep there for a period of eighty-eight years, without missing a year, +and always at the same spot. Every person visiting the fair on business +knew just where to find the Ellerbys' sheep, and, he added with pride, +they expected them to be the best sheep at the Castle. + +One day Mr. Ellerby came to have a talk with his shepherd, and in reply +to a remark of the latter about the October sheep-fair he said that he +would have no sheep to send. "No sheep to send, master!" exclaimed Caleb +in amazement. Then Mr. Ellerby told him that he had taken a notion into +his head that he wanted to go abroad with his wife for a time, and that +some person had just made him so good an offer for all his sheep that he +was going to accept it, so that for the first time in eighty-eight years +there would be no sheep from Doveton Farm at the Castle fair. When he +came back he would buy again; but if he could live away from the farm, +he would probably never come back--he would sell it. + +Caleb went home with a heavy heart and told his wife. It grieved her, +too, because of her feeling for Mrs. Ellerby, but in a little while she +set herself to comfort him. "Why, what's wrong about it?" she asked. +"'Twill be more 'n three months before the year's out, and master'll +pay for all the time sure, and we can go home to Bishop and bide a +little without work, and see if that father of yours has forgiven 'ee +for going away to Warminster." + +So they comforted themselves, and were beginning to think with pleasure +of home when Mr. Ellerby informed his shepherd that a friend of his, a +good man though not a rich one, was anxious to take him as +head-shepherd, with good wages and a good cottage rent free. The only +drawback for the Bawcombes was that it would take them still farther +from home, for the farm was in Dorset, although quite near the Wiltshire +border. + +Eventually they accepted the offer, and by the middle of September were +once more settled down in what was to them a strange land. How strange +it must have seemed to Caleb, how far removed from home and all familiar +things, when even to this day, more than forty years later, he speaks of +it as the ordinary modern man might speak of a year's residence in +Uganda, Tierra del Fuego, or the Andaman Islands! It was a foreign +country, and the ways of the people were strange to him, and it was a +land of very strange things. One of the strangest was an old ruined +church in the neighbourhood of the farm where he was shepherd. It was +roofless, more than half fallen down, and all the standing portion, with +the tower, overgrown with old ivy; the building itself stood in the +centre of a huge round earthwork and trench, with large barrows on the +ground outside the circle. Concerning this church he had a wonderful +story: its decay and ruin had come about after the great bell in the +tower had mysteriously disappeared, stolen one stormy night, it was +believed, by the Devil himself. The stolen bell, it was discovered, had +been flung into a small river at a distance of some miles from the +church, and there in summer-time, when the water was low, it could be +distinctly seen lying half buried in the mud at the bottom. But all the +king's horses and all the king's men couldn't pull it out; the Devil, +who pulled the other way, was strongest. Eventually some wise person +said that a team of white oxen would be able to pull it out, and after +much seeking the white oxen were obtained, and thick ropes were tied to +the sunken bell, and the cattle were goaded and yelled at, and tugged +and strained until the bell came up and was finally drawn right up to +the top of the steep, cliff-like bank of the stream. Then one of the +teamsters shouted in triumph, "Now we've got out the bell, in spite of +all the devils in hell," and no sooner had he spoken the bold words than +the ropes parted, and back tumbled the bell to its old place at the +bottom of the river, where it remains to this day. Caleb had once met a +man in those parts who assured him that he had seen the bell with his +own eyes, lying nearly buried in mud at the bottom of the stream. + +The legend is not in the history of Dorset; a much more prosaic account +of the disappearance of the bell is there given, in which the Devil took +no part unless he was at the back of the bad men who were concerned in +the business. But in this strange, remote country, outside of +"Wiltsheer," Bawcombe was in a region where anything might have +happened, where the very soil and pasture were unlike that of his native +country, and the mud adhered to his boots in a most unaccountable way. +It was almost uncanny. Doubtless he was home-sick, for a month or two +before the end of the year he asked his master to look out for another +shepherd. + +This was a great disappointment to the farmer: he had gone a distance +from home to secure a good shepherd, and had hoped to keep him +permanently, and now after a single year he was going to lose him. What +did the shepherd want? He would do anything to please him, and begged +him to stay another year. But no, his mind was set on going back to his +own native village and to his own people. And so when his long year was +ended he took his crook and set out over the hills and valleys, followed +by a cart containing his "sticks" and wife and children. And at home +with his old parents and his people he was happy once more; in a short +time he found a place as head-shepherd, with a cottage in the village, +and followed his flock on the old familiar down, and everything again +was as it had been from the beginning of life and as he desired it to be +even to the end. + +His return resulted incidentally in other changes and migrations in the +Bawcombe family. His elder brother Joseph, unmarried still although his +senior by about eight years, had not got on well at home. He was a +person of a peculiar disposition, so silent with so fixed and unsmiling +an expression, that he gave the idea of a stolid, thick-skinned man, but +at bottom he was of a sensitive nature, and feeling that his master did +not treat him properly, he gave up his place and was for a long time +without one. He was singularly attentive to all that fell from Caleb +about his wide wanderings and strange experiences, especially in the +distant Dorset country; and at length, about a year after his brother's +return, he announced his intention of going away from his native place +for good to seek his fortune in some distant place where his services +would perhaps be better appreciated. When asked where he intended going, +he answered that he was going to look for a place in that part of Dorset +where Caleb had been shepherd for a year and had been so highly thought +of. + +Now Joseph, being a single man, had no "sticks"; all his possessions +went into a bundle, which he carried tied to his crook, and with his +sheep-dog following at his heels he set forth early one morning on the +most important adventure of his life. Then occurred an instance of what +we call a coincidence, but which the shepherd of the downs, nursed in +the old beliefs and traditions, prefers to regard as an act of +providence. + +About noon he was trudging along in the turnpike road when he was met by +a farmer driving in a trap, who pulled up to speak to him and asked him +if he could say how far it was to Winterbourne Bishop. Joseph replied +that it was about fourteen miles--he had left Bishop that morning. + +Then the farmer asked him if he knew a man there named Caleb Bawcombe, +and if he had a place as shepherd there, as he was now on his way to +look for him and to try and persuade him to go back to Dorset, where he +had been his head-shepherd for the space of a year. + +Joseph said that Caleb had a place as head-shepherd on a farm at Bishop, +that he was satisfied with it, and was, moreover, one that preferred to +bide in his native place. + +The farmer was disappointed, and the other added, "Maybe you've heard +Caleb speak of his elder brother Joseph--I be he." + +"What!" exclaimed the farmer. "You're Caleb's brother! Where be going +then?--to a new place?" + +"I've got no place; I be going to look for a place in Dorsetsheer." + +"'Tis strange to hear you say that," exclaimed the farmer. He was going, +he said, to see Caleb, and if he would not or could not go back to +Dorset himself to ask him to recommend some man of the village to him; +for he was tired of the ways of the shepherds of his own part of the +country, and his heart was set on getting a man from Caleb's village, +where shepherds understood sheep and knew their work. "Now look here, +shepherd," he continued, "if you'll engage yourself to me for a year +I'll go no farther, but take you right back with me in the trap." + +The shepherd was very glad to accept the offer; he devoutly believed +that in making it the farmer was but acting in accordance with the will +of a Power that was mindful of man and kept watch on him, even on His +poor servant Joseph, who had left his home and people to be a stranger +in a strange land. + +So well did servant and master agree that Joseph never had occasion to +look for another place; when his master died an old man, his son +succeeded him as tenant of the farm, and he continued with the son until +he was past work. Before his first year was out, his younger sister, +Hannah, came to live with him and keep house, and eventually they both +got married, Joseph to a young woman of the place, and Hannah to a small +working farmer whose farm was about a mile from the village. Children +were born to both, and in time grew up, Joseph's sons following their +father's vocation, while Hannah's were brought up to work on the farm. +And some of them, too, got married in time and had children of their +own. + +These are the main incidents in the lives of Joseph and Hannah, related +to me at different times by their brother; he had followed their +fortunes from a distance, sometimes getting a message, or hearing of +them incidentally, but he did not see them. Joseph never returned to his +native village, and the visits of Hannah to her old home had been few +and had long ceased. But he cherished a deep enduring affection for +both; he was always anxiously waiting and hoping for tidings of them, +for Joseph was now a feeble old man living with one of his sons, and +Hannah, long a widow, was in declining health, but still kept the farm, +assisted by one of her sons and two unmarried daughters. Though he had +not heard for a long time it never occurred to him to write, nor did +they ever write to him. + +Then, when I was staying at Winterbourne Bishop and had the intention of +shortly paying a visit to Caleb, it occurred to me one day to go into +Dorset and look for these absent ones, so as to be able to give him an +account of their state. It was not a long journey, and arrived at the +village I soon found a son of Joseph, a fine-looking man, who took me to +his cottage, where his wife led me into the old shepherd's room. I found +him very aged in appearance, with a grey face and sunken cheeks, lying +on his bed and breathing with difficulty; but when I spoke to him of +Caleb a light of joy came into his eyes, and he raised himself on his +pillows, and questioned me eagerly about his brother's state and family, +and begged me to assure Caleb that he was still quite well, although too +feeble to get about much, and that his children were taking good care of +him. + +From the old brother I went on to seek the young sister--there was a +difference of more than twenty years in their respective ages--and found +her at dinner in the large old farm-house kitchen. At all events she was +presiding, the others present being her son, their hired labourer, the +farm boy, and two unmarried daughters. She herself tasted no food. I +joined them at their meal, and it gladdened and saddened me at the same +time to be with this woman, for she was Caleb's sister, and was +attractive in herself, looking strangely young for her age, with +beautiful dark, soft eyes and but few white threads in her abundant +black hair. The attraction was also in her voice and speech and manner; +but, alas! there was that in her face which was painful to witness--the +signs of long suffering, of nights that bring no refreshment, an +expression in the eyes of one that is looking anxiously out into the dim +distance--a vast unbounded prospect, but with clouds and darkness +resting on it. + +It was not without a feeling of heaviness at the heart that I said +good-bye to her; nor was I surprised when, less than a year later, Caleb +received news of her death. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +THE DARK PEOPLE OF THE VILLAGE + + How the materials for this book were obtained--The hedgehog-hunter--A + gipsy taste--History of a dark-skinned family--Hedgehog eaters--Half-bred + and true gipsies--Perfect health--Eating carrion--Mysterious knowledge + and faculties--The three dark Wiltshire types--Story of another dark + man of the village--Account of Liddy--His shepherding--A happy life + with horses--Dies of a broken heart--His daughter + + +I have sometimes laughed to myself when thinking how a large part of the +material composing this book was collected. It came to me in +conversations, at intervals, during several years, with the shepherd. In +his long life in his native village, a good deal of it spent on the +quiet down, he had seen many things it was or would be interesting to +hear; the things which had interested him, too, at the time, and had +fallen into oblivion, yet might be recovered. I discovered that it was +of little use to question him: the one valuable recollection he +possessed on any subject would, as a rule, not be available when wanted; +it would lie just beneath the surface so to speak, and he would pass and +repass over the ground without seeing it. He would not know that it was +there; it would be like the acorn which a jay or squirrel has hidden and +forgotten all about, which he will nevertheless recover some day if by +chance something occurs to remind him of it. The only method was to talk +about the things he knew, and when by chance he was reminded of some old +experience or some little observation or incident worth hearing, to make +a note of it, then wait patiently for something else. It was a very slow +process, but it is not unlike the one we practise always with regard to +wild nature. We are not in a hurry, but are always watchful, with eyes +and ears and mind open to what may come; it is a mental habit, and when +nothing comes we are not disappointed--the act of watching has been a +sufficient pleasure: and when something does come we take it joyfully as +if it were a gift--a valuable object picked up by chance in our walks. + +When I turned into the shepherd's cottage, if it was in winter and he +was sitting by the fire, I would sit and smoke with him, and if we were +in a talking mood I would tell him where I had been and what I had heard +and seen, on the heath, in the woods, in the village, or anywhere, on +the chance of its reminding him of something worth hearing in his past +life. + +One Sunday morning, in the late summer, during one of my visits to him, +I was out walking in the woods and found a man of the village, a farm +labourer, with his small boy hunting for hedgehogs. He had caught and +killed two, which the boy was carrying. He told me he was very fond of +the flesh of hedgehogs--"pigs," he called them for short; he said he +would not exchange one for a rabbit. He always spent his holidays +pig-hunting; he had no dog and didn't want one; he found them himself, +and his method was to look for the kind of place in which they were +accustomed to live--a thick mass of bramble growing at the side of an +old ditch as a rule. He would force his way into it and, moving round +and round, trample down the roots and loose earth and dead leaves with +his heavy iron-shod boots until he broke into the nest or cell of the +spiny little beast hidden away under the bush. + +He was a short, broad-faced man, with a brown skin, black hair, and +intensely black eyes. Talking with the shepherd that evening I told him +of the encounter, and remarked that the man was probably a gipsy in +blood, although a labourer, living in the village and married to a woman +with blue eyes who belonged to the place. + +This incident reminded him of a family, named Targett, in his native +village, consisting of four brothers and a sister. He knew them first +when he was a boy himself, but could not remember their parents. "It +seemed as if they didn't have any," he said. The four brothers were very +much alike: short, with broad faces, black eyes and hair, and brown +skins. They were good workers, but somehow they were never treated by +the farmers like the other men. They were paid less wages--as much as +two to four shillings a week less per man--and made to do things that +others would not do, and generally imposed upon. It was known to every +employer of labour in the place that they could be imposed upon; yet +they were not fools, and occasionally if their master went too far in +bullying and abusing them and compelling them to work overtime every +day, they would have sudden violent outbursts of rage and go off without +any pay at all. What became of their sister he never knew: but none of +the four brothers ever married; they lived together always, and two died +in the village, the other two going to finish their lives in the +workhouse. + +One of the curious things about these brothers was that they had a +passion for eating hedgehogs. They had it from boyhood, and as boys used +to go a distance from home and spend the day hunting in hedges and +thickets. When they captured a hedgehog they would make a small fire in +some sheltered spot and roast it, and while it was roasting one of them +would go to the nearest cottage to beg for a pinch of salt, which was +generally given. + +These, too, I said, must have been gipsies, at all events on one side. +Where there is a cross the gipsy strain is generally strongest, although +the children, if brought up in the community, often remain in it all +their lives; but they are never quite of it. Their love of wildness and +of eating wild flesh remains in them, and it is also probable that there +is an instability of character, a restlessness, which the small farmers +who usually employ such men know and trade on; the gipsy who takes to +farm work must not look for the same treatment as the big-framed, +white-skinned man who is as strong, enduring, and unchangeable as a +draught horse or ox, and constant as the sun itself. + +The gipsy element is found in many if not most villages in the south of +England. I know one large scattered village where it appears +predominant--as dirty and disorderly-looking a place as can be imagined, +the ground round every cottage resembling a gipsy camp, but worse owing +to its greater litter of old rags and rubbish strewn about. But the +people, like all gipsies, are not so poor as they look, and most of the +cottagers keep a trap and pony with which they scour the country for +many miles around in quest of bones, rags, and bottles, and anything +else they can buy for a few pence, also anything they can "pick up" for +nothing. + +This is almost the only kind of settled life which a man with a good +deal of gipsy blood in him can tolerate; it affords some scope for his +chaffering and predatory instincts and satisfies the roving passion, +which is not so strong in those of mixed blood. But it is too +respectable or humdrum a life for the true, undegenerate gipsy. One wet +evening in September last I was prowling in a copse near Shrewton, +watching the birds, when I encountered a young gipsy and recognized him +as one of a gang of about a dozen I had met several days before near +Salisbury. They were on their way, they had told me, to a village near +Shaftesbury, where they hoped to remain a week or so. + +"What are you doing here?" I asked my gipsy. + +He said he had been to Idmiston; he had been on his legs out in the rain +and wet to the skin since morning. He didn't mind that much as the wet +didn't hurt him and he was not tired; but he had eight miles to walk yet +over the downs to a village on the Wylye where his people were staying. + +I remarked that I had thought they were staying over Shaftesbury way. + +He then looked sharply at me. "Ah, yes," he said, "I remember we met you +and had some talk a fortnight ago. Yes, we went there, but they wouldn't +have us. They soon ordered us off. They advised us to settle down if we +wanted to stay anywhere. Settle down! I'd rather be dead!" + +There spoke the true gipsy; and they are mostly of that mind. But what a +mind it is for human beings in this climate! It is in a year like this +of 1909, when a long cold winter and a miserable spring, with frosty +nights lasting well into June, was followed by a cold wet summer and a +wet autumn, that we can see properly what a mind and body is his--how +infinitely more perfect the correspondence between organism and +environment in his case than in ours, who have made our own conditions, +who have not only houses to live in, but a vast army of sanitary +inspectors, physicians and bacteriologists to safeguard us from that +wicked stepmother who is anxious to get rid of us before our time! In +all this miserable year, during which I have met and conversed with and +visited many scores of gipsies, I have not found one who was not in a +cheerful frame of mind, even when he was under a cloud with the police +on his track; nor one with a cold, or complaining of an ache in his +bones, or of indigestion. + +The subject of gipsies catching cold connects itself just now in my mind +with that of the gipsy's sense of humour. He has that sense, and it +makes him happy when he is reposing in the bosom of his family and can +give it free vent; but the instant you appear on the scene its gracious +outward signs vanish like lightning and he is once more the sly, subtle +animal, watching you furtively, but with intensity. When you have left +him and he relaxes the humour will come back to him; for it is a humour +similar to that of some of the lower animals, especially birds of the +crow family, and of primitive people, only more highly developed, and is +concerned mainly with the delight of trickery--with getting the better +of some one and the huge enjoyment resulting from the process. + +One morning, between nine and ten o'clock, during the excessively cold +spell near the end of November 1909, I paid a visit to some gipsies I +knew at their camp. The men had already gone off for the day, but some +of the women were there--a young married woman, two big girls, and six +or seven children. It was a hard frost and their sleeping accommodation +was just as in the summer-time--bundles of straw and old rugs placed in +or against little half-open canvas and rag shelters; but they all +appeared remarkably well, and some of the children were standing on the +hard frozen ground with bare feet. They assured me that they were all +well, that they hadn't caught colds and didn't mind the cold. I remarked +that I had thought the severe frost might have proved too much for some +of them in that high, unsheltered spot in the downs, and that if I had +found one of the children down with a cold I should have given it a +sixpence to comfort it. "Oh," cried the young married woman, "there's my +poor six months' old baby half dead of a cold; he's very bad, poor dear, +and I'm in great trouble about him." + +"He is bad, the darling!" cried one of the big girls. "I'll soon show +you how bad he is!" and with that she dived into a pile of straw and +dragged out a huge fat sleeping baby. Holding it up in her arms she +begged me to look at it to see how bad it was; the fat baby slowly +opened its drowsy eyes and blinked at the sun, but uttered no sound, for +it was not a crying baby, but was like a great fat retriever pup pulled +out of its warm bed. + +How healthy they are is hardly known even to those who make a special +study of these aliens, who, albeit aliens, are yet more native than any +Englishman in the land. It is not merely their indifference to wet and +cold; more wonderful still is their dog-like capacity of assimilating +food which to us would be deadly. This is indeed not a nice or pretty +subject, and I will give but one instance to illustrate my point; the +reader with a squeamish stomach may skip the ensuing paragraph. + +An old shepherd of Chitterne relates that a family, or gang, of gipsies +used to turn up from time to time at the village; he generally saw them +at lambing-time, when one of the heads of the party with whom he was +friendly would come round to see what he had to give them. On one +occasion his gipsy friend appeared, and after some conversation on +general subjects, asked him if he had anything in his way. "No, nothing +this time," said the shepherd. "Lambing was over two or three months ago +and there's nothing left--no dead lamb. I hung up a few cauls on a beam +in the old shed, thinking they would do for the dogs, but forgot them +and they went bad and then dried up." + +"They'll do very well for us," said his friend. + +"No, don't you take them!" cried the shepherd in alarm; "I tell you they +went bad months ago, and 'twould kill anyone to eat such stuff. They've +dried up now, and are dry and black as old skin." + +"That doesn't matter--we know how to make them all right," said the +gipsy. "Soaked with a little salt, then boiled, they'll do very well." +And off he carried them. + +In reading the reports of the Assizes held at Salisbury from the late +eighteenth century down to about 1840, it surprised me to find how +rarely a gipsy appeared in that long, sad, monotonous procession of +"criminals" who passed before the man sitting with his black cap on his +head, and were sent to the gallows or to the penal settlements for +stealing sheep and fowls and ducks or anything else. Yet the gipsies +were abundant then as now, living the same wild, lawless life, +quartering the country, and hanging round the villages to spy out +everything stealable. The man caught was almost invariably the poor, +slow-minded, heavy-footed agricultural labourer; the light, +quick-moving, cunning gipsy escaped. In the "Salisbury Journal" for 1820 +I find a communication on this subject, in which the writer says that a +common trick of the gipsies was to dig a deep pit at their camp in which +to bury a stolen sheep, and on this spot they would make their camp +fire. If the sheep was not missed, or if no report of its loss was made +to the police, the thieves would soon be able to dig it up and enjoy it; +but if inquiries were made they would have to wait until the affair had +blown over. + +It amused me to find, from an incident related to me by a workman in a +village where I was staying lately, that this simple, ancient device is +still practised by the gipsies. My informant said that on going out at +about four o'clock one morning during the late summer he was surprised +at seeing two gipsies with a pony and cart at the spot where a party of +them had been encamped a fortnight before. He watched them, himself +unseen, and saw that they were digging a pit on the spot where they had +had their fire. They took out several objects from the ground, but he +was too far away to make out what they were. They put them in the cart +and covered them over, then filled up the pit, trampled the earth well +down, and put the ashes and burnt sticks back in the same place, after +which they got into the cart and drove off. + +Of course a man, even a nomad, must have some place to conceal his +treasures or belongings in, and the gipsy has no cellar nor attic nor +secret cupboard, and as for his van it is about the last place in which +he would bestow anything of value or incriminating, for though he is +always on the move, he is, moving or sitting still, always under a +cloud. The ground is therefore the safest place to hide things in, +especially in a country like the Wiltshire Downs, though he may use +rocks and hollow trees in other districts. His habit is that of the jay +and magpie, and of the dog with a bone to put by till it is wanted. +Possibly the rural police have not yet discovered this habit of the +gipsy. Indeed, the contrast in mind and locomotive powers between the +gipsy and the village policeman has often amused me; the former most +like the thievish jay, ever on mischief bent; the other, who has his eye +on him, is more like the portly Cochin-China fowl of the farmyard, or +the Muscovy duck, or stately gobbler. + +To go back. When the buried sheep had to be kept too long buried and was +found "gone bad" when disinterred, I fancy it made little difference to +the diners. One remembers Thoreau's pleasure at the spectacle of a crowd +of vultures feasting on the carrion of a dead horse; the fine healthy +appetite and boundless vigour of nature filled him with delight. But it +is not only some of the lower animals--dogs and vultures, for +instance--which possess this power and immunity from the effects of +poisons developed in putrid meat; the Greenlanders and African savages, +and many other peoples in various parts of the world, have it as well. + +Sometimes when sitting with gipsies at their wild hearth, I have felt +curious as to the contents of that black pot simmering over the fire. No +doubt it often contains strange meats, but it would not have been +etiquette to speak of such a matter. It is like the pot on the fire of +the Venezuela savage into which he throws whatever he kills with his +little poisoned arrows or fishes out of the river. Probably my only +quarrel with them would be about the little fledgelings: it angers me to +see them beating the bushes in spring in search of small nesties and the +callow young that are in them. After all, the gipsies could retort that +my friends the jays and magpies are at the same business in April and +May. + +It is just these habits of the gipsy which I have described, shocking to +the moralist and sanitarian and disgusting to the person of delicate +stomach, it may be, which please me, rather than the romance and poetry +which the scholar-gipsy enthusiasts are fond of reading into him. He is +to me a wild, untameable animal of curious habits, and interests me as a +naturalist accordingly. It may be objected that being a naturalist +occupied with the appearance of things, I must inevitably miss the one +thing which others find. + +In a talk I had with a gipsy a short time ago, he said to me: "You know +what the books say, and we don't. But we know other things that are not +in the books, and that's what we have. It's ours, our own, and you can't +know it." + +It was well put; but I was not perhaps so entirely ignorant as he +imagined of the nature of that special knowledge, or shall we say +faculty, which he claimed. I take it to be cunning--the cunning of a +wild animal with a man's brain--and a small, an infinitesimal, dose of +something else which eludes us. But that something else is not of a +spiritual nature: the gipsy has no such thing in him; the soul growths +are rooted in the social instinct, and are developed in those in whom +that instinct is strong. I think that if we analyse that dose of +something else, we will find that it is still the animal's cunning, a +special, a sublimated cunning, the fine flower of his whole nature, and +that it has nothing mysterious in it. He is a parasite, but free and as +well able to exist free as the fox or jackal; but the parasitism pays +him well, and he has followed it so long in his intercourse with social +man that it has come to be like an instinct, or secret knowledge, and is +nothing more than a marvellously keen penetration which reveals to him +the character and degree of credulity and other mental weaknesses of his +subject. + +It is not so much the wind on the heath, brother, as the fascination of +lawlessness, which makes his life an everlasting joy to him; to pit +himself against gamekeeper, farmer, policeman, and everybody else, and +defeat them all, to flourish like the parasitic fly on the honey in the +hive and escape the wrath of the bees. + +I must now return from this long digression to my conversation with the +shepherd about the dark people of the village. + +There were, I continued, other black-eyed and black-haired people in the +villages who had no gipsy blood in their veins. So far as I could make +out there were dark people of three originally distinct and widely +different races in the Wiltshire Downs. There was a good deal of mixed +blood, no doubt, and many dark persons could not be identified as +belonging to any particular race. Nevertheless three distinct types +could be traced among the dark people, and I took them to be, first, the +gipsy, rather short of stature, brown-skinned, with broad face and high +cheek-bones, like the men we had just been speaking of. Secondly, the +men and women of white skins and good features, who had rather broad +faces and round heads, and were physically and mentally just as good as +the best blue-eyed people; these were probably the descendants of the +dark, broad-faced Wilsetas, who came over at the time when the country +was being overrun with the English and other nations or tribes, and who +colonized in Wiltshire and gave it their name. The third type differed +widely from both the others. They were smallest in size and had narrow +heads and long or oval faces, and were very dark, with brown skins; they +also differed mentally from the others, being of a more lively +disposition and hotter temper. The characters which distinguish the +ancient British or Iberian race appeared to predominate in persons of +this type. + +The shepherd said he didn't know much about "all that," but he +remembered that they once had a man in the village who was like the last +kind I had described. He was a labourer named Tark, who had several +sons, and when they were grown up there was a last one born: he had to +be the last because his mother died when she gave him birth; and that +last one was like his father, small, very dark-skinned, with eyes like +sloes, and exceedingly lively and active. + +Tark, himself, he said, was the liveliest, most amusing man he had ever +known, and the quickest to do things, whatever it was he was asked to +do, but he was not industrious and not thrifty. The Tarks were always +very poor. He had a good ear for music and was a singer of the old +songs--he seemed to know them all. One of his performances was with a +pair of cymbals which he had made for himself out of some old metal +plates, and with these he used to play while dancing about, clashing +them in time, striking them on his head, his breast, and legs. In these +dances with the cymbals he would whirl and leap about in an astonishing +way, standing sometimes on his hands, then on his feet, so that half the +people in the village used to gather at his cottage to watch his antics +on a summer evening. + +One afternoon he was coming down the village street and saw the +blacksmith standing near his cottage looking up at a tall fir-tree which +grew there on his ground. "What be looking at?" cried Tark. The +blacksmith pointed to a branch, the lowest branch of all, but about +forty feet from the ground, and said a chaffinch had his nest in it, +about three feet from the trunk, which his little son had set his heart +on having. He had promised to get it down for him, but there was no long +ladder and he didn't know how to get it. + +Tark laughed and said that for half a gallon of beer he would go up legs +first and take the nest and bring it down in one hand, which he would +not use in climbing, and would come down as he went up, head first. + +"Do it, then," said the blacksmith, "and I'll stand the half gallon." + +Tark ran to the tree, and turning over and standing on his hands, +clasped the bole with his legs and then with his arms and went up to the +branch, when taking the nest and holding it in one hand, he came down +head first to the ground in safety. + +There were other anecdotes of his liveliness and agility. Then followed +the story of the youngest son, known as Liddy. "I don't rightly know," +said Caleb, "what the name was he was given when they christened 'n; but +he were always called Liddy, and nobody knowed any other name for him." + +Liddy's grown-up brothers all left home when he was a small boy: one +enlisted and was sent to India and never returned; the other two went to +America, so it was said. He was twelve years old when his father died, +and he had to shift for himself; but he was no worse off on that +account, as they had always been very poor owing to poor Tark's love of +beer. Before long he got employed by a small working farmer who kept a +few cows and a pair of horses and used to buy wethers to fatten them, +and these the boy kept on the down. + +Liddy was always a "leetel chap," and looked no more than nine when +twelve, so that he could do no heavy work; but he was a very willing and +active little fellow, with a sweet temper, and so lively and full of fun +as to be a favourite with everybody in the village. The men would laugh +at his pranks, especially when he came from the fields on the old plough +horse and urged him to a gallop, sitting with his face to the tail; and +they would say that he was like his father, and would never be much good +except to make people laugh. But the women had a tender feeling for him, +because, although motherless and very poor, he yet contrived to be +always clean and neat. He took the greatest care of his poor clothes, +washing and mending them himself. He also took an intense interest in +his wethers, and almost every day he would go to Caleb, tending his +flock on the down, to sit by him and ask a hundred questions about sheep +and their management. He looked on Caleb, as head-shepherd on a +good-sized farm, as the most important and most fortunate person he +knew, and was very proud to have him as guide, philosopher, and friend. + +Now it came to pass that once in a small lot of thirty or forty wethers +which the farmer had bought at a sheep-fair and brought home it was +discovered that one was a ewe--a ewe that would perhaps at some future +day have a lamb! Liddy was greatly excited at the discovery; he went to +Caleb and told him about it, almost crying at the thought that his +master would get rid of it. For what use would it be to him? but what a +loss it would be! And at last, plucking up courage, he went to the +farmer and begged and prayed to be allowed to keep the ewe, and the +farmer laughed at him; but he was a little touched at the boy's feeling, +and at last consented. Then Liddy was the happiest boy in the village, +and whenever he got the chance he would go out to Caleb on the down to +talk about and give him news of the one beloved ewe. And one day, after +about nineteen or twenty weeks, Caleb, out with his flock, heard shouts +at a distance, and, turning to look, saw Liddy coming at great speed +towards him, shouting out some great news as he ran; but what it was +Caleb could not make out, even when the little fellow had come to him, +for his excitement made him incoherent. The ewe had lambed, and there +were twins--two strong healthy lambs, most beautiful to see! Nothing so +wonderful had ever happened in his life before! And now he sought out +his friend oftener than ever, to talk of his beloved lambs, and to +receive the most minute directions about their care. Caleb, who is not a +laughing man, could not help laughing a little when he recalled poor +Liddy's enthusiasm. But that beautiful shining chapter in the poor boy's +life could not last, and when the lambs were grown they were sold, and +so were all the wethers, then Liddy, not being wanted, had to find +something else to do. + +I was too much interested in this story to let the subject drop. What +had been Liddy's after-life? Very uneventful: there was, in fact, +nothing in it, nor in him, except an intense love for all things, +especially animals; and nothing happened to him until the end, for he +has been dead now these nine or ten years. In his next place he was +engaged, first, as carter's boy, and then under-carter, and all his love +was lavished on the horses. They were more to him than sheep, and he +could love them without pain, since they were not being prepared for the +butcher with his abhorred knife. Liddy's love and knowledge of horses +became known outside of his own little circle, and he was offered and +joyfully accepted a place in the stables of a wealthy young gentleman +farmer, who kept a large establishment and was a hunting man. From +stable-boy he was eventually promoted to groom. Occasionally he would +reappear in his native place. His home was but a few miles away, and +when out exercising a horse he appeared to find it a pleasure to trot +down the old street, where as a farmer's boy he used to make the village +laugh at his antics. But he was very much changed from the poor boy, who +was often hatless and barefooted, to the groom in his neat, well-fitting +black suit, mounted on a showy horse. + +In this place he continued about thirty years, and was married and had +several children and was very happy, and then came a great disaster. His +employer having met with heavy losses sold all his horses and got rid of +his servants, and Liddy had to go. This great change, and above all his +grief at the loss of his beloved horses, was more than he could endure. +He became melancholy and spent his days in silent brooding, and by and +by, to everybody's surprise, Liddy fell ill, for he was in the prime of +life and had always been singularly healthy. Then to astonish people +still more, he died. What ailed him--what killed him? every one asked of +the doctor; and his answer was that he had no disease--that nothing +ailed him except a broken heart; and that was what killed poor Liddy. + +In conclusion I will relate a little incident which occurred several +months later, when I was again on a visit to my old friend the shepherd. +We were sitting together on a Sunday evening, when his old wife looked +out and said, "Lor, here be Mrs. Taylor with her children coming in to +see us." And Mrs. Taylor soon appeared, wheeling her baby in a +perambulator, with two little girls following. She was a comely, round, +rosy little woman, with black hair, black eyes, and a singularly sweet +expression, and her three pretty little children were like her. She +stayed half an hour in pleasant chat, then went her way down the road to +her home. Who, I asked, was Mrs. Taylor? + +Bawcombe said that in a way she was a native of their old village of +Winterbourne Bishop: at least her father was. She had married a man who +had taken a farm near them, and after having known her as a young girl +they had been glad to have her again as a neighbour. "She's a daughter +of that Liddy I told 'ee about some time ago," he said. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +SOME SHEEP-DOGS + + Breaking a sheep-dog--The shepherd buys a pup--His training--He + refuses to work--He chases a swallow and is put to death--The + shepherd's remorse--Bob, the sheep-dog--How he was bitten by an + adder--Period of the dog's receptivity--Tramp, the sheep-dog--Roaming + lost about the country--A rage of hunger--Sheep-killing dogs--Dogs + running wild--Anecdotes--A Russian sheep-dog--Caleb parts with Tramp + + +To Caleb the proper training of a dog was a matter of the very first +importance. A man, he considered, must have not only a fair amount of +intelligence, but also experience, and an even temper, and a little +sympathy as well, to sum up the animal in hand--its special aptitudes, +its limitations, its disposition, and that something in addition, which +he called a "kink," and would probably have described as its +idiosyncrasy if he had known the word. There was as much individual +difference among dogs as there is in boys; but if the breed was right, +and you went the right way about it, you could hardly fail to get a good +servant. If a dog was not properly broken, if its trainer had not made +the most of it, he was not a "good shepherd": he lacked the +intelligence--"understanding" was his word--or else the knowledge or +patience or persistence to do his part. It was, however, possible for +the best shepherd to make mistakes, and one of the greatest to be made, +which was not uncommon, was to embark on the long and laborious business +of training an animal of mixed blood--a sheep-dog with a taint of +terrier, retriever, or some other unsuitable breed in him. In discussing +this subject with other shepherds I generally found that those who were +in perfect agreement with Caleb on this point were men who were somewhat +like him in character, and who regarded their work with the sheep as so +important that it must be done thoroughly in every detail and in the +best way. One of the best shepherds I know, who is sixty years old and +has been on the same downland sheep-farm all his life, assures me that +he has never had and never would have a dog which was trained by +another. But the shepherd of the ordinary kind says that he doesn't care +much about the animal's parentage, or that he doesn't trouble to inquire +into its pedigree: he breaks the animal, and finds that he does pretty +well, even when he has some strange blood in him; finally, that all dogs +have faults and you must put up with them. Caleb would say of such a man +that he was not a "good shepherd." One of his saddest memories was of a +dog which he bought and broke without having made the necessary +inquiries about its parentage. + +It happened that a shepherd of the village, who had taken a place at a +distant farm, was anxious to dispose of a litter of pups before leaving, +and he asked Caleb to have one. Caleb refused. "My dog's old, I know," +he said, "but I don't want a pup now and I won't have 'n." + +A day or two later the man came back and said he had kept one of the +best of the five for him--he had got rid of all the others. "You can't +do better," he persisted. "No," said Caleb, "what I said I say again. I +won't have 'n, I've no money to buy a dog." + +"Never mind about money," said the other. "You've got a bell I like the +sound of; give he to me and take the pup." And so the exchange was made, +a copper bell for a nice black pup with a white collar; its mother, +Bawcombe knew, was a good sheep-dog, but about the other parent he made +no inquiries. + +On receiving the pup he was told that its name was Tory, and he did not +change it. It was always difficult, he explained, to find a name for a +dog--a name, that is to say, which anyone would say was a proper name +for a dog and not a foolish name. One could think of a good many proper +names--Jack and Watch, and so on--but in each case one would remember +some dog which had been called by that name, and it seemed to belong to +that particular well-remembered dog and to no other, and so in the end +because of this difficulty he allowed the name to remain. + +The dog had not cost him much to buy, but as it was only a few weeks old +he had to keep it at his own cost for fully six months before beginning +the business of breaking it, which would take from three to six months +longer. A dog cannot be put to work before he is quite half a year old +unless he is exceptionally vigorous. Sheep are timid creatures, but not +unintelligent, and they can distinguish between the seasoned old +sheep-dog, whose furious onset and bite they fear, and the raw young +recruit as easily as the rook can distinguish between the man with a gun +and the man of straw with a broomstick under his arm. They will turn +upon and attack the young dog, and chase him away with his tail between +his legs. He will also work too furiously for his strength and then +collapse, with the result that he will make a cowardly sheep-dog, or, as +the shepherds say, "brokenhearted." + +Another thing. He must be made to work at first with an old sheep-dog, +for though he has the impulse to fly about and do something, he does not +know what to do and does not understand his master's gestures and +commands. He must have an object-lesson, he must see the motion and hear +the word and mark how the old dog flies to this or that point and what +he does. The word of command or the gesture thus becomes associated in +his mind with a particular action on his part. But he must not be given +too many object-lessons or he will lose more than he will gain--a +something which might almost be described as a sense of individual +responsibility. That is to say, responsibility to the human master who +delegates his power to him. Instead of taking his power directly from +the man he takes it from the dog, and this becomes a fixed habit so +quickly that many shepherds say that if you give more than from three to +six lessons of this kind to a young dog you will spoil him. He will need +the mastership of the other dog, and will thereafter always be at a loss +and work in an uncertain way. + +A timid or unwilling young dog is often coupled with the old dog two or +three times, but this method has its dangers too, as it may be too much +for the young dog's strength, and give him that "broken-heart" from +which he will never recover; he will never be a good sheep-dog. + +To return to Tory. In due time he was trained and proved quick to learn +and willing to work, so that before long he began to be useful and was +much wanted with the sheep, as the old dog was rapidly growing stiffer +on his legs and harder of hearing. + +One day the lambs were put into a field which was half clover and half +rape, and it was necessary to keep them on the clover. This the young +dog could not or would not understand; again and again he allowed the +lambs to go to the rape, which so angered Caleb that he threw his crook +at him. Tory turned and gave him a look, then came very quietly and +placed himself behind his master. From that moment he refused to obey, +and Bawcombe, after exhausting all his arts of persuasion, gave it up +and did as well as he could without his assistance. + +That evening after folding-time he by chance met a shepherd he was well +acquainted with and told him of the trouble he was in over Tory. + +"You tie him up for a week," said the shepherd, "and treat him well till +he forgets all about it, and he'll be the same as he was before you +offended him. He's just like old Tom--he's got his father's temper." + +"What's that you say?" exclaimed Bawcombe. "Be you saying that Tory's +old Tom's son? I'd never have taken him if I'd known that. Tom's not +pure-bred--he's got retriever's blood." + +"Well, 'tis known, and I could have told 'ee, if thee'd asked me," said +the shepherd. "But you do just as I tell 'ee, and it'll be all right +with the dog." + +Tory was accordingly tied up at home and treated well and spoken kindly +to and patted on the head, so that there would be no unpleasantness +between master and servant, and if he was an intelligent animal he would +know that the crook had been thrown not to hurt but merely to express +disapproval of his naughtiness. + +Then came a busy day for the shepherd, when the lambs were trimmed +before being taken to the Wilton sheep-fair. There was Bawcombe, his +boy, the decrepit old dog, and Tory to do the work, but when the time +came to start Tory refused to do anything. + +When sent to turn the lambs he walked off to a distance of about twenty +yards, sat down and looked at his master. Caleb hoped he would come +round presently when he saw them all at work, and so they did the best +they could without him for a time; but the old dog was stiffer and +harder of hearing than ever, and as they could not get on properly Caleb +went at intervals to Tory and tried to coax him to give them his help; +and every time he was spoken to he would get up and come to his master, +then when ordered to do something he would walk off to the spot where he +had chosen to be and calmly sit down once more and look at them. Caleb +was becoming more and more incensed, but he would not show it to the +dog; he still hoped against hope; and then a curious thing happened. A +swallow came skimming along close to the earth and passed within a yard +of Tory, when up jumped the dog and gave chase, darting across the field +with such speed that he kept very near the bird until it rose and passed +over the hedge at the farther side. The joyous chase over Tory came back +to his old place, and sitting on his haunches began watching them again +struggling with the lambs. It was more than the shepherd could stand; he +went deliberately up to the dog, and taking him by the straw collar +still on his neck drew him quietly away to the hedge-side and bound him +to a bush, then getting a stout stick he came back and gave him one blow +on the head. So great was the blow that the dog made not the slightest +sound: he fell; his body quivered a moment and his legs stretched +out--he was quite dead. Bawcombe then plucked an armful of bracken and +threw it over his body to cover it, and going back to the hurdles sent +the boy home, then spreading his cloak at the hedge-side, laid himself +down on it and covered his head. + +An hour later the fanner appeared on the scene. "What are you doing +here, shepherd?" he demanded in surprise. "Not trimming the lambs!" + +Bawcombe, raising himself on his elbow, replied that he was not trimming +the lambs--that he would trim no lambs that day. + +"Oh, but we must get on with the trimming!" cried the farmer. + +Bawcombe returned that the dog had put him out, and now the dog was +dead--he had killed him in his anger, and he would trim no more lambs +that day. He had said it and would keep to what he had said. + +Then the farmer got angry and said that the dog had a very good nose and +would have been useful to him to take rabbits. + +"Master," said the other, "I got he when he were a pup and broke 'n to +help me with the sheep and not to catch rabbits; and now I've killed 'n +and he'll catch no rabbits." + +The farmer knew his man, and swallowing his anger walked off without +another word. + +Later on in the day he was severely blamed by a shepherd friend who said +that he could easily have sold the dog to one of the drovers, who were +always anxious to pick up a dog in their village, and he would have had +the money to repay him for his trouble; to which Bawcombe returned, "If +he wouldn't work for I that broke 'n he wouldn't work for another. But +I'll never again break a dog that isn't pure-bred." + +But though he justified himself he had suffered remorse for what he had +done; not only at the time, when he covered the dead dog up with bracken +and refused to work any more that day, but the feeling had persisted all +his life, and he could not relate the incident without showing it very +plainly. He bitterly blamed himself for having taken the pup and for +spending long months in training him without having first taken pains to +inform himself that there was no bad blood in him. And although the dog +was perhaps unfit to live he had finally killed him in anger. If it had +not been for that sudden impetuous chase after a swallow he would have +borne with him and considered afterwards what was to be done; but that +dash after the bird was more than he could stand; for it looked as if +Tory had done it purposely, in something of a mocking spirit, to exhibit +his wonderful activity and speed to his master, sweating there at his +task, and make him see what he had lost in offending him. + +The shepherd gave another instance of a mistake he once made which +caused him a good deal of pain. It was the case of a dog named Bob which +he owned when a young man. He was an exceptionally small dog, but his +quick intelligence made up for lack of strength, and he was of a very +lively disposition, so that he was a good companion to a shepherd as +well as a good servant. + +One summer day at noon Caleb was going to his flock in the fields, +walking by a hedge, when he noticed Bob sniffing suspiciously at the +roots of an old holly-tree growing on the bank. It was a low but very +old tree with a thick trunk, rotten and hollow inside, the cavity being +hidden with the brushwood growing up from the roots. As he came abreast +of the tree, Bob looked up and emitted a low whine, that sound which +says so much when used by a dog to his master and which his master does +not always rightly understand. At all events he did not do so in this +case. It was August and the shooting had begun, and Caleb jumped to the +conclusion that a wounded bird had crept into the hollow tree to hide, +and so to Bob's whine, which expressed fear and asked what he was to do, +the shepherd answered, "Get him." Bob dashed in, but quickly recoiled, +whining in a piteous way, and began rubbing his face on his legs. +Bawcombe in alarm jumped down and peered into the hollow trunk and heard +a slight rustling of dead leaves, but saw nothing. His dog had been +bitten by an adder, and he at once returned to the village, bitterly +blaming himself for the mistake he had made and greatly fearing that he +would lose his dog. Arrived at the village his mother at once went off +to the down to inform Isaac of the trouble and ask him what they were to +do. Caleb had to wait some time, as none of the villagers who gathered +round could suggest a remedy, and in the meantime Bob continued rubbing +his cheek against his foreleg, twitching and whining with pain; and +before long the face and head began to swell on one side, the swelling +extending to the nape and downwards to the throat. Presently Isaac +himself, full of concern, arrived on the scene, having left his wife in +charge of the flock, and at the same time a man from a neighbouring +village came riding by and joined the group. The horseman got off and +assisted Caleb in holding the dog while Isaac made a number of incisions +with his knife in the swollen place and let out some blood, after which +they rubbed the wounds and all the swollen part with an oil used for the +purpose. The composition of this oil was a secret: it was made by a man +in one of the downland villages and sold at eighteenpence a small +bottle; Isaac was a believer in its efficacy, and always kept a bottle +hidden away somewhere in his cottage. + +Bob recovered in a few days, but the hair fell out from all the part +which had been swollen, and he was a curious-looking dog with half his +face and head naked until he got his fresh coat, when it grew again. He +was as good and active a dog as ever, and lived to a good old age, but +one result of the poison he never got over: his bark had changed from a +sharp ringing sound to a low and hoarse one. "He always barked," said +the shepherd, "like a dog with a sore throat." + +To go back to the subject of training a dog. Once you make a beginning +it must be carried through to a finish. You take him at the age of six +months, and the education must be fairly complete when he is a year old. +He is then lively, impressionable, exceedingly adaptive; his +intelligence at that period is most like man's; but it would be a +mistake to think that it will continue so--that to what he learns now in +this wonderful half-year, other things may be added by and by as +opportunity arises. At a year he has practically got to the end of his +capacity to learn. He has lost his human-like receptivity, but what he +has been taught will remain with him for the rest of his life. We can +hardly say that he remembers it; it is more like what is called +"inherited memory" or "lapsed intelligence." + +All this is very important to a shepherd, and explains the reason an old +head-shepherd had for saying to me that he had never had, and never +would have, a dog he had not trained himself. No two men follow +precisely the same method in training, and a dog transferred from his +trainer to another man is always a little at a loss; method, voice, +gestures, personality, are all different; his new master must study him +and in a way adapt himself to the dog. The dog is still more at a loss +when transferred from one kind of country to another where the sheep are +worked in a different manner, and one instance Caleb gave me of this is +worth relating. It was, I thought, one of his best dog stories. + +His dogs as a rule were bought as pups; occasionally he had had to get a +dog already trained, a painful necessity to a shepherd, seeing that the +pound or two it costs--the price of an ordinary animal--is a big sum of +money to him. And once in his life he got an old trained sheep-dog for +nothing. He was young then, and acting as under-shepherd in his native +village, when the report came one day that a great circus and menagerie +which had been exhibiting in the west was on its way to Salisbury, and +would be coming past the village about six o'clock on the following +morning. The turnpike was a little over a mile away, and thither Caleb +went with half a dozen other young men of the village at about five +o'clock to see the show pass, and sat on a gate beside a wood to wait +its coming. In due time the long procession of horses and mounted men +and women, and gorgeous vans containing lions and tigers and other +strange beasts, came by, affording them great admiration and delight. +When it had gone on and the last van had disappeared at the turning of +the road, they got down from the gate and were about to set out on their +way back when a big, shaggy sheepdog came out of the wood and running to +the road began looking up and down in a bewildered way. They had no +doubt that he belonged to the circus and had turned aside to hunt a +rabbit in the wood; then, thinking the animal would understand them, +they shouted to it and waved their arms in the direction the procession +had gone. But the dog became frightened, and turning fled back into +cover, and they saw no more of it. + +Two or three days later it was rumoured that a strange dog had been seen +in the neighbourhood of Winterbourne Bishop, in the fields; and women +and children going to or coming from outlying cottages and farms had +encountered it, sometimes appearing suddenly out of the furze-bushes and +staring wildly at them; or they would meet him in some deep lane between +hedges, and after standing still a moment eyeing them he would turn and +fly in terror from their strange faces. Shepherds began to be alarmed +for the safety of their sheep, and there was a good deal of excitement +and talk about the strange dog. Two or three days later Caleb +encountered it. He was returning from his flock at the side of a large +grass field where four or five women were occupied cutting the thistles, +and the dog, which he immediately recognized as the one he had seen at +the turnpike, was following one of the women about. She was greatly +alarmed, and called to him, "Come here, Caleb, for goodness' sake, and +drive this big dog away! He do look so desprit, I'm afeared of he." + +"Don't you be feared," he shouted back. "He won't hurt 'ee; he's +starving--don't you see his bones sticking out? He's asking to be fed." +Then going a little nearer he called to her to take hold of the dog by +the neck and keep him while he approached. He feared that the dog on +seeing him coming would rush away. After a little while she called the +dog, but when he went to her she shrank away from him and called out, +"No, I daren't touch he--he'll tear my hand off. I never see'd such a +desprit-looking beast!" + +"'Tis hunger," repeated Caleb, and then very slowly and cautiously he +approached, the dog all the time eyeing him suspiciously, ready to rush +away on the slightest alarm. And while approaching him he began to speak +gently to him, then coming to a stand stooped and patting his legs +called the dog to him. Presently he came, sinking his body lower as he +advanced and at last crawling, and when he arrived at the shepherd's +feet he turned himself over on his back--that eloquent action which a +dog uses when humbling himself before and imploring mercy from one +mightier than himself, man or dog. + +Caleb stooped, and after patting the dog gripped him firmly by the neck +and pulled him up, while with his free hand he undid his leather belt to +turn it into a dog's collar and leash; then, the end of the strap in his +hand, he said "Come," and started home with the dog at his side. Arrived +at the cottage he got a bucket and mixed as much meal as would make two +good feeds, the dog all the time watching him with his muscles twitching +and the water running from his mouth. The meal well mixed he emptied it +out on the turf, and what followed, he said, was an amazing thing to +see: the dog hurled himself down on the food and started devouring it as +if the mass of meal had been some living savage creature he had captured +and was frenziedly tearing to pieces. He turned round and round, +floundering on the earth, uttering strange noises like half-choking +growls and screams while gobbling down the meal; then when he had +devoured it all he began tearing up and swallowing the turf for the sake +of the little wet meal still adhering to it. + +Such rage of hunger Caleb had never seen, and it was painful to him to +think of what the dog had endured during those days when it had been +roaming foodless about the neighbourhood. Yet it was among sheep all the +time--scores of flocks left folded by night at a distance from the +village; one would have imagined that the old wolf and wild-dog instinct +would have come to life in such circumstances, but the instinct was to +all appearance dead. + +My belief is that the pure-bred sheep-dog is indeed the last dog to +revert to a state of nature; and that when sheep-killing by night is +traced to a sheep-dog, the animal has a bad strain in him, of retriever, +or cur, or "rabbit-dog," as the shepherds call all terriers. When I was +a boy on the pampas sheep-killing dogs were common enough, and they were +always curs, or the common dog of the country, a smooth-haired animal +about the size of a coach-dog, red, or black, or white. I recall one +instance of sheep-killing being traced to our own dogs--we had about six +or eight just then. A native neighbour, a few miles away, caught them at +it one morning; they escaped him in spite of his good horse, with lasso +and bolas also, but his sharp eyes saw them pretty well in the dim +light, and by and by he identified them, and my father had to pay him +for about thirty slain and badly injured sheep; after which a gallows +was erected and our guardians ignominiously hanged. Here we shoot dogs; +in some countries the old custom of hanging them, which is perhaps less +painful, is still followed. + +To go back to our story. From that time the stray dog was Caleb's +obedient and affectionate slave, always watching his face and every +gesture, and starting up at his slightest word in readiness to do his +bidding. When put with the flock he turned out to be a useful sheep-dog, +but unfortunately he had not been trained on the Wiltshire Downs. It was +plain to see that the work was strange to him, that he had been taught +in a different school, and could never forget the old and acquire a new +method. But as to what conditions he had been reared in or in what +district or country no one could guess. Every one said that he was a +sheep-dog, but unlike any sheep-dog they had ever seen; he was not +Wiltshire, nor Welsh, nor Sussex, nor Scotch, and they could say no +more. Whenever a shepherd saw him for the first time his attention was +immediately attracted, and he would stop to speak with Caleb. "What sort +of a dog do you call that?" he would say. "I never see'd one just like +'n before." + +At length one day when passing by a new building which some workmen had +been brought from a distance to erect in the village, one of the men +hailed Caleb and said, "Where did you get that dog, mate?" + +"Why do you ask me that?" said the shepherd. + +"Because I know where he come from: he's a Rooshian, that's what he is. +I've see'd many just like him in the Crimea when I was there. But I +never see'd one before in England." + +Caleb was quite ready to believe it, and was a little proud at having a +sheep-dog from that distant country. He said that it also put something +new into his mind. He didn't know nothing about Russia before that, +though he had been hearing so much of our great war there and of all the +people that had been killed. Now he realized that Russia was a great +country, a land where there were hills and valleys and villages, where +there were flocks and herds, and shepherds and sheepdogs just as in the +Wiltshire Downs. He only wished that Tramp--that was the name he had +given his dog--could have told him his history. + +Tramp, in spite of being strange to the downs and the downland +sheep-dog's work, would probably have been kept by Caleb to the end but +for his ineradicable passion for hunting rabbits. He did not neglect his +duty, but he would slip away too often, and eventually when a man who +wanted a good dog for rabbits one day offered Caleb fifteen shillings +for Tramp, he sold him, and as he was taken away to a distance by his +new master, he never saw him again. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +THE SHEPHERD AS NATURALIST + + General remarks--Great Ridge Wood--Encounter with a roe-deer--A hare + on a stump--A gamekeeper's memory--Talk with a gipsy--A strange story + of a hedgehog--A gipsy on memory--The shepherd's feeling for + animals--Anecdote of a shrew--Anecdote of an owl--Reflex effect of the + gamekeeper's calling--We remember best what we see emotionally + + +It will appear to some of my readers that the interesting facts about +wild life, or rather about animal life, wild and domestic, gathered in +my talks with the old shepherd, do not amount to much. If this is all +there is to show after a long life spent out of doors, or all that is +best worth preserving, it is a somewhat scanty harvest, they will say. +To me it appears a somewhat abundant one. We field naturalists, who set +down what we see and hear in a notebook, lest we forget it, do not +always bear in mind that it is exceedingly rare for those who are not +naturalists, whose senses and minds are occupied with other things, to +come upon a new and interesting fact in animal life, or that these +chance observations are quickly forgotten. This was strongly borne in +upon me lately while staying in the village of Hindon in the +neighbourhood of the Great Ridge Wood, which clothes the summit of the +long high down overlooking the vale of the Wylye. It is an immense wood, +mostly of scrub or dwarf oak, very dense in some parts, in others thin, +with open, barren patches, and like a wild forest, covering altogether +twelve or fourteen square miles--perhaps more. There are no houses near, +and no people in it except a few gamekeepers: I spent long days in it +without meeting a human being. It was a joy to me to find such a spot in +England, so wild and solitary, and I was filled with pleasing +anticipation of all the wild life I should see in such a place, +especially after an experience I had on my second day in it. I was +standing in an open glade when a cock-pheasant uttered a cry of alarm, +and immediately afterwards, startled by the cry perhaps, a roe-deer +rushed out of the close thicket of oak and holly in which it had been +hiding, and ran past me at a very short distance, giving me a good sight +of this shyest of the large wild animals still left to us. He looked +very beautiful to me, in that mouse-coloured coat which makes him +invisible in the deep shade in which he is accustomed to pass the +daylight hours in hiding, as he fled across the green open space in the +brilliant May sunshine. But he was only one, a chance visitor, a +wanderer from wood to wood about the land; and he had been seen once, a +month before my encounter with him, and ever since then the keepers had +been watching and waiting for him, gun in hand, to send a charge of shot +into his side. + +That was the best and the only great thing I saw in the Great Ridge +Wood, for the curse of the pheasant is on it as on all the woods and +forests in Wiltshire, and all wild life considered injurious to the +semi-domestic bird, from the sparrowhawk to the harrier and buzzard and +goshawk, and from the little mousing weasel to the badger; and all the +wild life that is only beautiful, or which delights us because of its +wildness, from the squirrel to the roe-deer, must be included in the +slaughter. + +One very long summer day spent in roaming about in this endless wood, +always on the watch, had for sole result, so far as anything out of the +common goes, the spectacle of a hare sitting on a stump. The hare +started up at a distance of over a hundred yards before me and rushed +straight away at first, then turned, and ran on my left so as to get +round to the side from which I had come. I stood still and watched him +as he moved swiftly over the ground, seeing him not as a hare but as a +dim brown object successively appearing, vanishing, and reappearing, +behind and between the brown tree-trunks, until he had traced half a +circle and was then suddenly lost to sight. Thinking that he had come to +a stand I put my binocular on the spot where he had vanished, and saw +him sitting on an old oak stump about thirty inches long. It was a round +mossy stump, about eighteen inches in diameter, standing in a bed of +brown dead leaves, with the rough brown trunks of other dwarf oak-trees +on either side of it. The animal was sitting motionless, in profile, its +ears erect, seeing me with one eye, and was like a carved figure of a +hare set on a pedestal, and had a very striking appearance. + +As I had never seen such a thing before I thought it was worth +mentioning to a keeper I called to see at his lodge on my way back in +the evening. It had been a blank day, I told him--a hare sitting on a +stump being the only thing I could remember to tell him. "Well," he +said, "you've seen something I've never seen in all the years I've been +in these woods. And yet, when you come to think of it, it's just what +one might expect a hare would do. The wood is full of old stumps, and it +seems only natural a hare should jump on to one to get a better view of +a man or animal at a distance among the trees. But I never saw it." + +What, then, had he seen worth remembering during his long hours in the +wood on that day, or the day before, or on any day during the last +thirty years since he had been policing that wood, I asked him. He +answered that he had seen many strange things, but he was not now able +to remember one to tell me! He said, further, that the only things he +remembered were those that related to his business of guarding and +rearing the birds; all other things he observed in animals, however +remarkable they might seem to him at the moment, were things that didn't +matter and were quickly forgotten. + +On the very next day I was out on the down with a gipsy, and we got +talking about wild animals. He was a middle-aged man and a very perfect +specimen of his race--not one of the blue-eyed and red or light-haired +bastard gipsies, but dark as a Red Indian, with eyes like a hawk, and +altogether a hawk-like being, lean, wiry, alert, a perfectly wild man in +a tame, civilized land. The lean, mouse-coloured lurcher that followed +at his heels was perfect too, in his way--man and dog appeared made for +one another. When this man spoke of his life, spent in roaming about the +country, of his very perfect health, and of his hatred of houses, the +very atmosphere of any indoor place producing a suffocating and +sickening effect on him, I envied him as I envy birds their wings and as +I can never envy men who live in mansions. His was the wild, the real +life, and it seemed to me that there was no other worth living. + +"You know," said he, in the course of our talk about wild animals, "we +are very fond of hedgehogs--we like them better than rabbits." + +"Well, so do I," was my remark. I am not quite sure that I do, but that +is what I told him. "But now you talk of hedgehogs," I said, "it's funny +to think that, common as the animal is, it has some queer habits I can't +find anything about from gamekeepers and others I've talked to on the +subject, or from my own observation. Yet one would imagine that we know +all there is to be known about the little beast; you'll find his history +in a hundred books--perhaps in five hundred. There's one book about our +British animals so big you'd hardly be able to lift its three volumes +from the ground with all your strength, in which its author has raked +together everything known about the hedgehog, but he doesn't give me the +information I want--just what I went to the book to find. Now here's +what a friend of mine once saw. He's not a naturalist, nor a sportsman, +nor a gamekeeper, and not a gipsy; he doesn't observe animals or want to +find out their ways; he is a writer, occupied day and night with his +writing, sitting among books, yet he saw something which the naturalists +and gamekeepers haven't seen, so far as I know. He was going home one +moonlight night by a footpath through the woods when he heard a very +strange noise a little distance ahead, a low whistling sound, very +sharp, like the continuous twittering of a little bird with a voice like +a bat, or a shrew, only softer, more musical. He went on very +cautiously, until he spied two hedgehogs standing on the path facing +each other, with their noses almost or quite touching. He remained +watching and listening to them for some moments, then tried to go a +little nearer and they ran away. + +"Now I've asked about a dozen gamekeepers if they ever saw such a thing, +and all said they hadn't; they never heard hedgehogs make that +twittering sound, like a bird or a singing mouse; they had only heard +them scream like a rabbit when in a trap. Now what do you say about it?" + +"I've never seen anything like that," said the gipsy. "I only know the +hedgehog makes a little whistling sound when he first comes out at +night; I believe it is a sort of call they have." + +"But no doubt," I said, "you've seen other queer things in hedgehogs and +in other little animals which I should like to hear." + +Yes, he had, first and last, seen a good many queer things both by day +and night, in woods and other places, he replied, and then continued: +"But you see it's like this. We see something and say, 'Now that's a +very curious thing!' and then we forget all about it. You see, we don't +lay no store by such things; we ain't scholards and don't know nothing +about what's said in books. We see something and say _That's_ +something we never saw before and never heard tell of, but maybe others +have seen it and you can find it in the books. So that's how 'tis, but +if I hadn't forgotten them I could have told you a lot of queer things." + +That was all he could say, and few can say more. Caleb was one of the +few who could, and one wonders why it was so, seeing that he was +occupied with his own tasks in the fields and on the down where wild +life is least abundant and varied, and that his opportunities were so +few compared with those of the gamekeeper. It was, I take it, because he +had sympathy for the creatures he observed, that their actions had +stamped themselves on his memory, because he had seen them emotionally. +We have seen how well he remembered the many sheep-dogs he had owned, +how vividly their various characters are portrayed in his account of +them. I have met with shepherds who had little to tell about the dogs +they had possessed; they had regarded their dogs as useful servants and +nothing more as long as they lived, and when dead they were forgotten. +But Caleb had a feeling for his dogs which made it impossible for him to +forget them or to recall them without that tenderness which accompanies +the thought of vanished human friends. In a lesser degree he had +something of this feeling for all animals, down even to the most minute +and unconsidered. I recall here one of his anecdotes of a very small +creature--a shrew, or over-runner, as he called it. + +One day when out with his flock a sudden storm of rain caused him to +seek for shelter in an old untrimmed hedge close by. He crept into the +ditch, full of old dead leaves beneath the tangle of thorns and +brambles, and setting his back against the bank he thrust his legs out, +and as he did so was startled by an outburst of shrill little screams at +his feet. Looking down he spied a shrew standing on the dead leaves +close to his boot, screaming with all its might, its long thin snout +pointed upwards and its mouth wide open; and just above it, two or three +inches perhaps, hovered a small brown butterfly. There for a few moments +it continued hovering while the shrew continued screaming; then the +butterfly flitted away and the shrew disappeared among the dead leaves. + +Caleb laughed (a rare thing with him) when he narrated this little +incident, then remarked: "The over-runner was a-crying 'cause he +couldn't catch that leetel butterfly." + +The shepherd's inference was wrong; he did not know--few do--that the +shrew has the singular habit, when surprised on the surface and in +danger, of remaining motionless and uttering shrill cries. His foot, set +down close to it, had set it screaming; the small butterfly, no doubt +disturbed at the same moment, was there by chance. I recall here another +little story he related of a bird--a long-eared owl. + +One summer there was a great drought, and the rooks, unable to get their +usual food from the hard, sun-baked pasture-lands, attacked the roots +and would have pretty well destroyed them if the farmer had not +protected his swedes by driving in stakes and running cotton-thread and +twine from stake to stake all over the field. This kept them off, just +as thread keeps the chaffinches from the seed-beds in small gardens, and +as it keeps the sparrows from the crocuses on lawn and ornamental +grounds. One day Caleb caught sight of an odd-looking, brownish-grey +object out in the middle of the turnip-field, and as he looked it rose +up two or three feet into the air, then dropped back again, and this +curious movement was repeated at intervals of two or three minutes until +he went to see what the thing was. It turned out to be a long-eared owl, +with its foot accidentally caught by a slack thread, which allowed the +bird to rise a couple of feet into the air; but every such attempt to +escape ended in its being pulled back to the ground again. It was so +excessively lean, so weightless in his hand, when he took it up after +disengaging its foot, that he thought it must have been captive for the +space of two or three days. The wonder was that it had kept alive during +those long midsummer days of intolerable heat out there in the middle of +the burning field. Yet it was in very fine feather and beautiful to look +at with its long, black ear-tufts and round, orange-yellow eyes, which +would never lose their fiery lustre until glazed in death. Caleb's first +thought on seeing it closely was that it would have been a prize to +anyone who liked to have a handsome bird stuffed in a glass case. Then +raising it over his head he allowed it to fly, whereupon it flew off a +distance of a dozen or fifteen yards and pitched among the turnips, +after which it ran a little space and rose again with labour, but soon +recovering strength it flew away over the field and finally disappeared +in the deep shade of the copse beyond. + +In relating these things the voice, the manner, the expression in his +eyes were more than the mere words, and displayed the feeling which had +caused these little incidents to endure so long in his memory. + +The gamekeeper cannot have this feeling: he may come to his task with +the liveliest interest in, even with sympathy for, the wild creatures +amidst which he will spend his life, but it is all soon lost. His +business in the woods is to kill, and the reflex effect is to extinguish +all interest in the living animal--in its life and mind. It would, +indeed, be a wonderful thing if he could remember any singular action or +appearance of an animal which he had witnessed before bringing his gun +automatically to his shoulder. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +THE MASTER OF THE VILLAGE + + Moral effect of the great man--An orphaned village--The masters of the + village.--Elijah Raven--Strange appearance and character--Elijah's + house--The owls--Two rooms in the house--Elijah hardens with time--The + village club and its arbitrary secretary--Caleb dips the lambs and falls + ill--His claim on the club rejected--Elijah in court + + +In my roamings about the downs it is always a relief--a positive +pleasure in fact--to find myself in a village which has no squire or +other magnificent and munificent person who dominates everybody and +everything, and, if he chooses to do so, plays providence in the +community. I may have no personal objection to him--he is sometimes +almost if not quite human; what I heartily dislike is the effect of his +position (that of a giant among pigmies) on the lowly minds about him, +and the servility, hypocrisy, and parasitism which spring up and +flourish in his wide shadow whether he likes these moral weeds or not. +As a rule he likes them, since the poor devil has this in common with +the rest of us, that he likes to stand high in the general regard. But +how is he to know it unless he witnesses its outward beautiful signs +every day and every hour on every countenance he looks upon? Better, to +my mind, the severer conditions, the poverty and unmerited sufferings +which cannot be relieved, with the greater manliness and self-dependence +when the people are left to work out their own destiny. On this account +I was pleased to make the discovery on my first visit to Caleb's native +village that there was no magnate, or other big man, and no gentleman +except the parson, who was not a rich man. It was, so to speak, one of +the orphaned villages left to fend for itself and fight its own way in a +hard world, and had nobody even to give the customary blankets and sack +of coals to its old women. Nor was there any very big farmer in the +place, certainly no gentleman farmer; they were mostly small men, some +of them hardly to be distinguished in speech and appearance from their +hired labourers. + +In these small isolated communities it is common to find men who have +succeeded in rising above the others and in establishing a sort of +mastery over them. They are not as a rule much more intelligent than the +others who are never able to better themselves; the main difference is +that they are harder and more grasping and have more self-control. These +qualities tell eventually, and set a man a little apart, a little higher +than the others, and he gets the taste of power, which reacts on him +like the first taste of blood on the big cat. Henceforward he has his +ideal, his definite goal, which is to get the upper hand--to be on top. +He may be, and generally is, an exceedingly unpleasant fellow to have +for a neighbour--mean, sordid, greedy, tyrannous, even cruel, and he may +be generally hated and despised as well, but along with these feelings +there will be a kind of shamefaced respect and admiration for his +courage in following his own line in defiance of what others think and +feel. It is after all with man as with the social animals: he must have +a master--not a policeman, or magistrate, or a vague, far-away, +impersonal something called the authorities or the government; but a +head of the pack or herd, a being like himself whom he knows and sees +and hears and feels every day. A real man, dressed in old familiar +clothes, a fellow-villager, who, wolf or dog-like, has fought his way to +the mastership. + +There was a person of this kind at Winterbourne Bishop who was often +mentioned in Caleb's reminiscences, for he had left a very strong +impression on the shepherd's mind--as strong, perhaps, though in a +disagreeable way, as that of Isaac his father, and of Mr. Ellerby of +Doveton. For not only was he a man of great force of character, but he +was of eccentric habits and of a somewhat grotesque appearance. The +curious name of this person was Elijah Raven. He was a native of the +village and lived till extreme old age in it, the last of his family, in +a small house inherited from his father, situated about the centre of +the village street. It was a quaint, old, timbered house, little bigger +than a cottage, with a thatched roof, and behind it some outbuildings, a +small orchard, and a field of a dozen or fifteen acres. Here he lived +with one other person, an old man who did the cooking and housework, but +after this man died he lived alone. Not only was he a bachelor, but he +would never allow any woman to come inside his house. Elijah's one idea +was to get the advantage of others--to make himself master in the +village. Beginning poor, he worked in a small, cautious, peddling way at +farming, taking a field or meadow or strip of down here and there in the +neighbourhood, keeping a few sheep, a few cows, buying and selling and +breeding horses. The men he employed were those he could get at low +wages--poor labourers who were without a place and wanted to fill up a +vacant time, or men like the Targetts described in a former chapter who +could be imposed upon; also gipsies who flitted about the country, +working in a spasmodic way when in the mood for the farmers who could +tolerate them, and who were paid about half the wages of an ordinary +labourer. If a poor man had to find money quickly, on account of illness +or some other cause, he could get it from Elijah at once--not borrowed, +since Elijah neither lent nor gave--but he could sell him anything he +possessed--a horse or cow, or sheepdog, or a piece of furniture; and if +he had nothing to sell, Elijah would give him something to do and pay +him something for it. The great thing was that Elijah had money which he +was always willing to circulate. At his unlamented death he left several +thousands of pounds, which went to a distant relation, and a name which +does not smell sweet, but is still remembered not only at Winterbourne +Bishop but at many other villages on Salisbury Plain. + +Elijah was short of stature, broad-shouldered, with an abnormally big +head and large dark eyes. They say that he never cut his hair in his +life. It was abundant and curly, and grew to his shoulders, and when he +was old and his great mass of hair and beard became white it was said +that he resembled a gigantic white owl. Mothers frightened their +children into quiet by saying, "Elijah will get you if you don't behave +yourself." He knew and resented this, and though he never noticed a +child, he hated to have the little ones staring in a half-terrified way +at him. To seclude himself more from the villagers he planted holly and +yew bushes before his house, and eventually the entire building was +hidden from sight by the dense evergreen thicket. The trees were cut +down after his death: they were gone when I first visited the village +and by chance found a lodging in the house, and congratulated myself +that I had got the quaintest, old rambling rooms I had ever inhabited. I +did not know that I was in Elijah Raven's house, although his name had +long been familiar to me: it only came out one day when I asked my +landlady, who was a native, to tell me the history of the place. She +remembered how as a little girl, full of mischief and greatly daring, +she had sometimes climbed over the low front wall to hide under the +thick yew bushes and watch to catch a sight of the owlish old man at his +door or window. + +For many years Elijah had two feathered tenants, a pair of white +owls--the birds he so much resembled. They occupied a small garret at +the end of his bedroom, having access to it through a hole under the +thatch. They bred there in peace, and on summer evenings one of the +common sights of the village was Elijah's owls flying from the house +behind the evergreens and returning to it with mice in their talons. At +such seasons the threat to the unruly children would be varied to "Old +Elijah's owls will get you." Naturally, the children grew up with the +idea of the birds and the owlish old man associated in their minds. + +It was odd that the two very rooms which Elijah had occupied during all +those solitary years, the others being given over to spiders and dust, +should have been assigned to me when I came to lodge in the house. The +first, my sitting-room, was so low that my hair touched the ceiling when +I stood up my full height; it had a brick floor and a wide old fireplace +on one side. Though so low-ceilinged it was very large and good to be in +when I returned from a long ramble on the downs, sometimes wet and cold, +to sit by a wood fire and warm myself. At night when I climbed to my +bedroom by means of the narrow, crooked, worm-eaten staircase, with two +difficult and dangerous corners to get round, I would lie awake staring +at the small square patch of greyness in the black interior made by the +latticed window; and listening to the wind and rain outside, would +remember that the sordid, owlish old man had slept there and stared +nightly at that same grey patch in the dark for very many years. If, I +thought, that something of a man which remains here below to haunt the +scene of its past life is more likely to exist and appear to mortal eyes +in the case of a person of strong individuality, then there is a chance +that I may be visited this night by Elijah Raven his ghost. But his +owlish countenance never appeared between me and that patch of pale dim +light; nor did I ever feel a breath of cold unearthly air on me. + +Elijah did not improve with time; the years that made him long-haired, +whiter, and more owl-like also made him more penurious and grasping, and +anxious to get the better of every person about him. There was scarcely +a poor person in the village--not a field labourer nor shepherd nor +farmer's boy, nor any old woman he had employed, who did not consider +that they had suffered at his hands. The very poorest could not escape; +if he got some one to work for fourpence a day he would find a reason to +keep back a portion of the small sum due to him. At the same time he +wanted to be well thought of, and at length an opportunity came to him +to figure as one who did not live wholly for himself but rather as a +person ready to go out of his way to help his neighbours. + +There had long existed a small benefit society or club in the village to +which most of the farm-hands in the parish belonged, the members +numbering about sixty or seventy. Subscriptions were paid quarterly, but +the rules were not strict, and any member could take a week or a +fortnight longer to pay; when a member fell ill he received half the +amount of his wages a week from the funds in hand, and once a year they +had a dinner. The secretary was a labourer, and in time he grew old and +infirm and could not hold a pen in his rheumaticky fingers, and a +meeting was held to consider what was to be done in the matter. It was +not an easy one to settle. There were few members capable of keeping the +books who would undertake the duty, as it was unpaid, and no one among +them well known and trusted by all the members. It was then that Elijah +Raven came to the rescue. He attended the meeting, which he was allowed +to do owing to his being a person of importance--the only one of that +description in the village; and getting up on his legs he made the offer +to act as secretary himself. This came as a great surprise, and the +offer was at once and unanimously accepted, all unpleasant feelings +being forgotten, and for the first time in his life Elijah heard himself +praised as a disinterested person, one it was good to have in the +village. + +Things went on very well for a time, and at the yearly dinner of the +club, a few months later, Elijah gave an account of his stewardship, +showing that the club had a surplus of two hundred pounds. Shortly after +this trouble began; Elijah, it was said, was making use of his position +as secretary for his own private interests and to pay off old scores +against those he disliked. When a man came with his quarterly +subscription Elijah would perhaps remember that this person had refused +to work for him or that he had some quarrel with him, and if the +subscription was overdue he would refuse to take it; he would tell the +man that he was no longer a member, and he also refused to give sick pay +to any applicant whose last subscription was still due, if he happened +to be in Elijah's black book. By and by he came into collision with +Caleb, one of the villagers against whom he cherished a special grudge, +and this small affair resulted in the dissolution of the club. + +At this time Caleb was head-shepherd at Bartle's Cross, a large farm +above a mile and a half from the village. One excessively hot day in +August he had to dip the lambs; it was very hard work to drive them from +the farm over a high down to the stream a mile below the village, where +there was a dipping place, and he was tired and hot, and in a sweat when +he began the work. With his arms bared to the shoulders he took and +plunged his first lamb into the tank. When engaged in dipping, he said, +he always kept his mouth closed tightly for fear of getting even a drop +of the mixture in it, but on this occasion it unfortunately happened +that the man assisting him spoke to him and he was compelled to reply, +but had no sooner opened his mouth to speak than the lamb made a violent +struggle in his arms and splashed the water over his face and into his +mouth. He got rid of it as quickly as he could, but soon began to feel +bad, and before the work was over he had to sit down two or three times +to rest. However, he struggled on to the finish, then took the flock +home and went to his cottage. He could do no more. The farmer came to +see what the matter was, and found him in a fever, with face and throat +greatly swollen. "You look bad," he said; "you must be off to the +doctor." But it was five miles to the village where the doctor lived, +and Bawcombe replied that he couldn't go. "I'm too bad--I couldn't go, +master, if you offered me money for it," he said. + +Then the farmer mounted his horse and went himself, and the doctor came. +"No doubt," he said, "you've got some of the poison into your system and +took a chill at the same time." The illness lasted six weeks, and then +the shepherd resumed work, although still feeling very shaky. By and by +when the opportunity came, he went to claim his sick pay--six shillings +a week for the six weeks, his wages being then twelve shillings. Elijah +flatly refused to pay him; his subscription, he said, had been due for +several weeks and he had consequently forfeited his right to anything. +In vain the shepherd explained that he could not pay when lying ill at +home with no money in the house and receiving no pay from the farmer. +The old man remained obdurate, and with a very heavy heart the shepherd +came out and found three or four of the villagers waiting in the road +outside to hear the result of the application. + +They, too, were men who had been turned away from the club by the +arbitrary secretary. Caleb was telling them about his interview when +Elijah came out of the house and, leaning over the front gate, began to +listen. The shepherd then turned towards him and said in a loud voice: +"Mr. Elijah Raven, don't you think this is a tarrible hard case! I've +paid my subscription every quarter for thirty years and never had +nothing from the fund except two weeks' pay when I were bad some years +ago. Now I've been bad six weeks, and my master giv' me nothing for that +time, and I've got the doctor to pay and nothing to live on. What am I +to do?" + +Elijah stared at him in silence for some time, then spoke: "I told you +in there I wouldn't pay you one penny of the money and I'll hold to what +I said--in there I said it indoors, and I say again that indoors I'll +never pay you--no, not one penny piece. But if I happen some day to meet +you out of doors then I'll pay you. Now go." + +And go he did, very meekly, his wrath going down as he trudged home; for +after all he would have his money by and by, although the hard old man +would punish him for past offences by making him wait for it. + +A week or so went by, and then one day while passing through the village +he saw Elijah coming towards him, and said to himself, Now I'll be paid! +When the two men drew near together he cried out cheerfully, "Good +morning, Mr. Raven." The other without a word and without a pause passed +by on his way, leaving the poor shepherd gazing crestfallen after him. + +After all he would not get his money! The question was discussed in the +cottages, and by and by one of the villagers who was not so poor as most +of them, and went occasionally to Salisbury, said he would ask an +attorney's advice about the matter. He would pay for the advice out of +his own pocket; he wanted to know if Elijah could lawfully do such +things. + +To the man's astonishment the attorney said that as the club was not +registered and the members had themselves made Elijah their head he +could do as he liked--no action would lie against him. But if it was +true and it could be proved that he had spoken those words about paying +the shepherd his money if he met him out of doors, then he could be made +to pay. He also said he would take the case up and bring it into court +if a sum of five pounds was guaranteed to cover expenses in case the +decision went against them. + +Poor Caleb, with twelve shillings a week to pay his debts and live on, +could guarantee nothing, but by and by when the lawyer's opinion had +been discussed at great length at the inn and in all the cottages in the +village, it was found that several of Bawcombe's friends were willing to +contribute something towards a guarantee fund, and eventually the sum of +five pounds was raised and handed over to the person who had seen the +lawyer. + +His first step was to send for Bawcombe, who had to get a day off and +journey in the carrier's cart one market-day to Salisbury. The result +was that action was taken, and in due time the case came on. Elijah +Raven was in court with two or three of his friends--small working +farmers who had some interested motive in desiring to appear as his +supporters. He, too, had engaged a lawyer to conduct his case. The +judge, said Bawcombe, who had never seen one before, was a tarrible +stern-looking old man in his wig. The plaintiff's lawyer he did open the +case and he did talk and talk a lot, but Elijah's counsel he did keep on +interrupting him, and they two argued and argued, but the judge he never +said no word, only he looked blacker and more tarrible stern. Then when +the talk did seem all over, Bawcombe, ignorant of the forms, got up and +said, "I beg your lordship's pardon, but may I speak?" He didn't rightly +remember afterwards what he called him, but 'twere your lordship or your +worship, he was sure. "Yes, certainly, you are here to speak," said the +judge, and Bawcombe then gave an account of his interview with Elijah +and of the conversation outside the house. + +Then up rose Elijah Raven, and in a loud voice exclaimed, "Lord, Lord, +what a sad thing it is to have to sit here and listen to this man's +lies!" + +"Sit down, sir," thundered the judge; "sit down and hold your tongue, or +I shall have you removed." + +Then Elijah's lawyer jumped up, and the judge told him he'd better sit +down too because he knowed who the liar was in this case. "A brutal +case!" he said, and that was the end, and Bawcombe got his six weeks' +sick pay and expenses, and about three pounds besides, being his share +of the society's funds which Elijah had been advised to distribute to +the members. + +And that was the end of the Winterbourne Bishop club, and from that time +it has continued without one. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +ISAAC'S CHILDREN + + Isaac Bawcombe's family--The youngest son--Caleb goes to seek David at + Wilton sheep-fair--Martha, the eldest daughter--Her beauty--She marries + Shepherd Ierat--The name of Ierat--Story of Ellen Ierat--The Ierats go + to Somerset--Martha and the lady of the manor--Martha's travels--Her + mistress dies--Return to Winterbourne Bishop--Shepherd Ierat's end + + +Caleb was one of five, the middle one, with a brother and sister older +and a brother and sister younger than himself--a symmetrical family. I +have already written incidentally of the elder brother and the youngest +sister, and in this chapter will complete the history of Isaac's +children by giving an account of the eldest sister and youngest brother. + +The brother was David, the hot-tempered young shepherd who killed his +dog Monk, and who afterwards followed his brother to Warminster. In +spite of his temper and "want of sense" Caleb was deeply attached to +him, and when as an old man his shepherding days were finished he +followed his wife to their new home, he grieved at being so far removed +from his favourite brother. For some time he managed to make the journey +to visit him once a year. Not to his home near Warminster, but to +Wilton, at the time of the great annual sheep-fair held on 12th +September. From his cottage he would go by the carrier's cart to the +nearest town, and thence by rail with one or two changes by Salisbury to +Wilton. + +After I became acquainted with Caleb he was ill and not likely to +recover, and for over two years could not get about. During all this +time he spoke often to me of his brother and wished he could see him. I +wondered why he did not write; but he would not, nor would the other. +These people of the older generation do not write to each other; years +are allowed to pass without tidings, and they wonder and wish and talk +of this and that absent member of the family, trusting it is well with +them, but to write a letter never enters into their minds. + +At last Caleb began to mend and determined to go again to Wilton +sheep-fair to look for his beloved brother; to Warminster he could not +go; it was too far. September the 12th saw him once more at the old +meeting-place, painfully making his slow way to that part of the ground +where Shepherd David Bawcombe was accustomed to put his sheep. But he +was not there. "I be here too soon," said Caleb, and sat himself +patiently down to wait, but hours passed and David did not appear, so he +got up and made his way about the fair in search of him, but couldn't +find 'n. Returning to the old spot he got into conversation with two +young shepherds and told them he was waiting for his brother who always +put his sheep in that part. "What be his name?" they asked, and when he +gave it they looked at one another and were silent. Then one of them +said, "Be you Shepherd Caleb Bawcombe?" and when he had answered them +the other said, "You'll not see your brother at Wilton to-day. We've +come from Doveton, and knew he. You'll not see your brother no more. He +be dead these two years." + +Caleb thanked them for telling him, and got up and went his way very +quietly, and got back that night to his cottage. He was very tired, said +his wife; he wouldn't eat and he wouldn't talk. Many days passed and he +still sat in his corner and brooded, until the wife was angry and said +she never knowed a man make so great a trouble over losing a brother. +'Twas not like losing a wife or a son, she said; but he answered not a +word, and it was many weeks before that dreadful sadness began to wear +off, and he could talk cheerfully once more of his old life in the +village. + +Of the sister, Martha, there is much more to say; her life was an +eventful one as lives go in this quiet downland country, and she was, +moreover, distinguished above the others of the family by her beauty and +vivacity. I only knew her when her age was over eighty, in her native +village where her life ended some time ago, but even at that age there +was something of her beauty left and a good deal of her charm. She had a +good figure still and was of a good height; and had dark, fine eyes, +clear, dark, unwrinkled skin, a finely shaped face, and her grey hair, +once black, was very abundant. Her manner, too, was very engaging. At +the age of twenty-five she married a shepherd named Thomas Ierat--a +surname I had not heard before and which made me wonder where were the +Ierats in Wiltshire that in all my rambles among the downland villages I +had never come across them, not even in the churchyards. Nobody +knew--there were no Ierats except Martha Ierat, the widow, of +Winterbourne Bishop and her son--nobody had ever heard of any other +family of the name. I began to doubt that there ever had been such a +name until quite recently when, on going over an old downland village +church, the rector took me out to show me "a strange name" on a tablet +let into the wall of the building outside. The name was Ierat and the +date the seventeenth century. He had never seen the name excepting on +that tablet. Who, then, was Martha's husband? It was a queer story which +she would never have told me, but I had it from her brother and his +wife. + +A generation before that of Martha, at a farm in the village of Bower +Chalk on the Ebble, there was a girl named Ellen Ierat employed as a +dairymaid. She was not a native of the village, and if her parentage and +place of birth were ever known they have long passed out of memory. She +was a good-looking, nice-tempered girl, and was much liked by her master +and mistress, so that after she had been about two years in their +service it came as a great shock to find that she was in the family way. +The shock was all the greater when the fresh discovery was made one day +that another unmarried woman in the house, who was also a valued +servant, was in the same condition. The two unhappy women had kept their +secret from every one except from each other until it could be kept no +longer, and they consulted together and determined to confess it to +their mistress and abide the consequences. + +Who were the men? was the first question asked There was only +one--Robert Coombe, the shepherd, who lived at the farm-house, a slow, +silent, almost inarticulate man, with a round head and flaxen hair; a +bachelor of whom people were accustomed to say that he would never marry +because no woman would have such a stolid, dull-witted fellow for a +husband. But he was a good shepherd and had been many years on the farm, +and it was altogether a terrible business. Forthwith the farmer got out +his horse and rode to the downs to have it out with the unconscionable +wretch who had brought that shame and trouble on them. He found him +sitting on the turf eating his midday bread and bacon, with a can of +cold tea at his side, and getting off his horse he went up to him and +damned him for a scoundrel and abused him until he had no words left, +then told his shepherd that he must choose between the two women and +marry at once, so as to make an honest woman of one of the two poor +fools; either he must do that or quit the farm forthwith. + +Coombe heard in silence and without a change in his countenance, +masticating his food the while and washing it down with an occasional +draught from his can, until he had finished his meal; then taking his +crook he got up, and remarking that he would "think of it" went after +his flock. + +The farmer rode back cursing him for a clod; and in the evening Coombe, +after folding his flock, came in to give his decision, and said he had +thought of it and would take Jane to wife. She was a good deal older +than Ellen and not so good-looking, but she belonged to the village and +her people were there, and everybody knowed who Jane was, an' she was an +old servant an' would be wanted on the farm. Ellen was a stranger among +them, and being only a dairymaid was of less account than the other one. + +So it was settled, and on the following morning Ellen, the rejected, was +told to take up her traps and walk. + +What was she to do in her condition, no longer to be concealed, alone +and friendless in the world? She thought of Mrs. Poole, an elderly woman +of Winterbourne Bishop, whose children were grown up and away from home, +who when staying at Bower Chalk some months before had taken a great +liking for Ellen, and when parting with her had kissed her and said: "My +dear, I lived among strangers too when I were a girl and had no one of +my own, and know what 'tis." That was all; but there was nobody else, +and she resolved to go to Mrs. Poole, and so laden with her few +belongings she set out to walk the long miles over the downs to +Winterbourne Bishop where she had never been. It was far to walk in hot +August weather when she went that sad journey, and she rested at +intervals in the hot shade of a furze-bush, haunted all day by the +miserable fear that the woman she sought, of whom she knew so little, +would probably harden her heart and close her door against her. But the +good woman took compassion on her and gave her shelter in her poor +cottage, and kept her till her child was born, in spite of all the +women's bitter tongues. And in the village where she had found refuge +she remained to the end of her life, without a home of her own, but +always in a room or two with her boy in some poor person's cottage. Her +life was hard but not unpeaceful, and the old people, all dead and gone +now, remembered Ellen as a very quiet, staid woman who worked hard for a +living, sometimes at the wash-tub, but mostly in the fields, haymaking +and harvesting and at other times weeding, or collecting flints, or with +a spud or sickle extirpating thistles in the pasture-land. She worked +alone or with other poor women, but with the men she had no friendships; +the sharpest women's eyes in the village could see no fault in her in +this respect; if it had not been so, if she had talked pleasantly with +them and smiled when addressed by them, her life would have been made a +burden to her. She would have been often asked who her brat's father +was. The dreadful experience of that day, when she had been cast out and +was alone in the world, when, burdened with her unborn child, she had +walked over the downs in the hot August weather, in anguish of +apprehension, had sunk into her soul. Her very nature was changed, and +in a man's presence her blood seemed frozen, and if spoken to she +answered in monosyllables with her eyes on the earth. This was noted, +with the result that all the village women were her good friends; they +never reminded her of her fall, and when she died still young they +grieved for her and befriended the little orphan boy she had left on +their hands. + +He was then about eleven years old, and was a stout little fellow with a +round head and flaxen hair like his father; but he was not so stolid and +not like him in character; at all events his old widow in speaking of +him to me said that never in all his life did he do one unkind or unjust +thing. He came from a long line of shepherds, and shepherding was +perhaps almost instinctive in him; from his earliest boyhood the +tremulous bleating of the sheep and half-muffled clink of the copper +bells and the sharp bark of the sheep-dog had a strange attraction for +him. He was always ready when a boy was wanted to take charge of a flock +during a temporary absence of the shepherd, and eventually, when only +about fifteen, he was engaged as under-shepherd, and for the rest of his +life shepherding was his trade. + +His marriage to Martha Bawcombe came as a surprise to the village, for +though no one had any fault to find with Tommy Ierat there was a slur on +him, and Martha, who was the finest girl in the place, might, it was +thought, have looked for some one better. But Martha had always liked +Tommy; they were of the same age and had been playmates in their +childhood; growing up together their childish affection had turned to +love, and after they had waited some years and Tommy had a cottage and +seven shillings a week, Isaac and his wife gave their consent and they +were married. Still they felt hurt at being discussed in this way by the +villagers, so that when Ierat was offered a place as shepherd at a +distance from home, where his family history was not known, he was glad +to take it and his wife to go with him, about a month after her child +was born. + +The new place was in Somerset, thirty-five to forty miles from their +native village, and Ierat as shepherd at the manor-house farm on a large +estate would have better wages than he had ever had before and a nice +cottage to live in. Martha was delighted with her new home--the cottage, +the entire village, the great park and mansion close by, all made it +seem like paradise to her. Better than everything was the pleasant +welcome she received from the villagers, who looked in to make her +acquaintance and seemed very much taken with her appearance and nice, +friendly manner. They were all eager to tell her about the squire and +his lady, who were young, and of how great an interest they took in +their people and how much they did for them and how they were loved by +everybody on the estate. + +It happens, oddly enough, that I became acquainted with this same man, +the squire, over fifty years after the events I am relating, when he was +past eighty. This acquaintance came about by means of a letter he wrote +me in reference to the habits of a bird or some such small matter, a way +in which I have become acquainted with scores--perhaps I should say +hundreds--of persons in many parts of the country. He was a very fine +man, the head of an old and distinguished county family; an ideal +squire, and one of the few large landowners I have had the happiness to +meet who was not devoted to that utterly selfish and degraded form of +sport which consists in the annual rearing and subsequent slaughter of a +host of pheasants. + +Now when Martha was entertaining half a dozen of her new neighbours who +had come in to see her, and exhibited her baby to them and then +proceeded to suckle it, they looked at one another and laughed, and one +said, "Just you wait till the lady at the mansion sees 'ee--she'll soon +want 'ee to nurse her little one." + +What did they mean? They told her that the great lady was a mother too, +and had a little sickly baby and wanted a nurse for it, but couldn't +find a woman to please her. + +Martha fired up at that. Did they imagine, she asked, that any great +lady in the world with all her gold could tempt her to leave her own +darling to nurse another woman's? She would not do such a thing--she +would rather leave the place than submit to it. But she didn't believe +it--they had only said that to tease and frighten her! + +They laughed again, looking admiringly at her as she stood before them +with sparkling eyes, flushed cheeks, and fine full bust, and only +answered, "Just you wait, my dear, till she sees 'ee." + +And very soon the lady did see her. The people at the manor were strict +in their religious observances, and it had been impressed on Martha that +she had better attend at morning service on her first Sunday, and a girl +was found by one of her neighbours to look after the baby in the +meantime. And so when Sunday came she dressed herself in her best +clothes and went to church with the others. The service over, the squire +and his wife came out first and were standing in the path exchanging +greetings with their friends; then as the others came out with Martha in +the midst of the crowd the lady turned and fixed her eyes on her, and +suddenly stepping out from the group she stopped Martha and said, "Who +are you?--I don't remember your face." + +"No, ma'am," said Martha, blushing and curtsying. "I be the new +shepherd's wife at the manor-house farm--we've only been here a few +days." + +The other then said she had heard of her and that she was nursing her +child, and she then told Martha to go to the mansion that afternoon as +she had something to say to her. + +The poor young mother went in fear and trembling, trying to stiffen +herself against the expected blandishments. + +Then followed the fateful interview. The lady was satisfied that she had +got hold of the right person at last--the one in the world who would be +able to save her precious little one "from to die," the poor pining +infant on whose frail little life so much depended! She would feed it +from her full, healthy breasts and give it something of her own +abounding, splendid life. Martha's own baby would do very well--there +was nothing the matter with it, and it would flourish on "the bottle" or +anything else, no matter what. All she had to do was to go back to her +cottage and make the necessary arrangements, then come to stay at the +mansion. + +Martha refused, and the other smiled; then Martha pleaded and cried and +said she would never never leave her own child, and as all that had no +effect she was angry, and it came into her mind that if the lady would +get angry too she would be ordered out and all would be over. But the +lady wouldn't get angry, for when Martha stormed she grew more gentle +and spoke tenderly and sweetly, but would still have it her own way, +until the poor young mother could stand it no longer, and so rushed away +in a great state of agitation to tell her husband and ask him to help +her against her enemy. But Tommy took the lady's side, and his young +wife hated him for it, and was in despair and ready to snatch up her +child and run away from them all, when all at once a carriage appeared +at the cottage, and the great lady herself, followed by a nurse with the +sickly baby in her arms, came in. She had come, she said very gently, +almost pleadingly, to ask Martha to feed her child once, and Martha was +flattered and pleased at the request, and took and fondled the infant in +her arms, then gave it suck at her beautiful breast. And when she had +fed the child, acting very tenderly towards it like a mother, her +visitor suddenly burst into tears, and taking Martha in her arms she +kissed her and pleaded with her again until she could resist no more; +and it was settled that she was to live at the mansion and come once +every day to the village to feed her own child from the breast. + +Martha's connexion with the people at the mansion did not end when she +had safely reared the sickly child. The lady had become attached to her +and wanted to have her always, although Martha could not act again as +wet nurse, for she had no more children herself. And by and by when her +mistress lost her health after the birth of a third child and was +ordered abroad, she took Martha with her, and she passed a whole year +with her on the Continent, residing in France and Italy. They came home +again, but as the lady continued to decline in health she travelled +again, still taking Martha with her, and they visited India and other +distant countries, including the Holy Land; but travel and wealth and +all that the greatest physicians in the world could do for her, and the +tender care of a husband who worshipped her, availed not, and she came +home in the end to die; and Martha went back to her Tommy and the boy, +to be separated no more while their lives lasted. + +The great house was shut up and remained so for years. The squire was +the last man in England to shirk his duties as landlord and to his +people whom he loved, and who loved him as few great landowners are +loved in England, but his grief was too great for even his great +strength to bear up against, and it was long feared by his friends that +he would never recover from his loss. But he was healed in time, and ten +years later married again and returned to his home, to live there until +nigh upon his ninetieth year. Long before this the Ierats had returned +to their native village. When I last saw Martha, then in her +eighty-second year, she gave me the following account of her Tommy's +end. + +He continued shepherding up to the age of seventy-eight. One Sunday, +early in the afternoon, when she was ill with an attack of influenza, he +came home, and putting aside his crook said, "I've done work." + +"It's early," she replied, "but maybe you got the boy to mind the sheep +for you." + +"I don't mean I've done work for the day," he returned. "I've done for +good--I'll not go with the flock no more." + +"What be saying?" she cried in sudden alarm. "Be you feeling bad--what +be the matter?" + +"No, I'm not bad," he said. "I'm perfectly well, but I've done work;" +and more than that he would not say. + +She watched him anxiously but could see nothing wrong with him; his +appetite was good, he smoked his pipe, and was cheerful. + +Three days later she noticed that he had some difficulty in pulling on a +stocking when dressing in the morning, and went to his assistance. He +laughed and said, "Here's a funny thing! You be ill and I be well, and +you've got to help me put on a stocking!" and he laughed again. + +After dinner that day he said he wanted a drink and would have a glass +of beer. There was no beer in the house, and she asked him if he would +have a cup of tea. + +"Oh, yes, that'll do very well," he said, and she made it for him. + +After drinking his cup of tea he got a footstool, and placing it at her +feet sat down on it and rested his head on her knees; he remained a long +time in this position so perfectly still that she at length bent over +and felt and examined his face, only to discover that he was dead. + +And that was the end of Tommy Ierat, the son of Ellen. He died, she +said, like a baby that has been fed and falls asleep on its mother's +breast. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +LIVING IN THE PAST + + Evening talks--On the construction of sheep-folds--Making + hurdles--Devil's guts--Character in sheep-dogs--Sally the spiteful + dog--Dyke the lost dog who returned--Strange recovery of a lost + dog--Badger the playful dog--Badger shepherds the fowls--A ghost + story--A Sunday-evening talk--Parsons and ministers--Noisy + religion--The shepherd's love of his calling--Mark Dick and the + giddy sheep--Conclusion + + +During our frequent evening talks, often continued till a late hour, it +was borne in on Caleb Bawcombe that his anecdotes of wild creatures +interested me more than anything else he had to tell; but in spite of +this, or because he could not always bear it in mind, the conversation +almost invariably drifted back to the old subject of sheep, of which he +was never tired. Even in his sleep he does not forget them; his dreams, +he says, are always about sheep; he is with the flock, shifting the +hurdles, or following it out on the down. A troubled dream when he is +ill or uneasy in his sleep is invariably about some difficulty with the +flock; it gets out of his control, and the dog cannot understand him or +refuses to obey when everything depends on his instant action. The +subject was so much to him, so important above all others, that he would +not spare the listener even the minutest details of the shepherd's life +and work. His "hints on the construction of sheep-folds" would have +filled a volume; and if any farmer had purchased the book he would not +have found the title a misleading one and that he had been defrauded of +his money. But with his singular fawn-like face and clear eyes on his +listener it was impossible to fall asleep, or even to let the attention +wander; and incidentally even in his driest discourse there were little +bright touches which one would not willingly have missed. + +About hurdles he explained that it was common for the downland shepherds +to repair the broken and worn-out ones with the long woody stems of the +bithywind from the hedges; and when I asked what the plant was he +described the wild clematis or traveller's-joy; but those names he did +not know--to him the plant had always been known as _bithywind_ or +else _Devil's guts_. It struck me that bithywind might have come by +the transposition of two letters from withybind, as if one should say +flutterby for butterfly, or flagondry for dragonfly. Withybind is one of +the numerous vernacular names of the common convolvulus. Lilybind is +another. But what would old Gerarde, who invented the pretty name of +traveller's-joy for that ornament of the wayside hedges, have said to +such a name as Devil's guts? + +There was, said Caleb, an old farmer in the parish of Bishop who had a +peculiar fondness for this plant, and if a shepherd pulled any of it out +of one of his hedges after leafing-time he would be very much put out; +he would shout at him, "Just you leave my Devil's guts alone or I'll not +keep you on the farm." And the shepherds in revenge gave him the +unpleasant nickname of "Old Devil's Guts," by which he was known in that +part of the country. + +As a rule, talk about sheep, or any subject connected with sheep, would +suggest something about sheepdogs individual dogs he had known or +possessed, and who always had their own character and peculiarities, +like human beings. They were good and bad and indifferent; a really bad +dog was a rarity; but a fairly good dog might have some trick or vice or +weakness. There was Sally, for example, a stump-tail bitch, as good a +dog with sheep as he ever possessed, but you had to consider her +feelings. She would keenly resent any injustice from her master. If he +spoke too sharply to her, or rebuked her unnecessarily for going a +little out of her way just to smell at a rabbit burrow, she would nurse +her anger until an opportunity came of inflicting a bite on some erring +sheep. Punishing her would have made matters worse: the only way was to +treat her as a reasonable being and never to speak to her as a dog--a +mere slave. + +Dyke was another dog he remembered well. He belonged to old Shepherd +Matthew Titt, who was head-shepherd at a farm near Warminster, adjacent +to the one where Caleb worked. Old Mat and his wife lived alone in their +cottage out of the village, all their children having long grown up and +gone away to a distance from home, and being so lonely "by their two +selves" they loved their dog just as others love their relations. But +Dyke deserved it, for he was a very good dog. One year Mat was sent by +his master with lambs to Weyhill, the little village near Andover, where +a great sheep-fair is held in October every year. It was distant over +thirty miles, but Mat though old was a strong man still and greatly +trusted by his master. From this journey he returned with a sad heart, +for he had lost Dyke. He had disappeared one night while they were at +Weyhill. Old Mrs. Titt cried for him as she would have cried for a lost +son, and for many a long day they went about with heavy hearts. + +Just a year had gone by when one night the old woman was roused from +sleep by loud knocks on the window-pane of the living-room below. "Mat! +Mat!" she cried, shaking him vigorously, "wake up--old Dyke has come +back to us!" "What be you talking about?" growled the old shepherd. "Lie +down and go to sleep--you've been dreaming." "'Tain't no dream; 'tis +Dyke--I know his knock," she cried, and getting up she opened the window +and put her head well out, and there sure enough was Dyke, standing up +against the wall and gazing up at her, and knocking with his paw against +the window below. + +Then Mat jumped up, and going together downstairs they unbarred the door +and embraced the dog with joy, and the rest of the night was spent in +feeding and caressing him, and asking him a hundred questions, which he +could only answer by licking their hands and wagging his tail. + +It was supposed that he had been stolen at the fair, probably by one of +the wild, little, lawless men called "general dealers," who go flying +about the country in a trap drawn by a fast-trotting pony; that he had +been thrown, muffled up, into the cart and carried many a mile away, and +sold to some shepherd, and that he had lost his sense of direction. But +after serving a stranger a full year he had been taken with sheep to +Weyhill Fair once more, and once there he knew where he was, and had +remembered the road leading to his old home and master, and making his +escape had travelled the thirty long miles back to Warminster. + +The account of Dyke's return reminded me of an equally good story of the +recovery of a lost dog which I heard from a shepherd on the Avon. He had +been lost over a year, when one day the shepherd, being out on the down +with his flock, stood watching two drovers travelling with a flock on +the turnpike road below, nearly a mile away, and by and by hearing one +of their dogs bark he knew at that distance that it was his dog. "I +haven't a doubt," he said to himself, "and if I know his bark he'll know +my whistle." With that he thrust two fingers in his mouth and blew his +shrillest and longest whistle, then waited the result. Presently he +spied a dog, still at a great distance, coming swiftly towards him; it +was his own dog, mad with joy at finding his old master. + +Did ever two friends, long sundered by unhappy chance, recognize each +other's voices at such a distance and so come together once more! + +Whether the drovers had seen him desert them or not, they did not follow +to recover him, nor did the shepherd go to them to find out how they had +got possession of him; it was enough that he had got his dog back. + +No doubt in this case the dog had recognized his old home when taken by +it, but he was in another man's hands now, and the habits and discipline +of a life made it impossible for him to desert until that old, familiar, +and imperative call reached his ears and he could not disobey. + +Then (to go on with Caleb's reminiscences) there was Badger, owned by a +farmer and worked for some years by Caleb--the very best stump-tail he +ever had to help him. This dog differed from others in his vivacious +temper and ceaseless activity. When the sheep were feeding quietly and +there was little or nothing to do for hours at a time, he would not lie +down and go to sleep like any other sheep-dog, but would spend his +vacant time "amusing of hisself" on some smooth slope where he could +roll over and over; then run back and roll over again and again, playing +by himself just like a child. Or he would chase a butterfly or scamper +about over the down hunting for large white flints, which he would bring +one by one and deposit them at his master's feet, pretending they were +something of value and greatly enjoying the game. This dog, Caleb said, +would make him laugh every day with his games and capers. + +When Badger got old his sight and hearing failed; yet when he was very +nearly blind and so deaf that he could not hear a word of command, even +when it was shouted out quite close to him, he was still kept with the +flock because he was so intelligent and willing. But he was too old at +last; it was time for him to be put out of the way. The farmer, however, +who owned him, would not consent to have him shot, and so the wistful +old dog was ordered to keep at home at the farm-house. Still he refused +to be superannuated, and not allowed to go to the flock he took to +shepherding the fowls. In the morning he would drive them out to their +run and keep them there in a flock, going round and round them by the +hour, and furiously hunting back the poor hens that tried to steal off +to lay their eggs in some secret place. This could not be allowed, and +so poor old Badger, who would have been too miserable if tied up, had to +be shot after all. + +These were always his best stories--his recollections of sheep-dogs, for +of all creatures, sheep alone excepted, he knew and loved them best. Yet +for one whose life had been spent in that small isolated village and on +the bare down about it, his range was pretty wide, and it even included +one memory of a visitor from the other world. Let him tell it in his own +words. + +"Many say they don't believe there be such things as ghosties. They +niver see'd 'n. An' I don't say I believe or disbelieve what I hear +tell. I warn't there to see. I only know what I see'd myself: but I +don't say that it were a ghostie or that it wasn't one. I was coming +home late one night from the sheep; 'twere close on 'leven o'clock, a +very quiet night, with moonsheen that made it a'most like day. Near th' +end of the village I come to the stepping-stones, as we call 'n, where +there be a gate and the road, an' just by the road the four big white +stones for people going from the village to the copse an' the down on +t'other side to step over the water. In winter 'twas a stream there, but +the water it dried in summer, and now 'twere summer-time and there wur +no water. When I git there I see'd two women, both on 'em tall, with +black gowns on, an' big bonnets they used to wear; an' they were +standing face to face so close that the tops o' their bonnets wur a'most +touching together. Who be these women out so late? says I to myself. +Why, says I, they be Mrs. Durk from up in the village an' Mrs. Gaarge +Durk, the keeper's wife down by the copse. Then I thought I know'd how +'twas: Mrs. Gaarge, she'd a been to see Mrs. Durk in the village, and +Mrs. Durk she were coming out a leetel way with her, so far as the +stepping-stones, and they wur just having a last leetel talk before +saying Good night. But mind, I hear'd no talking when I passed 'n. An' +I'd hardly got past 'n before I says, Why, what a fool be I! Mrs. Durk +she be dead a twelvemonth, an' I were in the churchyard and see'd her +buried myself. Whatever be I thinking of? That made me stop and turn +round to look at 'n agin. An' there they was just as I see'd 'n at +first--Mrs. Durk, who was dead a twelvemonth, an' Mrs. Gaarge Durk from +the copse, standing there with their bonnets a'most touching together. +An' I couldn't hear nothing--no talking, they were so still as two +posties. Then something came over me like a tarrible coldness in the +blood and down my back, an' I were afraid, and turning I runned faster +than I ever runned in my life, an' never stopped--not till I got to the +cottage." + +It was not a bad ghost story: but then such stories seldom are when +coming from those who have actually seen, or believe they have seen, an +immaterial being. Their principal charm is in their infinite variety; +you never find two real or true ghost stories quite alike, and in this +they differ from the weary inventions of the fictionist. + +But invariably the principal subject was sheep. + +"I did always like sheep," said Caleb. "Some did say to me that they +couldn't abide shepherding because of the Sunday work. But I always +said, Someone must do it; they must have food in winter and water in +summer, and must be looked after, and it can't be worse for me to do +it." + +It was on a Sunday afternoon, and the distant sound of the church bells +had set him talking on this subject. He told me how once, after a long +interval, he went to the Sunday morning service in his native village, +and the vicar preached a sermon about true religion. Just going to +church, he said, did not make men religious. Out there on the downs +there were shepherds who seldom saw the inside of a church, who were +sober, righteous men and walked with God every day of their lives. Caleb +said that this seemed to touch his heart because he knowed it was true. + +When I asked him if he would not change the church for the chapel, now +he was ill and his vicar paid him no attention, while the minister came +often to see and talk to him, as I had witnessed, he shook his head and +said that he would never change. He then added: "We always say that the +chapel ministers are good men: some say they be better than the parsons; +but all I've knowed--all them that have talked to me--have said bad +things of the Church, and that's not true religion: I say that the Bible +teaches different." + +Caleb could not have had a very wide experience, and most of us know +Dissenting ministers who are wholly free from the fault he pointed out; +but in the purely rural districts, in the small villages where the small +men are found, it is certainly common to hear unpleasant things said of +the parish priest by his Nonconformist rival; and should the parson have +some well-known fault or make a slip, the other is apt to chuckle over +it with a very manifest and most unchristian delight. + +The atmosphere on that Sunday afternoon was very still, and by and by +through the open window floated a strain of music; it was from the brass +band of the Salvationists who were marching through the next village, +about two miles away. We listened, then Caleb remarked: "Somehow I never +cared to go with them Army people. Many say they've done a great good, +and I don't disbelieve it, but there was too much what I call--NOISE; +if, sir, you can understand what I mean." + +I once heard the great Dr. Parker speak the word imagination, or, as he +pronounced it, im-madge-i-na-shun, with a volume of sound which filled a +large building and made the quality he named seem the biggest thing in +the universe. That in my experience was his loftiest oratorical feat; +but I think the old shepherd rose to a greater height when, after a long +pause during which he filled his lungs with air, he brought forth the +tremendous word, dragging it out gratingly, so as to illustrate the +sense in the prolonged harsh sound. + +To show him that I understood what he meant very well, I explained the +philosophy of the matter as follows: He was a shepherd of the downs, who +had lived always in a quiet atmosphere, a noiseless world, and from +lifelong custom had become a lover of quiet. The Salvation Army was born +in a very different world, in East London--the dusty, busy, crowded +world of streets, where men wake at dawn to sounds that are like the +opening of hell's gates, and spend their long strenuous days and their +lives in that atmosphere peopled with innumerable harsh noises, until +they, too, acquire the noisy habit, and come at last to think that if +they have anything to say to their fellows, anything to sell or advise +or recommend, from the smallest thing--from a mackerel or a cabbage or a +penn'orth of milk, to a newspaper or a book or a picture or a +religion--they must howl and yell it out at every passer-by. And the +human voice not being sufficiently powerful, they provide themselves +with bells and gongs and cymbals and trumpets and drums to help them in +attracting the attention of the public. + +He listened gravely to this outburst, and said he didn't know exactly +'bout that, but agreed that it was very quiet on the downs, and that he +loved their quiet. "Fifty years," he said, "I've been on the downs and +fields, day and night, seven days a week, and I've been told that it's a +poor way to spend a life, working seven days for ten or twelve, or at +most thirteen shillings. But I never seen it like that; I liked it, and +I always did my best. You see, sir, I took a pride in it. I never left a +place but I was asked to stay. When I left it was because of something I +didn't like. I couldn't never abide cruelty to a dog or any beast. And I +couldn't abide bad language. If my master swore at the sheep or the dog +I wouldn't bide with he--no, not for a pound a week. I liked my work, +and I liked knowing things about sheep. Not things in books, for I never +had no books, but what I found out with my own sense, if you can +understand me. + +"I remember, when I were young, a very old shepherd on the farm; he had +been more 'n forty years there, and he was called Mark Dick. He told me +that when he were a young man he was once putting the sheep in the fold, +and there was one that was giddy--a young ewe. She was always a-turning +round and round and round, and when she got to the gate she wouldn't go +in but kept on a-turning and turning, until at last he got angry and, +lifting his crook, gave her a crack on the head, and down she went, and +he thought he'd killed her. But in a little while up she jumps and +trotted straight into the fold, and from that time she were well. Next +day he told his master, and his master said, with a laugh, 'Well, now +you know what to do when you gits a giddy sheep.' Some time after that +Mark Dick he had another giddy one, and remembering what his master had +said, he swung his stick and gave her a big crack on the skull, and down +went the sheep, dead. He'd killed it this time, sure enough. When he +tells of this one his master said, 'You've cured one and you've killed +one; now don't you try to cure no more,' he says. + +"Well, some time after that I had a giddy one in my flock. I'd been +thinking of what Mark Dick had told me, so I caught the ewe to see if I +could find out anything. I were always a tarrible one for examining +sheep when they were ill. I found this one had a swelling at the back of +her head; it were like a soft ball, bigger 'n a walnut. So I took my +knife and opened it, and out ran a lot of water, quite clear; and when I +let her go she ran quite straight, and got well. After that I did cure +other giddy sheep with my knife, but I found out there were some I +couldn't cure. They had no swelling, and was giddy because they'd got a +maggot on the brain or some other trouble I couldn't find out." + +Caleb could not have finished even this quiet Sunday afternoon +conversation, in the course of which we had risen to lofty matters, +without a return to his old favourite subjects of sheep and his +shepherding life on the downs. He was long miles away from his beloved +home now, lying on his back, a disabled man who would never again follow +a flock on the hills nor listen to the sounds he loved best to hear--the +multitudinous tremulous bleatings of the sheep, the tinklings of +numerous bells, and crisp ringing bark of his dog. But his heart was +there still, and the images of past scenes were more vivid in him than +they can ever be in the minds of those who live in towns and read books. +"I can see it now," was a favourite expression of his when relating some +incident in his past life. Whenever a sudden light, a kind of smile, +came into his eyes, I knew that it was at some ancient memory, a touch +of quaintness or humour in some farmer or shepherd he had known in the +vanished time--his father, perhaps, or old John, or Mark Dick, or Liddy, +or Dan'l Burdon, the solemn seeker after buried treasure. + +After our long Sunday talk we were silent for a time, and then he +uttered these impressive words: "I don't say that I want to have my life +again, because 'twould be sinful. We must take what is sent. But if +'twas offered to me and I was told to choose my work, I'd say, Give me +my Wiltsheer Downs again and let me be a shepherd there all my life long." + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, A SHEPHERD'S LIFE *** + +This file should be named shlif10.txt or shlif10.zip +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, shlif11.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, shlif10a.txt + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: A Shepherd's Life + +Author: W. H. Hudson + +Release Date: February, 2005 [EBook #7415] +[This file was first posted on April 26, 2003] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: US-ASCII + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, A SHEPHERD'S LIFE *** + + + + +Eric Eldred, David Garcia, Charles Franks, and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team + + + +</PRE> + + + + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p><br> + <br> + + <h1> + A SHEPHERD'S LIFE + </h1> + <h2> + IMPRESSIONS OF THE SOUTH WILTSHIRE DOWNS + </h2> + <center> + <b>BY W. H. HUDSON</b> + </center> + <p> + + </p> + + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <h2> + NOTE + </h2> + <p> + I an obliged to Messrs. Longmans, Green, & Co. for + permission to make use of an article entitled "A Shepherd of + the Downs," which appeared in the October and November + numbers of <i>Longmans' Magazine</i> in 1902. With the + exception of that article, portions of which I have + incorporated in different chapters, the whole of the matter + contained in this work now appears for the first time. + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <h2> + CONTENTS + </h2> + <p> + Chapter. + </p> + <p> + I. <a href= + "#ch01">SALISBURY PLAIN</a> + </p> + <p> + II. <a href="#ch02">SALISBURY + AS I SEE IT</a> + </p> + <p> + III. <a href="#ch03">WINTERBOURNE + BISHOP</a> + </p> + <p> + IV. <a href="#ch04">A SHEPHERD + OF THE DOWNS</a> + </p> + <p> + V. <a href="#ch05">EARLY + MEMORIES</a> + </p> + <p> + VI. <a href="#ch06">SHEPHERD + ISAAC BAWCOMBE</a> + </p> + <p> + VII. <a href="#ch07">THE + DEER-STEALERS</a> + </p> + <p> + VIII. <a href="#ch08">SHEPHERDS AND + POACHING</a> + </p> + <p> + IX. <a href="#ch09">THE + SHEPHERD ON FOXES</a> + </p> + <p> + X. <a href="#ch10">BIRD + LIFE ON THE DOWNS</a> + </p> + <p> + XI. <a href="#ch11">STARLINGS + AND SHEEP-BELLS</a> + </p> + <p> + XII. <a href="#ch12">THE SHEPHERD + AND THE BIBLE</a> + </p> + <p> + XIII. <a href="#ch13">VALE OF THE + WYLYE</a> + </p> + <p> + XIV. <a href="#ch14">A SHEEP-DOG'S + LIFE</a> + </p> + <p> + XV. <a href="#ch15">THE + ELLERBYS OF DOVETON</a> + </p> + <p> + XVI. <a href="#ch16">OLD WILTSHIRE + DAYS</a> + </p> + <p> + XVII. <a href="#ch17">OLD WILTSHIRE DAYS + (<i>continued</i>)</a> + </p> + <p> + XVIII. <a href="#ch18">THE SHEPHERD'S RETURN</a> + </p> + <p> + XIX. <a href="#ch19">THE DARK PEOPLE + OF THE VILLAGE</a> + </p> + <p> + XX. <a href="#ch20">SOME + SHEEP-DOGS</a> + </p> + <p> + XXI. <a href="#ch21">THE SHEPHERD AS + NATURALIST</a> + </p> + <p> + XXII. <a href="#ch22">THE MASTER OF THE + VILLAGE</a> + </p> + <p> + XXIII. <a href="#ch23">ISAAC'S CHILDREN</a> + </p> + <p> + XXIV. <a href="#ch24">LIVING IN THE + PAST</a> + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <h1> + A SHEPHERD'S LIFE + </h1><a name="ch01"><!--Marker--></a> + <h2> + CHAPTER I + </h2> + <h3> + SALISBURY PLAIN + </h3> + <blockquote> + Introductory remarks—Wiltshire little favoured by + tourists—Aspect of the downs—Bad + weather—Desolate aspect—The + bird-scarer—Fascination of the downs—The larger + Salisbury Plain—Effect of the military + occupation—A century's changes—Birds—Old + Wiltshire sheep—Sheep-horns in a well—Changes + wrought by cultivation—Rabbit-warrens on the + downs—Barrows obliterated by the plough and by rabbits + </blockquote> + <p> + Wiltshire looks large on the map of England, a great green + county, yet it never appears to be a favourite one to those + who go on rambles in the land. At all events I am unable to + bring to mind an instance of a lover of Wiltshire who was not + a native or a resident, or had not been to Marlborough and + loved the country on account of early associations. Nor can I + regard myself as an exception, since, owing to a certain kind + of adaptiveness in me, a sense of being at home wherever + grass grows, I am in a way a native too. Again, listen to any + half-dozen of your friends discussing the places they have + visited, or intend visiting, comparing notes about the + counties, towns, churches, castles, scenery—all that + draws them and satisfies their nature, and the chances are + that they will not even mention Wiltshire. They all know it + "in a way"; they have seen Salisbury Cathedral and + Stonehenge, which everybody must go to look at once in his + life; and they have also viewed the country from the windows + of a railroad carriage as they passed through on their flight + to Bath and to Wales with its mountains, and to the west + country, which many of us love best of all—Somerset, + Devon, and Cornwall. For there is nothing striking in + Wiltshire, at all events to those who love nature first; nor + mountains, nor sea, nor anything to compare with the places + they are hastening to, west or north. The downs! Yes, the + downs are there, full in sight of your window, in their + flowing forms resembling vast, pale green waves, wave beyond + wave, "in fluctuation fixed"; a fine country to walk on in + fine weather for all those who regard the mere exercise of + walking as sufficient pleasure. But to those who wish for + something more, these downs may be neglected, since, if downs + are wanted, there is the higher, nobler Sussex range within + an hour of London. There are others on whom the naked aspect + of the downs has a repelling effect. Like Gilpin they love + not an undecorated earth; and false and ridiculous as + Gilpin's taste may seem to me and to all those who love the + chalk, which "spoils everything" as Gilpin said, he certainly + expresses a feeling common to those who are unaccustomed to + the emptiness and silence of these great spaces. + </p> + <p> + As to walking on the downs, one remembers that the fine days + are not so many, even in the season when they are looked + for—they have certainly been few during this wet and + discomfortable one of 1909. It is indeed only on the chalk + hills that I ever feel disposed to quarrel with this English + climate, for all weathers are good to those who love the open + air, and have their special attractions. What a pleasure it + is to be out in rough weather in October when the equinoctial + gales are on, "the wind Euroclydon," to listen to its roaring + in the bending trees, to watch the dead leaves flying, the + pestilence-stricken multitudes, yellow and black and red, + whirled away in flight on flight before the volleying blast, + and to hear and see and feel the tempests of rain, the big + silver-grey drops that smite you like hail! And what pleasure + too, in the still grey November weather, the time of suspense + and melancholy before winter, a strange quietude, like a + sense of apprehension in nature! And so on through the + revolving year, in all places in all weathers, there is + pleasure in the open air, except on these chalk hills because + of their bleak nakedness. There the wind and driving rain are + not for but against you, and may overcome you with misery. + One feels their loneliness, monotony, and desolation on many + days, sometimes even when it is not wet, and I here recall an + amusing encounter with a bird-scarer during one of these + dreary spells. + </p> + <p> + It was in March, bitterly cold, with an east wind which had + been blowing many days, and overhead the sky was of a hard, + steely grey. I was cycling along the valley of the Ebble, and + finally leaving it pushed up a long steep slope and set off + over the high plain by a dusty road with the wind hard + against me. A more desolate scene than the one before me it + would be hard to imagine, for the land was all ploughed and + stretched away before me, an endless succession of vast grey + fields, divided by wire fences. On all that space there was + but one living thing in sight, a human form, a boy, far away + on the left side, standing in the middle of a big field with + something which looked like a gun in his hand. Immediately + after I saw him he, too, appeared to have caught sight of me, + for turning he set off running as fast as he could over the + ploughed ground towards the road, as if intending to speak to + me. The distance he would have to run was about a quarter of + a mile and I doubted that he would be there in time to catch + me, but he ran fast and the wind was against me, and he + arrived at the road just as I got to that point. There by the + side of the fence he stood, panting from his race, his + handsome face glowing with colour, a boy about twelve or + thirteen, with a fine strong figure, remarkably well dressed + for a bird-scarer. For that was what he was, and he carried a + queer, heavy-looking old gun. I got off my wheel and waited + for him to speak, but he was silent, and continued regarding + me with the smiling countenance of one well pleased with + himself. "Well?" I said, but there was no answer; he only + kept on smiling. + </p> + <p> + "What did you want?" I demanded impatiently. + </p> + <p> + "I didn't want anything." + </p> + <p> + "But you started running here as fast as you could the moment + you caught sight of me." + </p> + <p> + "Yes, I did." + </p> + <p> + "Well, what did you do it for—what was your object in + running here?" + </p> + <p> + "Just to see you pass," he answered. + </p> + <p> + It was a little ridiculous and vexed me at first, but by and + by when I left him, after some more conversation, I felt + rather pleased; for it was a new and somewhat flattering + experience to have any person run a long distance over a + ploughed field, burdened with a heavy gun, "just to see me + pass." + </p> + <p> + But it was not strange in the circumstances; his hours in + that grey, windy desolation must have seemed like days, and + it was a break in the monotony, a little joyful excitement in + getting to the road in time to see a passer-by more closely, + and for a few moments gave him a sense of human + companionship. I began even to feel a little sorry for him, + alone there in his high, dreary world, but presently thought + he was better off and better employed than most of his + fellows poring over miserable books in school, and I wished + we had a more rational system of education for the + agricultural districts, one which would not keep the children + shut up in a room during all the best hours of the day, when + to be out of doors, seeing, hearing, and doing, would fit + them so much better for the life-work before them. Squeers' + method was a wiser one. We think less of it than of the + delightful caricature, which makes Squeers "a joy for ever," + as Mr. Lang has said of Pecksniff. But Dickens was a + Londoner, and incapable of looking at this or any other + question from any other than the Londoner's standpoint. Can + you have a better system for the children of all England than + this one which will turn out the most perfect draper's + assistant in Oxford Street, or, to go higher, the most + efficient Mr. Guppy in a solicitor's office? It is true that + we have Nature's unconscious intelligence against us; that by + and by, when at the age of fourteen the boy is finally + released, she will set to work to undo the wrong by + discharging from his mind its accumulations of useless + knowledge as soon as he begins the work of life. But what a + waste of time and energy and money! One can only hope that + the slow intellect of the country will wake to this question + some day, that the countryman will say to the townsman, Go on + making your laws and systems of education for your own + children, who will live as you do indoors; while I shall + devise a different one for mine, one which will give them + hard muscles and teach them to raise the mutton and pork and + cultivate the potatoes and cabbages on which we all feed. + </p> + <p> + To return to the downs. Their very emptiness and desolation, + which frightens the stranger from them, only serves to make + them more fascinating to those who are intimate with and have + learned to love them. That dreary aspect brings to mind the + other one, when, on waking with the early sunlight in the + room, you look out on a blue sky, cloudless or with white + clouds. It may be fancy, or the effect of contrast, but it + has always seemed to me that just as the air is purer and + fresher on these chalk heights than on the earth below, and + as the water is of a more crystal purity, and the sky perhaps + bluer, so do all colours and all sounds have a purity and + vividness and intensity beyond that of other places. I see it + in the yellows of hawkweed, rock-rose, and + birds'-foot-trefoil, in the innumerable specks of brilliant + colour—blue and white and rose—of milk-wort and + squinancy-wort, and in the large flowers of the dwarf + thistle, glowing purple in its green setting; and I hear it + in every bird-sound, in the trivial songs of yellow-hammer + and corn-bunting, and of dunnock and wren and whitethroat. + </p> + <p> + The pleasure of walking on the downs is not, however, a + subject which concerns me now; it is one I have written about + in a former work, "Nature in Downland," descriptive of the + South Downs. The theme of the present work is the life, human + and other, of the South Wiltshire Downs, or of Salisbury + Plain. It is the part of Wiltshire which has most attracted + me. Most persons would say that the Marlborough Downs are + greater, more like the great Sussex range as it appears from + the Weald: but chance brought me farther south, and the + character and life of the village people when I came to know + them made this appear the best place to be in. + </p> + <p> + The Plain itself is not a precisely denned area, and may be + made to include as much or little as will suit the writer's + purpose. If you want a continuous plain, with no dividing + valley cutting through it, you must place it between the Avon + and Wylye Rivers, a distance about fifteen miles broad and as + many long, with the village of Tilshead in its centure; or, + if you don't mind the valleys, you can say it extends from + Downton and Tollard Royal south of Salisbury to the Pewsey + vale in the north, and from the Hampshire border on the east + side to Dorset and Somerset on the west, about twenty-five to + thirty miles each way. My own range is over this larger + Salisbury Plain, which includes the River Ebble, or Ebele, + with its numerous interesting villages, from Odstock and + Combe Bisset, near Salisbury and "the Chalks," to pretty + Alvediston near the Dorset line, and all those in the Nadder + valley, and westward to White Sheet Hill above Mere. You can + picture this high chalk country as an open hand, the left + hand, with Salisbury in the hollow of the palm, placed + nearest the wrist, and the five valleys which cut through it + as the five spread fingers, from the Bourne (the little + finger) succeeded by Avon, Wylye, and Nadder, to the Ebble, + which comes in lower down as the thumb and has its junction + with the main stream below Salisbury. + </p> + <p> + A very large portion of this high country is now in a + transitional state, that was once a sheep-walk and is now a + training ground for the army. Where the sheep are taken away + the turf loses the smooth, elastic character which makes it + better to walk on than the most perfect lawn. The sheep fed + closely, and everything that grew on the down—grasses, + clovers, and numerous small creeping herbs—had acquired + the habit of growing and flowering close to the ground, every + species and each individual plant striving, with the + unconscious intelligence that is in all growing things, to + hide its leaves and pushing sprays under the others, to + escape the nibbling teeth by keeping closer to the surface. + There are grasses and some herbs, the plantain among them, + which keep down very close but must throw up a tall stem to + flower and seed. Look at the plantain when its flowering time + comes; each particular plant growing with its leaves so close + down on the surface as to be safe from the busy, searching + mouths, then all at once throwing up tall, straight stems to + flower and ripen its seeds quickly. Watch a flock at this + time, and you will see a sheep walking about, rapidly + plucking the flowering spikes, cutting them from the stalk + with a sharp snap, taking them off at the rate of a dozen or + so in twenty seconds. But the sheep cannot be all over the + downs at the same time, and the time is short, myriads of + plants throwing up their stems at once, so that many escape, + and it has besides a deep perennial root so that the plant + keeps its own life though it may be unable to sow any seeds + for many seasons. So with other species which must send up a + tall flower stem; and by and by, the flowering over and the + seeds ripened or lost, the dead, scattered stems remain like + long hairs growing out of a close fur. The turf remains + unchanged; but take the sheep away and it is like the removal + of a pressure, or a danger: the plant recovers liberty and + confidence and casts off the old habit; it springs and + presses up to get the better of its fellows—to get all + the dew and rain and sunshine that it can—and the + result is a rough surface. + </p> + <p> + Another effect of the military occupation is the destruction + of the wild life of the Plain, but that is a matter I have + written about in my last book, "Afoot in England," in a + chapter on Stonehenge, and need not dwell on here. To the + lover of Salisbury Plain as it was, the sight of military + camps, with white tents or zinc houses, and of bodies of men + in khaki marching and drilling, and the sound of guns, now + informs him that he is in a district which has lost its + attraction, where nature has been dispossessed. + </p> + <p> + Meanwhile, there is a corresponding change going on in the + human life of the district. Let anyone describe it as he + thinks best, as an improvement or a deterioration, it is a + great change nevertheless, which in my case and probably that + of many others is as disagreeable to contemplate as that + which we are beginning to see in the down, which was once a + sheep-walk and is so no longer. On this account I have ceased + to frequent that portion of the Plain where the War Office is + in possession of the land, and to keep to the southern side + in my rambles, out of sight and hearing of the "white-tented + camps" and mimic warfare. Here is Salisbury Plain as it has + been these thousand years past, or ever since sheep were + pastured here more than in any other district in England, and + that may well date even more than ten centuries back. + </p> + <p> + Undoubtedly changes have taken place even here, some very + great, chiefly during the last, or from the late eighteenth + century. Changes both in the land and the animal life, wild + and domestic. Of the losses in wild bird life there will be + something to say in another chapter; they relate chiefly to + the extermination of the finest species, the big bird, + especially the soaring bird, which is now gone out of all + this wide Wiltshire sky. As a naturalist I must also lament + the loss of the old Wiltshire breed of sheep, although so + long gone. Once it was the only breed known in Wilts, and + extended over the entire county; it was a big animal, the + largest of the fine-woolled sheep in England, but for looks + it certainly compared badly with modern downland breeds and + possessed, it was said, all the points which the breeder, or + improver, was against. Thus, its head was big and clumsy, + with a round nose, its legs were long and thick, its belly + without wool, and both sexes were horned. Horns, even in a + ram, are an abomination to the modern sheep-farmer in + Southern England. Finally, it was hard to fatten. On the + other hand it was a sheep which had been from of old on the + bare open downs and was modified to suit the conditions, the + scanty feed, the bleak, bare country, and the long distances + it had to travel to and from the pasture ground. It was a + strong, healthy, intelligent animal, in appearance and + character like the old original breed of sheep on the pampas + of South America, which I knew as a boy, a coarse-woolled + sheep with naked belly, tall and hardy, a greatly modified + variety of the sheep introduced by the Spanish colonist three + centuries ago. At all events the old Wiltshire sheep had its + merits, and when the Southdown breed was introduced during + the late eighteenth century the farmer viewed it with + disfavour; they liked their old native animal, and did not + want to lose it. But it had to go in time, just as in later + times the Southdown had to go when the Hampshire Down took + its place—the breed which is now universal, in South + Wilts at all events. + </p> + <p> + A solitary flock of the pure-bred old Wiltshire sheep existed + in the county as late as 1840, but the breed has now so + entirely disappeared from the country that you find many + shepherds who have never even heard of it. Not many days ago + I met with a curious instance of this ignorance of the past. + I was talking to a shepherd, a fine intelligent fellow, + keenly interested in the subjects of sheep and sheep-dogs, on + the high down above the village of Broad Chalk on the Ebble, + and he told me that his dog was of mixed breed, but on its + mother's side came from a Welsh sheep-dog, that his father + had always had the Welsh dog, once common in Wiltshire, and + he wondered why it had gone out as it was so good an animal. + This led me to say something about the old sheep having gone + out too, and as he had never heard of the old breed I + described the animal to him. + </p> + <p> + What I told him, he said, explained something which had been + a puzzle to him for some years. There was a deep hollow in + the down near the spot where we were standing, and at the + bottom he said there was an old well which had been used in + former times to water the sheep, but masses of earth had + fallen down from the sides, and in that condition it had + remained for no one knew how long—perhaps fifty, + perhaps a hundred years. Some years ago it came into his + master's head to have this old well cleaned out, and this was + done with a good deal of labour, the sides having first been + boarded over to make it safe for the workmen below. At the + bottom of the well a vast store of rams' horns was discovered + and brought out; and it was a mystery to the fanner and the + men how so large a number of sheep's horns had been got + together; for rams are few and do not die often, and here + there were hundreds of horns. He understood it now, for if + all the sheep, ewes as well as rams, were horned in the old + breed, a collection like this might easily have been made. + </p> + <p> + The greatest change of the last hundred years is no doubt + that which the plough has wrought in the aspect of the downs. + There is a certain pleasure to the eye in the wide fields of + golden corn, especially of wheat, in July and August; but a + ploughed down is a down made ugly, and it strikes one as a + mistake, even from a purely economic point of view, that this + old rich turf, the slow product of centuries, should be + ruined for ever as sheep-pasture when so great an extent of + uncultivated land exists elsewhere, especially the heavy + clays of the Midlands, better suited for corn. The effect of + breaking up the turf on the high downs is often disastrous; + the thin soil which was preserved by the close, hard turf is + blown or washed away, and the soil becomes poorer year by + year, in spite of dressing, until it is hardly worth + cultivating. Clover may be grown on it but it continues to + deteriorate; or the tenant or landlord may turn it into a + rabbit-warren, the most fatal policy of all. How hideous they + are—those great stretches of downland, enclosed in big + wire fences and rabbit netting, with little but wiry weeds, + moss, and lichen growing on them, the earth dug up everywhere + by the disorderly little beasts! For a while there is a + profit—"it will serve me my time," the owner + says—but the end is utter barrenness. + </p> + <p> + One must lament, too, the destruction of the ancient + earth-works, especially of the barrows, which is going on all + over the downs, most rapidly where the land is broken up by + the plough. One wonders if the ever-increasing curiosity of + our day with regard to the history of the human race in the + land continues to grow, what our descendants of the next half + of the century, to go no farther, will say of us and our + incredible carelessness in the matter! So small a matter to + us, but one which will, perhaps, be immensely important to + them! It is, perhaps, better for our peace that we do not + know; it would not be pleasant to have our children's and + children's children's contemptuous expressions sounding in + our prophetic ears. Perhaps we have no right to complain of + the obliteration of these memorials of antiquity by the + plough; the living are more than the dead, and in this case + it may be said that we are only following the Artemisian + example in consuming (in our daily bread) minute portions of + the ashes of our old relations, albeit untearfully, with a + cheerful countenance. Still one cannot but experience a shock + on seeing the plough driven through an ancient, smooth turf, + curiously marked with barrows, lynchetts, and other + mysterious mounds and depressions, where sheep have been + pastured for a thousand years, without obscuring these chance + hieroglyphs scored by men on the surface of the hills. + </p> + <p> + It is not, however, only on the cultivated ground that the + destruction is going on; the rabbit, too, is an active agent + in demolishing the barrows and other earth-works. He burrows + into the mound and throws out bushels of chalk and clay, + which is soon washed down by the rains; he tunnels it through + and through and sometimes makes it his village; then one day + the farmer or keeper, who is not an archaeologist, comes + along and puts his ferrets into the holes, and one of them, + after drinking his fill of blood, falls asleep by the side of + his victim, and the keeper sets to work with pick and shovel + to dig him out, and demolishes half the barrow to recover his + vile little beast. + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p><a name="ch02"><!--Marker--></a> + <h2> + CHAPTER II + </h2> + <h3> + SALISBURY AS I SEE IT + </h3> + <blockquote> + The Salisbury of the villager—The cathedral from the + meadows—Walks to Wilton and Old Sarum—The spire + and a rainbow—Charm of Old Sarum—The + devastation—Salisbury from Old Sarum—Leland's + description—Salisbury and the village + mind—Market-day—The infirmary—The + cathedral—The lesson of a child's desire—In the + streets again—An Apollo of the downs + </blockquote> + <p> + To the dwellers on the Plain, Salisbury itself is an + exceedingly important place—the most important in the + world. For if they have seen a greater—London, let us + say—it has left but a confused, a phantasmagoric image + on the mind, an impression of endless thoroughfares and of + innumerable people all apparently in a desperate hurry to do + something, yet doing nothing; a labyrinth of streets and + wilderness of houses, swarming with beings who have no + definite object and no more to do with realities than so many + lunatics, and are unconfined because they are so numerous + that all the asylums in the world could not contain them. But + of Salisbury they have a very clear image: inexpressibly rich + as it is in sights, in wonders, full of people—hundreds + of people in the streets and market-place—they can take + it all in and know its meaning. Every man and woman, of all + classes, in all that concourse, is there for some definite + purpose which they can guess and understand; and the busy + street and market, and red houses and soaring spire, are all + one, and part and parcel too of their own lives in their own + distant little village by the Avon or Wylye, or anywhere on + the Plain. And that soaring spire which, rising so high above + the red town, first catches the eye, the one object which + gives unity and distinction to the whole picture, is not more + distinct in the mind than the entire Salisbury with its + manifold interests and activities. + </p> + <p> + There is nothing in the architecture of England more + beautiful than that same spire. I have seen it many times, + far and near, from all points of view, and am never in or + near the place but I go to some spot where I look at and + enjoy the sight; but I will speak here of the two best points + of view. + </p> + <p> + The nearest, which is the artist's favourite point, is from + the meadows; there, from the waterside, you have the + cathedral not too far away nor too near for a picture, + whether on canvas or in the mind, standing amidst its great + old trees, with nothing but the moist green meadows and the + river between. One evening, during the late summer of this + wettest season, when the rain was beginning to cease, I went + out this way for my stroll, the pleasantest if not the only + "walk" there is in Salisbury. It is true, there are two + others: one to Wilton by its long, shady avenue; the other to + Old Sarum; but these are now motor-roads, and until the + loathed hooting and dusting engines are thrust away into + roads of their own there is little pleasure in them for the + man on foot. The rain ceased, but the sky was still stormy, + with a great blackness beyond the cathedral and still other + black clouds coming up from the west behind me. Then the sun, + near its setting, broke out, sending a flame of orange colour + through the dark masses around it, and at the same time + flinging a magnificent rainbow on that black cloud against + which the immense spire stood wet with rain and flushed with + light, so that it looked like a spire built of a stone + impregnated with silver. Never had Nature so glorified man's + work! It was indeed a marvellous thing to see, an effect so + rare that in all the years I had known Salisbury, and the + many times I had taken that stroll in all weathers, it was my + first experience of such a thing. How lucky, then, was + Constable to have seen it, when he set himself to paint his + famous picture! And how brave he was and even wise to have + attempted such a subject, one which, I am informed by artists + with the brush, only a madman would undertake, however great + a genius he might be. It was impossible, we know, even to a + Constable, but we admire his failure nevertheless, even as we + admire Turner's many failures; but when we go back to Nature + we are only too glad to forget all about the picture. + </p> + <p> + The view from the meadows will not, in the future, I fear, + seem so interesting to me; I shall miss the rainbow, and + shall never see again except in that treasured image the + great spire as Constable saw and tried to paint it. In like + manner, though for a different reason, my future visits to + Old Sarum will no longer give me the same pleasure + experienced on former occasions. + </p> + <p> + Old Sarum stands over the Avon, a mile and a half from + Salisbury; a round chalk hill about 300 feet high, in its + round shape and isolation resembling a stupendous tumulus in + which the giants of antiquity were buried, its steeply + sloping, green sides ringed about with vast, concentric + earth-works and ditches, the work of the "old people," as + they say on the Plain, when referring to the ancient Britons, + but how ancient, whether invading Celts or + Aborigines—the true Britons, who possessed the land + from neolithic times—even the anthropologists, the wise + men of to-day, are unable to tell us. Later, it was a Roman + station, one of the most important, and in after ages a great + Norman castle and cathedral city, until early in the + thirteenth century, when the old church was pulled down and a + new and better one to last for ever was built in the green + plain by many running waters. Church and people gone, the + castle fell into ruin, though some believe it existed down to + the fifteenth century; but from that time onwards the site + has been a place of historical memories and a wilderness. + Nature had made it a sweet and beautiful spot; the earth over + the old buried ruins was covered with an elastic turf, + jewelled with the bright little flowers of the chalk, the + ramparts and ditches being all overgrown with a dense thicket + of thorn, holly, elder, bramble, and ash, tangled up with + ivy, briony, and traveller's-joy. Once only during the last + five or six centuries some slight excavations were made when, + in 1834, as the result of an excessively dry summer, the + lines of the cathedral foundations were discernible on the + surface. But it will no longer be the place it was, the + Society of Antiquaries having received permission from the + Dean and Chapter of Salisbury to work their sweet will on the + site. That ancient, beautiful carcass, which had long made + their mouths water, on which they have now fallen like a pack + of hungry hyenas to tear off the old hide of green turf and + burrow down to open to the light or drag out the deep, stony + framework. The beautiful surrounding thickets, too, must go, + they tell me, since you cannot turn the hill inside out + without destroying the trees and bushes that crown it. What + person who has known it and has often sought that spot for + the sake of its ancient associations, and of the sweet solace + they have found in the solitude, or for the noble view of the + sacred city from its summit, will not deplore this fatal + amiability of the authorities, this weak desire to please + every one and inability to say no to such a proposal! + </p> + <p> + But let me now return to the object which brings me to this + spot; it was not to lament the loss of the beautiful, which + cannot be preserved in our age—even this best one of + all which Salisbury possessed cannot be preserved—but + to look at Salisbury from this point of view. It is not as + from "the meadows" a view of the cathedral only, but of the + whole town, amidst its circle of vast green downs. It has a + beautiful aspect from that point: a red-brick and red-tiled + town, set low on that circumscribed space, whose soft, + brilliant green is in lovely contrast with the paler hue of + the downs beyond, the perennial moist green of its + water-meadows. For many swift, clear currents flow around and + through Salisbury, and doubtless in former days there were + many more channels in the town itself. Leland's description + is worth quoting: "There be many fair streates in the Cite + Saresbyri, and especially the High Streate and Castle + Streate.... Al the Streates in a maner, in New Saresbyri, + hath little streamlettes and arms derivyd out of Avon that + runneth through them. The site of the very town of Saresbyri + and much ground thereabout is playne and low, and as a pan or + receyvor of most part of the waters of Wiltshire." + </p> + <p> + On this scene, this red town with the great spire, set down + among water-meadows, encircled by paler green chalk hills, I + look from the top of the inner and highest rampart or + earth-work; or going a little distance down sit at ease on + the turf to gaze at it by the hour. Nor could a sweeter + resting-place be found, especially at the time of ripe + elder-berries, when the thickets are purple with their + clusters and the starlings come in flocks to feed on them, + and feeding keep up a perpetual, low musical jangle about me. + </p> + <p> + It is not, however, of "New Saresbyri" as seen by the + tourist, with a mind full of history, archaeology, and the + aesthetic delight in cathedrals, that I desire to write, but + of Salisbury as it appears to the dweller on the Plain. For + Salisbury is the capital of the Plain, the head and heart of + all those villages, too many to count, scattered far and wide + over the surrounding country. It is the villager's own + peculiar city, and even as the spot it stands upon is the + "pan or receyvor of most part of the waters of Wiltshire," so + is it the receyvor of all he accomplishes in his laborious + life, and thitherward flow all his thoughts and ambitions. + Perhaps it is not so difficult for me as it would be for most + persons who are not natives to identify myself with him and + see it as he sees it. That greater place we have been in, + that mighty, monstrous London, is ever present to the mind + and is like a mist before the sight when we look at other + places; but for me there is no such mist, no image so immense + and persistent as to cover and obscure all others, and no + such mental habit as that of regarding people as a mere + crowd, a mass, a monstrous organism, in and on which each + individual is but a cell, a scale. This feeling troubles and + confuses my mind when I am in London, where we live "too + thick"; but quitting it I am absolutely free; it has not + entered my soul and coloured me with its colour or shut me + out from those who have never known it, even of the simplest + dwellers on the soil who, to our sophisticated minds, may + seem like beings of another species. This is my + happiness—to feel, in all places, that I am one with + them. To say, for instance, that I am going to Salisbury + to-morrow, and catch the gleam in the children's eye and + watch them, furtively watching me, whisper to one another + that there will be something for them, too, on the morrow. To + set out betimes and overtake the early carriers' carts on the + road, each with its little cargo of packages and women with + baskets and an old man or two, to recognize acquaintances + among those who sit in front, and as I go on overtaking and + passing carriers and the half-gipsy, little "general dealer" + in his dirty, ramshackle, little cart drawn by a rough, + fast-trotting pony, all of us intent on business and + pleasure, bound for Salisbury—the great market and + emporium and place of all delights for all the great Plain. I + remember that on my very last expedition, when I had come + twelve miles in the rain and was standing at a street corner, + wet to the skin, waiting for my carrier, a man in a hurry + said to me, "I say, just keep an eye on my cart for a minute + or two while I run round to see somebody. I've got some fowls + in it, and if you see anyone come poking round just ask them + what they want—you can't trust every one. I'll be back + in a minute." And he was gone, and I was very pleased to + watch his cart and fowls till he came back. + </p> + <p> + Business is business and must be attended to, in fair or foul + weather, but for business with pleasure we prefer it fine on + market-day. The one great and chief pleasure, in which all + participate, is just to be there, to be in the crowd—a + joyful occasion which gives a festive look to every face. The + mere sight of it exhilarates like wine. The numbers—the + people and the animals! The carriers' carts drawn up in rows + on rows—carriers from a hundred little villages on the + Bourne, the Avon, the Wylye, the Nadder, the Ebble, and from + all over the Plain, each bringing its little contingent. + Hundreds and hundreds more coming by train; you see them + pouring down Fisherton Street in a continuous procession, all + hurrying market-wards. And what a lively scene the market + presents now, full of cattle and sheep and pigs and crowds of + people standing round the shouting auctioneers! And horses, + too, the beribboned hacks, and ponderous draught horses with + manes and tails decorated with golden straw, thundering over + the stone pavement as they are trotted up and down! And what + a profusion of fruit and vegetables, fish and meat, and all + kinds of provisions on the stalls, where women with baskets + on their arms are jostling and bargaining! The Corn Exchange + is like a huge beehive, humming with the noise of talk, full + of brown-faced farmers in their riding and driving clothes + and leggings, standing in knots or thrusting their hands into + sacks of oats and barley. You would think that all the + farmers from all the Plain were congregated there. There is a + joyful contagion in it all. Even the depressed young lover, + the forlornest of beings, repairs his wasted spirits and + takes heart again. Why, if I've seen a girl with a pretty + face to-day I've seen a hundred—and more. And she + thinks they be so few she can treat me like that and barely + give me a pleasant word in a month! Let her come to Salisbury + and see how many there be! + </p> + <p> + And so with every one in that vast assemblage—vast to + the dweller in the Plain. Each one is present as it were in + two places, since each has in his or her heart the constant + image of home—the little, peaceful village in the + remote valley; of father and mother and neighbours and + children, in school just now, or at play, or home to + dinner—home cares and concerns and the business in + Salisbury. The selling and buying; friends and relations to + visit or to meet in the market-place, and—how + often!—the sick one to be seen at the Infirmary. This + home of the injured and ailing, which is in the mind of so + many of the people gathered together, is indeed the cord that + draws and binds the city and the village closest together and + makes the two like one. + </p> + <p> + That great, comely building of warm, red brick in Fisherton + Street, set well back so that you can see it as a whole, + behind its cedar and beech-trees—how familiar it is to + the villagers! In numberless humble homes, in hundreds of + villages of the Plain, and all over the surrounding country, + the "Infirmary" is a name of the deepest meaning, and a place + of many gad and tender and beautiful associations. I heard it + spoken of in a manner which surprised me at first, for I know + some of the London poor and am accustomed to their attitude + towards the metropolitan hospitals. The Londoner uses them + very freely; they have come to be as necessary to him as the + grocer's shop and the public-house, but for all the benefits + he receives from them he has no faintest sense of gratitude, + and it is my experience that if you speak to him of this he + is roused to anger and demands, "What are they for?" So far + is he from having any thankful thoughts for all that has been + given him for nothing and done for him and for his, if he has + anything to say at all on the matter it is to find fault with + the hospitals and cast blame on them for not having healed + him more quickly or thoroughly. + </p> + <p> + This country town hospital and infirmary is differently + regarded by the villagers of the Plain. It is curious to find + how many among them are personally acquainted with it; + perhaps it is not easy for anyone, even in this most healthy + district, to get through life without sickness, and all are + liable to accidents. The injured or afflicted youth, taken + straight from his rough, hard life and poor cottage, wonders + at the place he finds himself in—the wide, clean, airy + room and white, easy bed, the care and skill of the doctors, + the tender nursing by women, and comforts and luxuries, all + without payment, but given as it seems to him out of pure + divine love and compassion—all this comes to him as + something strange, almost incredible. He suffers much + perhaps, but can bear pain stoically and forget it when it is + past, but the loving kindness he has experienced is + remembered. + </p> + <p> + That is one of the very great things Salisbury has for the + villagers, and there are many more which may not be spoken + of, since we do not want to lose sight of the wood on account + of the trees; only one must be mentioned for a special + reason, and that is the cathedral. The villager is extremely + familiar with it as he sees it from the market and the street + and from a distance, from all the roads which lead him to + Salisbury. Seeing it he sees everything beneath it—all + the familiar places and objects, all the streets—High + and Castle and Crane Streets, and many others, including + Endless Street, which reminds one of Sydney Smith's last + flicker of fun before that candle went out; and the "White + Hart" and the "Angel" and "Old George," and the humbler + "Goat" and "Green Man" and "Shoulder of Mutton," with many + besides; and the great, red building with its cedar-tree, and + the knot of men and boys standing on the bridge gazing down + on the trout in the swift river below; and the market-place + and its busy crowds—all the familiar sights and scenes + that come under the spire like a flock of sheep on a burning + day in summer, grouped about a great tree growing in the + pasture-land. But he is not familiar with the interior of the + great fane; it fails to draw him, doubtless because he has no + time in his busy, practical life for the cultivation of the + aesthetic faculties. There is a crust over that part of his + mind; but it need not always and ever be so; the crust is not + on the mind of the child. + </p> + <p> + Before a stall in the market-place a child is standing with + her mother—a commonplace-looking, little girl of about + twelve, blue-eyed, light-haired, with thin arms and legs, + dressed, poorly enough, for her holiday. The mother, + stoutish, in her best but much-worn black gown and a brown + straw, out-of-shape hat, decorated with bits of ribbon and a + few soiled and frayed artificial flowers. Probably she is the + wife of a labourer who works hard to keep himself and family + on fourteen shillings a week; and she, too, shows, in her + hard hands and sunburnt face, with little wrinkles appearing, + that she is a hard worker; but she is very jolly, for she is + in Salisbury on market-day, in fine weather, with several + shillings in her purse—a shilling for the fares, and + perhaps eightpence for refreshments, and the rest to be + expended in necessaries for the house. And now to increase + the pleasure of the day she has unexpectedly run against a + friend! There they stand, the two friends, basket on arm, + right in the midst of the jostling crowd, talking in their + loud, tinny voices at a tremendous rate; while the girl, with + a half-eager, half-listless expression, stands by with her + hand on her mother's dress, and every time there is a + second's pause in the eager talk she gives a little tug at + the gown and ejaculates "Mother!" The woman impatiently + shakes off the hand and says sharply, "What now, Marty! Can't + 'ee let me say just a word without bothering!" and on the + talk runs again; then another tug and "Mother!" and then, + "You promised, mother," and by and by, "Mother, you said + you'd take me to the cathedral next time." + </p> + <p> + Having heard so much I wanted to hear more, and addressing + the woman I asked her why her child wanted to go. She + answered me with a good-humoured laugh, "'Tis all because she + heard 'em talking about it last winter, and she'd never been, + and I says to her, 'Never you mind, Marty, I'll take you + there the next time I go to Salisbury.'" + </p> + <p> + "And she's never forgot it," said the other woman. + </p> + <p> + "Not she—Marty ain't one to forget." + </p> + <p> + "And you been four times, mother," put in the girl. + </p> + <p> + "Have I now! Well, 'tis too late now—half-past two, and + we must be't' Goat' at four." + </p> + <p> + "Oh, mother, you promised!" + </p> + <p> + "Well, then, come along, you worriting child, and let's have + it over or you'll give me no peace"; and away they went. And + I would have followed to know the result if it had been in my + power to look into that young brain and see the thoughts and + feelings there as the crystal-gazer sees things in a crystal. + In a vague way, with some very early memories to help me, I + can imagine it—the shock of pleased wonder at the sight + of that immense interior, that far-extending nave with + pillars that stand like the tall trunks of pines and beeches, + and at the end the light screen which allows the eye to + travel on through the rich choir, to see, with fresh wonder + and delight, high up and far off, that glory of coloured + glass as of a window half-open to an unimaginable place + beyond—a heavenly cathedral to which all this is but a + dim porch or passage! + </p> + <p> + We do not properly appreciate the educational value of such + early experiences; and I use that dismal word not because it + is perfectly right or for want of a better one, but because + it is in everybody's mouth and understood by all. For all I + know to the contrary, village schools may be bundled in and + out of the cathedral from time to time, but that is not the + right way, seeing that the child's mind is not the + crowd-of-children's mind. But I can imagine that when we have + a wiser, better system of education in the villages, in which + books will not be everything, and to be shut up six or seven + hours every day to prevent the children from learning the + things that matter most—I can imagine at such a time + that the schoolmaster or mistress will say to the village + woman, "I hear you are going to Salisbury to-morrow, or next + Tuesday, and I want you to take Janie or little Dan or Peter, + and leave him for an hour to play about on the cathedral + green and watch the daws flying round the spire, and take a + peep inside while you are doing your marketing." + </p> + <p> + Back from the cathedral once more, from the infirmary, and + from shops and refreshment-houses, out in the sun among the + busy people, let us delay a little longer for the sake of our + last scene. + </p> + <p> + It was past noon on a hot, brilliant day in August, and that + splendid weather had brought in more people than I had ever + before seen congregated in Salisbury, and never had the + people seemed so talkative and merry and full of life as on + that day. I was standing at a busy spot by a row of carriers' + carts drawn up at the side of the pavement, just where there + are three public-houses close together, when I caught sight + of a young man of about twenty-two or twenty-three, a + shepherd in a grey suit and thick, iron-shod, old boots and + brown leggings, with a soft felt hat thrust jauntily on the + back of his head, coming along towards me with that + half-slouching, half-swinging gait peculiar to the men of the + downs, especially when they are in the town on pleasure bent. + Decidedly he was there on pleasure and had been indulging in + a glass or two of beer (perhaps three) and was very happy, + trolling out a song in a pleasant, musical voice as he swung + along, taking no notice of the people stopping and turning + round to stare after him, or of those of his own party who + were following and trying to keep up with him, calling to him + all the time to stop, to wait, to go slow, and give them a + chance. There were seven following him: a stout, middle-aged + woman, then a grey-haired old woman and two girls, and last a + youngish, married woman with a small boy by the hand; and the + stout woman, with a red, laughing face, cried out, "Oh, Dave, + do stop, can't 'ee! Where be going so fast, man—don't + 'ee see we can't keep up with 'ee?" But he would not stop nor + listen. It was his day out, his great day in Salisbury, a + very rare occasion, and he was very happy. Then she would + turn back to the others and cry, "'Tisn't no use, he won't + bide for us—did 'ee ever see such a boy!" and laughing + and perspiring she would start on after him again. + </p> + <p> + Now this incident would have been too trivial to relate had + it not been for the appearance of the man himself—his + powerful and perfect physique and marvellously handsome + face—such a face as the old Greek sculptors have left + to the world to be universally regarded and admired for all + time as the most perfect. I do not think that this was my + feeling only; I imagine that the others in that street who + were standing still and staring after him had something of + the same sense of surprise and admiration he excited in me. + Just then it happened that there was a great commotion + outside one of the public-houses, where a considerable party + of gipsies in their little carts had drawn up, and were all + engaged in a violent, confused altercation. Probably they, or + one of them, had just disposed of a couple of stolen ducks, + or a sheepskin, or a few rabbits, and they were quarrelling + over the division of the spoil. At all events they were + violently excited, scowling at each other and one or two in a + dancing rage, and had collected a crowd of amused lookers-on; + but when the young man came singing by they all turned to + stare at him. + </p> + <p> + As he came on I placed myself directly in his path and stared + straight into his eyes—grey eyes and very beautiful; + but he refused to see me; he stared through me like an animal + when you try to catch its eyes, and went by still trolling + out his song, with all the others streaming after him. + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p><a name="ch03"><!--Marker--></a> + <h2> + CHAPTER III + </h2> + <h3> + WINTERBOURNE BISHOP + </h3> + <blockquote> + A favourite village—Isolated situation—Appearance + of the village—Hedge-fruit—The + winterbourne—Human interest—The home + feeling—Man in harmony with nature—Human bones + thrown out by a rabbit—A spot unspoiled and unchanged + </blockquote> + <p> + Of the few widely separated villages, hidden away among the + lonely downs in the large, blank spaces between the rivers, + the one I love best is Winterbourne Bishop. Yet of the entire + number—I know them all intimately—I daresay it + would be pronounced by most persons the least attractive. It + has less shade from trees in summer and is more exposed in + winter to the bleak winds of this high country, from + whichever quarter they may blow. Placed high itself on a + wide, unwooded valley or depression, with the low, sloping + downs at some distance away, the village is about as cold a + place to pass a winter in as one could find in this district. + And, it may be added, the most inconvenient to live in at any + time, the nearest town, or the easiest to get to, being + Salisbury, twelve miles distant by a hilly road. The only + means of getting to that great centre of life which the + inhabitants possess is by the carrier's cart, which makes the + weary four-hours' journey once a week, on market-day. + Naturally, not many of them see that place of delights + oftener than once a year, and some but once in five or more + years. + </p> + <p> + Then, as to the village itself, when you have got down into + its one long, rather winding street, or road. This has a + green bank, five or six feet high, on either side, on which + stand the cottages, mostly facing the road. Real houses there + are none—buildings worthy of being called houses in + these great days—unless the three small farm-houses are + considered better than cottages, and the rather mean-looking + rectory—the rector, poor man, is very poor. Just in the + middle part, where the church stands in its green churchyard, + the shadiest spot in the village, a few of the cottages are + close together, almost touching, then farther apart, twenty + yards or so, then farther still, forty or fifty yards. They + are small, old cottages; a few have seventeenth-century dates + cut on stone tablets on their fronts, but the undated ones + look equally old; some thatched, others tiled, but none + particularly attractive. Certainly they are without the added + charm of a green drapery—creeper or ivy rose, clematis, + and honeysuckle; and they are also mostly without the + cottage-garden flowers, unprofitably gay like the blossoming + furze, but dear to the soul: the flowers we find in so many + of the villages along the rivers, especially in those of the + Wylye valley to be described in a later chapter. + </p> + <p> + The trees, I have said, are few, though the churchyard is + shady, where you can refresh yourself beneath its ancient + beeches and its one wide-branching yew, or sit on a tomb in + the sun when you wish for warmth and brightness. The trees + growing by or near the street are mostly ash or beech, with a + pine or two, old but not large; and there are small or dwarf + yew-, holly-, and thorn-trees. Very little fruit is grown; + two or three to half a dozen apple- and damson-trees are + called an orchard, and one is sorry for the children. But in + late summer and autumn they get their fruit from the hedges. + These run up towards the downs on either side of the village, + at right angles with its street; long, unkept hedges, + beautiful with scarlet haws and traveller's-joy, rich in + bramble and elder berries and purple sloes and nuts—a + thousand times more nuts than the little dormice require for + their own modest wants. + </p> + <p> + Finally, to go back to its disadvantages, the village is + waterless; at all events in summer, when water is most + wanted. Water is such a blessing and joy in a village—a + joy for ever when it flows throughout the year, as at Nether + Stowey and Winsford and Bourton-on-the-Water, to mention but + three of all those happy villages in the land which are known + to most of us! What man on coming to such places and watching + the rushing, sparkling, foaming torrent by day and listening + to its splashing, gurgling sounds by night, does not resolve + that he will live in no village that has not a perennial + stream in it! This unblessed, high and dry village has + nothing but the winter bourne which gives it its name; a sort + of surname common to a score or two of villages in Wiltshire, + Dorset, Somerset, and Hants. Here the bed of the stream lies + by the bank on one side of the village street, and when the + autumn and early winter rains have fallen abundantly, the + hidden reservoirs within the chalk hills are filled to + overflowing; then the water finds its way out and fills the + dry old channel and sometimes turns the whole street into a + rushing river, to the immense joy of the village children. + They are like ducks, hatched and reared at some upland farm + where there was not even a muddy pool to dibble in. For a + season (the wet one) the village women have water at their + own doors and can go out and dip pails in it as often as they + want. When spring comes it is still flowing merrily, trying + to make you believe that it is going to flow for ever; + beautiful, green water-loving plants and grasses spring up + and flourish along the roadside, and you may see comfrey and + water forget-me-not in flower. Pools, too, have been formed + in some deep, hollow places; they are fringed with tall + grasses, whitened over with bloom of water-crowfoot, and poa + grass grows up from the bottom to spread its green tresses + over the surface. Better still, by and by a couple of stray + moorhens make their appearance in the pool—strange + birds, coloured glossy olive-brown, slashed with white, with + splendid scarlet and yellow beaks! If by some strange chance + a shining blue kingfisher were to appear it could not create + a greater excitement. So much attention do they receive that + the poor strangers have no peace of their lives. It is a + happy time for the children, and a good time for the busy + housewife, who has all the water she wants for cooking and + washing and cleaning—she may now dash as many pailfuls + over her brick floors as she likes. Then the clear, swift + current begins to diminish, and scarcely have you had time to + notice the change than it is altogether gone! The women must + go back to the well and let the bucket down, and laboriously + turn and turn the handle of the windlass till it mounts to + the top again. The pretty moist, green herbage, the graceful + grasses, quickly wither away; dust and straws and rubbish + from the road lie in the dry channel, and by and by it is + filled with a summer growth of dock and loveless nettles + which no child may touch with impunity. + </p> + <p> + No, I cannot think that any person for whom it had no + association, no secret interest, would, after looking at this + village with its dried-up winterbourne, care to make his home + in it. And no person, I imagine, wants to see it; for it has + no special attraction and is away from any road, at a + distance from everywhere. I knew a great many villages in + Salisbury Plain, and was always adding to their number, but + there was no intention of visiting this one. Perhaps there is + not a village on the Plain, or anywhere in Wiltshire for that + matter, which sees fewer strangers. Then I fell in with the + old shepherd whose life will be related in the succeeding + chapters, and who, away from his native place, had no story + about his past life and the lives of those he had + known—no thought in his mind, I might almost say, which + was not connected with the village of Winterbourne Bishop. + And many of his anecdotes and reflections proved so + interesting that I fell into the habit of putting them down + in my notebook; until in the end the place itself, where he + had followed his "homely trade" so long, seeing and feeling + so much, drew me to it. I knew there was "nothing to see" in + it, that it was without the usual attractions; that there + was, in fact, nothing but the human interest, but that was + enough. So I came to it to satisfy an idle + curiosity—just to see how it would accord with the + mental picture produced by his description of it. I came, I + may say, prepared to like the place for the sole but + sufficient reason that it had been his home. Had it not been + for this feeling he had produced in me I should not, I + imagine, have cared to stay long in it. As it was, I did + stay, then came again and found that it was growing on me. I + wondered why; for the mere interest in the old shepherd's + life memories did not seem enough to account for this + deepening attachment. It began to seem to me that I liked it + more and more because of its very barrenness—the entire + absence of all the features which make a place attractive, + noble scenery, woods, and waters; deer parks and old houses, + Tudor, Elizabethan, Jacobean, stately and beautiful, full of + art treasures; ancient monuments and historical associations. + There were none of these things; there was nothing here but + that wide, vacant expanse, very thinly populated with humble, + rural folk—farmers, shepherds, labourers—living + in very humble houses. England is so full of riches in + ancient monuments and grand and interesting and lovely + buildings and objects and scenes, that it is perhaps too + rich. For we may get into the habit of looking for such + things, expecting them at every turn, every mile of the way. + </p> + <p> + I found it a relief, at Winterbourne Bishop, to be in a + country which had nothing to draw a man out of a town. A + wide, empty land, with nothing on it to look at but a + furze-bush; or when I had gained the summit of the down, and + to get a little higher still stood on the top of one of its + many barrows, a sight of the distant village, its low, grey + or reddish-brown cottages half hidden among its few trees, + the square, stone tower of its little church looking at a + distance no taller than a milestone. That emptiness seemed + good for both mind and body: I could spend long hours idly + sauntering or sitting or lying on the turf, thinking of + nothing, or only of one thing—that it was a relief to + have no thought about anything. + </p> + <p> + But no, something was secretly saying to me all the time, + that it was more than what I have said which continued to + draw me to this vacant place—more than the mere relief + experienced on coming back to nature and solitude, and the + freedom of a wide earth and sky. I was not fully conscious of + what the something more was until after repeated visits. On + each occasion it was a pleasure to leave Salisbury behind and + set out on that long, hilly road, and the feeling would keep + with me all the journey, even in bad weather, sultry or cold, + or with the wind hard against me, blowing the white chalk + dust into my eyes. From the time I left the turnpike to go + the last two and a half to three miles by the side-road I + would gaze eagerly ahead for a sight of my destination long + before it could possibly be seen; until, on gaining the + summit of a low, intervening down, the wished scene would be + disclosed—the vale-like, wide depression, with its line + of trees, blue-green in the distance, flecks of red and grey + colour of the houses among them—and at that sight there + would come a sense of elation, like that of coming home. + </p> + <p> + This in fact was the secret! This empty place was, in its + aspect, despite the difference in configuration between down + and undulating plain, more like the home of my early years + than any other place known to me in the country. I can note + many differences, but they do not deprive me of this home + feeling; it is the likenesses that hold me, the spirit of the + place, one which is not a desert with the desert's melancholy + or sense of desolation, but inhabited, although thinly and by + humble-minded men whose work and dwellings are unobtrusive. + The final effect of this wide, green space with signs of + human life and labour on it, and sight of animals—sheep + and cattle—at various distances, is that we are not + aliens here, intruders or invaders on the earth, living in it + but apart, perhaps hating and spoiling it, but with the other + animals are children of Nature, like them living and seeking + our subsistence under her sky, familiar with her sun and wind + and rain. + </p> + <p> + If some ostentatious person had come to this strangely quiet + spot and raised a staring, big house, the sight of it in the + landscape would have made it impossible to have such a + feeling as I have described—this sense of man's harmony + and oneness with nature. From how much of England has this + expression which nature has for the spirit, which is so much + more to us than beauty of scenery, been blotted out! This + quiet spot in Wiltshire has been inhabited from of old, how + far back in time the barrows raised by an ancient, barbarous + people are there to tell us, and to show us how long it is + possible for the race of men, in all stages of culture, to + exist on the earth without spoiling it. + </p> + <p> + One afternoon when walking on Bishop Down I noticed at a + distance of a hundred yards or more that a rabbit had started + making a burrow in a new place and had thrown out a vast + quantity of earth. Going to the spot to see what kind of + chalk or soil he was digging so deeply in, I found that he + had thrown out a human thigh-bone and a rib or two. They were + of a reddish-white colour and had been embedded in a hard + mixture of chalk and red earth. The following day I went + again, and there were more bones, and every day after that + the number increased until it seemed to me that he had + brought out the entire skeleton, minus the skull, which I had + been curious to see. Then the bones disappeared. The man who + looked after the game had seen them, and recognizing that + they were human remains had judiciously taken them away to + destroy or stow them away in some safe place. For if the + village constable had discovered them, or heard of their + presence, he would perhaps have made a fuss and even thought + it necessary to communicate with the coroner of the district. + Such things occasionally happen, even in Wiltshire where the + chalk hills are full of the bones of dead men, and a solemn + Crowner's quest is held on the remains of a Saxon or Dane or + an ancient Briton. When some important person—a Sir + Richard Colt Hoare, for example, who dug up 379 barrows in + Wiltshire, or a General Pitt Rivers throws out human remains + nobody minds, but if an unauthorized rabbit kicks out a lot + of bones the matter should be inquired into. + </p> + <p> + But the man whose bones had been thus thrown out into the + sunlight after lying so long at that spot, which commanded a + view of the distant, little village looking so small in that + immense, green space—who and what was he, and how long + ago did he live on the earth—at Winterbourne Bishop, + let us say? There were two barrows in that part of the down, + but quite a stone's-throw away from the spot where the rabbit + was working, so that he may not have been one of the people + of that period. Still, it is probable that he was buried a + very long time ago, centuries back, perhaps a thousand years, + perhaps longer, and by chance there was a slope there which + prevented the water from percolating, and the soil in which + he had been deposited, under that close-knit turf which + looked as if it had never been disturbed, was one in which + bones might keep uncrumbled for ever. + </p> + <p> + The thought that occurred to me at the time was that if the + man himself had come back to life after so long a period, to + stand once more on that down surveying the scene, he would + have noticed little change in it, certainly nothing of a + startling description. The village itself, looking so small + at that distance, in the centre of the vast depression, would + probably not be strange to him. It was doubtless there as far + back as history goes and probably still farther back in time. + For at that point, just where the winterbourne gushes out + from the low hills, is the spot man would naturally select to + make his home. And he would see no mansion or big building, + no puff of white steam and sight of a long, black train + creeping over the earth, nor any other strange thing. It + would appear to him even as he knew it before he fell + asleep—the same familiar scene, with furze and bramble + and bracken on the slope, the wide expanse with sheep and + cattle grazing in the distance, and the dark green of trees + in the hollows, and fold on fold of the low down beyond, + stretching away to the dim, farthest horizon. + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p><a name="ch04"><!--Marker--></a> + <h2> + CHAPTER IV + </h2> + <h3> + A SHEPHERD OF THE DOWNS + </h3> + <blockquote> + Caleb Bawcombe—An old shepherd's love of his + home—Fifty years' shepherding—Bawcombe's singular + appearance—A tale of a titlark—Caleb Bawcombe's + father—Father and son—A grateful sportsman and + Isaac Bawcombe's pension—Death following death in old + married couples—In a village churchyard—A + farm-labourer's gravestone and his story + </blockquote> + <p> + It is now several years since I first met Caleb Bawcombe, a + shepherd of the South Wiltshire Downs, but already old and + infirm and past work. I met him at a distance from his native + village, and it was only after I had known him a long time + and had spent many afternoons and evenings in his company, + listening to his anecdotes of his shepherding days, that I + went to see his own old home for myself—the village of + Winterbourne Bishop already described, to find it a place + after my own heart. But as I have said, if I had never known + Caleb and heard so much from him about his own life and the + lives of many of his fellow-villagers, I should probably + never have seen this village. + </p> + <p> + One of his memories was of an old shepherd named John, whose + acquaintance he made when a very young man—John being + at that time seventy-eight years old—on the + Winterbourne Bishop farm, where he had served for an unbroken + period of close on sixty years. Though so aged he was still + head shepherd, and he continued to hold that place seven + years longer—until his master, who had taken over old + John with the place, finally gave up the farm and farming at + the same time. He, too, was getting past work and wished to + spend his declining years in his native village in an + adjoining parish, where he owned some house and cottage + property. And now what was to become of the old shepherd, + since the new tenant had brought his own men with + him?—and he, moreover, considered that John, at + eighty-five, was too old to tend a flock on the hills, even + of tegs. His old master, anxious to help him, tried to get + him some employment in the village where he wished to stay; + and failing in this, he at last offered him a cottage rent + free in the village where he was going to live himself, and, + in addition, twelve shillings a week for the rest of his + life. It was in those days an exceedingly generous offer, but + John refused it. "Master," he said, "I be going to stay in my + own native village, and if I can't make a living the + parish'll have to keep I; but keep or not keep, here I be and + here I be going to stay, where I were borned." + </p> + <p> + From this position the stubborn old man refused to be moved, + and there at Winterbourne Bishop his master had to leave him, + although not without having first made him a sufficient + provision. + </p> + <p> + The way in which my old friend, Caleb Bawcombe, told the + story plainly revealed his own feeling in the matter. He + understood and had the keenest sympathy with old John, dead + now over half a century; or rather, let us say, resting very + peacefully in that green spot under the old grey tower of + Winterbourne Bishop church where as a small boy he had played + among the old gravestones as far back in time as the middle + of the eighteenth century. But old John had long survived + wife and children, and having no one but himself to think of + was at liberty to end his days where he pleased. Not so with + Caleb, for, although his undying passion for home and his + love of the shepherd's calling were as great as John's, he + was not so free, and he was compelled at last to leave his + native downs, which he may never see again, to settle for the + remainder of his days in another part of the country. + </p> + <p> + Early in life he "caught a chill" through long exposure to + wet and cold in winter; this brought on rheumatic fever and a + malady of the thigh, which finally affected the whole limb + and made him lame for life. Thus handicapped he had continued + as shepherd for close on fifty years, during which time his + sons and daughters had grown up, married, and gone away, + mostly to a considerable distance, leaving their aged parents + alone once more. Then the wife, who was a strong woman and of + an enterprising temper, found an opening for herself at a + distance from home where she could start a little business. + Caleb indignantly refused to give up shepherding in his place + to take part in so unheard-of an adventure; but after a year + or more of life in his lonely hut among the hills and cold, + empty cottage in the village, he at length tore himself away + from that beloved spot and set forth on the longest journey + of his life—about forty-five miles—to join her + and help in the work of her new home. Here a few years later + I found him, aged seventy-two, but owing to his increasing + infirmities looking considerably more. When he considered + that his father, a shepherd before him on those same + Wiltshire Downs, lived to eighty-six, and his mother to + eighty-four, and that both were vigorous and led active lives + almost to the end, he thought it strange that his own work + should be so soon done. For in heart and mind he was still + young; he did not want to rest yet. + </p> + <p> + Since that first meeting nine years have passed, and as he is + actually better in health to-day than he was then, there is + good reason to hope that his staying power will equal that of + his father. + </p> + <p> + I was at first struck with the singularity of Caleb's + appearance, and later by the expression of his eyes. A very + tall, big-boned, lean, round-shouldered man, he was uncouth + almost to the verge of grotesqueness, and walked painfully + with the aid of a stick, dragging his shrunken and shortened + bad leg. His head was long and narrow, and his high forehead, + long nose, long chin, and long, coarse, grey whiskers, worn + like a beard on his throat, produced a goat-like effect. This + was heightened by the ears and eyes. The big ears stood out + from his head, and owing to a peculiar bend or curl in the + membrane at the top they looked at certain angles almost + pointed. The hazel eyes were wonderfully clear, but that + quality was less remarkable than the unhuman intelligence in + them—fawn-like eyes that gazed steadily at you as one + may gaze through the window, open back and front, of a house + at the landscape beyond. This peculiarity was a little + disconcerting at first, when, after making his acquaintance + out of doors, I went in uninvited and sat down with him at + his own fireside. The busy old wife talked of this and that, + and hinted as politely as she knew how that I was in her way. + To her practical, peasant mind there was no sense in my being + there. "He be a stranger to we, and we be strangers to he." + Caleb was silent, and his clear eyes showed neither annoyance + nor pleasure but only their native, wild alertness, but the + caste feeling is always less strong in the hill shepherd than + in other men who are on the land; in some cases it will + vanish at a touch, and it was so in this one. A canary in a + cage hanging in the kitchen served to introduce the subject + of birds captive and birds free. I said that I liked the + little yellow bird, and was not vexed to see him in a cage, + since he was cage-born; but I considered that those who + caught wild birds and kept them prisoners did not properly + understand things. This happened to be Caleb's view. He had a + curiously tender feeling about the little wild birds, and one + amusing incident of his boyhood which he remembered came out + during our talk. He was out on the down one summer day in + charge of his father's flock, when two boys of the village on + a ramble in the hills came and sat down on the turf by his + side. One of them had a titlark, or meadow pipit, which he + had just caught, in his hand, and there was a hot argument as + to which of the two was the lawful owner of the poor little + captive. The facts were as follows. One of the boys having + found the nest became possessed with the desire to get the + bird. His companion at once offered to catch it for him, and + together they withdrew to a distance and sat down and waited + until the bird returned to sit on the eggs. Then the young + birdcatcher returned to the spot, and creeping quietly up to + within five or six feet of the nest threw his hat so that it + fell over the sitting titlark; but after having thus secured + it he refused to give it up. The dispute waxed hotter as they + sat there, and at last when it got to the point of threats of + cuffs on the ear and slaps on the face they agreed to fight + it out, the victor to have the titlark. The bird was then put + under a hat for safety on the smooth turf a few feet away, + and the boys proceeded to take off their jackets and roll up + their shirt-sleeves, after which they faced one another, and + were just about to begin when Caleb, thrusting out his crook, + turned the hat over and away flew the titlark. + </p> + <p> + The boys, deprived of their bird and of an excuse for a + fight, would gladly have discharged their fury on Caleb, but + they durst not, seeing that his dog was lying at his side; + they could only threaten and abuse him, call him bad names, + and finally put on their coats and walk off. + </p> + <p> + That pretty little tale of a titlark was but the first of a + long succession of memories of his early years, with half a + century of shepherding life on the downs, which came out + during our talks on many autumn and winter evenings as we sat + by his kitchen fire. The earlier of these memories were + always the best to me, because they took one back sixty years + or more, to a time when there was more wildness in the earth + than now, and a nobler wild animal life. Even more + interesting were some of the memories of his father, Isaac + Bawcombe, whose time went back to the early years of the + nineteenth century. Caleb cherished an admiration and + reverence for his father's memory which were almost a + worship, and he loved to describe him as he appeared in his + old age, when upwards of eighty. He was erect and tall, + standing six feet two in height, well proportioned, with a + clean-shaved, florid face, clear, dark eyes, and silver-white + hair; and at this later period of his life he always wore the + dress of an old order of pensioners to which he had been + admitted—a soft, broad, white felt hat, thick boots and + brown leather leggings, and a long, grey cloth overcoat with + red collar and brass buttons. + </p> + <p> + According to Caleb, he must have been an exceedingly fine + specimen of a man, both physically and morally. Born in 1800, + he began following a flock as a boy, and continued as + shepherd on the same farm until he was sixty, never rising to + more than seven shillings a week and nothing found, since he + lived in the cottage where he was born and which he inherited + from his father. That a man of his fine powers, a + head-shepherd on a large hill-farm, should have had no better + pay than that down to the year 1860, after nearly half a + century of work in one place, seems almost incredible. Even + his sons, as they grew up to man's estate, advised him to ask + for an increase, but he would not. Seven shillings a week he + had always had; and that small sum, with something his wife + earned by making highly finished smock-frocks, had been + sufficient to keep them all in a decent way; and his sons + were now all earning their own living. But Caleb got married, + and resolved to leave the old farm at Bishop to take a better + place at a distance from home, at Warminster, which had been + offered him. He would there have a cottage to live in, nine + shillings a week, and a sack of barley for his dog. At that + time the shepherd had to keep his own dog—no small + expense to him when his wages were no more than six to eight + shillings a week. But Caleb was his father's favourite son, + and the old man could not endure the thought of losing sight + of him; and at last, finding that he could not persuade him + not to leave the old home, he became angry, and told him that + if he went away to Warminster for the sake of the higher + wages and barley for the dog he would disown him! This was a + serious matter to Caleb, in spite of the fact that a shepherd + has no money to leave to his children when he passes away. He + went nevertheless, for, though he loved and reverenced his + father, he had a young wife who pulled the other way; and he + was absent for years, and when he returned the old man's + heart had softened, so that he was glad to welcome him back + to the old home. + </p> + <p> + Meanwhile at that humble cottage at Winterbourne Bishop great + things had happened; old Isaac was no longer shepherding on + the downs, but living very comfortably in his own cottage in + the village. The change came about in this way. + </p> + <p> + The downland shepherds, Caleb said, were as a rule clever + poachers; and it is really not surprising, when one considers + the temptation to a man with a wife and several hungry + children, besides himself and a dog, to feed out of about + seven shillings a week. But old Bawcombe was an exception: he + would take no game, furred or feathered, nor, if he could + prevent it, allow another to take anything from the land fed + by his flock. Caleb and his brothers, when as boys and youths + they began their shepherding, sometimes caught a rabbit, or + their dog caught and killed one without their encouragement; + but, however the thing came into their hands, they could not + take it home on account of their father. Now it happened that + an elderly gentleman who had the shooting was a keen + sportsman, and that in several successive years he found a + wonderful difference in the amount of game at one spot among + the hills and in all the rest of his hill property. The only + explanation the keeper could give was that Isaac Bawcombe + tended his flock on that down where rabbits, hares, and + partridges were so plentiful. One autumn day the gentleman + was shooting over that down, and seeing a big man in a + smock-frock standing motionless, crook in hand, regarding + him, he called out to his keeper, who was with him, "Who is + that big man?" and was told that it was Shepherd Bawcombe. + The old gentleman pulled some money out of his pocket and + said, "Give him this half-crown, and thank him for the good + sport I've had to-day." But after the coin had been given the + giver still remained standing there, thinking, perhaps, that + he had not yet sufficiently rewarded the man; and at last, + before turning away, he shouted, "Bawcombe, that's not all. + You'll get something more by and by." + </p> + <p> + Isaac had not long to wait for the something more, and it + turned out not to be the hare or brace of birds he had half + expected. It happened that the sportsman was one of the + trustees of an ancient charity which provided for six of the + most deserving old men of the parish of Bishop; now, one of + the six had recently died, and on this gentleman's + recommendation Bawcombe had been elected to fill the vacant + place. The letter from Salisbury informing him of his + election and commanding his presence in that city filled him + with astonishment; for, though he was sixty years old and the + father of three sons now out in the world, he could not yet + regard himself as an old man, for he had never known a day's + illness, nor an ache, and was famed in all that neighbourhood + for his great physical strength and endurance. And now, with + his own cottage to live in, eight shillings a week, and his + pensioners' garments, with certain other benefits, and a + shilling a day besides which his old master paid him for some + services at the farm-house in the village, Isaac found + himself very well off indeed, and he enjoyed his prosperous + state for twenty-six years. Then, in 1886, his old wife fell + ill and died, and no sooner was she in her grave than he, + too, began to droop; and soon, before the year was out, he + followed her, because, as the neighbours said, they had + always been a loving pair and one could not 'bide without the + other. + </p> + <p> + This chapter has already had its proper ending and there was + no intention of adding to it, but now for a special reason, + which I trust the reader will pardon when he hears it, I must + go on to say something about that strange phenomenon of death + succeeding death in old married couples, one dying for no + other reason than that the other has died. For it is our + instinct to hold fast to life, and the older a man gets if he + be sane the more he becomes like a newborn child in the + impulse to grip tightly. A strange and a rare thing among + people generally (the people we know), it is nevertheless + quite common among persons of the labouring class in the + rural districts. I have sometimes marvelled at the number of + such cases to be met with in the villages; but when one comes + to think about it one ceases to wonder that it should be so. + For the labourer on the land goes on from boyhood to the end + of life in the same everlasting round, the changes from task + to task, according to the seasons, being no greater than in + the case of the animals that alter their actions and habits + to suit the varying conditions of the year. March and August + and December, and every month, will bring about the changes + in the atmosphere and earth and vegetation and in the + animals, which have been from of old, which he knows how to + meet, and the old, familiar task, lambing-time, + shearing-time, root and seed crops hoeing, haymaking, + harvesting. It is a life of the extremest simplicity, without + all those interests outside the home and the daily task, the + innumerable distractions, common to all persons in other + classes and to the workmen in towns as well. Incidentally it + may be said that it is also the healthiest, that, speaking + generally, the agricultural labourer is the healthiest and + sanest man in the land, if not also the happiest, as some + believe. + </p> + <p> + It is this life of simple, unchanging actions and of habits + that are like instincts, of hard labour in sun and wind and + rain from day to day, with its weekly break and rest, and of + but few comforts and no luxuries, which serves to bind man + and wife so closely. And the longer their life goes on + together the closer and more unbreakable the union grows. + They are growing old: old friends and companions have died or + left them; their children have married and gone away and have + their own families and affairs, so that the old folks at home + are little remembered, and to all others they have become of + little consequence in the world. But they do not know it, for + they are together, cherishing the same memories, speaking of + the same old, familiar things, and their lost friends and + companions, their absent, perhaps estranged, children, are + with them still in mind as in the old days. The past is with + them more than the present, to give an undying interest to + life; for they share it, and it is only when one goes, when + the old wife gets the tea ready and goes mechanically to the + door to gaze out, knowing that her tired man will come in no + more to take his customary place and listen to all the things + she has stored up in her mind during the day to tell him; and + when the tired labourer comes in at dusk to find no old wife + waiting to give him his tea and talk to him while he + refreshes himself, he all at once realizes his position; he + finds himself cut off from the entire world, from all of his + kind. Where are they all? The enduring sympathy of that one + soul that was with him till now had kept him in touch with + life, had made it seem unchanged and unchangeable, and with + that soul has vanished the old, sweet illusion as well as all + ties, all common, human affection. He is desolate, indeed, + alone in a desert world, and it is not strange that in many + and many a case, even in that of a man still strong, + untouched by disease and good for another decade or two, the + loss, the awful solitude, has proved too much for him. + </p> + <p> + Such cases, I have said, are common, but they are not + recorded, though it is possible with labour to pick them out + in the church registers; but in the churchyards you do not + find them, since the farm-labourer has only a green mound to + mark the spot where he lies. Nevertheless, he is sometimes + honoured with a gravestone, and last August I came by chance + on one on which was recorded a case like that of Isaac + Bawcombe and his life-mate. + </p> + <p> + The churchyard is in one of the prettiest and most secluded + villages in the downland country described in this book. The + church is ancient and beautiful and interesting in many ways, + and the churchyard, too, is one of the most interesting I + know, a beautiful, green, tree-shaded spot, with an + extraordinary number of tombs and gravestones, many of them + dated in the eighteenth and seventeenth centuries, inscribed + with names of families which have long died out. + </p> + <p> + I went on that afternoon to pass an hour in the churchyard, + and finding an old man in labourer's clothes resting on a + tomb, I sat down and entered into conversation with him. He + was seventy-nine, he told me, and past work, and he had three + shillings a week from the parish; but he was very deaf and it + fatigued me to talk to him, and seeing the church open I went + in. On previous visits I had had a good deal of trouble to + get the key, and to find it open now was a pleasant surprise. + An old woman was there dusting the seats, and by and by, + while I was talking with her, the old labourer came stumping + in with his ponderous, iron-shod boots and without taking off + his old, rusty hat, and began shouting at the church-cleaner + about a pair of trousers he had given her to mend, which he + wanted badly. Leaving them to their arguing I went out and + began studying the inscriptions on the stones, so hard to + make out in some instances; the old man followed and went his + way; then the church-cleaner came out to where I was + standing. "A tiresome old man!" she said. "He's that deaf he + has to shout to hear himself speak, then you've got to shout + back—and all about his old trousers!" + </p> + <p> + "I suppose he wants them," I returned, "and you promised to + do them, so he has some reason for going at you about it." + </p> + <p> + "Oh no, he hasn't," she replied. "The girl brought them for + me to mend, and I said, 'Leave them and I'll do them when + I've time'—how did I know he wanted them in a hurry? A + troublesome old man!" + </p> + <p> + By and by, taking a pair of spectacles out of her pocket, she + put them on, and going down on her knees she began + industriously picking the old, brown, dead moss out of the + lettering on one side of the tomb. "I'd like to know what it + says on this stone," she said. + </p> + <p> + "Well, you can read it for yourself, now you've got your + glasses on." + </p> + <p> + "I can't read. You see, I'm old—seventy-six years, and + when I were little we were very poor and I couldn't get no + schooling. I've got these glasses to do my sewing, and only + put them on to get this stuff out so's you could read it. I'd + like to hear you read it." + </p> + <p> + I began to get interested in the old dame who talked to me so + freely. She was small and weak-looking, and appeared very + thin in her limp, old, faded gown; she had a meek, patient + expression on her face, and her voice, too, like her face, + expressed weariness and resignation. + </p> + <p> + "But if you have always lived here you must know what is said + on this stone?" + </p> + <p> + "No, I don't; nobody never read it to me, and I couldn't read + it because I wasn't taught to read. But I'd like to hear you + read it." + </p> + <p> + It was a long inscription to a person named Ash, gentleman, + of this parish, who departed this life over a century ago, + and was a man of a noble and generous disposition, good as a + husband, a father, a friend, and charitable to the poor. + Under all were some lines of verse, scarcely legible in spite + of the trouble she had taken to remove the old moss from the + letters. + </p> + <p> + She listened with profound interest, then said, "I never + heard all that before; I didn't know the name, though I've + known this stone since I was a child. I used to climb on to + it then. Can you read me another?" + </p> + <p> + I read her another and several more, then came to one which + she said she knew—every word of it, for this was the + grave of the sweetest, kindest woman that ever lived. Oh, how + good this dear woman had been to her in her young married + life more'n fifty years ago! If that dear lady had only lived + it would not have been so hard for her when her trouble come! + </p> + <p> + "And what was your trouble?" + </p> + <p> + "It was the loss of my poor man. He was such a good man, a + thatcher; and he fell from a rick and injured his spine, and + he died, poor fellow, and left me with our five little + children." Then, having told me her own tragedy, to my + surprise she brightened up and begged me to read other + inscriptions to her. + </p> + <p> + I went on reading, and presently she said, "No, that's wrong. + There wasn't ever a Lampard in this parish. That I know." + </p> + <p> + "You don't know! There certainly was a Lampard or it would + not be stated here, cut in deep letters on this stone." + </p> + <p> + "No, there wasn't a Lampard. I've never known such a name and + I've lived here all my life." + </p> + <p> + "But there were people living here before you came on the + scene. He died a long time ago, this Lampard—in 1714, + it says. And you are only seventy-six, you tell me; that is + to say, you were born in 1835, and that would be one hundred + and twenty-one years after he died." + </p> + <p> + "That's a long time! It must be very old, this stone. And the + church too. I've heard say it was once a Roman Catholic + church. Is that true?" + </p> + <p> + "Why, of course it's true—all the old churches were, + and we were all of that faith until a King of England had a + quarrel with the Pope and determined he would be Pope himself + as well as king in his own country. So he turned all the + priests and monks out, and took their property and churches + and had his own men put in. That was Henry VIII." + </p> + <p> + "I've heard something about that king and his wives. But + about Lampard, it do seem strange I've never heard that name + before." + </p> + <p> + "Not strange at all; it was a common name in this part of + Wiltshire in former days; you find it in dozens of + churchyards, but you'll find very few Lampards living in the + villages. Why, I could tell you a dozen or twenty surnames, + some queer, funny names, that were common in these parts not + more than a century ago which seem to have quite died out." + </p> + <p> + "I should like to hear some of them if you'll tell me." + </p> + <p> + "Let me think a moment: there was Thorr, Pizzie, Gee, Every, + Pottle, Kiddle, Toomer, Shergold, and—" + </p> + <p> + Here she interrupted to say that she knew three of the names + I had mentioned. Then, pointing to a small, upright + gravestone about twenty feet away, she added, "And there's + one." + </p> + <p> + "Very well," I said, "but don't keep putting me + out—I've got more names in my mind to tell you. + Maidment, Marchmont, Velvin, Burpitt, Winzur, Rideout, + Cullurne." + </p> + <p> + Of these she only knew one—Rideout. + </p> + <p> + Then I went over to the stone she had pointed to and read the + inscription to John Toomer and his wife Rebecca. She died + first, in March 1877, aged 72; he in July the same year, aged + 75. + </p> + <p> + "You knew them, I suppose?" + </p> + <p> + "Yes, they belonged here, both of them." + </p> + <p> + "Tell me about them." + </p> + <p> + "There's nothing to tell; he was only a labourer and worked + on the same farm all his life." + </p> + <p> + "Who put a stone over them—their children?" + </p> + <p> + "No, they're all poor and live away. I think it was a lady + who lived here; she'd been good to them, and she came and + stood here when they put old John in the ground." + </p> + <p> + "But I want to hear more." + </p> + <p> + "There's no more, I've said; he was a labourer, and after she + died he died." + </p> + <p> + "Yes? go on." + </p> + <p> + "How can I go on? There's no more. I knew them so well; they + lived in the little thatched cottage over there, where the + Millards live now." + </p> + <p> + "Did they fall ill at the same time?" + </p> + <p> + "Oh no, he was as well as could be, still at work, till she + died, then he went on in a strange way. He would come in of + an evening and call his wife. 'Mother! Mother, where are + you?' you'd hear him call, 'Mother, be you upstairs? Mother, + ain't you coming down for a bit of bread and cheese before + you go to bed?' And then in a little while he just died." + </p> + <p> + "And you said there was nothing to tell!" + </p> + <p> + "No, there wasn't anything. He was just one of us, a labourer + on the farm." + </p> + <p> + I then gave her something, and to my surprise after taking it + she made me an elaborate curtsy. It rather upset me, for I + had thought we had got on very well together and were quite + free and easy in our talk, very much on a level. But she was + not done with me yet. She followed to the gate, and holding + out her open hand with that small gift in it, she said in a + pathetic voice, "Did you think, sir, I was expecting this? I + had no such thought and didn't want it." + </p> + <p> + And I had no thought of saying or writing a word about her. + But since that day she has haunted me—she and her old + John Toomer, and it has just now occurred to me that by + putting her in my book I may be able to get her out of my + mind. + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p><a name="ch05"><!--Marker--></a> + <h2> + CHAPTER V + </h2> + <h3> + EARLY MEMORIES + </h3> + <blockquote> + A child shepherd—Isaac and his + children—Shepherding in boyhood—Two notable + sheep-dogs—Jack, the adder-killer—Sitting on an + adder—Rough and the drovers—The Salisbury + coach—A sheep-dog suckling a lamb + </blockquote> + <p> + Caleb's shepherding began in childhood; at all events he had + his first experience of it at that time. Many an old + shepherd, whose father was shepherd before him, has told me + that he began to go with the flock very early in life, when + he was no more than ten to twelve years of age. Caleb + remembered being put in charge of his father's flock at the + tender age of six. It was a new and wonderful experience, and + made so vivid and lasting an impression on his mind that now, + when he is past eighty, he speaks of it very feelingly as of + something which happened yesterday. + </p> + <p> + It was harvesting time, and Isaac, who was a good reaper, was + wanted in the field, but he could find no one, not even a + boy, to take charge of his flock in the meantime, and so to + be able to reap and keep an eye on the flock at the same time + he brought his sheep down to the part of the down adjoining + the field. It was on his "liberty," or that part of the down + where he was entitled to have his flock. He then took his + very small boy, Caleb, and placing him with the sheep told + him they were now in his charge; that he was not to lose + sight of them, and at the same time not to run about among + the furze-bushes for fear of treading on an adder. By and by + the sheep began straying off among the furze-bushes, and no + sooner would they disappear from sight than he imagined they + were lost for ever, or would be unless he quickly found them, + and to find them he had to run about among the bushes with + the terror of adders in his mind, and the two troubles + together kept him crying with misery all the time. Then, at + intervals, Isaac would leave his reaping and come to see how + he was getting on, and the tears would vanish from his eyes, + and he would feel very brave again, and to his father's + question he would reply that he was getting on very well. + </p> + <p> + Finally his father came and took him to the field, to his + great relief; but he did not carry him in his arms; he strode + along at his usual pace and let the little fellow run after + him, stumbling and falling and picking himself up again and + running on. And by and by one of the women in the field cried + out, "Be you not ashamed, Isaac, to go that pace and not bide + for the little child! I do b'lieve he's no more'n seven + year—poor mite!" + </p> + <p> + "No more'n six," answered Isaac proudly, with a laugh. + </p> + <p> + But though not soft or tender with his children he was very + fond of them, and when he came home early in the evening he + would get them round him and talk to them, and sing old songs + and ballads he had learnt in his young years—"Down in + the Village," "The Days of Queen Elizabeth," "The + Blacksmith," "The Gown of Green," "The Dawning of the Day," + and many others, which Caleb in the end got by heart and used + to sing, too, when he was grown up. + </p> + <p> + Caleb was about nine when he began to help regularly with the + flock; that was in the summer-time, when the flock was put + every day on the down and when Isaac's services were required + for the haymaking and later for harvesting and other work. + His best memories of this period relate to his mother and to + two sheepdogs, Jack at first and afterwards Rough, both + animals of original character. Jack was a great favourite of + his master, who considered him a "tarrable good dog." He was + rather short-haired, like the old Welsh sheepdog once common + in Wiltshire, but entirely black instead of the usual + colour—blue with a sprinkling of black spots. This dog + had an intense hatred of adders and never failed to kill + every one he discovered. At the same time he knew that they + were dangerous enemies to tackle, and on catching sight of + one his hair would instantly bristle up, and he would stand + as if paralysed for some moments, glaring at it and gnashing + his teeth, then springing like a cat upon it he would seize + it in his mouth, only to hurl it from him to a distance. This + action he would repeat until the adder was dead, and Isaac + would then put it under a furze-bush to take it home and hang + it on a certain gate. The farmer, too, like the dog, hated + adders, and paid his shepherd sixpence for every one his dog + killed. + </p> + <p> + One day Caleb, with one of his brothers, was out with the + flock, amusing themselves in their usual way on the turf with + nine morris-men and the shepherd's puzzle, when all at once + their mother appeared unexpectedly on the scene. It was her + custom, when the boys were sent out with the flock, to make + expeditions to the down just to see what they were up to; and + hiding her approach by keeping to a hedge-side or by means of + the furze-bushes, she would sometimes come upon them with + disconcerting suddenness. On this occasion just where the + boys had been playing there was a low, stout furze-bush, so + dense and flat-topped that one could use it as a seat, and + his mother taking off and folding her shawl placed it on the + bush, and sat down on it to rest herself after her long walk. + "I can see her now," said Caleb, "sitting on that furze-bush, + in her smock and leggings, with a big hat like a man's on her + head—for that's how she dressed." But in a few moments + she jumped up, crying out that she felt a snake under her, + and snatched off the shawl, and there, sure enough, out of + the middle of the flat bush-top appeared the head of an + adder, flicking out its tongue. The dog, too, saw it, dashed + at the bush, forcing his muzzle and head into the middle of + it, seized the serpent by its body and plucked it out and + threw it from him, only to follow it up and kill it in the + usual way. + </p> + <p> + Rough was a large, shaggy, grey-blue bobtail bitch with a + white collar. She was a clever, good all-round dog, but had + originally been trained for the road, and one of the + shepherd's stories about her relates of her intelligence in + her own special line—the driving of sheep. + </p> + <p> + One day he and his smaller brother were in charge of the + flock on the down, and were on the side where it dips down to + the turnpike-road about a mile and a half from the village, + where a large flock, driven by two men and two dogs, came by. + They were going to the Britford sheep-fair and were behind + time; Isaac had started at daylight that morning with sheep + for the same fair, and that was the reason of the boys being + with the flock. As the flock on the down was feeding quietly + the boys determined to go to the road to watch the sheep and + men pass, and arriving at the roadside they saw that the dogs + were too tired to work and the men were getting on with great + difficulty. One of them, looking intently at Rough, asked if + she would work. "Oh, yes, she'll work," said the boy proudly, + and calling Rough he pointed to the flock moving very slowly + along the road and over the turf on either side of it. Rough + knew what was wanted; she had been looking on and had taken + the situation in with her professional eye; away she dashed, + and running up and down, first on one side then on the other, + quickly put the whole flock, numbering 800, into the road and + gave them a good start. + </p> + <p> + "Why, she be a road dog!" exclaimed the drover delightedly. + "She's better for me on the road than for you on the down; + I'll buy her of you." + </p> + <p> + "No, I mustn't sell her," said Caleb. + </p> + <p> + "Look here, boy," said the other, "I'll give 'ee a sovran and + this young dog, an' he'll be a good one with a little more + training." + </p> + <p> + "No, I mustn't," said Caleb, distressed at the other's + persistence. + </p> + <p> + "Well, will you come a little way on the road with us?" asked + the drover. + </p> + <p> + This the boys agreed to and went on for about a quarter of a + mile, when all at once the Salisbury coach appeared on the + road, coming to meet them. This new trouble was pointed out + to Rough, and at once when her little master had given the + order she dashed barking into the midst of the mass of sheep + and drove them furiously to the side from end to end of the + extended flock, making a clear passage for the coach, which + was not delayed a minute. And no sooner was the coach gone + than the sheep were put back into the road. + </p> + <p> + Then the drover pulled out his sovereign once more and tried + to make the boy take it. + </p> + <p> + "I mustn't," he repeated, almost in tears. "What would father + say?" + </p> + <p> + "Say! He won't say nothing. He'll think you've done well." + </p> + <p> + But Caleb thought that perhaps his father would say + something, and when he remembered certain whippings he had + experienced in the past he had an uncomfortable sensation + about his back. "No, I mustn't," was all he could say, and + then the drovers with a laugh went on with their sheep. + </p> + <p> + When Isaac came home and the adventure was told to him he + laughed and said that he meant to sell Rough some day. He + used to say this occasionally to tease his wife because of + the dog's intense devotion to her; and she, being without a + sense of humour and half thinking that he meant it, would get + up out of her seat and solemnly declare that if he ever sold + Rough she would never again go out to the down to see what + the boys were up to. + </p> + <p> + One day she visited the boys when they had the flock near the + turnpike, and seating herself on the turf a few yards from + the road got out her work and began sewing. Presently they + spied a big, singular-looking man coming at a swinging pace + along the road. He was in shirt-sleeves, barefooted, and wore + a straw hat without a rim. Rough eyed the strange being's + approach with suspicion, and going to her mistress placed + herself at her side. The man came up and sat down at a + distance of three or four yards from the group, and Rough, + looking dangerous, started up and put her forepaws on her + mistress's lap and began uttering a low growl. + </p> + <p> + "Will that dog bite, missus?" said the man. + </p> + <p> + "Maybe he will," said she. "I won't answer for he if you come + any nearer." + </p> + <p> + The two boys had been occupied cutting a faggot from a + furze-bush with a bill-hook, and now held a whispered + consultation as to what they would do if the man tried to + "hurt mother," and agreed that as soon as Rough had got her + teeth in his leg they would attack him about the head with + the bill-hook. They were not required to go into action; the + stranger could not long endure Rough's savage aspect, and + very soon he got up and resumed his travels. + </p> + <p> + The shepherd remembered another curious incident in Rough's + career. At one time when she had a litter of pups at home she + was yet compelled to be a great part of the day with the + flock of ewes as they could not do without her. The boys just + then were bringing up a motherless lamb by hand and they + would put it with the sheep, and to feed it during the day + were obliged to catch a ewe with milk. The lamb trotted at + Caleb's heels like a dog, and one day when it was hungry and + crying to be fed, when Rough happened to be sitting on her + haunches close by, it occurred to him that Rough's milk might + serve as well as a sheep's. The lamb was put to her and took + very kindly to its canine foster-mother, wriggling its tail + and pushing vigorously with its nose. Rough submitted + patiently to the trial, and the result was that the lamb + adopted the sheep-dog as its mother and sucked her milk + several times every day, to the great admiration of all who + witnessed it. + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p><a name="ch06"><!--Marker--></a> + <h2> + CHAPTER VI + </h2> + <h3> + SHEPHERD ISAAC BAWCOMBE + </h3> + <blockquote> + A noble shepherd—A fighting village + blacksmith—Old Joe the collier—A story of his + strength—Donkeys poisoned by yew—The shepherd + without his sheep—How the shepherd killed a deer + </blockquote> + <p> + To me the most interesting of Caleb's old memories were those + relating to his father, partly on account of the man's fine + character, and partly because they went so far back, + beginning in the early years of the last century. + </p> + <p> + Altogether he must have been a very fine specimen of a man, + both physically and morally. In Caleb's mind he was + undoubtedly the first among men morally, but there were two + other men supposed to be his equals in bodily strength, one a + native of the village, the other a periodical visitor. The + first was Jarvis the blacksmith, a man of an immense chest + and big arms, one of Isaac's greatest friends, and very + good-tempered except when in his cups, for he did + occasionally get drunk, and then he quarrelled with anyone + and every one. + </p> + <p> + One afternoon he had made himself quite tipsy at the inn, and + when going home, swaying about and walking all over the road, + he all at once caught sight of the big shepherd coming + soberly on behind. No sooner did he see him than it occurred + to his wild and muddled mind that he had a quarrel with this + very man, Shepherd Isaac, a quarrel of so pressing a nature + that there was nothing to do but to fight it out there and + then. He planted himself before the shepherd and challenged + him to fight. Isaac smiled and said nothing. + </p> + <p> + "I'll fight thee about this," he repeated, and began tugging + at his coat, and after getting it off again made up to Isaac, + who still smiled and said no word. Then he pulled his + waistcoat off, and finally his shirt, and with nothing but + his boots and breeches on once more squared up to Isaac and + threw himself into his best fighting attitude. + </p> + <p> + "I doan't want to fight thee," said Isaac at length, "but I + be thinking 'twould be best to take thee home." And suddenly + dashing in he seized Jarvis round the waist with one arm, + grasped him round the legs with the other, and flung the big + man across his shoulder, and carried him off, struggling and + shouting, to his cottage. There at the door, pale and + distressed, stood the poor wife waiting for her lord, when + Isaac arrived, and going straight in dropped the smith down + on his own floor, and with the remark, "Here be your man," + walked off to his cottage and his tea. + </p> + <p> + The other powerful man was Old Joe the collier, who + flourished and was known in every village in the Salisbury + Plain district during the first thirty-five years of the last + century. I first heard of this once famous man from Caleb, + whose boyish imagination had been affected by his gigantic + figure, mighty voice, and his wandering life over all that + wide world of Salisbury Plain. Afterwards when I became + acquainted with a good many old men, aged from 75 to 90 and + upwards, I found that Old Joe's memory is still green in a + good many villages of the district, from the upper waters of + the Avon to the borders of Dorset. But it is only these + ancients who knew him that keep it green; by and by when they + are gone Old Joe and his neddies will be remembered no more. + </p> + <p> + In those days—down to about 1840, it was customary to + burn peat in the cottages, the first cost of which was about + four and sixpence the wagon-load—as much as I should + require to keep me warm for a month in winter; but the cost + of its conveyance to the villages of the Plain was about five + to six shillings per load, as it came from a considerable + distance, mostly from the New Forest. How the labourers at + that time, when they were paid seven or eight shillings a + week, could afford to buy fuel at such prices to bake their + rye bread and keep the frost out of their bones is a marvel + to us. Isaac was a good deal better off than most of the + villagers in this respect, as his master—for he never + had but one—allowed him the use of a wagon and the + driver's services for the conveyance of one load of peat each + year. The wagon-load of peat and another of faggots lasted + him the year with the furze obtained from his "liberty" on + the down. Coal at that time was only used by the blacksmiths + in the villages, and was conveyed in sacks on ponies or + donkeys, and of those who were engaged in this business the + best known was Old Joe. He appeared periodically in the + villages with his eight donkeys, or neddies as he called + them, with jingling bells on their headstalls and their + burdens of two sacks of small coal on each. In stature he was + a giant of about six feet three, very broad-chested, and + invariably wore a broad-brimmed hat, a slate-coloured + smock-frock, and blue worsted stockings to his knees. He + walked behind the donkeys, a very long staff in his hand, + shouting at them from time to time, and occasionally swinging + his long staff and bringing it down on the back of a donkey + who was not keeping up the pace. In this way he wandered from + village to village from end to end of the Plain, getting rid + of his small coal and loading his animals with scrap iron + which the blacksmiths would keep for him, and as he continued + his rounds for nearly forty years he was a familiar figure to + every inhabitant throughout the district. + </p> + <p> + There are some stories still told of his great strength, one + of which is worth giving. He was a man of iron constitution + and gave himself a hard life, and he was hard on his neddies, + but he had to feed them well, and this he often contrived to + do at some one else's expense. One night at a village on the + Wylye it was discovered that he had put his eight donkeys in + a meadow in which the grass was just ripe for mowing. The + enraged farmer took them to the village pound and locked them + up, but in the morning the donkeys and Joe with them had + vanished and the whole village wondered how he had done it. + The stone wall of the pound was four feet and a half high and + the iron gate was locked, yet he had lifted the donkeys up + and put them over and had loaded them and gone before anyone + was up. + </p> + <p> + Once Joe met with a very great misfortune. He arrived late at + a village, and finding there was good feed in the churchyard + and that everybody was in bed, he put his donkeys in and + stretched himself out among the gravestones to sleep. He had + no nerves and no imagination; and was tired, and slept very + soundly until it was light and time to put his neddies out + before any person came by and discovered that he had been + making free with the rector's grass. Glancing round he could + see no donkeys, and only when he stood up he found they had + not made their escape but were there all about him, lying + among the gravestones, stone dead every one! He had forgotten + that a churchyard was a dangerous place to put hungry animals + in. They had browsed on the luxuriant yew that grew there, + and this was the result. + </p> + <p> + In time he recovered from his loss and replaced his dead + neddies with others, and continued for many years longer on + his rounds. + </p> + <p> + To return to Isaac Bawcombe. He was born, we have seen, in + 1800, and began following a flock as a boy and continued as + shepherd on the same farm for a period of fifty-five years. + The care of sheep was the one all-absorbing occupation of his + life, and how much it was to him appears in this anecdote of + his state of mind when he was deprived of it for a time. The + flock was sold and Isaac was left without sheep, and with + little to do except to wait from Michaelmas to Candlemas, + when there would be sheep again at the farm. It was a long + time to Isaac, and he found his enforced holiday so tedious + that he made himself a nuisance to his wife in the house. + Forty times a day he would throw off his hat and sit down, + resolved to be happy at his own fireside, but after a few + minutes the desire to be up and doing would return, and up he + would get and out he would go again. One dark cloudy evening + a man from the farm put his head in at the door. "Isaac," he + said, "there be sheep for 'ee up't the farm—two hunderd + ewes and a hunderd more to come in dree days. Master, he sent + I to say you be wanted." And away the man went. + </p> + <p> + Isaac jumped up and hurried forth without taking his crook + from the corner and actually without putting on his hat! His + wife called out after him, and getting no response sent the + boy with his hat to overtake him. But the little fellow soon + returned with the hat—he could not overtake his father! + </p> + <p> + He was away three or four hours at the farm, then returned, + his hair very wet, his face beaming, and sat down with a + great sigh of pleasure. "Two hunderd ewes," he said, "and a + hunderd more to come—what d'you think of that?" + </p> + <p> + "Well, Isaac," said she, "I hope thee'll be happy now and let + I alone." + </p> + <p> + After all that had been told to me about the elder Bawcombe's + life and character, it came somewhat as a shock to learn that + at one period during his early manhood he had indulged in one + form of poaching—a sport which had a marvellous + fascination for the people of England in former times, but + was pretty well extinguished during the first quarter of the + last century. Deer he had taken; and the whole tale of the + deer-stealing, which was a common offence in that part of + Wiltshire down to about 1834, sounds strange at the present + day. + </p> + <p> + Large herds of deer were kept at that time at an estate a few + miles from Winterbourne Bishop, and it often happened that + many of the animals broke bounds and roamed singly and in + small bands over the hills. When deer were observed in the + open, certain of the villagers would settle on some plan of + action; watchers would be sent out not only to keep an eye on + the deer but on the keepers too. Much depended on the state + of the weather and the moon, as some light was necessary; + then, when the conditions were favourable and the keepers had + been watched to their cottages, the gang would go out for a + night's hunting. But it was a dangerous sport, as the keepers + also knew that deer were out of bounds, and they would form + some counter-plan, and one peculiarly nasty plan they had was + to go out about three or four o'clock in the morning and + secrete themselves somewhere close to the village to + intercept the poachers on their return. + </p> + <p> + Bawcombe, who never in his life associated with the village + idlers and frequenters of the alehouse, had no connexion with + these men. His expeditions were made alone on some dark, + unpromising night, when the regular poachers were in bed and + asleep. He would steal away after bedtime, or would go out + ostensibly to look after the sheep, and, if fortunate, would + return in the small hours with a deer on his back. Then, + helped by his mother, with whom he lived (for this was when + he was a young unmarried man, about 1820), he would quickly + skin and cut up the carcass, stow the meat away in some + secret place, and bury the head, hide, and offal deep in the + earth; and when morning came it would find Isaac out + following his flock as usual, with no trace of guilt or + fatigue in his rosy cheeks and clear, honest eyes. + </p> + <p> + This was a very astonishing story to hear from Caleb, but to + suspect him of inventing or of exaggerating was impossible to + anyone who knew him. And we have seen that Isaac Bawcombe was + an exceptional man—physically a kind of Alexander + Selkirk of the Wiltshire Downs. And he, moreover, had a dog + to help him—one as superior in speed and strength to + the ordinary sheep-dog as he himself was to the rack of his + fellow-men. It was only after much questioning on my part + that Caleb brought himself to tell me of these ancient + adventures, and finally to give a detailed account of how his + father came to take his first deer. It was in the depth of + winter—bitterly cold, with a strong north wind blowing + on the snow-covered downs—when one evening Isaac caught + sight of two deer out on his sheep-walk. In that part of + Wiltshire there is a famous monument of antiquity, a vast + mound-like wall, with a deep depression or fosse running at + its side. Now it happened that on the highest part of the + down, where the wall or mound was most exposed to the blast, + the snow had been blown clean off the top, and the deer were + feeding here on the short turf, keeping to the ridge, so + that, outlined against the sky, they had become visible to + Isaac at a great distance. + </p> + <p> + He saw and pondered. These deer, just now, while out of + bounds, were no man's property, and it would be no sin to + kill and eat one—if he could catch it!—and it was + a season of bitter want. For many many days he had eaten his + barley bread, and on some days barley-flour dumplings, and + had been content with this poor fare; but now the sight of + these animals made him crave for meat with an intolerable + craving, and he determined to do something to satisfy it. + </p> + <p> + He went home and had his poor supper, and when it was dark + set forth again with his dog. He found the deer still feeding + on the mound. Stealing softly along among the furze-bushes, + he got the black line of the mound against the starry sky, + and by and by, as he moved along, the black figures of the + deer, with their heads down, came into view. He then doubled + back and, proceeding some distance, got down into the fosse + and stole forward to them again under the wall. His idea was + that on taking alarm they would immediately make for the + forest which was their home, and would probably pass near + him. They did not hear him until he was within sixty yards, + and then bounded down from the wall, over the dyke, and away, + but in almost opposite directions—one alone making for + the forest; and on this one the dog was set. Out he shot like + an arrow from the bow, and after him ran Isaac "as he had + never runned afore in all his life." For a short space deer + and dog in hot pursuit were visible on the snow, then the + darkness swallowed them up as they rushed down the slope; but + in less than half a minute a sound came back to Isaac, + flying, too, down the incline—the long, wailing cry of + a deer in distress. The dog had seized his quarry by one of + the front legs, a little above the hoof, and held it fast, + and they were struggling on the snow when Isaac came up and + flung himself upon his victim, then thrust his knife through + its windpipe "to stop its noise." Having killed it, he threw + it on his back and went home, not by the turnpike, nor by any + road or path, but over fields and through copses until he got + to the back of his mother's cottage. There was no door on + that side, but there was a window, and when he had rapped at + it and his mother opened it, without speaking a word he + thrust the dead deer through, then made his way round to the + front. + </p> + <p> + That was how he killed his first deer. How the others were + taken I do not know; I wish I did, since this one exploit of + a Wiltshire shepherd has more interest for me than I find in + fifty narratives of elephants slaughtered wholesale with + explosive bullets, written for the delight and astonishment + of the reading public by our most glorious Nimrods. + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p><a name="ch07"><!--Marker--></a> + <h2> + CHAPTER VII + </h2> + <h3> + THE DEER-STEALERS + </h3> + <blockquote> + Deer-stealing on Salisbury Plain—The head-keeper + Harbutt—Strange story of a baby—Found as a + surname—John Barter the village carpenter—How the + keeper was fooled—A poaching attack planned—The + fight—Head-keeper and carpenter—The carpenter + hides his son—The arrest—Barter's sons forsake + the village + </blockquote> + <p> + There were other memories of deer-taking handed down to Caleb + by his parents, and the one best worth preserving relates to + the head-keeper of the preserves, or chase, and to a great + fight in which he was engaged with two brothers of the girl + who was afterwards to be Isaac's wife. + </p> + <p> + Here it may be necessary to explain that formerly the owner + of Cranbourne Chase, at that time Lord Rivers, claimed the + deer and the right to preserve and hunt deer over a + considerable extent of country outside of his own lands. On + the Wiltshire side these rights extended from Cranbourne + Chase over the South Wiltshire Downs to Salisbury, and the + whole territory, about thirty miles broad, was divided into + beats or walks, six or eight in number, each beat provided + with a keeper's lodge. This state of things continued to the + year 1834, when the chase was "disfranchised" by Act of + Parliament. + </p> + <p> + The incident I am going to relate occurred about 1815 or + perhaps two or three years later. The border of one of the + deer walks was at a spot known as Three Downs Place, two + miles and a half from Winterbourne Bishop. Here in a hollow + of the downs there was an extensive wood, and just within the + wood a large stone house, said to be centuries old but long + pulled down, called Rollston House, in which the head-keeper + lived with two under-keepers. He had a wife but no children, + and was a middle-aged, thick-set, very dark man, powerful and + vigilant, a "tarrable" hater and persecutor of poachers, + feared and hated by them in turn, and his name was Harbutt. + </p> + <p> + It happened that one morning, when he had unbarred the front + door to go out, he found a great difficulty in opening it, + caused by a heavy object having been fastened to the + door-handle. It proved to be a basket or box, in which a + well-nourished, nice-looking boy baby was sleeping, well + wrapped up and covered with a cloth. On the cloth a scrap of + paper was pinned with the following lines written on it: + </p> + <p> + Take me in and treat me well,<br> + For in this house my father dwell. + </p> + <p> + Harbutt read the lines and didn't even smile at the grammar; + on the contrary, he appeared very much upset, and was still + standing holding the paper, staring stupidly at it, when his + wife came on the scene. "What be this?" she exclaimed, and + looked first at the paper, then at him, then at the rosy + child fast asleep in its cradle; and instantly, with a great + cry, she fell on it and snatched it up in her arms, and + holding it clasped to her bosom, began lavishing caresses and + endearing expressions on it, tears of rapture in her eyes! + Not one word of inquiry or bitter, jealous reproach—all + that part of her was swallowed up and annihilated in the joy + of a woman who had been denied a child of her own to love and + nourish and worship. And now one had come to her and it + mattered little how. Two or three days later the infant was + baptized at the village church with the quaint name of Moses + Found. + </p> + <p> + Caleb was a little surprised at my thinking it a laughable + name. It was to his mind a singularly appropriate one; he + assured me it was not the only case he knew of in which the + surname Found had been bestowed on a child of unknown + parentage, and he told me the story of one of the Founds who + had gone to Salisbury as a boy and worked and saved and + eventually become quite a prosperous and important person. + There was really nothing funny in it. + </p> + <p> + The story of Moses Found had been told him by his old mother; + she, he remarked significantly, had good cause to remember + it. She was herself a native of the village, born two or + three years later than the mysterious Moses; her father, John + Barter by name was a carpenter and lived in an old, thatched + house which still exists and is very familiar to me. He had + five sons; then, after an interval of some years, a daughter + was born, who in due time was to be Isaac's wife. When she + was a little girl her brothers were all grown up or on the + verge of manhood, and Moses, too, was a young man—"the + spit of his father" people said, meaning the + head-keeper—and he was now one of Harbutt's + under-keepers. + </p> + <p> + About this time some of the more ardent spirits in the + village, not satisfied with an occasional hunt when a deer + broke out and roamed over the downs, took to poaching them in + the woods. One night, a hunt having been arranged, one of the + most daring of the men secreted himself close to the keeper's + house, and having watched the keepers go in and the lights + put out, he actually succeeded in fastening up the doors from + the outside with screws and pieces of wood without creating + an alarm. He then met his confederates at an agreed spot and + the hunting began, during which one deer was chased to the + house and actually pulled down and killed on the lawn. + </p> + <p> + Meanwhile the inmates were in a state of great excitement; + the under-keepers feared that a force it would be dangerous + to oppose had taken possession of the woods, while Harbutt + raved and roared like a maddened wild beast in a cage, and + put forth all his strength to pull the doors open. Finally he + smashed a window and leaped out, gun in hand, and calling the + others to follow rushed into the wood. But he was too late; + the hunt was over and the poachers had made good their + escape, taking the carcasses of two or three deer they had + succeeded in killing. + </p> + <p> + The keeper was not to be fooled in the same way a second + time, and before very long he had his revenge. A fresh raid + was planned, and on this occasion two of the five brothers + were in it, and there were four more, the blacksmith of + Winterbourne Bishop, their best man, two famous shearers, + father and son, from a neighbouring village, and a young farm + labourer. + </p> + <p> + They knew very well that with the head-keeper in his present + frame of mind it was a risky affair, and they made a solemn + compact that if caught they would stand by one another to the + end. And caught they were, and on this occasion the keepers + were four. + </p> + <p> + At the very beginning the blacksmith, their ablest man and + virtual leader, was knocked down senseless with a blow on his + head with the butt end of a gun. Immediately on seeing this + the two famous shearers took to their heels and the young + labourer followed their example. The brothers were left but + refused to be taken, although Harbutt roared at them in his + bull's voice that he would shoot them unless they + surrendered. They made light of his threats and fought + against the four, and eventually were separated. By and by + the younger of the two was driven into a brambly thicket + where his opponents imagined that it would be impossible for + him to escape. But he was a youth of indomitable spirit, + strong and agile as a wild cat; and returning blow for blow + he succeeded in tearing himself from them, then after a + running fight through the darkest part of the wood for a + distance of two or three hundred yards they at length lost + him or gave him up and went back to assist Harbutt and Moses + against the other man. Left to himself he got out of the wood + and made his way back to the village. It was long past + midnight when he turned up at his father's cottage, a + pitiable object covered with mud and blood, hatless, his + clothes torn to shreds, his face and whole body covered with + bruises and bleeding wounds. + </p> + <p> + The old man was in a great state of distress about his other + son, and early in the morning went to examine the ground + where the fight had been. It was only too easily found; the + sod was trampled down and branches broken as though a score + of men had been engaged. Then he found his eldest son's cap, + and a little farther away a sleeve of his coat; shreds and + rags were numerous on the bramble bushes, and by and by he + came on a pool of blood. "They've kill 'n!" he cried in + despair, "they've killed my poor boy!" and straight to + Rollston House he went to inquire, and was met by Harbutt + himself, who came out limping, one boot on, the other foot + bound up with rags, one arm in a sling and a cloth tied round + his head. He was told that his son was alive and safe indoors + and that he would be taken to Salisbury later in the day. + "His clothes be all torn to pieces," added the keeper. "You + can just go home at once and git him others before the + constable comes to take him." + </p> + <p> + "You've tored them to pieces yourself and you can git him + others," retorted the old man in a rage. + </p> + <p> + "Very well," said the keeper. "But bide a moment—I've + something more to say to you. When your son comes out of jail + in a year or so you tell him from me that if he'll just step + up this way I'll give him five shillings and as much beer as + he likes to drink. I never see'd a better fighter!" + </p> + <p> + It was a great compliment to his son, but the old men was + troubled in his mind. "What dost mean, keeper, by a year or + so?" he asked. + </p> + <p> + "When I said that," returned the other, with a grin, "I was + just thinking what 'twould be he deserves to git." + </p> + <p> + "And you'd agot your deserts, by God," cried the angry + father, "if that boy of mine hadn't a-been left alone to + fight ye!" + </p> + <p> + Harbutt regarded him with a smile of gratified malice. + </p> + <p> + "You can go home now," he said. "If you'd see your son you'll + find'n in Salisbury jail. Maybe you'll be wanting new locks + on your doors; you can git they in Salisbury too—you've + no blacksmith in your village now. No, your boy weren't alone + and you know that damned well." + </p> + <p> + "I know naught about that," he returned, and started to walk + home with a heavy heart. Until now he had been clinging to + the hope that the other son had not been identified in the + dark wood. And now what could he do to save one of the two + from hateful imprisonment? The boy was not in a fit condition + to make his escape; he could hardly get across the room and + could not sit or lie down without groaning. He could only try + to hide him in the cottage and pray that they would not + discover him. The cottage was in the middle of the village + and had but little ground to it, but there was a small, + boarded-up cavity or cell at one end of an attic, and it + might be possible to save him by putting him in there. Here, + then, in a bed placed for him on the floor, his bruised son + was obliged to lie, in the close, dark hole, for some days. + </p> + <p> + One day, about a week later, when he was recovering from his + hurts, he crawled out of his box and climbed down the narrow + stairs to the ground floor to see the light and breathe a + better air for a short time, and while down he was tempted to + take a peep at the street through the small, latticed window. + But he quickly withdrew his head and by and by said to his + father, "I'm feared Moses has seen me. Just now when I was at + the window he came by and looked up and see'd me with my head + all tied up, and I'm feared he knew 'twas I." + </p> + <p> + After that they could only wait in fear and trembling, and on + the next day quite early there came a loud rap at the door, + and on its being opened by the old man the constable and two + keepers appeared standing before him. + </p> + <p> + "I've come to take your son," said the constable. + </p> + <p> + The old man stepped back without a word and took down his gun + from its place on the wall, then spoke: "It you've got a + search-warrant you may come in; if you haven't got 'n I'll + blow the brains out of the first man that puts a foot inside + my door." + </p> + <p> + They hesitated a few moments then silently withdrew. After + consulting together the constable went off to the nearest + magistrate, leaving the two keepers to keep watch on the + house: Moses Found was one of them. Later in the day the + constable returned armed with a warrant and was thereupon + admitted, with the result that the poor youth was soon + discovered in his hiding-place and carried off. And that was + the last he saw of his home, his young sister crying bitterly + and his old father white and trembling with grief and + impotent rage. + </p> + <p> + A month or two later the two brothers were tried and + sentenced each to six months' imprisonment. They never came + home. On their release they went to Woolwich, where men were + wanted and the pay was good. And by and by the accounts they + sent home induced first one then the other brother to go and + join them, and the poor old father, who had been very proud + of his five sons, was left alone with his young + daughter—Isaac's destined wife. + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p><a name="ch08"><!--Marker--></a> + <h2> + CHAPTER VIII + </h2> + <h3> + SHEPHERDS AND POACHING + </h3> + <blockquote> + General remarks on poaching—Farmer, shepherd, and + dog—A sheep-dog that would not hunt—Taking a + partridge from a hawk—Old Gaarge and Young + Gaarge—Partridge-poaching—The shepherd robbed of + his rabbits—Wisdom of Shepherd + Gathergood—Hare-trapping on the down—Hare-taking + with a crook + </blockquote> + <p> + When Caleb was at length free from his father's tutelage, and + as an under-shepherd practically independent, he did not + follow Isaac's strict example with regard to wild animals, + good for the pot, which came by chance in his way; he even + allowed himself to go a little out of his way on occasion to + get them. + </p> + <p> + We know that about this matter the law of the land does not + square with the moral law as it is written in the heart of + the peasant. A wounded partridge or other bird which he finds + in his walks abroad or which comes by chance to him is his by + a natural right, and he will take and eat or dispose of it + without scruple. With rabbits he is very free—he + doesn't wait to find a distressed one with a stoat on its + track—stoats are not sufficiently abundant; and a hare, + too, may be picked up at any moment; only in this case he + must be very sure that no one is looking. Knowing the law, + and being perhaps a respectable, religious person, he is + anxious to abstain from all appearance of evil. This taking a + hare or rabbit or wounded partridge is in his mind a very + different thing from systematic poaching; but he is aware + that to the classes above him it is not so—the law has + made them one. It is a hard, arbitrary, unnatural law, made + by and for them, his betters, and outwardly he must conform + to it. Thus you will find the best of men among the shepherds + and labourers freely helping themselves to any wild creature + that falls in their way, yet sharing the game-preserver's + hatred of the real poacher. The village poacher as a rule is + an idle, dissolute fellow, and the sober, industrious, + righteous shepherd or ploughman or carter does not like to be + put on a level with such a person. But there is no escape + from the hard and fast rule in such things, and however open + and truthful he may be in everything else, in this one matter + he is obliged to practise a certain amount of deception. Here + is a case to serve as an illustration; I have only just heard + it, after putting together the material I had collected for + this chapter, in conversation with an old shepherd friend of + mine. + </p> + <p> + He is a fine old man who has followed a flock these fifty + years, and will, I have no doubt, carry his crook for yet + another ten. Not only is he a "good shepherd," in the sense + in which Caleb uses that phrase, with a more intimate + knowledge of sheep and all the ailments they are subject to + than I have found in any other, but he is also a truly + religious man, one that "walks with God." He told me this + story of a sheep-dog he owned when head-shepherd on a large + farm on the Dorsetshire border with a master whose chief + delight in life was in coursing hares. They abounded on his + land, and he naturally wanted the men employed on the farm to + regard them as sacred animals. One day he came out to the + shepherd to complain that some one had seen his dog hunting a + hare. + </p> + <p> + The shepherd indignantly asked who had said such a thing. + </p> + <p> + "Never mind about that," said the farmer. "Is it true?" + </p> + <p> + "It is a lie," said the shepherd. "My dog never hunts a hare + or anything else. 'Tis my belief the one that said that has + got a dog himself that hunts the hares and he wants to put + the blame on some one else." + </p> + <p> + "May be so," said the farmer, unconvinced. + </p> + <p> + Just then a hare made its appearance, coming across the field + directly towards them, and either because they never moved or + it did not smell them it came on and on, stopping at + intervals to sit for a minute or so on its haunches, then on + again until it was within forty yards of where they were + standing. The farmer watched it approach and at the same time + kept an eye on the dog sitting at their feet and watching the + hare too, very steadily. "Now, shepherd," said the farmer, + "don't you say one word to the dog and I'll see for myself." + Not a word did he say, and the hare came and sat for some + seconds near them, then limped away out of sight, and the dog + made not the slightest movement. "That's all right," said the + farmer, well pleased. "I know now 'twas a lie I heard about + your dog. I've seen for myself and I'll just keep a sharp eye + on the man that told me." + </p> + <p> + My comment on this story was that the farmer had displayed an + almost incredible ignorance of a sheepdog—and a + shepherd. "How would it have been if you had said, 'Catch + him, Bob,' or whatever his name was?" I asked. + </p> + <p> + He looked at me with a twinkle in his eye and replied, "I do + b'lieve he'd ha' got 'n, but he'd never move till I told 'n." + </p> + <p> + It comes to this: the shepherd refuses to believe that by + taking a hare he is robbing any man of his property, and if + he is obliged to tell a lie to save himself from the + consequences he does not consider that it is a lie. + </p> + <p> + When he understood that I was on his side in this question, + he told me about a good sheep-dog he once possessed which he + had to get rid of because he would not take a hare! + </p> + <p> + A dog when broken is made to distinguish between the things + he must and must not do. He is "feelingly persuaded" by kind + words and caresses in one case and hard words and hard blows + in the other. He learns that if he hunts hares and rabbits it + will be very bad for him, and in due time, after some + suffering, he is able to overcome this strongest instinct of + a dog. He acquires an artificial conscience. Then, when his + education is finished, he must be made to understand that it + is not quite finished after all—that he must partially + unlearn one of the saddest of the lessons instilled in him. + He must hunt a hare or rabbit when told by his master to do + so. It is a compact between man and dog. Thus, they have got + a law which the dog has sworn to obey; but the man who made + it is above the law and can when he thinks proper command his + servant to break it. The dog, as a rule, takes it all in very + readily and often allows himself more liberty than his master + gives him; the most highly accomplished animal is one that, + like my shepherd's dog in the former instance, will not stir + till he is told. In the other case the poor brute could not + rise to the position; it was too complex for him, and when + ordered to catch a rabbit he could only put his tail between + his legs and look in a puzzled way at his master. "Why do you + tell me to do a thing for which I shall be thrashed?" + </p> + <p> + It was only after Caleb had known me some time, when we were + fast friends, that he talked with perfect freedom of these + things and told me of his own small, illicit takings without + excuse or explanation. + </p> + <p> + One day he saw a sparrowhawk dash down upon a running + partridge and struggle with it on the ground. It was in a + grass field, divided from the one he was walking in by a + large, unkept hedge without a gap in it to let him through. + Presently the hawk rose up with the partridge still violently + struggling in its talons, and flew over the hedge to Caleb's + side, but was no sooner over than it came down again and the + struggle went on once more on the ground. On Caleb running to + the spot the hawk flew off, leaving his prey behind. He had + grasped it in its sides, driving his sharp claws well in, and + the partridge, though unable to fly, was still alive. The + shepherd killed it and put it in his pocket, and enjoyed it + very much when he came to eat it. + </p> + <p> + From this case, a most innocent form of poaching, he went on + to relate how he had once been able to deprive a cunning + poacher and bad man, a human sparrowhawk, of his quarry. + </p> + <p> + There were two persons in the village, father and son, he + very heartily detested, known respectively as Old Gaarge and + Young Gaarge, inveterate poachers both. They were worse than + the real reprobate who haunted the public-house and did no + work and was not ashamed of his evil ways, for these two were + hypocrites and were outwardly sober, righteous men, who kept + themselves a little apart from their neighbours and were very + severe in their condemnation of other people's faults. + </p> + <p> + One Sunday morning Caleb was on his way to his ewes folded at + a distance from the village, walking by a hedgerow at the + foot of the down, when he heard a shot fired some way ahead, + and after a minute or two a second shot. This greatly excited + his curiosity and caused him to keep a sharp look-out in the + direction the sounds had come from, and by and by he caught + sight of a man walking towards him. It was Old Gaarge in his + long smock-frock, proceeding in a leisurely way towards the + village, but catching sight of the shepherd he turned aside + through a gap in the hedge and went off in another direction + to avoid meeting him. No doubt, thought Caleb, he has got his + gun in two pieces hidden under his smock. He went on until he + came to a small field of oats which had grown badly and had + only been half reaped, and here he discovered that Old Gaarge + had been lying in hiding to shoot at the partridges that came + to feed. He had been screened from the sight of the birds by + a couple of hurdles and some straw, and there were feathers + of the birds he had shot scattered about. He had finished his + Sunday morning's sport and was going back, a little too late + on this occasion as it turned out. + </p> + <p> + Caleb went on to his flock, but before getting to it his dog + discovered a dead partridge in the hedge; it had flown that + far and then dropped, and there was fresh blood on its + feathers. He put it in his pocket and carried it about most + of the day while with his sheep on the down. Late in the + afternoon he spied two magpies pecking at something out in + the middle of a field and went to see what they had found. It + was a second partridge which Old Gaarge had shot in the + morning and had lost, the bird having flown to some distance + before dropping. The magpies had probably found it already + dead, as it was cold; they had begun tearing the skin at the + neck and had opened it down to the breast-bone. Caleb took + this bird, too, and by and by, sitting down to examine it, he + thought he would try to mend the torn skin with the needle + and thread he always carried inside his cap. He succeeded in + stitching it neatly up, and putting back the feathers in + their place the rent was quite concealed. That evening he + took the two birds to a man in the village who made a + livelihood by collecting bones, rags, and things of that + kind; the man took the birds in his hand, held them up, felt + their weight, examined them carefully, and pronounced them to + be two good, fat birds, and agreed to pay two shillings for + them. + </p> + <p> + Such a man may be found in most villages; he calls himself a + "general dealer," and keeps a trap and pony—in some + cases he keeps the ale-house—and is a useful member of + the small, rural community—a sort of human + carrion-crow. + </p> + <p> + The two shillings were very welcome, but more than the money + was the pleasing thought that he had got the bird shot by the + hypocritical old poacher for his own profit. Caleb had good + cause to hate him. He, Caleb, was one of the shepherds who + had his master's permission to take rabbits on the land, and + having found his snares broken on many occasions he came to + the conclusion that they were visited in the night time by + some very cunning person who kept a watch on his movements. + One evening he set five snares in a turnip field and went + just before daylight next morning in a dense fog to visit + them. Every one was broken! He had just started on his way + back, feeling angry and much puzzled at such a thing, when + the fog all at once passed away and revealed the figures of + two men walking hurriedly off over the down. They were at a + considerable distance, but the light was now strong enough to + enable him to identify Old Gaarge and Young Gaarge. In a few + moments they vanished over the brow. Caleb was mad at being + deprived of his rabbits in this mean way, but pleased at the + same time in having discovered who the culprits were; but + what to do about it he did not know. + </p> + <p> + On the following day he was with his flock on the down and + found himself near another shepherd, also with his sheep, one + he knew very well, a quiet but knowing old man named Joseph + Gathergood. He was known to be a skilful rabbit-catcher, and + Caleb thought he would go over to him and tell him about how + he was being tricked by the two Gaarges and ask him what to + do in the matter. + </p> + <p> + The old man was very friendly and at once told him what to + do. "Don't you set no more snares by the hedges and in the + turmots," he said. "Set them out on the open down where no + one would go after rabbits and they'll not find the snares." + And this was how it had to be done. First he was to scrape + the ground with the heel of his boot until the fresh earth + could be seen through the broken turf; then he was to + sprinkle a little rabbit scent on the scraped spot, and plant + his snare. The scent and smell of the fresh earth combined + would draw the rabbits to the spot; they would go there to + scratch and would inevitably get caught if the snare was + properly placed. + </p> + <p> + Caleb tried this plan with one snare, and on the following + morning found that he had a rabbit. He set it again that + evening, then again, until he had caught five rabbits on five + consecutive nights, all with the same snare. That convinced + him that he had been taught a valuable lesson and that old + Gathergood was a very wise man about rabbits; and he was very + happy to think that he had got the better of his two sneaking + enemies. + </p> + <p> + But Shepherd Gathergood was just as wise about hares, and, as + in the other case, he took them out on the down in the most + open places. His success was due to his knowledge of the + hare's taste for blackthorn twigs. He would take a good, + strong blackthorn stem or shoot with twigs on it, and stick + it firmly down in the middle of a large grass field or on the + open down, and place the steel trap tied to the stick at a + distance of a foot or so from it, the trap concealed under + grass or moss and dead leaves. The smell of the blackthorn + would draw the hare to the spot, and he would move round and + round nibbling the twigs until caught. + </p> + <p> + Caleb never tried this plan, but was convinced that + Gathergood was right about it. + </p> + <p> + He told me of another shepherd who was clever at taking hares + in another way, and who was often chaffed by his + acquaintances on account of the extraordinary length of his + shepherd's crook. It was like a lance or pole, being twice + the usual length. But he had a use for it. This shepherd used + to make hares' forms on the downs in all suitable places, + forming them so cunningly that no one seeing them by chance + would have believed they were the work of human hands. The + hares certainly made use of them. When out with his flock he + would visit these forms, walking quietly past them at a + distance of twenty to thirty feet, his dog following at his + heels. On catching sight of a hare crouching in a form he + would drop a word, and the dog would instantly stand still + and remain fixed and motionless, while the shepherd went on + but in a circle so as gradually to approach the form. + Meanwhile the hare would keep his eyes fixed on the dog, + paying no attention to the man, until by and by the long + staff would be swung round and a blow descend on the poor, + silly head from the opposite side, and if the blow was not + powerful enough to stun or disable the hare, the dog would + have it before it got many yards from the cosy nest prepared + for its destruction. + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p><a name="ch09"><!--Marker--></a> + <h2> + CHAPTER IX + </h2> + <h3> + THE SHEPHERD ON FOXES + </h3> + <blockquote> + A fox-trapping shepherd—Gamekeepers and foxes—Fox + and stoat—A gamekeeper off his guard—Pheasants + and foxes—Caleb kills a fox—A fox-hunting + sheep-dog—Two varieties of foxes—Rabbits playing + with little foxes—How to expel foxes—A playful + spirit in the fox—Fox-hunting a danger to sheep + </blockquote> + <p> + Caleb related that his friend Shepherd Gathergood was a great + fox-killer and, as with hares, he took them in a way of his + own. He said that the fox will always go to a heap of ashes + in any open place, and his plan was to place a steel trap + concealed among the ashes, made fast to a stick about three + feet high, firmly planted in the middle of the heap, with a + piece of strong-smelling cheese tied to the top. The two + attractions of an ash-heap and the smell of strong cheese was + more than any fox could resist. When he caught a fox he + killed and buried it on the down and said "nothing to nobody" + about it. He killed them to protect himself from their + depredations; foxes, like Old Gaarge and his son in Caleb's + case, went round at night to rob him of the rabbits he took + in his snares. + </p> + <p> + Caleb never blamed him for this; on the contrary, he greatly + admired him for his courage, seeing that if it had been found + out he would have been a marked man. It was perhaps + intelligence or cunning rather than courage; he did not + believe that he would be found out, and he never was; he told + Caleb of these things because he was sure of his man. Those + who were interested in the hunt never suspected him, and as + to gamekeepers, they hardly counted. He was helping them; no + one hates a fox more than they do. The farmer gets + compensation for damage, and the hen-wife is paid for her + stolen chickens by the hunt, The keeper is required to look + after the game, and at the same time to spare his chief + enemy, the fox. Indeed, the keeper's state of mind with + regard to foxes has always been a source of amusement to me, + and by long practice I am able to talk to him on that + delicate subject in a way to make him uncomfortable and + self-contradictory. There are various, quite innocent + questions which the student of wild life may put to a keeper + about foxes which have a disturbing effect on his brain. How + to expel foxes from a covert, for example; and here is + another: Is it true that the fox listens for the distressed + cries of a rabbit pursued by a stoat and that he will deprive + the stoat of his captive? Perhaps; Yes; No, I don't think so, + because one hunts by night, the other by day, he will answer, + but you see that the question troubles him. One keeper, off + his guard, promptly answered, "I've no doubt of it; I can + always bring a fox to me by imitating the cry of a rabbit + hunted by a stoat." But he did not say what his object was in + attracting the fox. + </p> + <p> + I say that the keeper was off his guard in this instance, + because the fiction that foxes were preserved on the estate + was kept up, though as a fact they were systematically + destroyed by the keepers. As the pheasant-breeding craze + appears to increase rather than diminish, notwithstanding the + disastrous effect it has had in alienating the people from + their lords and masters, the conflict of interest between + fox-hunter and pheasant-breeder will tend to become more and + more acute, and the probable end will be that fox-hunting + will have to go. A melancholy outlook to those who love the + country and old country sports, and who do not regard + pheasant-shooting as now followed as sport at all. It is a + delusion of the landlords that the country people think most + highly of the great pheasant-preserver who has two or three + big shoots in a season, during which vast numbers of birds + are slaughtered—every bird "costing a guinea," as the + saying is. It brings money into the country, he or his + apologist tells you, and provides employment for the village + poor in October and November, when there is little doing. He + does not know the truth of the matter. A certain number of + the poorer people of the village are employed as beaters for + the big shoots at a shilling a day or so, and occasionally a + labourer, going to or from his work, finds a pheasant's nest + and informs the keeper and receives some slight reward. If he + "keeps his eyes open" and shows himself anxious at all times + to serve the keeper he will sometimes get a rabbit for his + Sunday dinner. + </p> + <p> + This is not a sufficient return for the freedom to walk on + the land and in woods, which the villager possessed formerly, + even in his worst days of his oppression, a liberty which has + now been taken from him. The keeper is there now to prevent + him; he was there before, and from of old, but the pheasant + was not yet a sacred bird, and it didn't matter that a man + walked on the turf or picked up a few fallen sticks in a + wood. The keeper is there to tell him to keep to the road and + sometimes to ask him, even when he is on the road, what is he + looking over the hedge for. He slinks obediently away; he is + only a poor labourer with his living to get, and he cannot + afford to offend the man who stands between him and the lord + and the lord's tenant. And he is inarticulate; but the + insolence and injustice rankle in his heart, for he is not + altogether a helot in soul; and the result is that the + sedition-mongers, the Socialists, the furious denouncers of + all landlords, who are now quartering the country, and whose + vans I meet in the remotest villages, are listened to, and + their words—wild and whirling words they may + be—are sinking into the hearts of the agricultural + labourers of the new generation. + </p> + <p> + To return to foxes and gamekeepers. There are other estates + where the fiction of fox-preserving is kept up no longer, + where it is notorious that the landlord is devoted + exclusively to the gun and to pheasant-breeding. On one of + the big estates I am familiar with in Wiltshire the keepers + openly say they will not suffer a fox, and every villager + knows it and will give information of a fox to the keepers, + and looks to be rewarded with a rabbit. All this is + undoubtedly known to the lord of the manor; his servants are + only carrying out his own wishes, although he still + subscribes to the hunt and occasionally attends the meet. The + entire hunt may unite in cursing him, but they must do so + below their breath; it would have a disastrous effect to + spread it abroad that he is a persecutor of foxes. + </p> + <p> + Caleb disliked foxes, too, but not to the extent of killing + them. He did once actually kill one, when a young + under-shepherd, but it was accident rather than intention. + </p> + <p> + One day he found a small gap in a hedge, which had been made + or was being used by a hare, and, thinking to take it, he set + a trap at the spot, tying it securely to a root and covering + it over with dead leaves. On going to the place the next + morning he could see nothing until his feet were on the very + edge of the ditch, when with startling suddenness a big dog + fox sprang up at him with a savage snarl. It was caught by a + hind-leg, and had been lying concealed among the dead leaves + close under the bank. Caleb, angered at finding a fox when he + had looked for a hare, and at the attack the creature had + made on him, dealt it a blow on the head with his heavy + stick—just one blow given on the impulse of the moment, + but it killed the fox! He felt very bad at what he had done + and began to think of consequences. He took it from the trap + and hid it away under the dead leaves beneath the hedge some + yards from the gap, and then went to his work. During the day + one of the farm hands went out to speak to him. He was a + small, quiet old man, a discreet friend, and Caleb confided + to him what he had done. "Leave it to me," said his old + friend, and went back to the farm. In the afternoon Caleb was + standing on the top of the down looking towards the village, + when he spied at a great distance the old man coming out to + the hills, and by and by he could make out that he had a sack + on his back and a spade in his hand. When half-way up the + side of the hill he put his burden down and set to work + digging a deep pit. Into this he put the dead fox, and threw + in and trod down the earth, then carefully put back the turf + in its place, then, his task done, shouldered the spade and + departed. Caleb felt greatly relieved, for now the fox was + buried out on the downs, and no one would ever know that he + had wickedly killed it. + </p> + <p> + Subsequently he had other foxes caught in traps set for + hares, but was always able to release them. About one he had + the following story. The dog he had at that time, named Monk, + hated foxes as Jack hated adders, and would hunt them + savagely whenever he got a chance. One morning Caleb visited + a trap he had set in a gap in a hedge and found a fox in it. + The fox jumped up, snarling and displaying his teeth, ready + to fight for dear life, and it was hard to restrain Monk from + flying at him. So excited was he that only when his master + threatened him with his crook did he draw back and, sitting + on his haunches, left him to deal with the difficult business + in his own way. The difficulty was to open the steel trap + without putting himself in the way of a bite from those + "tarrable sharp teeth." After a good deal of manoeuvring he + managed to set the butt end of his crook on the handle of the + gin, and forcing it down until the iron teeth relaxed their + grip, the fox pulled his foot out, and darting away along the + hedge side vanished into the adjoining copse. Away went Monk + after him, in spite of his master's angry commands to him to + come back, and fox and dog disappeared almost together among + the trees. Sounds of yelping and of crashing through the + undergrowth came back fainter and fainter, and then there was + silence. Caleb waited at the spot full twenty minutes before + the disobedient dog came back, looking very pleased. He had + probably succeeded in overtaking and killing his enemy. + </p> + <p> + About that same Monk a sad story will have to be told in + another chapter. + </p> + <p> + When speaking of foxes Caleb always maintained that in his + part of the country there were two sorts: one small and very + red, the larger one of a lighter colour with some grey in it. + And it is possible that the hill foxes differed somewhat in + size and colour from those of the lower country. He related + that one year two vixens littered at one spot, a deep bottom + among the downs, so near together that when the cubs were big + enough to come out they mixed and played in company; the + vixens happened to be of the different sorts, and the + difference in colour appeared in the little ones as well. + </p> + <p> + Caleb was so taken with the pretty sight of all these little + foxes, neighbours and playmates, that he went evening after + evening to sit for an hour or longer watching them. One thing + he witnessed which will perhaps be disbelieved by those who + have not closely observed animals for themselves, and who + still hold to the fable that all wild creatures are born with + an inherited and instinctive knowledge and dread of their + enemies. Rabbits swarmed at that spot, and he observed that + when the old foxes were not about the young, half-grown + rabbits would freely mix and play with the little foxes. He + was so surprised at this, never having heard of such a thing, + that he told his master of it, and the farmer went with him + on a moonlight night and the two sat for a long time + together, and saw rabbits and foxes playing, pursuing one + another round and round, the rabbits when pursued often + turning very suddenly and jumping clean over their pursuer. + </p> + <p> + The rabbits at this place belonged to the tenant, and the + farmer, after enjoying the sight of the little ones playing + together, determined to get rid of the foxes in the usual way + by exploding a small quantity of gunpowder in the burrows. + Four old foxes with nine cubs were too many for him to have. + The powder was duly burned, and the very next day the foxes + had vanished. + </p> + <p> + In Berkshire I once met with that rare being, an intelligent + gamekeeper who took an interest in wild animals and knew from + observation a great deal about their habits. During an + after-supper talk, kept up till past midnight, we discussed + the subject of strange, erratic actions in animals, which in + some cases appear contrary to their own natures. He gave an + instance of such behaviour in a fox that had its earth at a + spot on the border of a wood where rabbits were abundant. One + evening he was at this spot, standing among the trees and + watching a number of rabbits feeding and gambolling on the + green turf, when the fox came trotting by and the rabbits + paid no attention. Suddenly he stopped and made a dart at a + rabbit; the rabbit ran from him a distance of twenty to + thirty yards, then suddenly turning round went for the fox + and chased it back some distance, after which the fox again + chased the rabbit, and so they went on, turn and turn about, + half a dozen times. It was evident, he said, that the fox had + no wish to catch and kill a rabbit, that it was nothing but + play on his part, and that the rabbits responded in the same + spirit, knowing that there was nothing to fear. + </p> + <p> + Another instance of this playful spirit of the fox with an + enemy, which I heard recently, is of a gentleman who was out + with his dog, a fox-terrier, for an evening walk in some + woods near his house. On his way back he discovered on coming + out of the woods that a fox was following him, at a distance + of about forty yards. When he stood still the fox sat down + and watched the dog. The dog appeared indifferent to its + presence until his master ordered him to go for the fox, + whereupon he charged him and drove him back to the edge of + the wood, but at that point the fox turned and chased the dog + right back to its master, then once more sat down and + appeared very much at his ease. Again the dog was encouraged + to go for him and hunted him again back to the wood, and was + then in turn chased back to its master, After several + repetitions of this performance, the gentleman went home, the + fox still following, and on going in closed the gate behind + him, leaving the fox outside, sitting in the road as if + waiting for him to come out again to have some more fun. + </p> + <p> + This incident serves to remind me of an experience I had one + evening in King's Copse, an immense wood of oak and pine in + the New Forest near Exbury. It was growing dark when I heard + on or close to the ground, some twenty to thirty yards before + me, a low, wailing cry, resembling the hunger-cry of the + young, long-eared owl. I began cautiously advancing, trying + to see it, but as I advanced the cry receded, as if the bird + was flitting from me. Now, just after I had begun following + the sound, a fox uttered his sudden, startlingly loud scream + about forty yards away on my right hand, and the next moment + a second fox screamed on my left, and from that time I was + accompanied, or shadowed, by the two foxes, always keeping + abreast of me, always at the same distance, one screaming and + the other replying about every half-minute. The distressful + bird-sound ceased, and I turned and went off in another + direction, to get out of the wood on the side nearest the + place where I was staying, the foxes keeping with me until I + was out. + </p> + <p> + What moved them to act in such a way is a mystery, but it was + perhaps play to them. + </p> + <p> + Another curious instance of foxes playing was related to me + by a gentleman at the little village of Inkpen, near the + Beacon, in Berkshire. He told me that when it happened, a + good many years ago, he sent an account of it to the "Field." + His gamekeeper took him one day "to see a strange thing," to + a spot in the woods where a fox had a litter of four cubs, + near a long, smooth, green slope. A little distance from the + edge of the slope three round swedes were lying on the turf. + "How do you think these swedes came here?" said the keeper, + and then proceeded to say that the old fox must have brought + them there from the field a long distance away, for her cubs + to play with. He had watched them of an evening, and wanted + his master to come and see too. Accordingly they went in the + evening, and hiding themselves among the bushes near waited + till the young foxes came out and began rolling the swedes + about and jumping at and tumbling over them. By and by one + rolled down the slope, and the young foxes went after it all + the way down, and then, when they had worried it + sufficiently, they returned to the top and played with + another swede until that was rolled down, then with the third + one in the same way. Every morning, the keeper said, the + swedes were found back on top of the ground, and he had no + doubt that they were taken up by the old fox again and left + there for her cubs to play with. + </p> + <p> + Caleb was not so eager after rabbits as Shepherd Gathergood, + but he disliked the fox for another reason. He considered + that the hunted fox was a great danger to sheep when the ewes + were heavy with lambs and when the chase brought the animal + near if not right into the flock. He had one dreadful memory + of a hunted fox trying to lose itself in his flock of + heavy-sided ewes and the hounds following it and driving the + poor sheep mad with terror. The result was that a large + number of lambs were cast before their time and many others + were poor, sickly things; many of the sheep also suffered in + health. He had no extra money from the lambs that year. He + received but a shilling (half a crown is often paid now) for + every lamb above the number of ewes, and as a rule received + from three to six pounds a year from this source. + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p><a name="ch10"><!--Marker--></a> + <h2> + CHAPTER X + </h2> + <h3> + BIRD LIFE ON THE DOWNS + </h3> + <blockquote> + Great bustard—Stone curlew—Big hawks—Former + abundance of the raven—Dogs fed on carrion—Ravens + fighting—Ravens' breeding-places in Wilts—Great + Ridge Wood ravens—Field-fare breeding in + Wilts—Pewit—Mistle-thrush—Magpie and + turtledove—Gamekeepers and magpies—Rooks and + farmers—Starling, the shepherd's favourite + bird—Sparrowhawk and "brown thrush" + </blockquote> + <p> + Wiltshire, like other places in England, has long been + deprived of its most interesting birds—the species that + were best worth preserving. Its great bustard, once our + greatest bird—even greater than the golden and sea + eagles and the "giant crane" with its "trumpet sound" once + heard in the land—is now but a memory. Or a place name: + Bustard Inn, no longer an inn, is well known to the many + thousands who now go to the mimic wars on Salisbury Plain; + and there is a Trappist monastery in a village on the + southernmost border of the county, which was once called, and + is still known to old men as, "Bustard Farm." All that Caleb + Bawcombe knew of this grandest bird is what his father had + told him; and Isaac knew of it only from hearsay, although it + was still met with in South Wilts when he was a young man. + </p> + <p> + The stone curlew, our little bustard with the long wings, + big, yellow eyes, and wild voice, still frequents the + uncultivated downs, unhappily in diminishing numbers. For the + private collector's desire to possess British-taken birds' + eggs does not diminish; I doubt if more than one clutch in + ten escapes the searching eyes of the poor shepherds and + labourers who are hired to supply the cabinets. One pair + haunted a flinty spot at Winterbourne Bishop until a year or + two ago; at other points a few miles away I watched other + pairs during the summer of 1909, but in every instance their + eggs were taken. + </p> + <p> + The larger hawks and the raven, which bred in all the woods + and forests of Wiltshire, have, of course, been extirpated by + the gamekeepers. The biggest forest in the county now affords + no refuge to any hawk above the size of a kestrel. Savernake + is extensive enough, one would imagine, for condors to hide + in, but it is not so. A few years ago a buzzard made its + appearance there—just a common buzzard, and the entire + surrounding population went mad with excitement about it, and + every man who possessed a gun flew to the forest to join in + the hunt until the wretched bird, after being blazed at for + two or three days, was brought down. I heard of another case + at Fonthill Abbey. Nobody could say what this wandering hawk + was—it was very big, blue above with a white breast + barred with black—a "tarrable" fierce-looking bird with + fierce, yellow eyes. All the gamekeepers and several other + men with guns were in hot pursuit of it for several days, + until some one fatally wounded it, but it could not be found + where it was supposed to have fallen. A fortnight later its + carcass was discovered by an old shepherd, who told me the + story. It was not in a fit state to be preserved, but he + described it to me, and I have no doubt that it was a + goshawk. + </p> + <p> + The raven survived longer, and the Shepherd Bawcombe talks + about its abundance when he was a boy, seventy or more years + ago. His way of accounting for its numbers at that time and + its subsequent, somewhat rapid disappearance greatly + interested me. + </p> + <p> + We have seen his account of deer-stealing, by the villagers + in those brave, old, starvation days when Lord Rivers owned + the deer and hunting rights over a large part of Wiltshire, + extending from Cranborne Chase to Salisbury, and when even so + righteous a man as Isaac Bawcombe was tempted by hunger to + take an occasional deer, discovered out of bounds. At that + time, Caleb said, a good many dogs used for hunting the deer + were kept a few miles from Winterbourne Bishop and were fed + by the keepers in a very primitive manner. Old, worn-out + horses were bought and slaughtered for the dogs. A horse + would be killed and stripped of his hide somewhere away in + the woods, and left for the hounds to batten on its flesh, + tearing at and fighting over it like so many jackals. When + only partially consumed the carcass would become putrid; then + another horse would be killed and skinned at another spot + perhaps a mile away, and the pack would start feeding afresh + there. The result of so much carrion lying about was that + ravens were attracted in numbers to the place and were so + numerous as to be seen in scores together. Later, when the + deer-hunting sport declined in the neighbourhood, and dogs + were no longer fed on carrion, the birds decreased year by + year, and when Caleb was a boy of nine or ten their former + great abundance was but a memory. But he remembers that they + were still fairly common, and he had much to say about the + old belief that the raven "smells death," and when seen + hovering over a flock, uttering its croak, it is a sure sign + that a sheep is in a bad way and will shortly die. + </p> + <p> + One of his recollections of the bird may be given here. It + was one of those things seen in boyhood which had very deeply + impressed him. One fine day he was on the down with an elder + brother, when they heard the familiar croak and spied three + birds at a distance engaged in a fight in the air. Two of the + birds were in pursuit of the third, and rose alternately to + rush upon and strike at their victim from above. They were + coming down from a considerable height, and at last were + directly over the boys, not more than forty or fifty feet + from the ground; and the youngsters were amazed at their + fury, the loud, rushing sound of their wings, as of a + torrent, and of their deep, hoarse croaks and savage, barking + cries. Then they began to rise again, the hunted bird trying + to keep above his enemies, they in their turn striving to + rise higher still so as to rush down upon him from overhead; + and in this way they towered higher and higher, their barking + cries coming fainter and fainter back to earth, until the + boys, not to lose sight of them, cast themselves down flat on + their backs, and, continuing to gaze up, saw them at last no + bigger than three "leetle blackbirds." Then they vanished; + but the boys, still lying on their backs, kept their eyes + fixed on the same spot, and by and by first one black speck + reappeared, then a second, and they soon saw that two birds + were swiftly coming down to earth. They fell swiftly and + silently, and finally pitched upon the down not more than a + couple of hundred yards from the boys. The hunted bird had + evidently succeeded in throwing them off and escaping. + Probably it was one of their own young, for the ravens' habit + is when their young are fully grown to hunt them out of the + neighbourhood, or, when they cannot drive them off, to kill + them. + </p> + <p> + There is no doubt that the carrion did attract ravens in + numbers to this part of Wiltshire, but it is a fact that up + to that date—about 1830—the bird had many + well-known, old breeding-places in the county. The Rev. A. C. + Smith, in his "Birds of Wiltshire," names twenty-three + breeding-places, no fewer than nine of them on Salisbury + Plain; but at the date of the publication of his work, 1887, + only three of all these nesting-places were still in use: + South Tidworth, Wilton Park, and Compton Park, Compton + Chamberlain. Doubtless there were other ancient + breeding-places which the author had not heard of: one was at + the Great Ridge Wood, overlooking the Wylye valley, where + ravens bred down to about thirty-five or forty years ago. I + have found many old men in that neighbourhood who remember + the birds, and they tell that the raven tree was a great oak + which was cut down about sixty years ago, after which the + birds built their nest in another tree not far away. A London + friend of mine, who was born in the neighbourhood of the + Great Ridge Wood, remembers the ravens as one of the common + sights of the place when he was a boy. He tells of an unlucky + farmer in those parts whose sheep fell sick and died in + numbers, year after year, bringing him down to the brink of + ruin, and how his old head-shepherd would say, solemnly + shaking his head, "'Tis not strange—master, he shot a + raven." + </p> + <p> + There was no ravens' breeding-place very near Winterbourne + Bishop. Caleb had "never heared tell of a nestie"; but he had + once seen the nest of another species which is supposed never + to breed in this country. He was a small boy at the time, + when one day an old shepherd of the place going out from the + village saw Caleb, and calling to him said, "You're the boy + that likes birds; if you'll come with me, I'll show 'ee what + no man ever seed afore"; and Caleb, fired with curiosity, + followed him away to a distance from home, out from the + downs, into the woods and to a place where he had never been, + where there were bracken and heath with birch and thorn-trees + scattered about. On cautiously approaching a clump of birches + they saw a big, thrush-like bird fly out of a large nest + about ten feet from the ground, and settle on a tree close + by, where it was joined by its mate. The old man pointed out + that it was a felt or fieldfare, a thrush nearly as big as + the mistle-thrush but different in colour, and he said that + it was a bird that came to England in flocks in winter from + no man knows where, far off in the north, and always went + away before breeding-time. This was the only felt he had ever + seen breeding in this country, and he "didn't believe that no + man had ever seed such a thing before." He would not climb + the tree to see the eggs, or even go very near it, for fear + of disturbing the birds. + </p> + <p> + This man, Caleb said, was a great one for birds: he knew them + all, but seldom said anything about them; he watched and + found out a good deal about them just for his private + pleasure. + </p> + <p> + The characteristic species of this part of the down country, + comprising the parish of Winterbourne Bishop, are the pewit, + magpie, turtledove, mistle-thrush, and starling. The pewit is + universal on the hills, but will inevitably be driven away + from all that portion of Salisbury Plain used for military + purposes. The mistle-thrush becomes common in summer after + its early breeding season is ended, when the birds in small + flocks resort to the downs, where they continue until cold + weather drives them away to the shelter of the wooded, low + country. + </p> + <p> + In this neighbourhood there are thickets of thorn, holly, + bramble, and birch growing over hundreds of acres of down, + and here the hill-magpie, as it is called, has its chief + breeding-ground, and is so common that you can always get a + sight of at least twenty birds in an afternoon's walk. Here, + too, is the metropolis of the turtledove, and the low sound + of its crooning is heard all day in summer, the other most + common sound being that of magpies—their subdued, + conversational chatter and their solo-singing, the chant or + call which a bird will go on repeating for a hundred times. + The wonder is how the doves succeed in such a place in + hatching any couple of chalk-white eggs, placed on a small + platform of sticks, or of rearing any pair of young, + conspicuous in their blue skins and bright yellow down! + </p> + <p> + The keepers tell me they get even with these kill-birds later + in the year, when they take to roosting in the woods, a mile + away in the valley. The birds are waited for at some point + where they are accustomed to slip in at dark, and one keeper + told me that on one evening alone assisted by a friend he had + succeeded in shooting thirty birds. + </p> + <p> + On Winterbourne Bishop Down and round the village the magpies + are not persecuted, probably because the gamekeepers, the + professional bird-killers, have lost heart in this place. It + is a curious and rather pretty story. There is no squire, as + we have seen; the farmers have the rabbits, and for game the + shooting is let, or to let, by some one who claims to be lord + of the manor, who lives at a distance or abroad. At all + events he is not known personally to the people, and all they + know about the overlordship is that, whereas in years gone by + every villager had certain rights in the down—to cut + furze and keep a cow, or pony, or donkey, or half a dozen + sheep or goats—now they have none; but how and why and + when these rights were lost nobody knows. Naturally there is + no sympathy between the villagers and the keepers sent from a + distance to protect the game, so that the shooting may be let + to some other stranger. On the contrary, they religiously + destroy every nest they can find, with the result that there + are too few birds for anyone to take the shooting, and it + remains year after year unlet. + </p> + <p> + This unsettled state of things is all to the advantage of the + black and white bird with the ornamental tail, and he + flourishes accordingly and builds his big, thorny nests in + the roadside trees about the village. + </p> + <p> + The one big bird on these downs, as in so many other places + in England, is the rook, and let us humbly thank the gods who + own this green earth and all the creatures which inhabit it + that they have in their goodness left us this one. For it is + something to have a rook, although he is not a great bird + compared with the great ones lost—bustard and kite and + raven and goshawk, and many others. His abundance on the + cultivated downs is rather strange when one remembers the + outcry made against him in some parts on account of his + injurious habits; but here it appears the sentiment in his + favour is just as strong in the farmer, or in a good many + farmers, as in the great landlord. The biggest rookery I know + on Salisbury Plain is at a farm-house where the farmer owns + the land himself and cultivates about nine hundred acres. One + would imagine that he would keep his rooks down in these days + when a boy cannot be hired to scare the birds from the crops. + </p> + <p> + One day, near West Knoyle, I came upon a vast company of + rooks busily engaged on a ploughed field where everything + short of placing a bird-scarer on the ground had been done to + keep the birds off. A score of rooks had been shot and + suspended to long sticks planted about the field, and there + were three formidable-looking men of straw and rags with hats + on their heads and wooden guns under their arms. But the + rooks were there all the same; I counted seven at one spot, + prodding the earth close to the feet of one of the + scarecrows. I went into the field to see what they were + doing, and found that it was sown with vetches, just + beginning to come up, and the birds were digging the seed up. + </p> + <p> + Three months later, near the same spot, on Mere Down, I found + these birds feasting on the corn, when it had been long cut + but could not be carried on account of the wet weather. It + was a large field of fifty to sixty acres, and as I walked by + it the birds came flying leisurely over my head to settle + with loud cawings on the stocks. It was a magnificent + sight—the great, blue-black bird-forms on the golden + wheat, an animated group of three or four to half a dozen on + every stock, while others walked about the ground to pick up + the scattered grain, and others were flying over them, for + just then the sun was shining on the field and beyond it the + sky was blue. Never had I witnessed birds so manifestly + rejoicing at their good fortune, with happy, loud caw-caw. Or + rather haw-haw! what a harvest, what abundance! was there + ever a more perfect August and September! Rain, rain, by + night and in the morning; then sun and wind to dry our + feathers and make us glad, but never enough to dry the corn + to enable them to carry it and build it up in stacks where it + would be so much harder to get at. Could anything be better! + </p> + <p> + But the commonest bird, the one which vastly outnumbers all + the others I have named together, is the starling. It was + Caleb Bawcombe's favourite bird, and I believe it is regarded + with peculiar affection by all shepherds on the downs on + account of its constant association with sheep in the + pasture. The dog, the sheep, and the crowd of + starlings—these are the lonely man's companions during + his long days on the hills from April or May to November. And + what a wise bird he is, and how well he knows his friends and + his enemies! There was nothing more beautiful to see, Caleb + would say, than the behaviour of a flock of starlings when a + hawk was about. If it was a kestrel they took little or no + notice of it, but if a sparrowhawk made its appearance, + instantly the crowd of birds could be seen flying at furious + speed towards the nearest flock of sheep, and down into the + flock they would fall like a shower of stones and instantly + disappear from sight. There they would remain on the ground, + among the legs of the grazing sheep, until the hawk had gone + on his way and passed out of sight. + </p> + <p> + The sparrowhawk's victims are mostly made among the young + birds that flock together in summer and live apart from the + adults during the summer months after the breeding season is + over. + </p> + <p> + When I find a dead starling on the downs ranged over by + sparrowhawks, it is almost always a young bird—a "brown + thrush" as it used to be called by the old naturalists. You + may know that the slayer was a sparrowhawk by the appearance + of the bird, its body untouched, but the flesh picked neatly + from the neck and the head gone. That was swallowed whole, + after the beak had been cut off. You will find the beak lying + by the side of the body. In summertime, when birds are most + abundant, after the breeding season, the sparrowhawk is a + fastidious feeder. + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p><a name="ch11"><!--Marker--></a> + <h2> + CHAPTER XI + </h2> + <h3> + STARLINGS AND SHEEP-BELLS + </h3> + <blockquote> + Starlings' singing—Native and borrowed + sounds—Imitations of sheep-bells—The shepherd on + sheep-bells—The bells for pleasure, not use—A dog + in charge of the flock—Shepherd calling his + sheep—Richard Warner of Bath—Ploughmen singing to + their oxen in Cornwall—A shepherd's loud singing + </blockquote> + <p> + The subject of starlings associating with sheep has served to + remind me of something I have often thought when listening to + their music. It happens that I am writing this chapter in a + small village on Salisbury Plain, the time being + mid-September 1909, and that just outside my door there is a + group of old elder-bushes laden just now with clusters of + ripe berries on which the starlings come to feed, filling the + room all day with that never-ending medley of sounds which is + their song. They sing in this way not only when they + sing—that is to say, when they make a serious business + of it, standing motionless and a-shiver on the tiles, wings + drooping and open beak pointing upwards, but also when they + are feasting on fruit—singing and talking and + swallowing elderberries between whiles to wet their whistles. + If the weather is not too cold you will hear this music + daily, wet or dry, all the year round. We may say that of all + singing birds they are most vocal, yet have no set song. I + doubt if they have more than half a dozen to a dozen sounds + or notes which are the same in every individual and their + very own. One of them is a clear, soft, musical whistle, + slightly inflected; another a kissing sound, usually repeated + two or three times or oftener, a somewhat percussive smack; + still another, a sharp, prolonged hissing or sibilant but at + the same time metallic note, compared by some one to the + sound produced by milking a cow into a tin pail—a very + good description. There are other lesser notes: a musical, + thrush-like chirp, repeated slowly, and sometimes rapidly + till it runs to a bubbling sound; also there is a horny + sound, which is perhaps produced by striking upon the edges + of the lower mandible with those of the upper. But it is + quite unlike the loud, hard noise made by the stork; the poor + stork being a dumb bird has made a sort of policeman's rattle + of his huge beak. These sounds do not follow each other; they + come from time to time, the intervals being filled up with + others in such endless variety, each bird producing its own + notes, that one can but suppose that they are imitations. We + know, in fact, that the starling is our greatest mimic, and + that he often succeeds in recognizable reproductions of + single notes, of phrases, and occasionally of entire songs, + as, for instance, that of the blackbird. But in listening to + him we are conscious of his imitations; even when at his best + he amuses rather than delights—he is not like the + mocking-bird. His common starling pipe cannot produce sounds + of pure and beautiful quality, like the blackbird's + "oboe-voice," to quote Davidson's apt phrase: he emits this + song in a strangely subdued tone, producing the effect of a + blackbird heard singing at a considerable distance. And so + with innumerable other notes, calls, and songs—they are + often to their originals what a man's voice heard on a + telephone is to his natural voice. He succeeds best, as a + rule, in imitations of the coarser, metallic sounds, and as + his medley abounds in a variety of little, measured, + tinkling, and clinking notes, as of tappings on a metal + plate, it has struck me at times that these are probably + borrowed from the sheep-bells of which the bird hears so much + in his feeding-grounds. It is, however, not necessary to + suppose that every starling gets these sounds directly from + the bells; the birds undoubtedly mimic one another, as is the + case with mocking-birds, and the young might easily acquire + this part of their song language from the old birds without + visiting the flocks in the pastures. + </p> + <p> + The sheep-bell, in its half-muffled strokes, as of a small + hammer tapping on an iron or copper plate, is, one would + imagine, a sound well within the starling's range, easily + imitated, therefore specially attractive to him. + </p> + <p> + But—to pass to another subject—what does the + shepherd himself think or feel about it; and why does he have + bells on his sheep? + </p> + <p> + He thinks a great deal of his bells. He pipes not like the + shepherd of fable or of the pastoral poets, nor plays upon + any musical instrument, and seldom sings, or even + whistles—that sorry substitute for song; he loves music + nevertheless, and gets it in his sheep-bells; and he likes it + in quantity. "How many bells have you got on your + sheep—it sounds as if you had a great many?" I asked of + a shepherd the other day, feeding his flock near Old Sarum, + and he replied, "Just forty, and I wish there were eighty." + Twenty-five or thirty is a more usual number, but only + because of their cost, for the shepherd has very little money + for bells or anything else. Another told me that he had "only + thirty," but he intended getting more. The sound cheers him; + it is not exactly monotonous, owing to the bells being of + various sizes and also greatly varying in thickness, so that + they produce different tones, from the sharp tinkle-tinkle of + the smallest to the sonorous klonk-klonk of the big, copper + bell. Then, too, they are differently agitated, some quietly + when the sheep are grazing with heads down, others rapidly as + the animal walks or trots on; and there are little bursts or + peals when a sheep shakes its head, all together producing a + kind of rude harmony—a music which, like that of + bagpipes or of chiming church-bells, heard from a distance, + is akin to natural music and accords with rural scenes. + </p> + <p> + As to use, there is little or none. A shepherd will sometimes + say, when questioned on the subject, that the bells tell him + just where the flock is or in which direction they are + travelling; but he knows better. The one who is not afraid to + confess the simple truth of the matter to a stranger will + tell you that he does not need the bells to tell him where + the sheep are or in which direction they are grazing. His + eyes are good enough for that. The bells are for his solace + or pleasure alone. It may be that the sheep like the tinkling + too—it is his belief that they do like it. A shepherd + said to me a few days ago: "It is lonesome with the flock on + the downs; more so in cold, wet weather, when you perhaps + don't see a person all day—on some days not even at a + distance, much less to speak to. The bells keep us from + feeling it too much. We know what we have them for, and the + more we have the better we like it. They are company to us." + </p> + <p> + Even in fair weather he seldom has anyone to speak to. A + visit from an idle man who will sit down and have a pipe and + talk with him is a day to be long remembered and even to date + events from. "'Twas the month—May, June, or + October—when the stranger came out to the down and + talked to I." + </p> + <p> + One day, in September, when sauntering over Mere Down, one of + the most extensive and loneliest-looking sheep-walks in South + Wilts—a vast, elevated plain or table-land, a portion + of which is known as White Sheet Hill—I passed three + flocks of sheep, all with many bells, and noticed that each + flock produced a distinctly different sound or effect, owing + doubtless to a different number of big and little bells in + each; and it struck me that any shepherd on a dark night, or + if taken blindfolded over the downs, would be able to + identify his own flock by the sound. At the last of the three + flocks a curious thing occurred. There was no shepherd with + it or anywhere in sight, but a dog was in charge; I found him + lying apparently asleep in a hollow, by the side of a stick + and an old sack. I called to him, but instead of jumping up + and coming to me, as he would have done if his master had + been there, he only raised his head, looked at me, then put + his nose down on his paws again. I am on duty—in sole + charge—and you must not speak to me, was what he said. + After walking a little distance on, I spied the shepherd with + a second dog at his heels, coming over the down straight to + the flock, and I stayed to watch. When still over a hundred + yards from the hollow the dog flew ahead, and the other + jumping up ran to meet him, and they stood together, wagging + their tails as if conversing. When the shepherd had got up to + them he stood and began uttering a curious call, a somewhat + musical cry in two notes, and instantly the sheep, now at a + considerable distance, stopped feeding and turned, then all + together began running towards him, and when within thirty + yards stood still, massed together, and all gazing at him. He + then uttered a different call, and turning walked away, the + dogs keeping with him and the sheep closely following. It was + late in the day, and he was going to fold them down at the + foot of the slope in some fields half a mile away. + </p> + <p> + As the scene I had witnessed appeared unusual I related it to + the very next shepherd I talked with. + </p> + <p> + "Oh, there was nothing in that," he said. "Of course the dog + was behind the flock." + </p> + <p> + I said, "No, the peculiar thing was that both dogs were with + their master, and the flock followed." + </p> + <p> + "Well, my sheep would do the same," he returned. "That is, + they'll do it if they know there's something good for + them—something they like in the fold. They are very + knowing." And other shepherds to whom I related the incident + said pretty much the same, but they apparently did not quite + like to hear that any shepherd could control his sheep with + his voice alone; their way of receiving the story confirmed + me in the belief that I had witnessed something unusual. + </p> + <p> + Before concluding this short chapter I will leave the subject + of the Wiltshire shepherd and his sheep to quote a remarkable + passage about men singing to their cattle in Cornwall, from a + work on that county by Richard Warner of Bath, once a + well-known and prolific writer of topographical and other + books. They are little known now, I fancy, but he was great + in his day, which lasted from about the middle of the + eighteenth to about the middle of the nineteenth + century—at all events, he died in 1857, aged + ninety-four. But he was not great at first, and finding when + nearing middle age that he was not prospering, he took to the + Church and had several livings, some of them running + concurrently, as was the fashion in those dark days. His + topographical work included Walks in Wales, in Somerset, in + Devon, Walks in many places, usually taken in a stage-coach + or on horseback, containing nothing worth remembering except + perhaps the one passage I have mentioned, which is as + follows:— + </p> + <p> + "We had scarcely entered Cornwall before our attention was + agreeably arrested by a practice connected with the + agriculture of the people, which to us was entirely novel. + The farmers judiciously employ the fine oxen of the country + in ploughing, and other processes of husbandry, to which the + strength of this useful animal can be employed"—the + Rev. Richard Warner is tedious, but let us be patient and see + what follows—"to which the strength of this useful + animal can be employed; and while the hinds are thus driving + their patient slaves along the furrows, they continually + cheer them with conversation, denoting approbation and + pleasure. This encouragement is conveyed to them in a sort of + chaunt, of very agreeable modulation, which, floating through + the air from different distances, produces a striking effect + both on the ear and imagination. The notes are few and + simple, and when delivered by a clear, melodious voice, have + something expressive of that tenderness and affection which + man naturally entertains for the companions of his labours, + in a <i>pastoral state</i> of society, when, feeling more + forcibly his dependence upon domesticated animals for + support, he gladly reciprocates with them kindness and + protection for comfort and subsistence. This wild melody was + to me, I confess, peculiarly affecting. It seemed to draw + more closely the link of friendship between man and the + humbler tribes of <i>fellow mortals</i>. It solaced my heart + with the appearance of humanity, in a world of violence and + in times of universal hostile rage; and it gladdened my fancy + with the contemplation of those days of heavenly harmony, + promised in the predictions of eternal truth, when man, freed + at length from prejudice and passion, shall seek his + happiness in cultivating the mild, the benevolent, and the + merciful sensibilities of his nature; and when the animal + world, catching the virtues of its lord and master, shall + soften into gentleness and love; when the wolf".... + </p> + <p> + And so on, clause after clause, with others to be added, + until the whole sentence becomes as long as a fishing-rod. + But apart from the fiddlededee, is the thing he states + believable? It is a charming picture, and one would like to + know more about that "chaunt," that "wild melody." The + passage aroused my curiosity when in Cornwall, as it had + appeared to me that in no part of England are the domestic + animals so little considered by their masters. The R.S.P.C.A. + is practically unknown there, and when watching the doings of + shepherds or drovers with their sheep the question has + occurred to me, What would my Wiltshire shepherd friends say + of such a scene if they had witnessed it? There is nothing in + print which I can find to confirm Warner's observations, and + if you inquire of very old men who have been all their lives + on the soil they will tell you that there has never been such + a custom in their time, nor have they ever heard of it as + existing formerly. Warner's Tour through Cornwall is dated + 1808. + </p> + <p> + I take it that he described a scene he actually witnessed, + and that he jumped to the conclusion that it was a common + custom for the ploughman to sing to his oxen. It is not + unusual to find a man anywhere singing to his oxen, or + horses, or sheep, if he has a voice and is fond of exercising + it. I remember that in a former book—"Nature in + Downland"—I described the sweet singing of a cow-boy + when tending his cows on a heath near Trotton, in West + Sussex; and here in Wiltshire it amused me to listen, at a + vast distance, to the robust singing of a shepherd while + following his flock on the great lonely downs above + Chitterne. He was a sort of Tamagno of the downs, with a + tremendous voice audible a mile away. + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p><a name="ch12"><!--Marker--></a> + <h2> + CHAPTER XII + </h2> + <h3> + THE SHEPHERD AND THE BIBLE + </h3> + <blockquote> + Dan'l Burdon, the treasure-seeker—The shepherd's + feeling for the Bible—Effect of the pastoral + life—The shepherd's story of Isaac's boyhood—The + village on the Wylye + </blockquote> + <p> + One of the shepherd's early memories was of Dan'l Burdon, a + labourer on the farm where Isaac Bawcombe was head-shepherd. + He retained a vivid recollection of this person, who had a + profound gravity and was the most silent man in the parish. + He was always thinking about hidden treasure, and all his + spare time was spent in seeking for it. On a Sunday morning, + or in the evening after working hours, he would take a spade + or pick and go away over the hills on his endless search + after "something he could not find." He opened some of the + largest barrows, making trenches six to ten feet deep through + them, but found nothing to reward him. One day he took Caleb + with him, and they went to a part of the down where there + were certain depressions in the turf of a circular form and + six to seven feet in circumference. Burdon had observed these + basin-like depressions and had thought it possible they + marked the place where things of value had been buried in + long-past ages. To begin he cut the turf all round and + carefully removed it, then dug and found a thick layer of + flints. These removed, he came upon a deposit of ashes and + charred wood. And that was all. Burdon without a word set to + work to put it all back in its place again—ashes and + wood, and earth and flints—and having trod it firmly + down he carefully replaced the turf, then leaning on his + spade gazed silently at the spot for a space of several + minutes. At last he spoke. "Maybe, Caleb, you've beared tell + about what the Bible says of burnt sacrifice. Well now, I be + of opinion that it were here. They people the Bible says + about, they come up here to sacrifice on White Bustard Down, + and these be the places where they made their fires." + </p> + <p> + Then he shouldered his spade and started home, the boy + following. Caleb's comment was: "I didn't say nothing to un + because I were only a leetel boy and he were a old man; but I + knowed better than that all the time, because them people in + the Bible they was never in England at all, so how could they + sacrifice on White Bustard Down in Wiltsheer?" + </p> + <p> + It was no idle boast on his part. Caleb and his brothers had + been taught their letters when small, and the Bible was their + one book, which they read not only in the evenings at home + but out on the downs during the day when they were with the + flock. His extreme familiarity with the whole Scripture + narrative was a marvel to me; it was also strange, + considering how intelligent a man he was, that his lifelong + reading of that one book had made no change in his rude + "Wiltsheer" speech. + </p> + <p> + Apart from the feeling which old, religious country people, + who know nothing about the Higher Criticism, have for the + Bible, taken literally as the Word of God, there is that in + the old Scriptures which appeals in a special way to the + solitary man who feeds his flock on the downs. I remember + well in the days of my boyhood and youth, when living in a + purely pastoral country among a semi-civilized and very + simple people, how understandable and eloquent many of the + ancient stories were to me. The life, the outlook, the rude + customs, and the vivid faith in the Unseen, were much the + same in that different race in a far-distant age, in a remote + region of the earth, and in the people I mixed with in my own + home. That country has been changed now; it has been improved + and civilized and brought up to the European standard; I + remember it when it was as it had existed for upwards of two + centuries before it had caught the contagion. The people I + knew were the descendants of the Spanish colonists of the + seventeenth century, who had taken kindly to the life of the + plains, and had easily shed the traditions and ways of + thought of Europe and of towns. Their philosophy of life, + their ideals, their morality, were the result of the + conditions they existed in, and wholly unlike ours; and the + conditions were like those of the ancient people of which the + Bible tells us. Their very phraseology was strongly + reminiscent of that of the sacred writings, and their + character in the best specimens was like that of the men of + the far past who lived nearer to God, as we say, and + certainly nearer to nature than it is possible for us in this + artificial state. Among these sometimes grand old men who + were large landowners, rich in flocks and herds, these fine + old, dignified "natives," the substantial and leading men of + the district who could not spell their own names, there were + those who reminded you of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and + Esau and Joseph and his brethren, and even of David the + passionate psalmist, with perhaps a guitar for a harp. + </p> + <p> + No doubt the Scripture lessons read in the thousand churches + on every Sunday of the year are practically meaningless to + the hearers. These old men, with their sheep and goats and + wives, and their talk about God, are altogether out of our + ways of thought, in fact as far from us—as incredible + or unimaginable, we may say—as the neolithic men or the + inhabitants of another planet. They are of the order of + mythical heroes and the giants of antiquity. To read about + them is an ancient custom, but we do not listen. + </p> + <p> + Even to myself the memories of my young days came to be + regarded as very little more than mere imaginations, and I + almost ceased to believe in them until, after years of mixing + with modern men, mostly in towns, I fell in with the downland + shepherds, and discovered that even here, in densely + populated and ultra-civilized England, something of the + ancient spirit had survived. In Caleb, and a dozen old men + more or less like him, I seemed to find myself among the + people of the past, and sometimes they were so much like some + of the remembered, old, sober, and slow-minded herders of the + plains that I could not help saying to myself, Why, how this + man reminds me of Tio Isidoro, or of Don Pascual of the + "Three Poplar Trees," or of Marcos who would always have + three black sheep in a flock. And just as they reminded me of + these men I had actually known, so did they bring back the + older men of the Bible history—Abraham and Jacob and + the rest. + </p> + <p> + The point here is that these old Bible stories have a reality + and significance for the shepherd of the down country which + they have lost for modern minds; that they recognize their + own spiritual lineaments in these antique portraits, and that + all these strange events might have happened a few years ago + and not far away. + </p> + <p> + One day I said to Caleb Bawcombe that his knowledge of the + Bible, especially of the old part, was greater than that of + the other shepherds I knew on the downs, and I would like to + hear why it was so. This led to the telling of a fresh story + about his father's boyhood, which he had heard in later years + from his mother. Isaac was an only child and not the son of a + shepherd; his father was a rather worthless if not a wholly + bad man; he was idle and dissolute, and being remarkably + dexterous with his fists he was persuaded by certain sporting + persons to make a business of fighting—quite a common + thing in those days. He wanted nothing better, and spent the + greater part of the time in wandering about the country; the + money he made was spent away from home, mostly in drink, + while his wife was left to keep herself and child in the best + way she could at home or in the fields. By and by a poor + stranger came to the village in search of work and was + engaged for very little pay by a small farmer, for the + stranger confessed that he was without experience of farm + work of any description. The cheapest lodging he could find + was in the poor woman's cottage, and then Isaac's mother, who + pitied him because he was so poor and a stranger alone in the + world, a very silent, melancholy man, formed the opinion that + he had belonged to another rank in life. His speech and hands + and personal habits betrayed it. Undoubtedly he was a + gentleman; and then from something in his manner, his voice, + and his words whenever he addressed her, and his attention to + religion, she further concluded that he had been in the + Church; that, owing to some trouble or disaster, he had + abandoned his place in the world to live away from all who + had known him, as a labourer. + </p> + <p> + One day he spoke to her about Isaac; he said he had been + observing him and thought it a great pity that such a fine, + intelligent boy should be allowed to grow up without learning + his letters. She agreed that it was, but what could she do? + The village school was kept by an old woman, and though she + taught the children very little it had to be paid for, and + she could not afford it. He then offered to teach Isaac + himself and she gladly consented, and from that day he taught + Isaac for a couple of hours every evening until the boy was + able to read very well, after which they read the Bible + through together, the poor man explaining everything, + especially the historical parts, so clearly and beautifully, + with such an intimate knowledge of the countries and peoples + and customs of the remote East, that it was all more + interesting than a fairy tale. Finally he gave his copy of + the Bible to Isaac, and told him to carry it in his pocket + every day when he went out on the downs, and when he sat down + to take it out and read in it. For by this time Isaac, who + was now ten years old, had been engaged as a shepherd-boy to + his great happiness, for to be a shepherd was his ambition. + </p> + <p> + Then one day the stranger rolled up his few belongings in a + bundle and put them on a stick which he placed on his + shoulder, said good-bye, and went away, never to return, + taking his sad secret with him. + </p> + <p> + Isaac followed the stranger's counsel, and when he had sons + of his own made them do as he had done from early boyhood. + Caleb had never gone with his flock on the down without the + book, and had never passed a day without reading a portion. + </p> + <p> + The incidents and observations gathered in many talks with + the old shepherd, which I have woven into the foregoing + chapters, relate mainly to the earlier part of his life, up + to the time when, a married man and father of three small + children, he migrated to Warminster. There he was in, to him, + a strange land, far away from friends and home and the old + familiar surroundings, amid new scenes and new people, But + the few years he spent at that place had furnished him with + many interesting memories, some of which will be narrated in + the following chapters. + </p> + <p> + I have told in the account of Winterbourne Bishop how I first + went to that village just to see his native place, and later + I visited Doveton for no other reason than that he had lived + there, to find it one of the most charming of the numerous + pretty villages in the vale. I looked for the cottage in + which he had lived and thought it as perfect a home as a + quiet, contemplative man who loved nature could have had: a + small, thatched cottage, very old looking, perhaps + inconvenient to live in, but situated in the prettiest spot, + away from other houses, near and within sight of the old + church with old elms and beech-trees growing close to it, and + the land about it green meadow. The clear river, fringed with + a luxuriant growth of sedges, flag, and reeds, was less than + a stone's-throw away. + </p> + <p> + So much did I like the vale of the Wylye when I grew to know + it well that I wish to describe it fully in the chapter that + follows. + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p><a name="ch13"><!--Marker--></a> + <h2> + CHAPTER XIII + </h2> + <h3> + VALE OF THE WYLYE + </h3> + <blockquote> + Warminster—Vale of the Wylye—Counting the + villages—A lost church—Character of the + villages—Tytherington church—Story of the + dog—Lord Lovell—Monuments in + churches—Manor-houses—Knook—The + cottages—Yellow stonecrop—Cottage + gardens—Marigolds—Golden-rod—Wild flowers + of the water-side—Seeking for the characteristic + expression + </blockquote> + <p> + The prettily-named Wylye is a little river not above twenty + miles in length from its rise to Salisbury, where, after + mixing with the Nadder at Wilton, it joins the Avon. At or + near its source stands Warminster, a small, unimportant town + with a nobler-sounding name than any other in Wiltshire. + Trowbridge, Devizes, Marlborough, Salisbury, do not stir the + mind in the same degree; and as for Chippenham, Melksham, + Mere, Calne, and Corsham, these all are of no more account + than so many villages in comparison. Yet Warminster has no + associations—no place in our mental geography; at all + events one remembers nothing about it. Its name, which after + all may mean nothing more than the monastery on the + Were—one of the three streamlets which flow into the + Wylye at its source—is its only glory. It is not + surprising that Caleb Bawcombe invariably speaks of his + migration to, and of the time he passed at Warminster, when, + as a fact, he was not there at all, but at Doveton, a little + village on the Wylye a few miles below the town with the + great name. + </p> + <p> + It is a green valley—the greenness strikes one sharply + on account of the pale colour of the smooth, high downs on + either side—half a mile to a mile in width, its crystal + current showing like a bright serpent for a brief space in + the green, flat meadows, then vanishing again among the + trees. So many are the great shade trees, beeches and ashes + and elms, that from some points the valley has the appearance + of a continuous wood—a contiguity of shade. And the + wood hides the villages, at some points so effectually that + looking down from the hills you may not catch a glimpse of + one and imagine it to be a valley where no man dwells. As a + rule you do see something of human occupancy—the red or + yellow roofs of two or three cottages, a half-hidden grey + church tower, or column of blue smoke, but to see the + villages you must go down and look closely, and even so you + will find it difficult to count them all. I have tried, going + up and down the valley several times, walking or cycling, and + have never succeeded in getting the same number on two + occasions. There are certainly more then twenty, without + counting the hamlets, and the right number is probably + something between twenty-five and thirty, but I do not want + to find out by studying books and maps. I prefer to let the + matter remain unsettled so as to have the pleasure of + counting or trying to count them again at some future time. + But I doubt that I shall ever succeed. On one occasion I + caught sight of a quaint, pretty little church standing by + itself in the middle of a green meadow, where it looked very + solitary with no houses in sight and not even a cow grazing + near it. The river was between me and the church, so I went + up-stream, a mile and a half, to cross by the bridge, then + doubled back to look for the church, and couldn't find it! + Yet it was no illusory church; I have seen it again on two + occasions, but again from the other side of the river, and I + must certainly go back some day in search of that lost + church, where there may be effigies, brasses, sad, eloquent + inscriptions, and other memorials of ancient tragedies and + great families now extinct in the land. + </p> + <p> + This is perhaps one of the principal charms of the + Wylye—the sense of beautiful human things hidden from + sight among the masses of foliage. Yet another lies in the + character of the villages. Twenty-five or twenty-eight of + them in a space of twenty miles; yet the impression, left on + the mind is that these small centres of population are really + few and far between. For not only are they small, but of the + old, quiet, now almost obsolete type of village, so + unobtrusive as to affect the mind soothingly, like the sight + of trees and flowery banks and grazing cattle. The churches, + too, as is fit, are mostly small and ancient and beautiful, + half-hidden in their tree-shaded churchyards, rich in + associations which go back to a time when history fades into + myth and legend. Not all, however, are of this description; a + few are naked, dreary little buildings, and of these I will + mention one which, albeit ancient, has no monuments and no + burial-ground. This is the church of Tytherington, a small, + rustic village, which has for neighbours Codford St. Peter + one one side and Sutton Veny and Norton Bavant on the other. + To get into this church, where there was nothing but naked + walls to look at, I had to procure the key from the clerk, a + nearly blind old man of eighty. He told me that he was + shoemaker but could no longer see to make or mend shoes; that + as a boy he was a weak, sickly creature, and his father, a + farm bailiff, made him learn shoemaking because he was unfit + to work out of doors. "I remember this church," he said, + "when there was only one service each quarter," but, strange + to say, he forgot to tell me the story of the dog! "What, + didn't he tell you about the dog?" exclaimed everybody. There + was really nothing else to tell. + </p> + <p> + It happened about a hundred years ago that once, after the + quarterly service had been held, a dog was missed, a small + terrier owned by the young wife of a farmer of Tytherington + named Case. She was fond of her dog, and lamented its loss + for a little while, then forgot all about it. But after three + months, when the key was once more put into the rusty lock + and the door thrown open, there was the dog, a living + "skelington" it was said, dazed by the light of day, but + still able to walk! It was supposed that he had kept himself + alive by "licking the moisture from the walls." The walls, + they said, were dripping with wet and covered with a thick + growth of mould. I went back to interrogate the ancient + clerk, and he said that the dog died shortly after its + deliverance; Mrs. Case herself told him all about it. She was + an old woman then, but was always willing to relate the sad + story of her pet. + </p> + <p> + That picture of the starving dog coming out, a living + skeleton, from the wet, mouldy church, reminds us sharply of + the changed times we live in and of the days when the Church + was still sleeping very peacefully, not yet turning uneasily + in its bed before opening its eyes; and when a comfortable + rector of Codford thought it quite enough that the people of + Tytherington, a mile away, should have one service every + three months. + </p> + <p> + As a fact, the Tytherington dog interested me as much as the + story of the last Lord Lovell's self-incarceration in his own + house in the neighbouring little village of Upton Lovell. He + took refuge there from his enemies who were seeking his life, + and concealed himself so effectually that he was never seen + again. Centuries later, when excavations were made on the + site of the ruined mansion, a secret chamber was discovered, + containing a human skeleton seated in a chair at a table, on + which were books and papers crumbling into dust. + </p> + <p> + A volume might be filled with such strange and romantic + happenings in the little villages of the Wylye, and for the + natural man they have a lasting fascination; but they + invariably relate to great people of their day—warriors + and statesmen and landowners of old and noble lineage, the + smallest and meanest you will find being clothiers, or + merchants, who amassed large fortunes and built mansions for + themselves and almshouses for the aged poor, and, when dead, + had memorials placed to them in the churches. But of the + humble cottagers, the true people of the vale who were rooted + in the soil, and nourished and died like trees in the same + place—of these no memory exists. We only know that they + lived and laboured; that when they died, three or four a + year, three or four hundred in a century, they were buried in + the little shady churchyard, each with a green mound over him + to mark the spot. But in time these "mouldering heaps" + subsided, the bodies turned to dust, and another and yet + other generations were laid in the same place among the + forgotten dead, to be themselves in turn forgotten. Yet I + would rather know the histories of these humble, unremembered + lives than of the great ones of the vale who have left us a + memory. + </p> + <p> + It may be for this reason that I was little interested in the + manor-houses of the vale. They are plentiful enough, some + gone to decay or put to various uses; others still the homes + of luxury, beauty, culture: stately rooms, rich fabrics; + pictures, books, and manuscripts, gold and silver ware, china + and glass, expensive curios, suits of armour, ivory and + antlers, tiger-skins, stuffed goshawks and peacocks' + feathers. Houses, in some cases built centuries ago, standing + half-hidden in beautiful wooded grounds, isolated from the + village; and even as they thus stand apart, sacred from + intrusion, so the life that is in them does not mix with or + form part of the true native life. They are to the cottagers + of to-day what the Roman villas were to the native population + of some eighteen centuries ago. This will seem incredible to + some: to me, an untrammelled person, familiar in both hall + and cottage, the distance between them appears immense. + </p> + <p> + A reader well acquainted with the valley will probably laugh + to be told that the manor-house which most interested me was + that of Knook, a poor little village between Heytesbury and + Upton Lovell. Its ancient and towerless little church with + rough, grey walls is, if possible, even more desolate-looking + than that of Tytherington. In my hunt for the key to open it + I disturbed a quaint old man, another octogenarian, + picturesque in a vast white beard, who told me he was a + thatcher, or had been one before the evil days came when he + could work no more and was compelled to seek parish relief. + "You must go to the manor-house for the key," he told me. A + strange place in which to look for the key, and it was + stranger still to see the house, close to the church, and so + like it that but for the small cross on the roof of the + latter one could not have known which was the sacred + building. First a monks' house, it fell at the Reformation to + some greedy gentleman who made it his dwelling, and doubtless + in later times it was used as a farm-house. Now a house most + desolate, dirty, and neglected, with cracks in the walls + which threaten ruin, standing in a wilderness of weeds, + tenanted by a poor working-man whose wages are twelve + shillings a week, and his wife and eight small children. The + rent is eighteen-pence a week—probably the + lowest-rented manor-house in England, though it is not very + rare to find such places tenanted by labourers. + </p> + <p> + But let us look at the true cottages. There are, I imagine, + few places in England where the humble homes of the people + have so great a charm. Undoubtedly they are darker inside, + and not so convenient to live in as the modern box-shaped, + red-brick, slate-roofed cottages, which have spread a wave of + ugliness over the country; but they do not offend—they + please the eye. They are smaller than the modern-built + habitations; they are weathered and coloured by sun and wind + and rain and many lowly vegetable forms to a harmony with + nature. They appear related to the trees amid which they + stand, to the river and meadows, to the sloping downs at the + side, and to the sky and clouds over all. And, most + delightful feature, they stand among, and are wrapped in, + flowers as in a garment—rose and vine and creeper and + clematis. They are mostly thatched, but some have tiled + roofs, their deep, dark red clouded and stained with lichen + and moss; and these roofs, too, have their flowers in summer. + They are grown over with yellow stonecrop, that bright + cheerful flower that smiles down at you from the lowly roof + above the door, with such an inviting expression, so + delighted to see you no matter how poor and worthless a + person you may be or what mischief you may have been at, that + you begin to understand the significance of a strange + vernacular name of this + plant—Welcome-home-husband-though-never-so-drunk. + </p> + <p> + But its garden flowers, clustering and nestling round it, + amid which its feet are set—they are to me the best of + all flowers. These are the flowers we know and remember for + ever. The old, homely, cottage-garden blooms, so old that + they have entered the soul. The big house garden, or + gardener's garden, with everything growing in it I hate, but + these I love—fragrant gillyflower and pink and + clove-smelling carnation; wallflower, abundant periwinkle, + sweet-william, larkspur, love-in-a-mist, and + love-lies-bleeding, old-woman's-nightcap, and + kiss-me-John-at-the-garden-gate, some times called pansy. And + best of all and in greatest profusion, that flower of + flowers, the marigold. + </p> + <p> + How the townsman, town born and bred, regards this flower, I + do not know. He is, in spite of all the time I have spent in + his company, a comparative stranger to me—the one + living creature on the earth who does not greatly interest + me. Some over-populated planet in our system discovered a way + to relieve itself by discharging its superfluous millions on + our globe—a pale people with hurrying feet and eager, + restless minds, who live apart in monstrous, crowded camps, + like wood ants that go not out to forage for + themselves—six millions of them crowded together in one + camp alone! I have lived in these colonies, years and years, + never losing the sense of captivity, of exile, ever conscious + of my burden, taking no interest in the doings of that + innumerable multitude, its manifold interests, its ideals and + philosophy, its arts and pleasures. What, then, does it + matter how they regard this common orange-coloured flower + with a strong smell? For me it has an atmosphere, a sense or + suggestion of something immeasurably remote and very + beautiful—an event, a place, a dream perhaps, which has + left no distinct image, but only this feeling unlike all + others, imperishable, and not to be described except by the + one word Marigold. + </p> + <p> + But when my sight wanders away from the flower to others + blooming with it—to all those which I have named and to + the taller ones, so tall that they reach half-way up, and + some even quite up, to the eaves of the lowly houses they + stand against—hollyhocks and peonies and crystalline + white lilies with powdery gold inside, and the common + sunflower—I begin to perceive that they all possess + something of that same magical quality. + </p> + <p> + These taller blooms remind me that the evening primrose, long + naturalized in our hearts, is another common and very + delightful cottage-garden flower; also that here, on the + Wylye, there is yet another stranger from the same western + world which is fast winning our affections. This is the + golden-rod, grandly beautiful in its great, yellow, + plume-like tufts. But it is not quite right to call the tufts + yellow: they are green, thickly powdered with the minute + golden florets. There is no flower in England like it, and it + is a happiness to know that it promises to establish itself + with us as a wild flower. + </p> + <p> + Where the village lies low in the valley and the cottage is + near the water, there are wild blooms, too, which almost + rival those of the garden in beauty—water agrimony and + comfrey with ivory-white and dim purple blossoms, purple and + yellow loosestrife and gem-like, water forget-me-not; all + these mixed with reeds and sedges and water-grasses, forming + a fringe or border to the potato or cabbage patch, dividing + it from the stream. + </p> + <p> + But now I have exhausted the subject of the flowers, and + enumerated and dwelt upon the various other components of the + scene, it comes to me that I have not yet said the right + thing and given the Wylye its characteristic expression. In + considering the flowers we lose sight of the downs, and so in + occupying ourselves with the details we miss the general + effect. Let me then, once more, before concluding this + chapter, try to capture the secret of this little river. + </p> + <p> + There are other chalk streams in Wiltshire and Hampshire and + Dorset—swift crystal currents that play all summer long + with the floating poa grass fast held in their pebbly beds, + flowing through smooth downs, with small ancient churches in + their green villages, and pretty thatched cottages smothered + in flowers—which yet do not produce the same effect as + the Wylye. Not Avon for all its beauty, nor Itchen, nor Test. + Wherein, then, does the "Wylye bourne" differ from these + others, and what is its special attraction? It was only when + I set myself to think about it, to analyse the feeling in my + own mind, that I discovered the secret—that is, in my + own case, for of its effect on others I cannot say anything. + What I discovered was that the various elements of interest, + all of which may be found in other chalk-stream valleys, are + here concentrated, or comprised in a limited space, and seen + together produce a combined effect on the mind. It is the + narrowness of the valley and the nearness of the high downs + standing over it on either side, with, at some points, the + memorials of antiquity carved on their smooth surfaces, the + barrows and lynchetts or terraces, and the vast green + earth-works crowning their summit. Up here on the turf, even + with the lark singing his shrill music in the blue heavens, + you are with the prehistoric dead, yourself for the time one + of that innumerable, unsubstantial multitude, invisible in + the sun, so that the sheep travelling as they graze, and the + shepherd following them, pass through their ranks without + suspecting their presence. And from that elevation you look + down upon the life of to-day—the visible life, so brief + in the individual, which, like the swift silver stream + beneath, yet flows on continuously from age to age and for + ever. And even as you look down you hear, at that distance, + the bell of the little hidden church tower telling the hour + of noon, and quickly following, a shout of freedom and joy + from many shrill voices of children just released from + school. Woke to life by those sounds, and drawn down by them, + you may sit to rest or sun yourself on the stone table of a + tomb overgrown on its sides with moss, the two-century-old + inscription well-nigh obliterated, in the little grass-grown, + flowery churchyard which serves as village green and + playground in that small centre of life, where the living and + the dead exist in a neighbourly way together. For it is not + here as in towns, where the dead are away and out of mind and + the past cut off. And if after basking too long in the sun in + that tree-sheltered spot you go into the little church to + cool yourself, you will probably find in a dim corner not far + from the altar a stone effigy of one of an older time; a + knight in armour, perhaps a crusader with legs crossed, lying + on his back, dimly seen in the dim light, with perhaps a + coloured sunbeam on his upturned face. For this little church + where the villagers worship is very old; Norman on Saxon + foundations; and before they were ever laid there may have + been a temple to some ancient god at that spot, or a Roman + villa perhaps. For older than Saxon foundations are found in + the vale, and mosaic floors, still beautiful after lying + buried so long. + </p> + <p> + All this—the far-removed events and periods in + time—are not in the conscious mind when we are in the + vale or when we are looking down on it from above: the mind + is occupied with nothing but visible nature. Thus, when I am + sitting on the tomb, listening to the various sounds of life + about me, attentive to the flowers and bees and butterflies, + to man or woman or child taking a short cut through the + churchyard, exchanging a few words with them; or when I am by + the water close by, watching a little company of graylings, + their delicately-shaded, silver-grey scales distinctly seen + as they lie in the crystal current watching for flies; or + when I listen to the perpetual musical talk and song combined + of a family of green-finches in the alders or willows, my + mind is engaged with these things. But if one is familiar + with the vale; if one has looked with interest and been + deeply impressed with the signs and memorials of past life + and of antiquity everywhere present and forming part of the + scene, something of it and of all that it represents remains + in the subconscious mind to give a significance and feeling + to the scene, which affects us here more than in most places; + and that, I take it, is the special charm of this little + valley. + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p><a name="ch14"><!--Marker--></a> + <h2> + CHAPTER XIV + </h2> + <h3> + A SHEEP-DOG'S LIFE + </h3> + <blockquote> + Watch—His visits to a dew-pond—David and his dog + Monk—Watch goes to David's assistance—Caleb's new + master objects to his dog—Watch and the + corn-crake—Watch plays with rabbits and + guinea-pigs—Old Nance the rook-scarer—The lost + pair of spectacles—Watch in decline—Grey hairs in + animals—A grey mole—Last days of Watch—A + shepherd on old sheep-dogs + </blockquote> + <p> + Perhaps the most interesting of the many sheep-dog histories + the shepherd related was that of Watch, a dog he had at + Winterbourne Bishop for three years before he migrated to + Warminster. Watch, he said, was more "like a Christian," + otherwise a reasonable being, than any other dog he had + owned. He was exceedingly active, and in hot weather suffered + more from heat than most dogs. Now the only accessible water + when they were out on the down was in the mist-pond about a + quarter of a mile from his "liberty," as he called that + portion of the down on which he was entitled to pasture his + sheep. When Watch could stand his sufferings no longer, he + would run to his master, and sitting at his feet look up at + his face and emit a low, pleading whine. + </p> + <p> + "What be you wanting, Watch—a drink or a swim?" the + shepherd would say, and Watch, cocking up his ears, would + repeat the whine. + </p> + <p> + "Very well, go to the pond," Bawcombe would say, and off + Watch would rush, never pausing until he got to the water, + and dashing in he would swim round and round, lapping the + water as he bathed. + </p> + <p> + At the side of the pond there was a large, round + sarsen-stone, and invariably on coming out of his bath Watch + would jump upon it, and with his four feet drawn up close + together would turn round and round, surveying the country + from that elevation; then jumping down he would return in all + haste to his duties. + </p> + <p> + Another anecdote, which relates to the Winterbourne Bishop + period, is a somewhat painful one, and is partly about Monk, + the sheep-dog already described as a hunter of foxes, and his + tragic end. Caleb had worked him for a time, but when he came + into possession of Watch he gave Monk to his younger brother + David, who was under-shepherd on the same farm. + </p> + <p> + One morning Caleb was with the ewes in a field, when David, + who was in charge of the lambs two or three fields away, came + to him looking very strange—very much put out. + </p> + <p> + "What are you here for—what's wrong with 'ee?" demanded + Caleb. + </p> + <p> + "Nothing's wrong," returned the other. + </p> + <p> + "Where's Monk then?" asked Caleb. + </p> + <p> + "Dead," said David. + </p> + <p> + "Dead! How's he dead?" + </p> + <p> + "I killed'n. He wouldn't mind me and made me mad, and I up + with my stick and gave him one crack on the head and it + killed'n." + </p> + <p> + "You killed 'n!" exclaimed Caleb. "An' you come here an' tell + I nothing's wrong! Is that a right way to speak of such a + thing as that? What be you thinking of? And what be you going + to do with the lambs?" + </p> + <p> + "I'm just going back to them—I'm going to do without a + dog. I'm going to put them in the rape and they'll be all + right." + </p> + <p> + "What! put them in the rape and no dog to help 'ee?" cried + the other. "You are not doing things right, but master + mustn't pay for it. Take Watch to help 'ee—I must do + without'n this morning." + </p> + <p> + "No, I'll not take'n," he said, for he was angry because he + had done an evil thing and he would have no one, man or dog, + to help him. "I'll do better without a dog," he said, and + marched off. + </p> + <p> + Caleb cried after him: "If you won't have the dog don't let + the lambs suffer but do as I tell 'ee. Don't you let 'em bide + in the rape more 'n ten minutes; then chase them out, and let + 'em stand twenty minutes to half an hour; then let them in + another ten minutes and out again for twenty minutes, then + let them go back and feed in it quietly, for the danger 'll + be over. If you don't do as I tell 'ee you'll have many + blown." + </p> + <p> + David listened, then without a word went his way. But Caleb + was still much troubled in his mind. How would he get that + flock of hungry lambs out of the rape without a dog? And + presently he determined to send Watch, or try to send him, to + save the situation. David had been gone half an hour when he + called the dog, and pointing in the direction he had taken he + cried, "Dave wants 'ee—go to Dave." + </p> + <p> + Watch looked at him and listened, then bounded away, and + after running full speed about fifty yards stopped to look + back to make sure he was doing the right thing. "Go to Dave," + shouted Caleb once more; and away went Watch again, and + arriving at a very high gate at the end of the field dashed + at and tried two or three times to get over it, first by + jumping, then by climbing, and falling back each time. But by + and by he managed to force his way through the thick hedge + and was gone from sight. + </p> + <p> + When David came back that evening he was in a different mood, + and said that Watch had saved him from a great misfortune: he + could never have got the lambs out by himself, as they were + mad for the rape. For some days after this Watch served two + masters. Caleb would take him to his ewes, and after a while + would say, "Go—Dave wants 'ee," and away Watch would go + to the other shepherd and flock. + </p> + <p> + When Bawcombe had taken up his new place at Doveton, his + master, Mr. Ellerby, watched him for a while with sharp eyes, + but he was soon convinced that he had not made a mistake in + engaging a head-shepherd twenty-five miles away without + making the usual inquiries but merely on the strength of + something heard casually in conversation about this man. But + while more than satisfied with the man he remained suspicious + of the dog. "I'm afraid that dog of yours must hurt the + sheep," he would say, and he even advised him to change him + for one that worked in a quieter manner. Watch was too + excitable, too impetuous—he could not go after the + sheep in that violent way and grab them as he did without + injuring them with his teeth. + </p> + <p> + "He did never bite a sheep in his life," Bawcombe assured + him, and eventually he was able to convince his master that + Watch could make a great show of biting the sheep without + doing them the least hurt—that it was actually against + his nature to bite or injure anything. + </p> + <p> + One day in the late summer, when the corn had been cut but + not carried, Bawcombe was with his flock on the edge of a + newly reaped cornfield in a continuous, heavy rain, when he + spied his master coming to him. He was in a very light summer + suit and straw hat, and had no umbrella or other protection + from the pouring rain. "What be wrong with master to-day?" + said Bawcombe. "He's tarrably upset to be out like this in + such a rain in a straw hat and no coat." + </p> + <p> + Mr. Ellerby had by that time got into the habit when troubled + in his mind of going out to his shepherd to have a long talk + with him. Not a talk about his trouble—that was some + secret bitterness in his heart—but just about the sheep + and other ordinary topics, and the talk, Caleb said, would + seem to do him good. But this habit he had got into was + observed by others, and the farm-men would say, "Something's + wrong to-day—the master's gone off to the + head-shepherd." + </p> + <p> + When he came to where Bawcombe was standing, in a poor + shelter by the side of a fence, he at once started talking on + indifferent subjects, standing there quite unconcerned, as if + he didn't even know that it was raining, though his thin + clothes were wet through, and the water coming through his + straw hat was running in streaks down his face. By and by he + became interested in the dog's movements, playing about in + the rain among the stocks. "What has he got in his mouth?" he + asked presently. + </p> + <p> + "Come here, Watch," the shepherd called, and when Watch came + he bent down and took a corncrake from his mouth. He had + found the bird hiding in one of the stocks and had captured + without injuring it. + </p> + <p> + "Why, it's alive—the dog hasn't hurt it," said the + farmer, taking it in his hands to examine it. + </p> + <p> + "Watch never hurted any creature yet," said Bawcombe. He + caught things just for his own amusement, but never injured + them—he always let them go again. He would hunt mice in + the fields, and when he captured one he would play with it + like a cat, tossing it from him, then dashing after and + recapturing it. Finally, he would let it go. He played with + rabbits in the same way, and if you took a rabbit from him + and examined it you would find it quite uninjured. + </p> + <p> + The farmer said it was wonderful—he had never heard of + a case like it before; and talking of Watch he succeeded in + forgetting the trouble in his mind which had sent him out in + the rain in his thin clothes and straw hat, and he went away + in a cheerful mood. + </p> + <p> + Caleb probably forgot to mention during this conversation + with his master that in most cases when Watch captured a + rabbit he took it to his master and gave it into his hands, + as much as to say, Here is a very big sort of field-mouse I + have caught, rather difficult to manage—perhaps + <i>you</i> can do something with it? + </p> + <p> + The shepherd had many other stories about this curious + disposition of his dog. When he had been some months in his + new place his brother David followed him to the Wylye, having + obtained a place as shepherd on a farm adjoining Mr. + Ellerby's. His cottage was a little out of the village and + had some ground to it, with a nice lawn or green patch. David + was fond of keeping animal pets—birds in cages, and + rabbits and guinea-pigs in hutches, the last so tame that he + would release them on the grass to see them play with one + another. When Watch first saw these pets he was very much + attracted, and wanted to get to them, and after a good deal + of persuasion on the part of Caleb, David one day consented + to take them out and put them on the grass in the dog's + presence. They were a little alarmed at first, but in a + surprisingly short time made the discovery that this + particular dog was not their enemy but a playmate. He rolled + on the grass among them, and chased them round and round, and + sometimes caught and pretended to worry them, and they + appeared to think it very good fun. + </p> + <p> + "Watch," said Bawcombe, "in the fifteen years I had 'n, never + killed and never hurt a creature, no, not even a leetel + mouse, and when he caught anything 'twere only to play with + it." + </p> + <p> + Watch comes into a story of an old woman employed at the farm + at this period. She had been in the Warminster workhouse for + a short time, and had there heard that a daughter of a former + mistress in another part of the county had long been married + and was now the mistress of Doveton Farm, close by. Old Nance + thereupon obtained her release and trudged to Doveton, and + one very rough, cold day presented herself at the farm to beg + for something to do which would enable her to keep herself. + If there was nothing for her she must, she said, go back and + end her days in the Warminster workhouse. Mrs. Ellerby + remembered and pitied her, and going in to her husband begged + him earnestly to find some place on the farm for the forlorn + old creature. He did not see what could be done for her: they + already had one old woman on their hands, who mended sacks + and did a few other trifling things, but for another old + woman there would be nothing to do. Then he went in and had a + good long look at her, revolving the matter in his mind, + anxious to please his wife, and finally, he asked her if she + could scare the crows. He could think of nothing else. Of + course she could scare crows—it was the very thing for + her! Well, he said, she could go and look after the swedes; + the rooks had just taken a liking to them, and even if she + was not very active perhaps she would be able to keep them + off. + </p> + <p> + Old Nance got up to go and begin her duties at once. Then the + farmer, looking at her clothes, said he would give her + something more to protect her from the weather on such a + bleak day. He got her an old felt hat, a big old frieze + overcoat, and a pair of old leather leggings. When she had + put on these somewhat cumbrous things, and had tied her hat + firmly on with a strip of cloth, and fastened the coat at the + waist with a cord, she was told to go to the head-shepherd + and ask him to direct her to the field where the rooks were + troublesome. Then when she was setting out the farmer called + her back and gave her an ancient, rusty gun to scare the + birds. "It isn't loaded," he said, with a grim smile. "I + don't allow powder and shot, but if you'll point it at them + they'll fly fast enough." + </p> + <p> + Thus arrayed and armed she set forth, and Caleb seeing her + approach at a distance was amazed at her grotesque + appearance, and even more amazed still when she explained who + and what she was and asked him to direct her to the field of + swedes. + </p> + <p> + Some hours later the farmer came to him and asked him + casually if he had seen an old gallus-crow about. + </p> + <p> + "Well," replied the shepherd, "I seen an old woman in man's + coat and things, with an old gun, and I did tell she where to + bide." + </p> + <p> + "I think it will be rather cold for the old body in that + field," said the farmer. "I'd like you to get a couple of + padded hurdles and put them up for a shelter for her." + </p> + <p> + And in the shelter of the padded or thatched hurdles, by the + hedge-side, old Nance spent her days keeping guard over the + turnips, and afterwards something else was found for her to + do, and in the meanwhile she lodged in Caleb's cottage and + became like one of the family. She was fond of the children + and of the dog, and Watch became so much attached to her that + had it not been for his duties with the flock he would have + attended her all day in the fields to help her with the + crows. + </p> + <p> + Old Nance had two possessions she greatly prized—a book + and a pair of spectacles, and it was her custom to spend the + day sitting, spectacles on nose and book in hand, reading + among the turnips. Her spectacles were so "tarrable" good + that they suited all old eyes, and when this was discovered + they were in great request in the village, and every person + who wanted to do a bit of fine sewing or anything requiring + young vision in old eyes would borrow them for the purpose. + One day the old woman returned full of trouble from the + fields—she had lost her spectacles; she must, she + thought, have lent them to some one in the village on the + previous evening and then forgotten all about it. But no one + had them, and the mysterious loss of the spectacles was + discussed and lamented by everybody. A day or two later Caleb + came through the turnips on his way home, the dog at his + heels, and when he got to his cottage Watch came round and + placed himself square before his master and deposited the + lost spectacles at his feet. He had found them in the + turnip-field over a mile from home, and though but a dog he + remembered that he had seen them on people's noses and in + their hands, and knew that they must therefore be + valuable—not to himself, but to that larger and more + important kind of dog that goes about on its hind legs. + </p> + <p> + There is always a sad chapter in the life-history of a dog; + it is the last one, which tells of his decline; and it is + ever saddest in the case of the sheep-dog, because he has + lived closer to man and has served him every day of his life + with all his powers, all his intelligence, in the one useful + and necessary work he is fitted for or which we have found + for him to do. The hunting and the pet, or parasite, + dogs—the "dogs for sport and pleasure"—though one + in species with him are not like beings of the same order; + they are like professional athletes and performers, and smart + or fashionable people compared to those who do the work of + the world—who feed us and clothe us. We are accustomed + to speak of dogs generally as the servants and the friends of + man; it is only of the sheep-dog that this can be said with + absolute truth. Not only is he the faithful servant of the + solitary man who shepherds his flock, but the dog's + companionship is as much to him as that of a fellow-being + would be. + </p> + <p> + Before his long and strenuous life was finished. Watch, + originally jet-black without a spot, became quite grey, the + greyness being most marked on the head, which became at last + almost white. + </p> + <p> + It is undoubtedly the case that some animals, like men, turn + grey with age, and Watch when fifteen was relatively as old + as a man at sixty-five or seventy. But grey hairs do not + invariably come with age, even in our domestic animals, which + are more subject to this change than those in a state of + nature. But we are never so well able to judge of this in the + case of wild animals, as in most cases their lives end + prematurely. + </p> + <p> + The shepherd related a curious instance in a mole. He once + noticed mole-heaps of a peculiar kind in a field of sainfoin, + and it looked to him as if this mole worked in a way of his + own, quite unlike the others. The hills he threw up were a + good distance apart, and so large that you could fill a + bushel measure with the mould from any one of them. He + noticed that this mole went on burrowing every day in the + same manner; every morning there were new chains or ranges of + the huge mounds. The runs were very deep, as he found when + setting a mole-trap—over two feet beneath the surface. + He set his trap, filling the deep hole he had made with sods, + and on opening it next day he found his mole and was + astonished at its great size. He took no measurements, but it + was bigger, he affirmed, than he could have believed it + possible for a mole to be. And it was grey instead of black, + the grey hairs being so abundant on the head as to make it + almost white, as in the case of old Watch. He supposed that + it was a very old mole, that it was a more powerful digger + than most of its kind, and had perhaps escaped death so long + on account of its strength and of its habit of feeding deeper + in the earth than the others. + </p> + <p> + To return to Watch. His hearing and eyesight failed as he + grew older until he was practically blind and too deaf to + hear any word given in the ordinary way. But he continued + strong as ever on his legs, and his mind was not decayed, nor + was he in the least tired. On the contrary, he was always + eager to work, and as his blindness and deafness had made him + sharper in other ways he was still able to make himself + useful with the sheep. Whenever the hurdles were shifted to a + fresh place and the sheep had to be kept in a corner of the + enclosure until the new place was ready for them, it was old + Watch's duty to keep them from breaking away. He could not + see nor hear, but in some mysterious way he knew when they + tried to get out, even if it was but one. Possibly the slight + vibration of the ground informed him of the movement and the + direction as well. He would make a dash and drive the sheep + back, then run up and down before the flock until all was + quiet again. But at last it became painful to witness his + efforts, especially when the sheep were very restless, and + incessantly trying to break away; and Watch finding them so + hard to restrain would grow angry and rush at them with such + fury that he would come violently against the hurdles at one + side, then getting up, howling with pain, he would dash to + the other side, when he would strike the hurdles there and + cry out with pain once more. + </p> + <p> + It could not be allowed to go on; yet Watch could not endure + to be deprived of his work; if left at home he would spend + the time whining and moaning, praying to be allowed to go to + the flock, until at last his master with a very heavy heart + was compelled to have him put to death. + </p> + <p> + This is indeed almost invariably the end of a sheepdog; + however zealous and faithful he may have been, and however + much valued and loved, he must at last be put to death. I + related the story of this dog to a shepherd in the very + district where Watch had lived and served his master so + well—one who had been head-shepherd for upwards of + forty years at Imber Court, the principal farm at the small + downland village of Imber. He told me that during all his + shepherding years he had never owned a dog which had passed + out of his hands to another; every dog had been acquired as a + pup and trained by himself; and he had been very fond of his + dogs, but had always been compelled to have them shot in the + end. Not because he would have found them too great a burden + when they had become too old and their senses decayed, but + because it was painful to see them in their decline, + perpetually craving to be at their old work with the sheep, + incapable of doing it any longer, yet miserable if kept from + it. + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p><a name="ch15"><!--Marker--></a> + <h2> + CHAPTER XV + </h2> + <h3> + THE ELLERBYS OF DOVETON + </h3> + <blockquote> + The Bawcombes at Doveton Farm—Caleb finds favour with + his master—Mrs. Ellerby and the shepherd's + wife—The passion of a childless wife—The + curse—A story of the "mob"—The attack on the + farm—A man transported for life—The hundred and + ninth Psalm—The end of the Ellerbys + </blockquote> + <p> + Caleb and his wife invariably spoke of their time at Doveton + Farm in a way which gave one the idea that they regarded it + as the most important period of their lives. It had deeply + impressed them, and doubtless it was a great change for them + to leave their native village for the first time in their + lives and go long miles from home among strangers to serve a + new master. Above everything they felt leaving the old father + who was angry with them, and had gone to the length of + disowning them for taking such a step. But there was + something besides all this which had served to give Doveton + an enduring place in their memories, and after many talks + with the old couple about their Warminster days I formed the + idea that it was more to them than any other place where they + had lived, because of a personal feeling they cherished for + their master and mistress there. + </p> + <p> + Hitherto Caleb had been in the service of men who were but a + little way removed in thought and feeling from those they + employed. They were mostly small men, born and bred in the + parish, some wholly self-made, with no interest or knowledge + of anything outside their own affairs, and almost as far + removed as the labourers themselves from the ranks above. The + Ellerbys were of another stamp, or a different class. If not + a gentleman, Mr. Ellerby was very like one and was accustomed + to associate with gentlemen. He was a farmer, descended from + a long line of farmers; but he owned his own land, and was an + educated and travelled man, considered wealthy for a farmer; + at all events he was able to keep his carriage and riding and + hunting horses in his stables, and he was regarded as the + best breeder of sheep in the district. He lived in a good + house, which with its pictures and books and beautiful + decorations and furniture appeared to their simple minds + extremely luxurious. This atmosphere was somewhat + disconcerting to them at first, for although he knew his own + value, priding himself on being a "good shepherd," Caleb had + up till now served with farmers who were in a sense on an + equality with him, and they understood him and he them. But + in a short time the feeling of strangeness vanished: + personally, as a fellow-man, his master soon grew to be more + to him than any farmer he had yet been with. And he saw a + good deal of his master. Mr. Ellerby cultivated his + acquaintance, and, as we have seen, got into the habit of + seeking him out and talking to him even when he was at a + distance out on the down with his flock. And Caleb could not + but see that in this respect he was preferred above the other + men employed on the farm—that he had "found favour" in + his master's eyes. + </p> + <p> + When he had told me that story about Watch and the + corn-crake, it stuck in my mind, and on the first opportunity + I went back to that subject to ask what it really was that + made his master act in such an extraordinary manner—to + go out on a pouring wet day in a summer suit and straw hat, + and walk a mile or two just to stand there in the rain + talking to him about nothing in particular. What secret + trouble had he—was it that his affairs were in a bad + way, or was he quarrelling with his wife? No, nothing of the + kind; it was a long story—this secret trouble of the + Ellerbys, and with his unconquerable reticence in regard to + other people's private affairs he would have passed it off + with a few general remarks. + </p> + <p> + But there was his old wife listening to us, and, woman-like, + eager to discuss such a subject, she would not let it pass. + She would tell it and would not be silenced by him: they were + all dead and gone—why should I not be told if I wanted + to hear it? And so with a word put in here and there by him + when she talked, and with a good many words interposed by her + when he took up the tale, they unfolded the story, which was + very long as they told it and must be given briefly here. + </p> + <p> + It happened that when the Bawcombes settled at Doveton, just + as Mr. Ellerby had taken to the shepherd, making a friend of + him, so Mrs. Ellerby took to the shepherd's wife, and fell + into the habit of paying frequent visits to her in her + cottage. She was a very handsome woman, of a somewhat stately + presence, dignified in manner, and she wore her abundant hair + in curls hanging on each side to her shoulders—a + fashion common at that time. From the first she appeared to + take a particular interest in the Bawcombes, and they could + not but notice that she was more gracious and friendly + towards them than to the others of their station on the farm. + The Bawcombes had three children then, aged six, four, and + two years respectively, all remarkably healthy, with rosy + cheeks and black eyes, and they were merry-tempered little + things. Mrs. Ellerby appeared much taken with the children; + praised their mother for always keeping them so clean and + nicely dressed, and wondered how she could manage it on their + small earnings. The carter and his wife lived in a cottage + close by, and they, too, had three little children, and next + to the carter's was the bailiff's cottage, and he, too, was + married and had children; but Mrs. Ellerby never went into + their cottages, and the shepherd and his wife concluded that + it was because in both cases the children were rather puny, + sickly-looking little things and were never very clean. The + carter's wife, too, was a slatternly woman. One day when Mrs. + Ellerby came in to see Mrs. Bawcombe the carter's wife was + just going out of the door, and Mrs. Ellerby appeared + displeased, and before leaving she said, "I hope, Mrs. + Bawcombe, you are not going to mix too freely with your + neighbours or let your children go too much with them and + fall into their ways." They also observed that when she + passed their neighbours' children in the lane she spoke no + word and appeared not to see them. Yet she was kind to them + too, and whenever she brought a big parcel of cakes, fruit, + and sweets for the children, which she often did, she would + tell the shepherd's wife to divide it into three lots, one + for her own children and the others for those of her two + neighbours. It was clear to see that Mrs. Ellerby had grown + fond of her children, especially of the eldest, the little + rosy-cheeked six-year-old boy. Sitting in the cottage she + would call him to her side and would hold his hand while + conversing with his mother; she would also bare the child's + arm just for the pleasure of rubbing it with her hand and + clasping it round with her fingers, and sometimes when + caressing the child in this way she would turn her face aside + to hide the tears that dropped from her eyes. + </p> + <p> + She had no child of her own—the one happiness which she + and her husband desired above all things. Six times in their + ten married years they had hoped and rejoiced, although with + fear and trembling, that their prayer would be answered, but + in vain—every child born to them came lifeless into the + world. "And so 'twould always be, for sure," said the + villagers, "because of the curse." + </p> + <p> + For it was a cause of wonder to the shepherd and his wife + that this couple, so strong and healthy, so noble-looking, so + anxious to have children, should have been so unfortunate, + and still the villagers repeated that it was the curse that + was on them. + </p> + <p> + This made the shepherd angry. "What be you saying about a + curse that is on them?—a good man and a good woman!" he + would exclaim, and taking up his crook go out and leave them + to their gossip. He would not ask them what they meant; he + refused to listen when they tried to tell him; but in the end + he could not help knowing, since the idea had become a fixed + one in the minds of all the villagers, and he could not keep + it out. "Look at them," the gossipers would say, "as fine a + couple as you ever saw, and no child; and look at his two + brothers, fine, big, strong, well-set-up men, both married to + fine healthy women, and never a child living to any of them. + And the sisters unmarried! 'Tis the curse and nothing else." + </p> + <p> + The curse had been uttered against Mr. Ellerby's father, who + was in his prime in the year 1831 at the time of the "mob," + when the introduction of labour-saving machinery in + agriculture sent the poor farm-labourers mad all over + England. Wheat was at a high price at that time, and the + farmers were exceedingly prosperous, but they paid no more + than seven shillings a week to their miserable labourers. And + if they were half-starved when there was work for all, when + the corn was reaped with sickles, what would their condition + be when reaping machines and other new implements of + husbandry came into use? They would not suffer it; they would + gather in bands everywhere and destroy the machinery, and + being united they would be irresistible; and so it came about + that there were risings or "mobs" all over the land. + </p> + <p> + Mr. Ellerby, the most prosperous and enterprising farmer in + the parish, had been the first to introduce the new methods. + He did not believe that the people would rise against him, + for he well knew that he was regarded as a just and kind man + and was even loved by his own labourers, but even if it had + not been so he would not have hesitated to carry out his + resolution, as he was a high-spirited man. But one day the + villagers got together and came unexpectedly to his barns, + where they set to work to destroy his new thrashing machine. + When he was told he rushed out and went in hot haste to the + scene, and as he drew near some person in the crowd threw a + heavy hammer at him, which struck him on the head and brought + him senseless to the ground. + </p> + <p> + He was not seriously injured, but when he recovered the work + of destruction had been done and the men had gone back to + their homes, and no one could say who had led them and who + had thrown the hammer. But by and by the police discovered + that the hammer was the property of a shoemaker in the + village, and he was arrested and charged with injuring with + intent to murder. Tried with many others from other villages + in the district at the Salisbury Assizes, he was found guilty + and sentenced to transportation for life. Yet the Doveton + shoemaker was known to every one as a quiet, inoffensive + young man, and to the last he protested his innocence, for + although he had gone with the others to the farm he had not + taken the hammer and was guiltless of having thrown it. + </p> + <p> + Two years after he had been sent away Mr. Ellerby received a + letter with an Australian postmark on it, but on opening it + found nothing but a long denunciatory passage from the Bible + enclosed, with no name or address. Mr. Ellerby was much + disturbed in his mind, and instead of burning the paper and + holding his peace, he kept it and spoke about it to this + person and that, and every one went to his Bible to find out + what message the poor shoemaker had sent, for it had been + discovered that it was the one hundred and ninth Psalm, or a + great portion of it, and this is what they read:— + </p> + <p> + "Let the iniquity of his fathers be remembered with the Lord; + and let not the sin of his mother be blotted out. + </p> + <p> + "Let them be before the Lord continually, that he may cut off + the memory of them from the earth. + </p> + <p> + "Because that he remembered not to show mercy, but persecuted + the poor and needy man, that he might even slay the broken in + heart. + </p> + <p> + "As he loved cursing, so let it come unto him; as he + delighted not in blessing, so let it be far from him. + </p> + <p> + "As he clothed himself with cursing like as with a garment, + so let it come into his bowels like water, and like oil into + his bones. + </p> + <p> + "Let it be unto him as a garment which covereth him, and for + a girdle wherewith he is girded continually. + </p> + <p> + "But do Thou for me, O God the Lord, for Thy name's sake. For + I am poor and needy, and my heart is wounded within me. + </p> + <p> + "I am come like the shadow when it declineth: I am tossed up + and down as the locust. + </p> + <p> + "My knees are weak through fasting; and my flesh faileth of + fatness." + </p> + <p> + From that time the hundred and ninth Psalm became familiar to + the villagers, and there were probably not many who did not + get it by heart. There was no doubt in their minds of the + poor shoemaker's innocence. Every one knew that he was + incapable of hurting a fly. The crowd had gone into his shop + and swept him away with them—all were in it; and some + person seeing the hammer had taken it to help in smashing the + machinery. And Mr. Ellerby had known in his heart that he was + innocent, and if he had spoken a word for him in court he + would have got the benefit of the doubt and been discharged. + But no, he wanted to have his revenge on some one, and he + held his peace and allowed this poor fellow to be made the + victim. Then, when he died, and his eldest son succeeded him + at Doveton Farm, and he and the other sons got married, and + there were no children, or none born alive, they went back to + the Psalm again and read and re-read and quoted the words: + "Let his posterity be cut off; and in the generation + following let their name be blotted out." Undoubtedly the + curse was on them! + </p> + <p> + Alas! it was; the curse was their belief in the curse, and + the dreadful effect of the knowledge of it on a woman's + mind—all the result of Mr. Ellerby the father's fatal + mistake in not having thrown the scrap of paper that came to + him from the other side of the world into the fire. All the + unhappiness of the "generation following" came about in this + way, and the family came to an end; for when the last of the + Ellerbys died at a great age there was not one person of the + name left in that part of Wiltshire. + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p><a name="ch16"><!--Marker--></a> + <h2> + CHAPTER XVI + </h2> + <h3> + OLD WILTSHIRE DAYS + </h3> + <blockquote> + Old memories—Hindon as a borough and as a + village—The Lamb Inn and its birds—The "mob" at + Hindon—The blind smuggler—Rawlings of Lower + Pertwood Farm—Reed, the thresher and + deer-stealer—He leaves a fortune—Devotion to + work—Old Father Time—Groveley Wood and the + people's rights—Grace Reed and the Earl of + Pembroke—An illusion of the very + aged—Sedan-chairs in Bath—Stick-gathering by the + poor—Game-preserving + </blockquote> + <p> + The incident of the unhappy young man who was transported to + Australia or Tasmania, which came out in the shepherd's + history of the Ellerby family, put it in my mind to look up + some of the very aged people of the downland villages, whose + memories could go back to the events of eighty years ago. I + found a few, "still lingering here," who were able to recall + that miserable and memorable year of 1830 and had witnessed + the doings of the "mobs." One was a woman, my old friend of + Fonthill Bishop, now aged ninety-four, who was in her teens + when the poor labourers, "a thousand strong," some say, armed + with cudgels, hammers, and axes, visited her village and + broke up the thrashing machines they found there. + </p> + <p> + Another person who remembered that time was an old but + remarkably well-preserved man of eighty-nine at Hindon, a + village a couple of miles distant from Fonthill Bishop. + Hindon is a delightful little village, so rustic and pretty + amidst its green, swelling downs, with great woods crowning + the heights beyond, that one can hardly credit the fact that + it was formerly an important market and session town and a + Parliamentary borough returning two members; also that it + boasted among other greatnesses thirteen public-houses. Now + it has two, and not flourishing in these tea- and + mineral-water drinking days. Naturally it was an exceeedingly + corrupt little borough, where free beer for all was the order + of the day for a period of four to six weeks before an + election, and where every householder with a vote looked to + receive twenty guineas from the candidate of his choice. It + is still remembered that when a householder in those days was + very hard up, owing, perhaps, to his too frequent visits to + the thirteen public-houses, he would go to some substantial + tradesman in the place and pledge his twenty guineas, due at + the next election! In due time, after the Reform Bill, it was + deprived of its glory, and later when the South-Western + Railway built their line from Salisbury to Yeovil and left + Hindon some miles away, making their station at Tisbury, it + fell into decay, dwindling to the small village it now is; + and its last state, sober and purified, is very much better + than the old. For although sober, it is contented and even + merry, and exhibits such a sweet friendliness toward the + stranger within its gates as to make him remember it with + pleasure and gratitude. + </p> + <p> + What a quiet little place Hindon has become, after its old + noisy period, the following little bird story will show. For + several weeks during the spring and summer of 1909 my home + was at the Lamb Inn, a famous posting-house of the great old + days, and we had three pairs of birds—throstle, pied + wagtail, and flycatcher—breeding in the ivy covering + the wall facing the village street, just over my window. I + watched them when building, incubating, feeding their young, + and bringing their young off. The villagers, too, were + interested in the sight, and sometimes a dozen or more men + and boys would gather and stand for half an hour watching the + birds flying in and out of their nests when feeding their + young. The last to come off were the flycatchers, on 18th + June. It was on the morning of the day I left, and one of the + little things flitted into the room where I was having my + breakfast. I succeeded in capturing it before the cats found + out, and put it back on the ivy. There were three young + birds; I had watched them from the time they hatched, and + when I returned a fortnight later, there were the three, + still being fed by their parents in the trees and on the + roof, their favourite perching-place being on the swinging + sign of the "Lamb." Whenever an old bird darted at and + captured a fly the three young would flutter round it like + three butterflies to get the fly. This continued until 18th + July, after which date I could not detect their feeding the + young, although the hunger-call was occasionally heard. + </p> + <p> + If the flycatcher takes a month to teach its young to catch + their own flies, it is not strange that it breeds but once in + the year. It is a delicate art the bird practises and takes + long to learn, but how different with the martin, which + dismisses its young in a few days and begins breeding again, + even to the third time! + </p> + <p> + These three broods over my window were not the only ones in + the place; there were at least twenty other pairs in the + garden and outhouses of the inn—sparrows, thrushes, + blackbirds, dunnocks, wrens, starlings, and swallows. Yet the + inn was in the very centre of the village, and being an inn + was the most frequented and noisiest spot. + </p> + <p> + To return to my old friend of eighty-nine. He was but a small + boy, attending the Hindon school, when the rioters appeared + on the scene, and he watched their entry from the schoolhouse + window. It was market-day, and the market was stopped by the + invaders, and the agricultural machines brought for sale and + exhibition were broken up. The picture that remains in his + mind is of a great excited crowd in which men and cattle and + sheep were mixed together in the wide street, which was the + market-place, and of shouting and noise of smashing + machinery, and finally of the mob pouring forth over the down + on its way to the next village, he and other little boys + following their march. + </p> + <p> + The smuggling trade flourished greatly at that period, and + there were receivers and distributors of smuggled wine, + spirits, and other commodities in every town and in very many + villages throughout the county in spite of its distance from + the sea-coast. One of his memories is of a blind man of the + village, or town as it was then, who was used as an assistant + in this business. He had lost his sight in childhood, one eye + having been destroyed by a ferret which got into his cradle; + then, when he was about six years old he was running across + the room one day with a fork it his hand when he stumbled, + and falling on the floor had the other eye pierced by the + prongs. But in spite of his blindness he became a good + worker, and could make a fence, reap, trim hedges, feed the + animals, and drive a horse as well as any man. His father had + a small farm and was a carrier as well, a quiet, sober, + industrious man who was never suspected by his neighbours of + being a smuggler, for he never left his house and work, but + from time to time he had little consignments of rum and + brandy in casks received on a dark night and carefully stowed + away in his manure heap and in a pit under the floor of his + pigsty. Then the blind son would drive his old mother in the + carrier's cart to Bath and call at a dozen or twenty private + houses, leaving parcels which had been already ordered and + paid for—a gallon of brandy at one, two or four gallons + of rum at another, and so on, until all was got rid of, and + on the following day they would return with goods to Hindon. + This quiet little business went on satisfactorily for some + years, during which the officers of the excise had stared a + thousand times with their eagle's eyes at the quaint old + woman in her poke bonnet and shawl, driven by a blind man + with a vacant face, and had suspected nothing, when a little + mistake was made and a jar of brandy delivered at a wrong + address. The recipient was an honest gentleman, and in his + anxiety to find the rightful owner of the brandy made + extensive inquiries in his neighbourhood, and eventually the + excisemen got wind of the affair, and on the very next visit + of the old woman and her son to Bath they were captured. + After an examination before a magistrate the son was + discharged on account of his blindness, but the cart and + horses, as well as the smuggled spirits, were confiscated, + and the poor blind man had to make his way on foot to Hindon. + </p> + <p> + Another of his recollections is of a family named Rawlings, + tenants of Lower Pertwood Farm, near Hindon, a lonely, + desolate-looking house hidden away in a deep hollow among the + high downs. The Farmer Rawlings of seventy or eighty years + ago was a man of singular ideas, and that he was permitted to + put them in practice shows that severe as was the law in + those days, and dreadful the punishments inflicted on + offenders, there was a kind of liberty which does not exist + now—the liberty a man had of doing just what he thought + proper in his own house. This Rawlings had a numerous family, + and some died at home and others lived to grow up and go out + into the world under strange names—Faith, Hope, and + Charity were three of his daughters, and Justice, Morality, + and Fortitude three of his sons. Now, for some reason + Rawlings objected to the burial of his dead in the churchyard + of the nearest village—Monkton Deverill, and the story + is that he quarrelled with the rector over the question of + the church bell being tolled for the funeral. He would have + no bell tolled, he swore, and the rector would bury no one + without the bell. Thereupon Rawlings had the coffined corpse + deposited on a table in an outhouse and the door made fast. + Later there was another death, then a third, and all three + were kept in the same place for several years, and although + it was known to the whole countryside no action was taken by + the local authorities. + </p> + <p> + My old informant says that he was often at the farm when he + was a young man, and he used to steal round to the "Dead + House," as it was called, to peep through a crack in the door + and see the three coffins resting on the table in the dim + interior. + </p> + <p> + Eventually the dead disappeared a little while before the + Rawlings gave up the farm, and it was supposed that the old + farmer had buried them in the night-time in one of the + neighbouring chalk-pits, but the spot has never been + discovered. + </p> + <p> + One of the stories of the old Wiltshire days I picked up was + from an old woman, aged eighty-seven, in the Wilton + workhouse. She has a vivid recollection of a labourer named + Reed, in Odstock, a village on the Ebble near Salisbury, a + stern, silent man, who was a marvel of strength and + endurance. The work in which he most delighted was precisely + that which most labourers hated, before threshing machines + came in despite the action of the "mobs"—threshing out + corn with the flail. From earliest dawn till after dark he + would sit or stand in a dim, dusty barn, monotonously + pounding away, without an interval to rest, and without + dinner, and with no food but a piece of bread and a pinch of + salt. Without the salt he would not eat the bread. An hour + after all others had ceased from work he would put on his + coat and trudge home to his wife and family. + </p> + <p> + The woman in the workhouse remembers that once, when Reed was + a very old man past work, he came to their cottage for + something, and while he stood waiting at the entrance, a + little boy ran in and asked his mother for a piece of bread + and butter with sugar on it. Old Reed glared at him, and + shaking his big stick, exclaimed, "I'd give you sugar with + this if you were my boy!" and so terrible did he look in his + anger at the luxury of the times, that the little boy burst + out crying and ran away! + </p> + <p> + What chiefly interested me about this old man was that he was + a deer-stealer of the days when that offence was common in + the country. It was not so great a crime as sheep-stealing, + for which men were hanged; taking a deer was punished with + nothing worse than hard labour, as a rule. But Reed was never + caught; he would labour his full time and steal away after + dark over the downs, to return in the small hours with a deer + on his back. It was not for his own consumption; he wanted + the money for which he sold it in Salisbury; and it is + probable that he was in league with other poachers, as it is + hard to believe that he could capture the animals + single-handed. + </p> + <p> + After his death it was found that old Reed had left a hundred + pounds to each of his two surviving daughters, and it was a + wonder to everybody how he had managed not only to bring up a + family and keep himself out of the workhouse to the end of + his long life, but to leave so large a sum of money. One can + only suppose that he was a rigid economist and never had a + week's illness, and that by abstaining from beer and tobacco + he was able to save a couple of shillings each week out of + his wages of seven or eight shillings; this, in forty years, + would make the two hundred pounds with something over. + </p> + <p> + It is not a very rare thing to find a farm-labourer like old + Reed of Odstock, with not only a strong preference for a + particular kind of work, but a love of it as compelling as + that of an artist for his art. Some friends of mine whom I + went to visit over the border in Dorset told me of an + enthusiast of this description who had recently died in the + village. "What a pity you did not come sooner," they said. + Alas! it is nearly always so; on first coming to stay at a + village one is told that it has but just lost its oldest and + most interesting inhabitant—a relic of the olden time. + </p> + <p> + This man had taken to the scythe as Reed had to the flail, + and was never happy unless he had a field to mow. He was a + very tall old man, so lean that he looked like a skeleton, + the bones covered with a skin as brown as old leather, and he + wore his thin grey hair and snow-white beard very long. He + rode on a white donkey, and was usually seen mounted + galloping down the village street, hatless, his old brown, + bare feet and legs drawn up to keep them from the ground, his + scythe over his shoulder. "Here comes old Father Time," they + would cry, as they called him, and run to the door to gaze + with ever fresh delight at the wonderful old man as he rushed + by, kicking and shouting at his donkey to make him go faster. + He was always in a hurry, hunting for work with furious zeal, + and when he got a field to mow so eager was he that he would + not sleep at home, even if it was close by, but would lie + down on the grass at the side of the field and start working + at dawn, between two and three o'clock, quite three hours + before the world woke up to its daily toil. + </p> + <p> + The name of Reed, the zealous thresher with the flail, serves + to remind me of yet another Reed, a woman who died a few + years ago aged ninety-four, and whose name should be + cherished in one of the downland villages. She was a native + of Barford St. Martin on the Nadder, one of two villages, the + other being Wishford, on the Wylye river, the inhabitants of + which have the right to go into Groveley Wood, an immense + forest on the Wilton estate, to obtain wood for burning, each + person being entitled to take home as much wood as he or she + can carry. The people of Wishford take green wood, but those + of Barford only dead, they having bartered their right at a + remote period to cut growing trees for a yearly sum of five + pounds, which the lord of the manor still pays to the + village, and, in addition, the right to take dead wood. + </p> + <p> + It will be readily understood that this right possessed by + the people of two villages, both situated within a mile of + the forest, has been a perpetual source of annoyance to the + noble owners in modern times, since the strict preservation + of game, especially of pheasants, has grown to be almost a + religion to the landowners. Now it came to pass that about + half a century or longer ago, the Pembroke of that time made + the happy discovery, as he imagined, that there was nothing + to show that the Barford people had any right to the dead + wood. They had been graciously allowed to take it, as was the + case all over the country at that time, and that was all. At + once he issued an edict prohibiting the taking of dead wood + from the forest by the villagers, and great as the loss was + to them they acquiesced; not a man of Barford St. Martin + dared to disobey the prohibition or raise his voice against + it. Grace Reed then determined to oppose the mighty earl, and + accompanied by four other women of the village boldly went to + the wood and gathered their sticks and brought them home. + They were summoned before the magistrates and fined, and on + their refusal to pay were sent to prison; but the very next + day they were liberated and told that a mistake had been + made, that the matter had been inquired into, and it had been + found that the people of Barford did really have the right + they had exercised so long to take dead wood from the forest. + </p> + <p> + As a result of the action of these women the right has not + been challenged since, and on my last visit to Barford, a few + days before writing this chapter, I saw three women coming + down from the forest with as much dead wood as they could + carry on their heads and backs. But how near they came to + losing their right! It was a bold, an unheard-of thing which + they did, and if there had not been a poor cottage woman with + the spirit to do it at the proper moment the right could + never have been revived. + </p> + <p> + Grace Reed's children's children are living at Barford now; + they say that to the very end of her long life she preserved + a very clear memory of the people and events of the village + in the old days early in the last century. They say, too, + that in recalling the far past, the old people and scenes + would present themselves so vividly to her mind that she + would speak of them as of recent things, and would say to + some one fifty years younger than herself, "Can't you + remember it? Surely you haven't forgotten it when 'twas the + talk of the village!" + </p> + <p> + It is a common illusion of the very aged, and I had an + amusing instance of it in my old Hindon friend when he gave + me his first impressions of Bath as he saw it about the year + 1835. What astonished him most were the sedan-chairs, for he + had never even heard of such a conveyance, but here in this + city of wonders you met them in every street. Then he added, + "But you've been to Bath and of course you've seen them, and + know all about it." + </p> + <p> + About firewood-gathering by the poor in woods and forests, my + old friend of Fonthill Bishop says that the people of the + villages adjacent to the Fonthill and Great Ridge Woods were + allowed to take as much dead wood as they wanted from those + places. She was accustomed to go to the Great Ridge Wood, + which was even wilder and more like a natural forest in those + days than it is now. It was fully two miles from her village, + a longish distance to carry a heavy load, and it was her + custom after getting the wood out to bind it firmly in a + large barrel-shaped bundle or faggot, as in that way she + could roll it down the smooth steep slopes of the down and so + get her burden home without so much groaning and sweating. + The great wood was then full of hazel-trees, and produced + such an abundance of nuts that from mid-July to September + people flocked to it for the nutting from all the country + round, coming even from Bath and Bristol to load their carts + with nuts in sacks for the market. Later, when the wood began + to be more strictly preserved for sporting purposes, the + rabbits were allowed to increase excessively, and during the + hard winters they attacked the hazel-trees, gnawing off the + bark, until this most useful and profitable wood the forest + produced—the scrubby oaks having little value—was + well-nigh extirpated. By and by pheasants as well as rabbits + were strictly preserved, and the firewood-gatherers were + excluded altogether. At present you find dead wood lying + about all over the place, abundantly as in any primitive + forest, where trees die of old age or disease, or are blown + down or broken off by the winds and are left to rot on the + ground, overgrown with ivy and brambles. But of all this dead + wood not a stick to boil a kettle may be taken by the + neighbouring poor lest the pheasants should be disturbed or a + rabbit be picked up. + </p> + <p> + Some more of the old dame's recollections will be given in + the next chapter, showing what the condition of the people + was in this district about the year 1830, when the poor + farm-labourers were driven by hunger and misery to revolt + against their masters—the farmers who were everywhere + breaking up the downs with the plough to sow more and still + more corn, who were growing very fat and paying higher and + higher rents to their fat landlords, while the wretched men + that drove the plough had hardly enough to satisfy their + hunger. + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p><a name="ch17"><!--Marker--></a> + <h2> + CHAPTER XVII + </h2> + <h3> + OLD WILTSHIRE DAYS—<i>CONTINUED</i> + </h3> + <blockquote> + An old Wiltshire woman's memories—Her home—Work + on a farm—A little + bird-scarer—Housekeeping—The agricultural + labourers' rising—Villagers out of work—Relief + work—A game of ball with barley + bannocks—Sheep-stealing—A poor man + hanged—Temptations to steal—A sheep-stealing + shepherd—A sheep-stealing farmer—Story of + Ebenezer Garlick—A sheep-stealer at Chitterne—The + law and the judges—A "human devil" in a black + cap—How the revolting labourers were punished—A + last scene at Salisbury Court House—Inquest on a + murdered man—Policy of the farmers + </blockquote> + <p> + The story of her early life told by my old friend Joan, aged + ninety-four, will serve to give some idea of the extreme + poverty and hard suffering life of the agricultural labourers + during the thirties of last century, at a time when farmers + were exceedingly prosperous and landlords drawing high rents. + </p> + <p> + She was three years old when her mother died, after the birth + of a boy, the last of eleven children. There was a dame's + school in their little village of Fonthill Abbey, but the + poverty of the family would have made it impossible for Joan + to attend had it not been for an unselfish person residing + there, a Mr. King, who was anxious that every child should be + taught its letters. He paid for little Joan's schooling from + the age of four to eight; and now, in the evening of her + life, when she sits by the fire with her book, she blesses + the memory of the man, dead these seventy or eighty years, + who made this solace possible for her. + </p> + <p> + After the age of eight there could be no more school, for now + all the older children had gone out into the world to make + their own poor living, the boys to work on distant farms, the + girls to service or to be wives, and Joan was wanted at home + to keep house for her father, to do the washing, mending, + cleaning, cooking, and to be mother to her little brother as + well. + </p> + <p> + Her father was a ploughman, at seven shillings a week; but + when Joan was ten he met with a dreadful accident when + ploughing with a couple of young or intractable oxen; in + trying to stop them he got entangled in the ropes and one of + his legs badly broken by the plough. As a result it was six + months before he could leave his cottage. The overseer of the + parish, a prosperous farmer who had a large farm a couple of + miles away, came to inquire into the matter and see what was + to be done. His decision was that the man would receive three + shillings a week until able to start work again, and as that + would just serve to keep him, the children must go out to + work. Meanwhile, one of the married daughters had come to + look after her father in the cottage, and that set the little + ones free. + </p> + <p> + The overseer said he would give them work on his farm and pay + them a few pence apiece and give them their meals; so to his + farm they went, returning each evening home. That was her + first place, and from that time on she was a toiler, indoors + and out, but mainly in the fields, till she was past + eighty-five;—seventy-five years of hard work—then + less and less as her wonderful strength diminished, and her + sons and daughters were getting grey, until now at the age of + ninety-four she does very little—practically nothing. + </p> + <p> + In that first place she had a very hard master in the farmer + and overseer. He was known in all the neighbourhood as "Devil + Turner," and even at that time, when farmers had their men + under their heel as it were, he was noted for his savage + tyrannical disposition; also for a curious sardonic humour, + which displayed itself in the forms of punishment he + inflicted on the workmen who had the ill-luck to offend him. + The man had to take the punishment, however painful or + disgraceful, without a murmur, or go and starve. Every + morning thereafter Joan and her little brother, aged seven, + had to be up in time to get to the farm at five o'clock in + the morning, and if it was raining or snowing or bitterly + cold, so much the worse for them, but they had to be there, + for Devil Turner's bad temper was harder to bear than bad + weather. Joan was a girl of all work, in and out of doors, + and, in severe weather, when there was nothing else for her + to do, she would be sent into the fields to gather flints, + the coldest of all tasks for her little hands. + </p> + <p> + "But what could your little brother, a child of seven, do in + such a place?" I asked. + </p> + <p> + She laughed when she told me of her little brother's very + first day at the farm. The farmer was, for a devil, + considerate, and gave him something very light for a + beginning, which was to scare the birds from the ricks. "And + if they will come back you must catch them," he said, and + left the little fellow to obey the difficult command as he + could. The birds that worried him most were the fowls, for + however often he hunted them away they would come back again. + Eventually, he found some string, with which he made some + little loops fastened to sticks, and these he arranged on a + spot of ground he had cleared, scattering a few grains of + corn on it to attract the "birds." By this means he succeeded + in capturing three of the robbers, and when the farmer came + round at noon to see how he was getting on, the little fellow + showed him his captures. "These are not birds," said the + farmer, "they are fowls, and don't you trouble yourself any + more about them, but keep your eye on the sparrows and little + birds and rooks and jackdaws that come to pull the straws + out." + </p> + <p> + That was how he started; then from the ricks to bird-scaring + in the fields and to other tasks suited to one of his age, + not without much suffering and many tears. The worst + experience was the punishment of standing motionless for long + hours at a time on a chair placed out in the yard, full in + sight of the windows of the house, so that he could be seen + by the inmates; the hardest, the cruellest task that could be + imposed on him would come as a relief after this. Joan + suffered no punishment of that kind; she was very anxious to + please her master and worked hard; but she was an intelligent + and spirited child, and as the sole result of her best + efforts was that more and more work was put on her, she + revolted against such injustice, and eventually, tried beyond + endurance, she ran away home and refused to go back to the + farm any more. She found some work in the village; for now + her sister had to go back to her husband, and Joan had to + take her place and look after her father and the house as + well as earn something to supplement the three shillings a + week they had to live on. + </p> + <p> + After about nine months her father was up and out again and + went back to the plough; for just then a great deal of down + was being broken up and brought under cultivation on account + of the high price of wheat and good ploughmen were in + request. He was lame, the injured limb being now considerably + shorter than the other, and when ploughing he could only + manage to keep on his legs by walking with the longer one in + the furrow and the other on the higher ground. But after + struggling on for some months in this way, suffering much + pain and his strength declining, he met with a fresh accident + and was laid up once more in his cottage, and from that time + until his death he did no more farm work. Joan and her little + brother lived or slept at home and worked to keep themselves + and him. + </p> + <p> + Now in this, her own little story, and in her account of the + condition of the people at that time; also in the histories + of other old men and women whose memories go back as far as + hers, supplemented by a little reading in the newspapers of + that day, I can understand how it came about that these poor + labourers, poor, spiritless slaves as they had been made by + long years of extremest poverty and systematic oppression, + rose at last against their hard masters and smashed the + agricultural machines, and burnt ricks and broke into houses + to destroy and plunder their contents. It was a desperate, a + mad adventure—these gatherings of half-starved yokels, + armed with sticks and axes, and they were quickly put down + and punished in a way that even William the Bastard would not + have considered as too lenient. But oppression had made them + mad; the introduction of thrashing machines was but the last + straw, the culminating act of the hideous system followed by + landlords and their tenants—the former to get the + highest possible rent for his land, the other to get his + labour at the lowest possible rate. It was a compact between + landlord and tenant aimed against the labourer. It was not + merely the fact that the wages of a strong man were only + seven shillings a week at the outside, a sum barely + sufficient to keep him and his family from starvation and + rags (as a fact it was not enough, and but for a little + poaching and stealing he could not have lived), but it was + customary, especially on the small farms, to get rid of the + men after the harvest and leave them to exist the best way + they could during the bitter winter months. Thus every + village, as a rule, had its dozen or twenty or more men + thrown out each year—good steady men, with families + dependent on them; and besides these there were the aged and + weaklings and the lads who had not yet got a place. The + misery of these out-of-work labourers was extreme. They would + go to the woods and gather faggots of dead wood, which they + would try to sell in the villages; but there were few who + could afford to buy of them; and at night they would skulk + about the fields to rob a swede or two to satisfy the + cravings of hunger. + </p> + <p> + In some parishes the farmer overseers were allowed to give + relief work—out of the rates, it goes without + saying—to these unemployed men of the village who had + been discharged in October or November and would be wanted + again when the winter was over. They would be put to + flint-gathering in the fields, their wages being four + shillings a week. Some of the very old people of Winterbourne + Bishop, when speaking of the principal food of the labourers + at that time, the barley bannock and its exceeding toughness, + gave me an amusing account of a game of balls invented by the + flint-gatherers, just for the sake of a little fun during + their long weary day in the fields, especially in cold, + frosty weather. The men would take their dinners with them, + consisting of a few barley balls or cakes, in their coat + pockets, and at noon they would gather at one spot to enjoy + their meal, and seat themselves on the ground in a very wide + circle, the men about ten yards apart, then each one would + produce his bannocks and start throwing, aiming at some other + man's face; there were hits and misses and great excitement + and hilarity for twenty or thirty minutes, after which the + earth and gravel adhering to the balls would be wiped off, + and they would set themselves to the hard task of masticating + and swallowing the heavy stuff. + </p> + <p> + At sunset they would go home to a supper of more barley + bannocks, washed down with hot water flavoured with some + aromatic herb or weed, and then straight to bed to get warm, + for there was little firing. + </p> + <p> + It was not strange that sheep-stealing was one of the + commonest offences against the law at that time, in spite of + the dreadful penalty. Hunger made the people reckless. My old + friend Joan, and other old persons, have said to me that it + appeared in those days that the men were strangely + indifferent and did not seem to care whether they were hanged + or not. It is true they did not hang very many of + them—the judge, as a rule, after putting on his black + cap and ordering them to the gallows, would send in a + recommendation to mercy for most of them; but the mercy of + that time was like that of the wicked, exceedingly cruel. + Instead of swinging, it was transportation for life, or for + fourteen, and, at the very least, seven years. Those who have + read Clarke's terrible book "For the Term of His Natural + Life" know (in a way) what these poor Wiltshire labourers, + who in most cases were never more heard of by their wives and + children, were sent to endure in Australia and Tasmania. + </p> + <p> + And some were hanged; my friend Joan named some people she + knows in the neighbourhood who are the grandchildren of a + young man with a wife and family of small children who was + hanged at Salisbury. She had a vivid recollection of this + case because it had seemed so hard, the man having been + maddened by want when he took a sheep; also because when he + was hanged his poor young wife travelled to the place of + slaughter to beg for his body, and had it brought home and + buried decently in the village churchyard. + </p> + <p> + How great the temptation to steal sheep must have been, + anyone may know now by merely walking about among the fields + in this part of the country to see how the sheep are folded + and left by night unguarded, often at long distances from the + village, in distant fields and on the downs. Even in the + worst times it was never customary, never thought necessary, + to guard the flock by night. Many cases could be given to + show how easy it was to steal sheep. One quite recent, about + twenty years ago, is of a shepherd who was frequently sent + with sheep to the fairs, and who on his way to Wilton fair + with a flock one night turned aside to open a fold and let + out nineteen sheep. On arriving at the fair he took out the + stolen sheep and sold them to a butcher of his acquaintance + who sent them up to London. But he had taken too many from + one flock; they were quickly missed, and by some lucky chance + it was found out and the shepherd arrested. He was sentenced + to eight months' hard labour, and it came out during the + trial that this poor shepherd, whose wages were fourteen + shillings a week, had a sum of L400 to his credit in a + Salisbury bank! + </p> + <p> + Another case which dates far back is that of a farmer named + Day, who employed a shepherd or drover to take sheep to the + fairs and markets and steal sheep for him on the way. It is + said that he went on at this game for years before it was + discovered. Eventually master and man quarrelled and the + drover gave information, whereupon Day was arrested and + lodged in Fisherton Jail at Salisbury. Later he was sent to + take his trial at Devizes, on horseback, accompanied by two + constables. At the "Druid's Head," a public-house on the way, + the three travellers alighted for refreshments, and there Day + succeeded in giving them the slip, and jumping on a fast + horse, standing ready saddled for him, made his escape. + Farmer Day never returned to the Plain and was never heard of + again. + </p> + <p> + There is an element of humour in some of the sheep-stealing + stories of the old days. At one village where I often stayed, + I heard about a certain Ebenezer Garlick, who was commonly + called, in allusion no doubt to his surname, "Sweet Vi'lets." + He was a sober, hard-working man, an example to most, but + there was this against him, that he cherished a very close + friendship with a poor, disreputable, drunken loafer + nicknamed "Flittermouse," who spent most of his time hanging + about the old coaching inn at the place for the sake of tips. + Sweet Vi'lets was always giving coppers and sixpences to this + man, but one day they fell out when Flittermouse begged for a + shilling. He must, he said, have a shilling, he couldn't do + with less, and when the other refused he followed him, + demanding the money with abusive words, to everybody's + astonishment. Finally Sweet Vi'lets turned on him and told + him to go to the devil. Flittermouse in a rage went straight + to the constable and denounced his patron as a sheep-stealer. + He, Flittermouse, had been his servant and helper, and on the + very last occasion of stealing a sheep he had got rid of the + skin and offal by throwing them down an old disused well at + the top of the village street. To the well the constable went + with ropes and hooks, and succeeded in fishing up the remains + described, and he thereupon arrested Garlick and took him + before a magistrate, who committed him for trial. + Flittermouse was the only witness for the prosecution, and + the judge in his summing up said that, taking into + consideration Garlick's known character in the village as a + sober, diligent, honest man, it would be a little too much to + hang him on the unsupported testimony of a creature like + Flittermouse, who was half fool and half scoundrel. The jury, + pleased and very much surprised at being directed to let a + man off, obediently returned a verdict of Not Guilty, and + Sweet Vi'lets returned from Salisbury triumphant, to be + congratulated on his escape by all the villagers, who, + however, slyly winked and smiled at one another. + </p> + <p> + Of sheep-stealing stories I will relate one more—a case + which never came into court and was never discovered. It was + related to me by a middle-aged man, a shepherd of Warminster, + who had it from his father, a shepherd of Chitterne, one of + the lonely, isolated villages on Salisbury Plain, between the + Avon and the Wylye. His father had it from the person who + committed the crime and was anxious to tell it to some one, + and knew that the shepherd was his true friend, a silent, + safe man. He was a farm-labourer, named Shergold—one of + the South Wiltshire surnames very common in the early part of + last century, which now appear to be dying + out—described as a very big, powerful man, full of life + and energy. He had a wife and several young children to keep, + and the time was near mid-winter; Shergold was out of work, + having been discharged from the farm at the end of the + harvest; it was an exceptionally cold season and there was no + food and no firing in the house. + </p> + <p> + One evening in late December a drover arrived at Chitterne + with a flock of sheep which he was driving to Tilshead, + another downland village several miles away. He was anxious + to get to Tilshead that night and wanted a man to help him. + Shergold was on the spot and undertook to go with him for the + sum of fourpence. They set out when it was getting dark; the + sheep were put on the road, the drover going before the flock + and Shergold following at the tail. It was a cold, cloudy + night, threatening snow, and so dark that he could hardly + distinguish the dim forms of even the hindmost sheep, and by + and by the temptation to steal one assailed him. For how easy + it would be for him to do it! With his tremendous strength he + could kill and hide a sheep very quickly without making any + sound whatever to alarm the drover. He was very far ahead; + Shergold could judge the distance by the sound of his voice + when he uttered a call or shout from time to time, and by the + barking of the dog, as he flew up and down, first on one side + of the road, then on the other, to keep the flock well on it. + And he thought of what a sheep would be to him and to his + hungry ones at home until the temptation was too strong, and + suddenly lifting his big, heavy stick he brought it down with + such force on the head of a sheep as to drop it with its + skull crushed, dead as a stone. Hastily picking it up he ran + a few yards away, and placed it among the furze-bushes, + intending to take it home on his way back, and then returned + to the flock. + </p> + <p> + They arrived at Tilshead in the small hours, and after + receiving his fourpence he started for home, walking rapidly + and then running to be in time, but when he got back to where + the sheep was lying the dawn was coming, and he knew that + before he could get to Chitterne with that heavy burden on + his back people would be getting up in the village and he + would perhaps be seen. The only thing to do was to hide the + sheep and return for it on the following night. Accordingly + he carried it away a couple of hundred yards to a pit or + small hollow in the down full of bramble and furze-bushes, + and here he concealed it, covering it with a mass of dead + bracken and herbage, and left it. That afternoon the + long-threatening snow began to fall, and with snow on the + ground he dared not go to recover his sheep, since his + footprints would betray him; he must wait once more for the + snow to melt. But the snow fell all night, and what must his + feelings have been when he looked at it still falling in the + morning and knew that he could have gone for the sheep with + safety, since all traces would have been quickly obliterated! + </p> + <p> + Once more there was nothing to do but wait patiently for the + snow to cease falling and for the thaw. But how intolerable + it was; for the weather continued bitterly cold for many + days, and the whole country was white. During those hungry + days even that poor comfort of sleeping or dozing away the + time was denied him, for the danger of discovery was ever + present to his mind, and Shergold was not one of the callous + men who had become indifferent to their fate; it was his + first crime, and he loved his own life and his wife and + children, crying to him for food. And the food for them was + lying there on the down, close by, and he could not get it! + Roast mutton, boiled mutton—mutton in a dozen delicious + forms—the thought of it was as distressing, as + maddening, as that of the peril he was in. + </p> + <p> + It was a full fortnight before the wished thaw came; then + with fear and trembling he went for his sheep, only to find + that it had been pulled to pieces and the flesh devoured by + dogs and foxes! + </p> + <p> + From these memories of the old villagers I turn to the + newspapers of the day to make a few citations. + </p> + <p> + The law as it was did not distinguish between a case of the + kind just related, of the starving, sorely tempted Shergold, + and that of the systematic thief: sheep-stealing was a + capital offence and the man must hang, unless recommended to + mercy, and we know what was meant by "mercy" in those days. + That so barbarous a law existed within memory of people to be + found living in most villages appears almost incredible to + us; but despite the recommendations to "mercy" usual in a + large majority of cases, the law of that time was not more + horrible than the temper of the men who administered it. + There are good and bad among all, and in all professions, but + there is also a black spot in most, possibly in all hearts, + which may be developed to almost any extent, and change the + justest, wisest, most moral men into "human devils"—the + phrase invented by Canon Wilberforce in another connexion. In + reading the old reports and the expressions used by the + judges in their summings up and sentences, it is impossible + not to believe that the awful power they possessed, and its + constant exercise, had not only produced the inevitable + hardening effect, but had made them cruel in the true sense + of the word. Their pleasure in passing dreadful sentences was + very thinly disguised, indeed, by certain lofty conventional + phrases as to the necessity of upholding the law, morality, + and religion; they were, indeed, as familiar with the name of + the Deity as any ranter in a conventicle, and the "enormity + of the crime" was an expression as constantly used in the + case of the theft of a loaf of bread, or of an old coat left + hanging on a hedge, by some ill-clad, half-starved wretch, as + in cases of burglary, arson, rape, and murder. + </p> + <p> + It is surprising to find how very few the real crimes were in + those days, despite the misery of the people; that nearly all + the "crimes" for which men were sentenced to the gallows and + to transportation for life, or for long terms, were offences + which would now be sufficiently punished by a few weeks', or + even a few days', imprisonment. Thus in April 1825, I note + that Mr. Justice Park commented on the heavy appearance of + the calendar. It was not so much the number (170) of the + offenders that excited his concern as it was the nature of + the crimes with which they were charged. The worst crime in + this instance was sheep-stealing! + </p> + <p> + Again, this same Mr. Justice Park, at the Spring Assizes at + Salisbury 1827, said that though the calendar was a heavy + one, he was happy to find on looking at the depositions of + the principal cases, that they were not of a very serious + character. Nevertheless he passed sentence of death on + twenty-eight persons, among them being one for stealing half + a crown! + </p> + <p> + Of the twenty-eight all but three were eventually reprieved, + one of the fated three being a youth of nineteen, who was + charged with stealing a mare and pleaded guilty in spite of a + warning from the judge not to do so. This irritated the great + man who had the power of life and death in his hand. In + passing sentence the judge "expatiated on the prevalence of + the crime of horse-stealing and the necessity of making an + example. The enormity of Read's crime rendered him a proper + example, and he would therefore hold out no hope of mercy + towards him." As to the plea of guilty, he remarked that + nowadays too many persons pleaded guilty, deluded with the + hope that it would be taken into consideration and they would + escape the severer penalty. He was determined to put a stop + to that sort of thing; if Read had not pleaded guilty no + doubt some extenuating circumstance would have come up during + the trial and he would have saved his life. + </p> + <p> + There, if ever, spoke the "human devil" in a black cap! + </p> + <p> + I find another case of a sentence of transportation for life + on a youth of eighteen, named Edward Baker, for stealing a + pocket-handkerchief. Had he pleaded guilty it might have been + worse for him. + </p> + <p> + At the Salisbury Spring Assizes, 1830, Mr. Justice Gazalee, + addressing the grand jury, said that none of the crimes + appeared to be marked with circumstances of great moral + turpitude. The prisoners numbered one hundred and thirty; he + passed sentences of death on twenty-nine, life + transportations on five, fourteen years on five, seven years + on eleven, and various terms of hard labour on the others. + </p> + <p> + The severity of the magistrates at the quarter-sessions was + equally revolting. I notice in one case, where the leading + magistrate on the bench was a great local magnate, an M.P. + for Salisbury, etc., a poor fellow with the unfortunate name + of Moses Snook was charged with stealing a plank ten feet + long, the property of the aforesaid local magnate, M.P., + etc., and sentenced to fourteen years' transportation. + Sentenced by the man who owned the plank, worth perhaps a + shilling or two! + </p> + <p> + When such was the law of the land and the temper of those who + administered it—judges and magistrates or + landlords—what must the misery of the people have been + to cause them to rise in revolt against their masters! They + did nothing outrageous even in the height of their frenzy; + they smashed the thrashing machines, burnt some ricks, while + the maddest of them broke into a few houses and destroyed + their contents; but they injured no man; yet they knew what + they were facing—the gallows or transportation to the + penal settlements ready for their reception at the Antipodes. + It is a pity that the history of this rising of the + agricultural labourer, the most patient and submissive of + men, has never been written. Nothing, in fact, has ever been + said of it except from the point of view of landowners and + farmers, but there is ample material for a truer and a moving + narrative, not only in the brief reports in the papers of the + time, but also in the memories of many persons still living, + and of their children and children's children, preserved in + many a cottage throughout the south of England. + </p> + <p> + Hopeless as the revolt was and quickly suppressed, it had + served to alarm the landlords and their tenants, and taken in + conjunction with other outbreaks, notably at Bristol, it + produced a sense of anxiety in the mind of the country + generally. The feeling found a somewhat amusing expression in + the House of Commons, in a motion of Mr. Perceval, on 14th + February 1831. This was to move an address to His Majesty to + appoint a day for a general fast throughout the United + Kingdom. He said that "the state of the country called for a + measure like this—that it was a state of political and + religious disorganization—that the elements of the + Constitution were being hourly loosened—that in this + land there was no attachment, no control, no humility of + spirit, no mutual confidence between the poor man and the + rich, the employer and the employed; but fear and mistrust + and aversion, where, in the time of our fathers, there was + nothing but brotherly love and rejoicing before the Lord." + </p> + <p> + The House was cynical and smilingly put the matter by, but + the anxiety was manifested plainly enough in the treatment + meted out to the poor men who had been arrested and were + tried before the Special Commissions sent down to Salisbury, + Winchester, and other towns. No doubt it was a pleasant time + for the judges; at Salisbury thirty-four poor fellows were + sentenced to death; thirty-three to be transported for life, + ten for fourteen years, and so on. + </p> + <p> + And here is one last little scene about which the reports in + the newspapers of the time say nothing, but which I have from + one who witnessed and clearly remembers it, a woman of + ninety-five, whose whole life has been passed at a village + within sound of the Salisbury Cathedral bells. + </p> + <p> + It was when the trial was ended, when those who were found + guilty and had been sentenced were brought out of the + court-house to be taken back to prison, and from all over the + Plain and from all parts of Wiltshire their womenfolk had + come to learn their fate, and were gathered, a pale, anxious, + weeping crowd, outside the gates. The sentenced men came out + looking eagerly at the people until they recognized their own + and cried out to them to be of good cheer. "'Tis hanging for + me," one would say, "but there'll perhaps be a recommendation + to mercy, so don't you fret till you know." Then another: + "Don't go on so, old mother, 'tis only for life I'm sent." + And yet another: "Don't you cry, old girl, 'tis only fourteen + years I've got, and maybe I'll live to see you all again." + And so on, as they filed out past their weeping women on + their way to Fisherton Jail, to be taken thence to the + transports in Portsmouth and Plymouth harbours waiting to + convey their living freights to that hell on earth so far + from home. Not criminals but good, brave men were + these!—Wiltshiremen of that strong, enduring, patient + class, who not only as labourers on the land but on many a + hard-fought field in many parts of the world from of old down + to our war of a few years ago in Africa, have shown the stuff + that was in them! + </p> + <p> + But, alas! for the poor women who were left—for the old + mother who could never hope to see her boy again, and for the + wife and her children who waited and hoped against hope + through long toiling years, + </p> + <p> + And dreamed and started as they slept<br> + For joy that he was come, + </p> + <p> + but waking saw his face no more. Very few, so far as I can + make out, not more than one in five or six, ever returned. + </p> + <p> + This, it may be said, was only what they might have expected, + the law being what it was—just the ordinary thing. The + hideous part of the business was that, as an effect of the + alarm created in the minds of those who feared injury to + their property and loss of power to oppress the poor + labourers, there was money in plenty subscribed to hire + witnesses for the prosecution. It was necessary to strike + terror into the people. The smell of blood-money brought out + a number of scoundrels who for a few pounds were only too + ready to swear away the life of any man, and it was notorious + that numbers of poor fellows were condemned in this way. + </p> + <p> + One incident as to this point may be given in conclusion of + this chapter about old unhappy things. It relates not to one + of those who were sentenced to the gallows or to + transportation, but to an inquest and the treatment of the + dead. + </p> + <p> + I have spoken in the last chapter of the mob that visited + Hindon, Fonthill, and other villages. They ended their round + at Pytt House, near Tisbury, where they broke up the + machinery. On that occasion a body of yeomanry came on the + scene, but arrived only after the mob had accomplished its + purpose of breaking up the thrashing machines. When the + troops appeared the "rioters," as they were called, made off + into the woods and escaped; but before they fled one of them + had met his death. A number of persons from the farms and + villages around had gathered at the spot and were looking on, + when one, a farmer from the neighbouring village of Chilmark, + snatched a gun from a gamekeeper's hand and shot one of the + rioters, killing him dead. On 27th January 1831 an inquest + was held on the body, and some one was found to swear that + the man had been shot by one of the yeomanry, although it was + known to everybody that, when the man was shot, the troop had + not yet arrived on the scene. The man, this witness stated, + had attacked, or threatened, one of the soldiers with his + stick, and had been shot. This was sufficient for the + coroner; he instructed his jury to bring in a verdict of + "Justifiable homicide," which they obediently did. "This + verdict," the coroner then said, "entailed the same + consequences as an act of <i>felo-de-se</i>, and he felt that + he could not give a warrant for the burial of the deceased. + However painful the duty devolved on him in thus adding to + the sorrows of the surviving relations, the law appeared too + clear to him to admit of an alternative." + </p> + <p> + The coroner was just as eager as the judges to exhibit his + zeal for the gentry, who were being injured in their + interests by these disturbances; and though he could not hang + anybody, being only a coroner, he could at any rate kick the + one corpse brought before him. Doubtless the "surviving + relations," for whose sorrows he had expressed sympathy, + carried the poor murdered man off by night to hide him + somewhere in the earth. + </p> + <p> + After the law had been thus vindicated and all the business + done with, even to the corpse-kicking by the coroner, the + farmers were still anxious, and began to show it by holding + meetings and discussions on the condition of the labourers. + Everybody said that the men had been very properly punished; + but at the same time it was admitted that they had some + reason for their discontent, that, with bread so dear, it was + hardly possible for a man with a family to support himself on + seven shillings a week, and it was generally agreed to raise + the wages one shilling. But by and by when the anxiety had + quite died out, when it was found that the men were more + submissive than they had ever been, the lesson they had + received having sunk deep into their minds, they cut off the + extra shilling and wages were what they had been—seven + shillings a week for a hard-working seasoned labourer, with a + family to keep, and from four to six shillings for young + unmarried men and for women, even for those who did as much + work in the field as any man. + </p> + <p> + But there were no more risings. + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p><a name="ch18"><!--Marker--></a> + <h2> + CHAPTER XVIII + </h2> + <h3> + THE SHEPHERD'S RETURN + </h3> + <blockquote> + Yarnborough Castle sheep-fair—Caleb leaves Doveton and + goes into Dorset—A land of strange happenings—He + is home-sick and returns to Winterbourne Bishop—Joseph, + his brother, leaves home—His meeting with Caleb's old + master—Settles in Dorset and is joined by his sister + Hannah—They marry and have children—I go to look + for them—Joseph Bawcombe in extreme old + age—Hannah in decline + </blockquote> + <p> + Caleb's shepherding period in Doveton came to a somewhat + sudden conclusion. It was nearing the end of August and he + was beginning to think about the sheep which would have to be + taken to the "Castle" sheep-fair on 5th October, and it + appeared strange to him that his master had so far said + nothing to him on the subject. By "Castle" he meant + Yarnborough Castle, the name of a vast prehistoric earthwork + on one of the high downs between Warminster and Amesbury. + There is no village there and no house near; it is nothing + but an immense circular wall and trench, inside of which the + fair is held. It was formerly one of the most important + sheep-fairs in the country, but for the last two or three + decades has been falling off and is now of little account. + When Bawcombe was shepherd at Doveton it was still great, and + when he first went there as Mr. Ellerby's head-shepherd he + found himself regarded as a person of considerable importance + at the Castle. Before setting out with the sheep he asked for + his master's instructions, and was told that when he got to + the ground he would be directed by the persons in charge to + the proper place. The Ellerbys, he said, had exhibited and + sold their sheep there for a period of eighty-eight years, + without missing a year, and always at the same spot. Every + person visiting the fair on business knew just where to find + the Ellerbys' sheep, and, he added with pride, they expected + them to be the best sheep at the Castle. + </p> + <p> + One day Mr. Ellerby came to have a talk with his shepherd, + and in reply to a remark of the latter about the October + sheep-fair he said that he would have no sheep to send. "No + sheep to send, master!" exclaimed Caleb in amazement. Then + Mr. Ellerby told him that he had taken a notion into his head + that he wanted to go abroad with his wife for a time, and + that some person had just made him so good an offer for all + his sheep that he was going to accept it, so that for the + first time in eighty-eight years there would be no sheep from + Doveton Farm at the Castle fair. When he came back he would + buy again; but if he could live away from the farm, he would + probably never come back—he would sell it. + </p> + <p> + Caleb went home with a heavy heart and told his wife. It + grieved her, too, because of her feeling for Mrs. Ellerby, + but in a little while she set herself to comfort him. "Why, + what's wrong about it?" she asked. "'Twill be more 'n three + months before the year's out, and master'll pay for all the + time sure, and we can go home to Bishop and bide a little + without work, and see if that father of yours has forgiven + 'ee for going away to Warminster." + </p> + <p> + So they comforted themselves, and were beginning to think + with pleasure of home when Mr. Ellerby informed his shepherd + that a friend of his, a good man though not a rich one, was + anxious to take him as head-shepherd, with good wages and a + good cottage rent free. The only drawback for the Bawcombes + was that it would take them still farther from home, for the + farm was in Dorset, although quite near the Wiltshire border. + </p> + <p> + Eventually they accepted the offer, and by the middle of + September were once more settled down in what was to them a + strange land. How strange it must have seemed to Caleb, how + far removed from home and all familiar things, when even to + this day, more than forty years later, he speaks of it as the + ordinary modern man might speak of a year's residence in + Uganda, Tierra del Fuego, or the Andaman Islands! It was a + foreign country, and the ways of the people were strange to + him, and it was a land of very strange things. One of the + strangest was an old ruined church in the neighbourhood of + the farm where he was shepherd. It was roofless, more than + half fallen down, and all the standing portion, with the + tower, overgrown with old ivy; the building itself stood in + the centre of a huge round earthwork and trench, with large + barrows on the ground outside the circle. Concerning this + church he had a wonderful story: its decay and ruin had come + about after the great bell in the tower had mysteriously + disappeared, stolen one stormy night, it was believed, by the + Devil himself. The stolen bell, it was discovered, had been + flung into a small river at a distance of some miles from the + church, and there in summer-time, when the water was low, it + could be distinctly seen lying half buried in the mud at the + bottom. But all the king's horses and all the king's men + couldn't pull it out; the Devil, who pulled the other way, + was strongest. Eventually some wise person said that a team + of white oxen would be able to pull it out, and after much + seeking the white oxen were obtained, and thick ropes were + tied to the sunken bell, and the cattle were goaded and + yelled at, and tugged and strained until the bell came up and + was finally drawn right up to the top of the steep, + cliff-like bank of the stream. Then one of the teamsters + shouted in triumph, "Now we've got out the bell, in spite of + all the devils in hell," and no sooner had he spoken the bold + words than the ropes parted, and back tumbled the bell to its + old place at the bottom of the river, where it remains to + this day. Caleb had once met a man in those parts who assured + him that he had seen the bell with his own eyes, lying nearly + buried in mud at the bottom of the stream. + </p> + <p> + The legend is not in the history of Dorset; a much more + prosaic account of the disappearance of the bell is there + given, in which the Devil took no part unless he was at the + back of the bad men who were concerned in the business. But + in this strange, remote country, outside of "Wiltsheer," + Bawcombe was in a region where anything might have happened, + where the very soil and pasture were unlike that of his + native country, and the mud adhered to his boots in a most + unaccountable way. It was almost uncanny. Doubtless he was + home-sick, for a month or two before the end of the year he + asked his master to look out for another shepherd. + </p> + <p> + This was a great disappointment to the farmer: he had gone a + distance from home to secure a good shepherd, and had hoped + to keep him permanently, and now after a single year he was + going to lose him. What did the shepherd want? He would do + anything to please him, and begged him to stay another year. + But no, his mind was set on going back to his own native + village and to his own people. And so when his long year was + ended he took his crook and set out over the hills and + valleys, followed by a cart containing his "sticks" and wife + and children. And at home with his old parents and his people + he was happy once more; in a short time he found a place as + head-shepherd, with a cottage in the village, and followed + his flock on the old familiar down, and everything again was + as it had been from the beginning of life and as he desired + it to be even to the end. + </p> + <p> + His return resulted incidentally in other changes and + migrations in the Bawcombe family. His elder brother Joseph, + unmarried still although his senior by about eight years, had + not got on well at home. He was a person of a peculiar + disposition, so silent with so fixed and unsmiling an + expression, that he gave the idea of a stolid, thick-skinned + man, but at bottom he was of a sensitive nature, and feeling + that his master did not treat him properly, he gave up his + place and was for a long time without one. He was singularly + attentive to all that fell from Caleb about his wide + wanderings and strange experiences, especially in the distant + Dorset country; and at length, about a year after his + brother's return, he announced his intention of going away + from his native place for good to seek his fortune in some + distant place where his services would perhaps be better + appreciated. When asked where he intended going, he answered + that he was going to look for a place in that part of Dorset + where Caleb had been shepherd for a year and had been so + highly thought of. + </p> + <p> + Now Joseph, being a single man, had no "sticks"; all his + possessions went into a bundle, which he carried tied to his + crook, and with his sheep-dog following at his heels he set + forth early one morning on the most important adventure of + his life. Then occurred an instance of what we call a + coincidence, but which the shepherd of the downs, nursed in + the old beliefs and traditions, prefers to regard as an act + of providence. + </p> + <p> + About noon he was trudging along in the turnpike road when he + was met by a farmer driving in a trap, who pulled up to speak + to him and asked him if he could say how far it was to + Winterbourne Bishop. Joseph replied that it was about + fourteen miles—he had left Bishop that morning. + </p> + <p> + Then the farmer asked him if he knew a man there named Caleb + Bawcombe, and if he had a place as shepherd there, as he was + now on his way to look for him and to try and persuade him to + go back to Dorset, where he had been his head-shepherd for + the space of a year. + </p> + <p> + Joseph said that Caleb had a place as head-shepherd on a farm + at Bishop, that he was satisfied with it, and was, moreover, + one that preferred to bide in his native place. + </p> + <p> + The farmer was disappointed, and the other added, "Maybe + you've heard Caleb speak of his elder brother Joseph—I + be he." + </p> + <p> + "What!" exclaimed the farmer. "You're Caleb's brother! Where + be going then?—to a new place?" + </p> + <p> + "I've got no place; I be going to look for a place in + Dorsetsheer." + </p> + <p> + "'Tis strange to hear you say that," exclaimed the farmer. He + was going, he said, to see Caleb, and if he would not or + could not go back to Dorset himself to ask him to recommend + some man of the village to him; for he was tired of the ways + of the shepherds of his own part of the country, and his + heart was set on getting a man from Caleb's village, where + shepherds understood sheep and knew their work. "Now look + here, shepherd," he continued, "if you'll engage yourself to + me for a year I'll go no farther, but take you right back + with me in the trap." + </p> + <p> + The shepherd was very glad to accept the offer; he devoutly + believed that in making it the farmer was but acting in + accordance with the will of a Power that was mindful of man + and kept watch on him, even on His poor servant Joseph, who + had left his home and people to be a stranger in a strange + land. + </p> + <p> + So well did servant and master agree that Joseph never had + occasion to look for another place; when his master died an + old man, his son succeeded him as tenant of the farm, and he + continued with the son until he was past work. Before his + first year was out, his younger sister, Hannah, came to live + with him and keep house, and eventually they both got + married, Joseph to a young woman of the place, and Hannah to + a small working farmer whose farm was about a mile from the + village. Children were born to both, and in time grew up, + Joseph's sons following their father's vocation, while + Hannah's were brought up to work on the farm. And some of + them, too, got married in time and had children of their own. + </p> + <p> + These are the main incidents in the lives of Joseph and + Hannah, related to me at different times by their brother; he + had followed their fortunes from a distance, sometimes + getting a message, or hearing of them incidentally, but he + did not see them. Joseph never returned to his native + village, and the visits of Hannah to her old home had been + few and had long ceased. But he cherished a deep enduring + affection for both; he was always anxiously waiting and + hoping for tidings of them, for Joseph was now a feeble old + man living with one of his sons, and Hannah, long a widow, + was in declining health, but still kept the farm, assisted by + one of her sons and two unmarried daughters. Though he had + not heard for a long time it never occurred to him to write, + nor did they ever write to him. + </p> + <p> + Then, when I was staying at Winterbourne Bishop and had the + intention of shortly paying a visit to Caleb, it occurred to + me one day to go into Dorset and look for these absent ones, + so as to be able to give him an account of their state. It + was not a long journey, and arrived at the village I soon + found a son of Joseph, a fine-looking man, who took me to his + cottage, where his wife led me into the old shepherd's room. + I found him very aged in appearance, with a grey face and + sunken cheeks, lying on his bed and breathing with + difficulty; but when I spoke to him of Caleb a light of joy + came into his eyes, and he raised himself on his pillows, and + questioned me eagerly about his brother's state and family, + and begged me to assure Caleb that he was still quite well, + although too feeble to get about much, and that his children + were taking good care of him. + </p> + <p> + From the old brother I went on to seek the young + sister—there was a difference of more than twenty years + in their respective ages—and found her at dinner in the + large old farm-house kitchen. At all events she was + presiding, the others present being her son, their hired + labourer, the farm boy, and two unmarried daughters. She + herself tasted no food. I joined them at their meal, and it + gladdened and saddened me at the same time to be with this + woman, for she was Caleb's sister, and was attractive in + herself, looking strangely young for her age, with beautiful + dark, soft eyes and but few white threads in her abundant + black hair. The attraction was also in her voice and speech + and manner; but, alas! there was that in her face which was + painful to witness—the signs of long suffering, of + nights that bring no refreshment, an expression in the eyes + of one that is looking anxiously out into the dim + distance—a vast unbounded prospect, but with clouds and + darkness resting on it. + </p> + <p> + It was not without a feeling of heaviness at the heart that I + said good-bye to her; nor was I surprised when, less than a + year later, Caleb received news of her death. + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p><a name="ch19"><!--Marker--></a> + <h2> + CHAPTER XIX + </h2> + <h3> + THE DARK PEOPLE OF THE VILLAGE + </h3> + <blockquote> + How the materials for this book were obtained—The + hedgehog-hunter—A gipsy taste—History of a + dark-skinned family—Hedgehog eaters—Half-bred and + true gipsies—Perfect health—Eating + carrion—Mysterious knowledge and faculties—The + three dark Wiltshire types—Story of another dark man of + the village—Account of Liddy—His + shepherding—A happy life with horses—Dies of a + broken heart—His daughter + </blockquote> + <p> + I have sometimes laughed to myself when thinking how a large + part of the material composing this book was collected. It + came to me in conversations, at intervals, during several + years, with the shepherd. In his long life in his native + village, a good deal of it spent on the quiet down, he had + seen many things it was or would be interesting to hear; the + things which had interested him, too, at the time, and had + fallen into oblivion, yet might be recovered. I discovered + that it was of little use to question him: the one valuable + recollection he possessed on any subject would, as a rule, + not be available when wanted; it would lie just beneath the + surface so to speak, and he would pass and repass over the + ground without seeing it. He would not know that it was + there; it would be like the acorn which a jay or squirrel has + hidden and forgotten all about, which he will nevertheless + recover some day if by chance something occurs to remind him + of it. The only method was to talk about the things he knew, + and when by chance he was reminded of some old experience or + some little observation or incident worth hearing, to make a + note of it, then wait patiently for something else. It was a + very slow process, but it is not unlike the one we practise + always with regard to wild nature. We are not in a hurry, but + are always watchful, with eyes and ears and mind open to what + may come; it is a mental habit, and when nothing comes we are + not disappointed—the act of watching has been a + sufficient pleasure: and when something does come we take it + joyfully as if it were a gift—a valuable object picked + up by chance in our walks. + </p> + <p> + When I turned into the shepherd's cottage, if it was in + winter and he was sitting by the fire, I would sit and smoke + with him, and if we were in a talking mood I would tell him + where I had been and what I had heard and seen, on the heath, + in the woods, in the village, or anywhere, on the chance of + its reminding him of something worth hearing in his past + life. + </p> + <p> + One Sunday morning, in the late summer, during one of my + visits to him, I was out walking in the woods and found a man + of the village, a farm labourer, with his small boy hunting + for hedgehogs. He had caught and killed two, which the boy + was carrying. He told me he was very fond of the flesh of + hedgehogs—"pigs," he called them for short; he said he + would not exchange one for a rabbit. He always spent his + holidays pig-hunting; he had no dog and didn't want one; he + found them himself, and his method was to look for the kind + of place in which they were accustomed to live—a thick + mass of bramble growing at the side of an old ditch as a + rule. He would force his way into it and, moving round and + round, trample down the roots and loose earth and dead leaves + with his heavy iron-shod boots until he broke into the nest + or cell of the spiny little beast hidden away under the bush. + </p> + <p> + He was a short, broad-faced man, with a brown skin, black + hair, and intensely black eyes. Talking with the shepherd + that evening I told him of the encounter, and remarked that + the man was probably a gipsy in blood, although a labourer, + living in the village and married to a woman with blue eyes + who belonged to the place. + </p> + <p> + This incident reminded him of a family, named Targett, in his + native village, consisting of four brothers and a sister. He + knew them first when he was a boy himself, but could not + remember their parents. "It seemed as if they didn't have + any," he said. The four brothers were very much alike: short, + with broad faces, black eyes and hair, and brown skins. They + were good workers, but somehow they were never treated by the + farmers like the other men. They were paid less + wages—as much as two to four shillings a week less per + man—and made to do things that others would not do, and + generally imposed upon. It was known to every employer of + labour in the place that they could be imposed upon; yet they + were not fools, and occasionally if their master went too far + in bullying and abusing them and compelling them to work + overtime every day, they would have sudden violent outbursts + of rage and go off without any pay at all. What became of + their sister he never knew: but none of the four brothers + ever married; they lived together always, and two died in the + village, the other two going to finish their lives in the + workhouse. + </p> + <p> + One of the curious things about these brothers was that they + had a passion for eating hedgehogs. They had it from boyhood, + and as boys used to go a distance from home and spend the day + hunting in hedges and thickets. When they captured a hedgehog + they would make a small fire in some sheltered spot and roast + it, and while it was roasting one of them would go to the + nearest cottage to beg for a pinch of salt, which was + generally given. + </p> + <p> + These, too, I said, must have been gipsies, at all events on + one side. Where there is a cross the gipsy strain is + generally strongest, although the children, if brought up in + the community, often remain in it all their lives; but they + are never quite of it. Their love of wildness and of eating + wild flesh remains in them, and it is also probable that + there is an instability of character, a restlessness, which + the small farmers who usually employ such men know and trade + on; the gipsy who takes to farm work must not look for the + same treatment as the big-framed, white-skinned man who is as + strong, enduring, and unchangeable as a draught horse or ox, + and constant as the sun itself. + </p> + <p> + The gipsy element is found in many if not most villages in + the south of England. I know one large scattered village + where it appears predominant—as dirty and + disorderly-looking a place as can be imagined, the ground + round every cottage resembling a gipsy camp, but worse owing + to its greater litter of old rags and rubbish strewn about. + But the people, like all gipsies, are not so poor as they + look, and most of the cottagers keep a trap and pony with + which they scour the country for many miles around in quest + of bones, rags, and bottles, and anything else they can buy + for a few pence, also anything they can "pick up" for + nothing. + </p> + <p> + This is almost the only kind of settled life which a man with + a good deal of gipsy blood in him can tolerate; it affords + some scope for his chaffering and predatory instincts and + satisfies the roving passion, which is not so strong in those + of mixed blood. But it is too respectable or humdrum a life + for the true, undegenerate gipsy. One wet evening in + September last I was prowling in a copse near Shrewton, + watching the birds, when I encountered a young gipsy and + recognized him as one of a gang of about a dozen I had met + several days before near Salisbury. They were on their way, + they had told me, to a village near Shaftesbury, where they + hoped to remain a week or so. + </p> + <p> + "What are you doing here?" I asked my gipsy. + </p> + <p> + He said he had been to Idmiston; he had been on his legs out + in the rain and wet to the skin since morning. He didn't mind + that much as the wet didn't hurt him and he was not tired; + but he had eight miles to walk yet over the downs to a + village on the Wylye where his people were staying. + </p> + <p> + I remarked that I had thought they were staying over + Shaftesbury way. + </p> + <p> + He then looked sharply at me. "Ah, yes," he said, "I remember + we met you and had some talk a fortnight ago. Yes, we went + there, but they wouldn't have us. They soon ordered us off. + They advised us to settle down if we wanted to stay anywhere. + Settle down! I'd rather be dead!" + </p> + <p> + There spoke the true gipsy; and they are mostly of that mind. + But what a mind it is for human beings in this climate! It is + in a year like this of 1909, when a long cold winter and a + miserable spring, with frosty nights lasting well into June, + was followed by a cold wet summer and a wet autumn, that we + can see properly what a mind and body is his—how + infinitely more perfect the correspondence between organism + and environment in his case than in ours, who have made our + own conditions, who have not only houses to live in, but a + vast army of sanitary inspectors, physicians and + bacteriologists to safeguard us from that wicked stepmother + who is anxious to get rid of us before our time! In all this + miserable year, during which I have met and conversed with + and visited many scores of gipsies, I have not found one who + was not in a cheerful frame of mind, even when he was under a + cloud with the police on his track; nor one with a cold, or + complaining of an ache in his bones, or of indigestion. + </p> + <p> + The subject of gipsies catching cold connects itself just now + in my mind with that of the gipsy's sense of humour. He has + that sense, and it makes him happy when he is reposing in the + bosom of his family and can give it free vent; but the + instant you appear on the scene its gracious outward signs + vanish like lightning and he is once more the sly, subtle + animal, watching you furtively, but with intensity. When you + have left him and he relaxes the humour will come back to + him; for it is a humour similar to that of some of the lower + animals, especially birds of the crow family, and of + primitive people, only more highly developed, and is + concerned mainly with the delight of trickery—with + getting the better of some one and the huge enjoyment + resulting from the process. + </p> + <p> + One morning, between nine and ten o'clock, during the + excessively cold spell near the end of November 1909, I paid + a visit to some gipsies I knew at their camp. The men had + already gone off for the day, but some of the women were + there—a young married woman, two big girls, and six or + seven children. It was a hard frost and their sleeping + accommodation was just as in the summer-time—bundles of + straw and old rugs placed in or against little half-open + canvas and rag shelters; but they all appeared remarkably + well, and some of the children were standing on the hard + frozen ground with bare feet. They assured me that they were + all well, that they hadn't caught colds and didn't mind the + cold. I remarked that I had thought the severe frost might + have proved too much for some of them in that high, + unsheltered spot in the downs, and that if I had found one of + the children down with a cold I should have given it a + sixpence to comfort it. "Oh," cried the young married woman, + "there's my poor six months' old baby half dead of a cold; + he's very bad, poor dear, and I'm in great trouble about + him." + </p> + <p> + "He is bad, the darling!" cried one of the big girls. "I'll + soon show you how bad he is!" and with that she dived into a + pile of straw and dragged out a huge fat sleeping baby. + Holding it up in her arms she begged me to look at it to see + how bad it was; the fat baby slowly opened its drowsy eyes + and blinked at the sun, but uttered no sound, for it was not + a crying baby, but was like a great fat retriever pup pulled + out of its warm bed. + </p> + <p> + How healthy they are is hardly known even to those who make a + special study of these aliens, who, albeit aliens, are yet + more native than any Englishman in the land. It is not merely + their indifference to wet and cold; more wonderful still is + their dog-like capacity of assimilating food which to us + would be deadly. This is indeed not a nice or pretty subject, + and I will give but one instance to illustrate my point; the + reader with a squeamish stomach may skip the ensuing + paragraph. + </p> + <p> + An old shepherd of Chitterne relates that a family, or gang, + of gipsies used to turn up from time to time at the village; + he generally saw them at lambing-time, when one of the heads + of the party with whom he was friendly would come round to + see what he had to give them. On one occasion his gipsy + friend appeared, and after some conversation on general + subjects, asked him if he had anything in his way. "No, + nothing this time," said the shepherd. "Lambing was over two + or three months ago and there's nothing left—no dead + lamb. I hung up a few cauls on a beam in the old shed, + thinking they would do for the dogs, but forgot them and they + went bad and then dried up." + </p> + <p> + "They'll do very well for us," said his friend. + </p> + <p> + "No, don't you take them!" cried the shepherd in alarm; "I + tell you they went bad months ago, and 'twould kill anyone to + eat such stuff. They've dried up now, and are dry and black + as old skin." + </p> + <p> + "That doesn't matter—we know how to make them all + right," said the gipsy. "Soaked with a little salt, then + boiled, they'll do very well." And off he carried them. + </p> + <p> + In reading the reports of the Assizes held at Salisbury from + the late eighteenth century down to about 1840, it surprised + me to find how rarely a gipsy appeared in that long, sad, + monotonous procession of "criminals" who passed before the + man sitting with his black cap on his head, and were sent to + the gallows or to the penal settlements for stealing sheep + and fowls and ducks or anything else. Yet the gipsies were + abundant then as now, living the same wild, lawless life, + quartering the country, and hanging round the villages to spy + out everything stealable. The man caught was almost + invariably the poor, slow-minded, heavy-footed agricultural + labourer; the light, quick-moving, cunning gipsy escaped. In + the "Salisbury Journal" for 1820 I find a communication on + this subject, in which the writer says that a common trick of + the gipsies was to dig a deep pit at their camp in which to + bury a stolen sheep, and on this spot they would make their + camp fire. If the sheep was not missed, or if no report of + its loss was made to the police, the thieves would soon be + able to dig it up and enjoy it; but if inquiries were made + they would have to wait until the affair had blown over. + </p> + <p> + It amused me to find, from an incident related to me by a + workman in a village where I was staying lately, that this + simple, ancient device is still practised by the gipsies. My + informant said that on going out at about four o'clock one + morning during the late summer he was surprised at seeing two + gipsies with a pony and cart at the spot where a party of + them had been encamped a fortnight before. He watched them, + himself unseen, and saw that they were digging a pit on the + spot where they had had their fire. They took out several + objects from the ground, but he was too far away to make out + what they were. They put them in the cart and covered them + over, then filled up the pit, trampled the earth well down, + and put the ashes and burnt sticks back in the same place, + after which they got into the cart and drove off. + </p> + <p> + Of course a man, even a nomad, must have some place to + conceal his treasures or belongings in, and the gipsy has no + cellar nor attic nor secret cupboard, and as for his van it + is about the last place in which he would bestow anything of + value or incriminating, for though he is always on the move, + he is, moving or sitting still, always under a cloud. The + ground is therefore the safest place to hide things in, + especially in a country like the Wiltshire Downs, though he + may use rocks and hollow trees in other districts. His habit + is that of the jay and magpie, and of the dog with a bone to + put by till it is wanted. Possibly the rural police have not + yet discovered this habit of the gipsy. Indeed, the contrast + in mind and locomotive powers between the gipsy and the + village policeman has often amused me; the former most like + the thievish jay, ever on mischief bent; the other, who has + his eye on him, is more like the portly Cochin-China fowl of + the farmyard, or the Muscovy duck, or stately gobbler. + </p> + <p> + To go back. When the buried sheep had to be kept too long + buried and was found "gone bad" when disinterred, I fancy it + made little difference to the diners. One remembers Thoreau's + pleasure at the spectacle of a crowd of vultures feasting on + the carrion of a dead horse; the fine healthy appetite and + boundless vigour of nature filled him with delight. But it is + not only some of the lower animals—dogs and vultures, + for instance—which possess this power and immunity from + the effects of poisons developed in putrid meat; the + Greenlanders and African savages, and many other peoples in + various parts of the world, have it as well. + </p> + <p> + Sometimes when sitting with gipsies at their wild hearth, I + have felt curious as to the contents of that black pot + simmering over the fire. No doubt it often contains strange + meats, but it would not have been etiquette to speak of such + a matter. It is like the pot on the fire of the Venezuela + savage into which he throws whatever he kills with his little + poisoned arrows or fishes out of the river. Probably my only + quarrel with them would be about the little fledgelings: it + angers me to see them beating the bushes in spring in search + of small nesties and the callow young that are in them. After + all, the gipsies could retort that my friends the jays and + magpies are at the same business in April and May. + </p> + <p> + It is just these habits of the gipsy which I have described, + shocking to the moralist and sanitarian and disgusting to the + person of delicate stomach, it may be, which please me, + rather than the romance and poetry which the scholar-gipsy + enthusiasts are fond of reading into him. He is to me a wild, + untameable animal of curious habits, and interests me as a + naturalist accordingly. It may be objected that being a + naturalist occupied with the appearance of things, I must + inevitably miss the one thing which others find. + </p> + <p> + In a talk I had with a gipsy a short time ago, he said to me: + "You know what the books say, and we don't. But we know other + things that are not in the books, and that's what we have. + It's ours, our own, and you can't know it." + </p> + <p> + It was well put; but I was not perhaps so entirely ignorant + as he imagined of the nature of that special knowledge, or + shall we say faculty, which he claimed. I take it to be + cunning—the cunning of a wild animal with a man's + brain—and a small, an infinitesimal, dose of something + else which eludes us. But that something else is not of a + spiritual nature: the gipsy has no such thing in him; the + soul growths are rooted in the social instinct, and are + developed in those in whom that instinct is strong. I think + that if we analyse that dose of something else, we will find + that it is still the animal's cunning, a special, a + sublimated cunning, the fine flower of his whole nature, and + that it has nothing mysterious in it. He is a parasite, but + free and as well able to exist free as the fox or jackal; but + the parasitism pays him well, and he has followed it so long + in his intercourse with social man that it has come to be + like an instinct, or secret knowledge, and is nothing more + than a marvellously keen penetration which reveals to him the + character and degree of credulity and other mental weaknesses + of his subject. + </p> + <p> + It is not so much the wind on the heath, brother, as the + fascination of lawlessness, which makes his life an + everlasting joy to him; to pit himself against gamekeeper, + farmer, policeman, and everybody else, and defeat them all, + to flourish like the parasitic fly on the honey in the hive + and escape the wrath of the bees. + </p> + <p> + I must now return from this long digression to my + conversation with the shepherd about the dark people of the + village. + </p> + <p> + There were, I continued, other black-eyed and black-haired + people in the villages who had no gipsy blood in their veins. + So far as I could make out there were dark people of three + originally distinct and widely different races in the + Wiltshire Downs. There was a good deal of mixed blood, no + doubt, and many dark persons could not be identified as + belonging to any particular race. Nevertheless three distinct + types could be traced among the dark people, and I took them + to be, first, the gipsy, rather short of stature, + brown-skinned, with broad face and high cheek-bones, like the + men we had just been speaking of. Secondly, the men and women + of white skins and good features, who had rather broad faces + and round heads, and were physically and mentally just as + good as the best blue-eyed people; these were probably the + descendants of the dark, broad-faced Wilsetas, who came over + at the time when the country was being overrun with the + English and other nations or tribes, and who colonized in + Wiltshire and gave it their name. The third type differed + widely from both the others. They were smallest in size and + had narrow heads and long or oval faces, and were very dark, + with brown skins; they also differed mentally from the + others, being of a more lively disposition and hotter temper. + The characters which distinguish the ancient British or + Iberian race appeared to predominate in persons of this type. + </p> + <p> + The shepherd said he didn't know much about "all that," but + he remembered that they once had a man in the village who was + like the last kind I had described. He was a labourer named + Tark, who had several sons, and when they were grown up there + was a last one born: he had to be the last because his mother + died when she gave him birth; and that last one was like his + father, small, very dark-skinned, with eyes like sloes, and + exceedingly lively and active. + </p> + <p> + Tark, himself, he said, was the liveliest, most amusing man + he had ever known, and the quickest to do things, whatever it + was he was asked to do, but he was not industrious and not + thrifty. The Tarks were always very poor. He had a good ear + for music and was a singer of the old songs—he seemed + to know them all. One of his performances was with a pair of + cymbals which he had made for himself out of some old metal + plates, and with these he used to play while dancing about, + clashing them in time, striking them on his head, his breast, + and legs. In these dances with the cymbals he would whirl and + leap about in an astonishing way, standing sometimes on his + hands, then on his feet, so that half the people in the + village used to gather at his cottage to watch his antics on + a summer evening. + </p> + <p> + One afternoon he was coming down the village street and saw + the blacksmith standing near his cottage looking up at a tall + fir-tree which grew there on his ground. "What be looking + at?" cried Tark. The blacksmith pointed to a branch, the + lowest branch of all, but about forty feet from the ground, + and said a chaffinch had his nest in it, about three feet + from the trunk, which his little son had set his heart on + having. He had promised to get it down for him, but there was + no long ladder and he didn't know how to get it. + </p> + <p> + Tark laughed and said that for half a gallon of beer he would + go up legs first and take the nest and bring it down in one + hand, which he would not use in climbing, and would come down + as he went up, head first. + </p> + <p> + "Do it, then," said the blacksmith, "and I'll stand the half + gallon." + </p> + <p> + Tark ran to the tree, and turning over and standing on his + hands, clasped the bole with his legs and then with his arms + and went up to the branch, when taking the nest and holding + it in one hand, he came down head first to the ground in + safety. + </p> + <p> + There were other anecdotes of his liveliness and agility. + Then followed the story of the youngest son, known as Liddy. + "I don't rightly know," said Caleb, "what the name was he was + given when they christened 'n; but he were always called + Liddy, and nobody knowed any other name for him." + </p> + <p> + Liddy's grown-up brothers all left home when he was a small + boy: one enlisted and was sent to India and never returned; + the other two went to America, so it was said. He was twelve + years old when his father died, and he had to shift for + himself; but he was no worse off on that account, as they had + always been very poor owing to poor Tark's love of beer. + Before long he got employed by a small working farmer who + kept a few cows and a pair of horses and used to buy wethers + to fatten them, and these the boy kept on the down. + </p> + <p> + Liddy was always a "leetel chap," and looked no more than + nine when twelve, so that he could do no heavy work; but he + was a very willing and active little fellow, with a sweet + temper, and so lively and full of fun as to be a favourite + with everybody in the village. The men would laugh at his + pranks, especially when he came from the fields on the old + plough horse and urged him to a gallop, sitting with his face + to the tail; and they would say that he was like his father, + and would never be much good except to make people laugh. But + the women had a tender feeling for him, because, although + motherless and very poor, he yet contrived to be always clean + and neat. He took the greatest care of his poor clothes, + washing and mending them himself. He also took an intense + interest in his wethers, and almost every day he would go to + Caleb, tending his flock on the down, to sit by him and ask a + hundred questions about sheep and their management. He looked + on Caleb, as head-shepherd on a good-sized farm, as the most + important and most fortunate person he knew, and was very + proud to have him as guide, philosopher, and friend. + </p> + <p> + Now it came to pass that once in a small lot of thirty or + forty wethers which the farmer had bought at a sheep-fair and + brought home it was discovered that one was a ewe—a ewe + that would perhaps at some future day have a lamb! Liddy was + greatly excited at the discovery; he went to Caleb and told + him about it, almost crying at the thought that his master + would get rid of it. For what use would it be to him? but + what a loss it would be! And at last, plucking up courage, he + went to the farmer and begged and prayed to be allowed to + keep the ewe, and the farmer laughed at him; but he was a + little touched at the boy's feeling, and at last consented. + Then Liddy was the happiest boy in the village, and whenever + he got the chance he would go out to Caleb on the down to + talk about and give him news of the one beloved ewe. And one + day, after about nineteen or twenty weeks, Caleb, out with + his flock, heard shouts at a distance, and, turning to look, + saw Liddy coming at great speed towards him, shouting out + some great news as he ran; but what it was Caleb could not + make out, even when the little fellow had come to him, for + his excitement made him incoherent. The ewe had lambed, and + there were twins—two strong healthy lambs, most + beautiful to see! Nothing so wonderful had ever happened in + his life before! And now he sought out his friend oftener + than ever, to talk of his beloved lambs, and to receive the + most minute directions about their care. Caleb, who is not a + laughing man, could not help laughing a little when he + recalled poor Liddy's enthusiasm. But that beautiful shining + chapter in the poor boy's life could not last, and when the + lambs were grown they were sold, and so were all the wethers, + then Liddy, not being wanted, had to find something else to + do. + </p> + <p> + I was too much interested in this story to let the subject + drop. What had been Liddy's after-life? Very uneventful: + there was, in fact, nothing in it, nor in him, except an + intense love for all things, especially animals; and nothing + happened to him until the end, for he has been dead now these + nine or ten years. In his next place he was engaged, first, + as carter's boy, and then under-carter, and all his love was + lavished on the horses. They were more to him than sheep, and + he could love them without pain, since they were not being + prepared for the butcher with his abhorred knife. Liddy's + love and knowledge of horses became known outside of his own + little circle, and he was offered and joyfully accepted a + place in the stables of a wealthy young gentleman farmer, who + kept a large establishment and was a hunting man. From + stable-boy he was eventually promoted to groom. Occasionally + he would reappear in his native place. His home was but a few + miles away, and when out exercising a horse he appeared to + find it a pleasure to trot down the old street, where as a + farmer's boy he used to make the village laugh at his antics. + But he was very much changed from the poor boy, who was often + hatless and barefooted, to the groom in his neat, + well-fitting black suit, mounted on a showy horse. + </p> + <p> + In this place he continued about thirty years, and was + married and had several children and was very happy, and then + came a great disaster. His employer having met with heavy + losses sold all his horses and got rid of his servants, and + Liddy had to go. This great change, and above all his grief + at the loss of his beloved horses, was more than he could + endure. He became melancholy and spent his days in silent + brooding, and by and by, to everybody's surprise, Liddy fell + ill, for he was in the prime of life and had always been + singularly healthy. Then to astonish people still more, he + died. What ailed him—what killed him? every one asked + of the doctor; and his answer was that he had no + disease—that nothing ailed him except a broken heart; + and that was what killed poor Liddy. + </p> + <p> + In conclusion I will relate a little incident which occurred + several months later, when I was again on a visit to my old + friend the shepherd. We were sitting together on a Sunday + evening, when his old wife looked out and said, "Lor, here be + Mrs. Taylor with her children coming in to see us." And Mrs. + Taylor soon appeared, wheeling her baby in a perambulator, + with two little girls following. She was a comely, round, + rosy little woman, with black hair, black eyes, and a + singularly sweet expression, and her three pretty little + children were like her. She stayed half an hour in pleasant + chat, then went her way down the road to her home. Who, I + asked, was Mrs. Taylor? + </p> + <p> + Bawcombe said that in a way she was a native of their old + village of Winterbourne Bishop: at least her father was. She + had married a man who had taken a farm near them, and after + having known her as a young girl they had been glad to have + her again as a neighbour. "She's a daughter of that Liddy I + told 'ee about some time ago," he said. + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p><a name="ch20"><!--Marker--></a> + <h2> + CHAPTER XX + </h2> + <h3> + SOME SHEEP-DOGS + </h3> + <blockquote> + Breaking a sheep-dog—The shepherd buys a pup—His + training—He refuses to work—He chases a swallow + and is put to death—The shepherd's remorse—Bob, + the sheep-dog—How he was bitten by an + adder—Period of the dog's receptivity—Tramp, the + sheep-dog—Roaming lost about the country—A rage + of hunger—Sheep-killing dogs—Dogs running + wild—Anecdotes—A Russian sheep-dog—Caleb + parts with Tramp + </blockquote> + <p> + To Caleb the proper training of a dog was a matter of the + very first importance. A man, he considered, must have not + only a fair amount of intelligence, but also experience, and + an even temper, and a little sympathy as well, to sum up the + animal in hand—its special aptitudes, its limitations, + its disposition, and that something in addition, which he + called a "kink," and would probably have described as its + idiosyncrasy if he had known the word. There was as much + individual difference among dogs as there is in boys; but if + the breed was right, and you went the right way about it, you + could hardly fail to get a good servant. If a dog was not + properly broken, if its trainer had not made the most of it, + he was not a "good shepherd": he lacked the + intelligence—"understanding" was his word—or else + the knowledge or patience or persistence to do his part. It + was, however, possible for the best shepherd to make + mistakes, and one of the greatest to be made, which was not + uncommon, was to embark on the long and laborious business of + training an animal of mixed blood—a sheep-dog with a + taint of terrier, retriever, or some other unsuitable breed + in him. In discussing this subject with other shepherds I + generally found that those who were in perfect agreement with + Caleb on this point were men who were somewhat like him in + character, and who regarded their work with the sheep as so + important that it must be done thoroughly in every detail and + in the best way. One of the best shepherds I know, who is + sixty years old and has been on the same downland sheep-farm + all his life, assures me that he has never had and never + would have a dog which was trained by another. But the + shepherd of the ordinary kind says that he doesn't care much + about the animal's parentage, or that he doesn't trouble to + inquire into its pedigree: he breaks the animal, and finds + that he does pretty well, even when he has some strange blood + in him; finally, that all dogs have faults and you must put + up with them. Caleb would say of such a man that he was not a + "good shepherd." One of his saddest memories was of a dog + which he bought and broke without having made the necessary + inquiries about its parentage. + </p> + <p> + It happened that a shepherd of the village, who had taken a + place at a distant farm, was anxious to dispose of a litter + of pups before leaving, and he asked Caleb to have one. Caleb + refused. "My dog's old, I know," he said, "but I don't want a + pup now and I won't have 'n." + </p> + <p> + A day or two later the man came back and said he had kept one + of the best of the five for him—he had got rid of all + the others. "You can't do better," he persisted. "No," said + Caleb, "what I said I say again. I won't have 'n, I've no + money to buy a dog." + </p> + <p> + "Never mind about money," said the other. "You've got a bell + I like the sound of; give he to me and take the pup." And so + the exchange was made, a copper bell for a nice black pup + with a white collar; its mother, Bawcombe knew, was a good + sheep-dog, but about the other parent he made no inquiries. + </p> + <p> + On receiving the pup he was told that its name was Tory, and + he did not change it. It was always difficult, he explained, + to find a name for a dog—a name, that is to say, which + anyone would say was a proper name for a dog and not a + foolish name. One could think of a good many proper + names—Jack and Watch, and so on—but in each case + one would remember some dog which had been called by that + name, and it seemed to belong to that particular + well-remembered dog and to no other, and so in the end + because of this difficulty he allowed the name to remain. + </p> + <p> + The dog had not cost him much to buy, but as it was only a + few weeks old he had to keep it at his own cost for fully six + months before beginning the business of breaking it, which + would take from three to six months longer. A dog cannot be + put to work before he is quite half a year old unless he is + exceptionally vigorous. Sheep are timid creatures, but not + unintelligent, and they can distinguish between the seasoned + old sheep-dog, whose furious onset and bite they fear, and + the raw young recruit as easily as the rook can distinguish + between the man with a gun and the man of straw with a + broomstick under his arm. They will turn upon and attack the + young dog, and chase him away with his tail between his legs. + He will also work too furiously for his strength and then + collapse, with the result that he will make a cowardly + sheep-dog, or, as the shepherds say, "brokenhearted." + </p> + <p> + Another thing. He must be made to work at first with an old + sheep-dog, for though he has the impulse to fly about and do + something, he does not know what to do and does not + understand his master's gestures and commands. He must have + an object-lesson, he must see the motion and hear the word + and mark how the old dog flies to this or that point and what + he does. The word of command or the gesture thus becomes + associated in his mind with a particular action on his part. + But he must not be given too many object-lessons or he will + lose more than he will gain—a something which might + almost be described as a sense of individual responsibility. + That is to say, responsibility to the human master who + delegates his power to him. Instead of taking his power + directly from the man he takes it from the dog, and this + becomes a fixed habit so quickly that many shepherds say that + if you give more than from three to six lessons of this kind + to a young dog you will spoil him. He will need the + mastership of the other dog, and will thereafter always be at + a loss and work in an uncertain way. + </p> + <p> + A timid or unwilling young dog is often coupled with the old + dog two or three times, but this method has its dangers too, + as it may be too much for the young dog's strength, and give + him that "broken-heart" from which he will never recover; he + will never be a good sheep-dog. + </p> + <p> + To return to Tory. In due time he was trained and proved + quick to learn and willing to work, so that before long he + began to be useful and was much wanted with the sheep, as the + old dog was rapidly growing stiffer on his legs and harder of + hearing. + </p> + <p> + One day the lambs were put into a field which was half clover + and half rape, and it was necessary to keep them on the + clover. This the young dog could not or would not understand; + again and again he allowed the lambs to go to the rape, which + so angered Caleb that he threw his crook at him. Tory turned + and gave him a look, then came very quietly and placed + himself behind his master. From that moment he refused to + obey, and Bawcombe, after exhausting all his arts of + persuasion, gave it up and did as well as he could without + his assistance. + </p> + <p> + That evening after folding-time he by chance met a shepherd + he was well acquainted with and told him of the trouble he + was in over Tory. + </p> + <p> + "You tie him up for a week," said the shepherd, "and treat + him well till he forgets all about it, and he'll be the same + as he was before you offended him. He's just like old + Tom—he's got his father's temper." + </p> + <p> + "What's that you say?" exclaimed Bawcombe. "Be you saying + that Tory's old Tom's son? I'd never have taken him if I'd + known that. Tom's not pure-bred—he's got retriever's + blood." + </p> + <p> + "Well, 'tis known, and I could have told 'ee, if thee'd asked + me," said the shepherd. "But you do just as I tell 'ee, and + it'll be all right with the dog." + </p> + <p> + Tory was accordingly tied up at home and treated well and + spoken kindly to and patted on the head, so that there would + be no unpleasantness between master and servant, and if he + was an intelligent animal he would know that the crook had + been thrown not to hurt but merely to express disapproval of + his naughtiness. + </p> + <p> + Then came a busy day for the shepherd, when the lambs were + trimmed before being taken to the Wilton sheep-fair. There + was Bawcombe, his boy, the decrepit old dog, and Tory to do + the work, but when the time came to start Tory refused to do + anything. + </p> + <p> + When sent to turn the lambs he walked off to a distance of + about twenty yards, sat down and looked at his master. Caleb + hoped he would come round presently when he saw them all at + work, and so they did the best they could without him for a + time; but the old dog was stiffer and harder of hearing than + ever, and as they could not get on properly Caleb went at + intervals to Tory and tried to coax him to give them his + help; and every time he was spoken to he would get up and + come to his master, then when ordered to do something he + would walk off to the spot where he had chosen to be and + calmly sit down once more and look at them. Caleb was + becoming more and more incensed, but he would not show it to + the dog; he still hoped against hope; and then a curious + thing happened. A swallow came skimming along close to the + earth and passed within a yard of Tory, when up jumped the + dog and gave chase, darting across the field with such speed + that he kept very near the bird until it rose and passed over + the hedge at the farther side. The joyous chase over Tory + came back to his old place, and sitting on his haunches began + watching them again struggling with the lambs. It was more + than the shepherd could stand; he went deliberately up to the + dog, and taking him by the straw collar still on his neck + drew him quietly away to the hedge-side and bound him to a + bush, then getting a stout stick he came back and gave him + one blow on the head. So great was the blow that the dog made + not the slightest sound: he fell; his body quivered a moment + and his legs stretched out—he was quite dead. Bawcombe + then plucked an armful of bracken and threw it over his body + to cover it, and going back to the hurdles sent the boy home, + then spreading his cloak at the hedge-side, laid himself down + on it and covered his head. + </p> + <p> + An hour later the fanner appeared on the scene. "What are you + doing here, shepherd?" he demanded in surprise. "Not trimming + the lambs!" + </p> + <p> + Bawcombe, raising himself on his elbow, replied that he was + not trimming the lambs—that he would trim no lambs that + day. + </p> + <p> + "Oh, but we must get on with the trimming!" cried the farmer. + </p> + <p> + Bawcombe returned that the dog had put him out, and now the + dog was dead—he had killed him in his anger, and he + would trim no more lambs that day. He had said it and would + keep to what he had said. + </p> + <p> + Then the farmer got angry and said that the dog had a very + good nose and would have been useful to him to take rabbits. + </p> + <p> + "Master," said the other, "I got he when he were a pup and + broke 'n to help me with the sheep and not to catch rabbits; + and now I've killed 'n and he'll catch no rabbits." + </p> + <p> + The farmer knew his man, and swallowing his anger walked off + without another word. + </p> + <p> + Later on in the day he was severely blamed by a shepherd + friend who said that he could easily have sold the dog to one + of the drovers, who were always anxious to pick up a dog in + their village, and he would have had the money to repay him + for his trouble; to which Bawcombe returned, "If he wouldn't + work for I that broke 'n he wouldn't work for another. But + I'll never again break a dog that isn't pure-bred." + </p> + <p> + But though he justified himself he had suffered remorse for + what he had done; not only at the time, when he covered the + dead dog up with bracken and refused to work any more that + day, but the feeling had persisted all his life, and he could + not relate the incident without showing it very plainly. He + bitterly blamed himself for having taken the pup and for + spending long months in training him without having first + taken pains to inform himself that there was no bad blood in + him. And although the dog was perhaps unfit to live he had + finally killed him in anger. If it had not been for that + sudden impetuous chase after a swallow he would have borne + with him and considered afterwards what was to be done; but + that dash after the bird was more than he could stand; for it + looked as if Tory had done it purposely, in something of a + mocking spirit, to exhibit his wonderful activity and speed + to his master, sweating there at his task, and make him see + what he had lost in offending him. + </p> + <p> + The shepherd gave another instance of a mistake he once made + which caused him a good deal of pain. It was the case of a + dog named Bob which he owned when a young man. He was an + exceptionally small dog, but his quick intelligence made up + for lack of strength, and he was of a very lively + disposition, so that he was a good companion to a shepherd as + well as a good servant. + </p> + <p> + One summer day at noon Caleb was going to his flock in the + fields, walking by a hedge, when he noticed Bob sniffing + suspiciously at the roots of an old holly-tree growing on the + bank. It was a low but very old tree with a thick trunk, + rotten and hollow inside, the cavity being hidden with the + brushwood growing up from the roots. As he came abreast of + the tree, Bob looked up and emitted a low whine, that sound + which says so much when used by a dog to his master and which + his master does not always rightly understand. At all events + he did not do so in this case. It was August and the shooting + had begun, and Caleb jumped to the conclusion that a wounded + bird had crept into the hollow tree to hide, and so to Bob's + whine, which expressed fear and asked what he was to do, the + shepherd answered, "Get him." Bob dashed in, but quickly + recoiled, whining in a piteous way, and began rubbing his + face on his legs. Bawcombe in alarm jumped down and peered + into the hollow trunk and heard a slight rustling of dead + leaves, but saw nothing. His dog had been bitten by an adder, + and he at once returned to the village, bitterly blaming + himself for the mistake he had made and greatly fearing that + he would lose his dog. Arrived at the village his mother at + once went off to the down to inform Isaac of the trouble and + ask him what they were to do. Caleb had to wait some time, as + none of the villagers who gathered round could suggest a + remedy, and in the meantime Bob continued rubbing his cheek + against his foreleg, twitching and whining with pain; and + before long the face and head began to swell on one side, the + swelling extending to the nape and downwards to the throat. + Presently Isaac himself, full of concern, arrived on the + scene, having left his wife in charge of the flock, and at + the same time a man from a neighbouring village came riding + by and joined the group. The horseman got off and assisted + Caleb in holding the dog while Isaac made a number of + incisions with his knife in the swollen place and let out + some blood, after which they rubbed the wounds and all the + swollen part with an oil used for the purpose. The + composition of this oil was a secret: it was made by a man in + one of the downland villages and sold at eighteenpence a + small bottle; Isaac was a believer in its efficacy, and + always kept a bottle hidden away somewhere in his cottage. + </p> + <p> + Bob recovered in a few days, but the hair fell out from all + the part which had been swollen, and he was a curious-looking + dog with half his face and head naked until he got his fresh + coat, when it grew again. He was as good and active a dog as + ever, and lived to a good old age, but one result of the + poison he never got over: his bark had changed from a sharp + ringing sound to a low and hoarse one. "He always barked," + said the shepherd, "like a dog with a sore throat." + </p> + <p> + To go back to the subject of training a dog. Once you make a + beginning it must be carried through to a finish. You take + him at the age of six months, and the education must be + fairly complete when he is a year old. He is then lively, + impressionable, exceedingly adaptive; his intelligence at + that period is most like man's; but it would be a mistake to + think that it will continue so—that to what he learns + now in this wonderful half-year, other things may be added by + and by as opportunity arises. At a year he has practically + got to the end of his capacity to learn. He has lost his + human-like receptivity, but what he has been taught will + remain with him for the rest of his life. We can hardly say + that he remembers it; it is more like what is called + "inherited memory" or "lapsed intelligence." + </p> + <p> + All this is very important to a shepherd, and explains the + reason an old head-shepherd had for saying to me that he had + never had, and never would have, a dog he had not trained + himself. No two men follow precisely the same method in + training, and a dog transferred from his trainer to another + man is always a little at a loss; method, voice, gestures, + personality, are all different; his new master must study him + and in a way adapt himself to the dog. The dog is still more + at a loss when transferred from one kind of country to + another where the sheep are worked in a different manner, and + one instance Caleb gave me of this is worth relating. It was, + I thought, one of his best dog stories. + </p> + <p> + His dogs as a rule were bought as pups; occasionally he had + had to get a dog already trained, a painful necessity to a + shepherd, seeing that the pound or two it costs—the + price of an ordinary animal—is a big sum of money to + him. And once in his life he got an old trained sheep-dog for + nothing. He was young then, and acting as under-shepherd in + his native village, when the report came one day that a great + circus and menagerie which had been exhibiting in the west + was on its way to Salisbury, and would be coming past the + village about six o'clock on the following morning. The + turnpike was a little over a mile away, and thither Caleb + went with half a dozen other young men of the village at + about five o'clock to see the show pass, and sat on a gate + beside a wood to wait its coming. In due time the long + procession of horses and mounted men and women, and gorgeous + vans containing lions and tigers and other strange beasts, + came by, affording them great admiration and delight. When it + had gone on and the last van had disappeared at the turning + of the road, they got down from the gate and were about to + set out on their way back when a big, shaggy sheepdog came + out of the wood and running to the road began looking up and + down in a bewildered way. They had no doubt that he belonged + to the circus and had turned aside to hunt a rabbit in the + wood; then, thinking the animal would understand them, they + shouted to it and waved their arms in the direction the + procession had gone. But the dog became frightened, and + turning fled back into cover, and they saw no more of it. + </p> + <p> + Two or three days later it was rumoured that a strange dog + had been seen in the neighbourhood of Winterbourne Bishop, in + the fields; and women and children going to or coming from + outlying cottages and farms had encountered it, sometimes + appearing suddenly out of the furze-bushes and staring wildly + at them; or they would meet him in some deep lane between + hedges, and after standing still a moment eyeing them he + would turn and fly in terror from their strange faces. + Shepherds began to be alarmed for the safety of their sheep, + and there was a good deal of excitement and talk about the + strange dog. Two or three days later Caleb encountered it. He + was returning from his flock at the side of a large grass + field where four or five women were occupied cutting the + thistles, and the dog, which he immediately recognized as the + one he had seen at the turnpike, was following one of the + women about. She was greatly alarmed, and called to him, + "Come here, Caleb, for goodness' sake, and drive this big dog + away! He do look so desprit, I'm afeared of he." + </p> + <p> + "Don't you be feared," he shouted back. "He won't hurt 'ee; + he's starving—don't you see his bones sticking out? + He's asking to be fed." Then going a little nearer he called + to her to take hold of the dog by the neck and keep him while + he approached. He feared that the dog on seeing him coming + would rush away. After a little while she called the dog, but + when he went to her she shrank away from him and called out, + "No, I daren't touch he—he'll tear my hand off. I never + see'd such a desprit-looking beast!" + </p> + <p> + "'Tis hunger," repeated Caleb, and then very slowly and + cautiously he approached, the dog all the time eyeing him + suspiciously, ready to rush away on the slightest alarm. And + while approaching him he began to speak gently to him, then + coming to a stand stooped and patting his legs called the dog + to him. Presently he came, sinking his body lower as he + advanced and at last crawling, and when he arrived at the + shepherd's feet he turned himself over on his back—that + eloquent action which a dog uses when humbling himself before + and imploring mercy from one mightier than himself, man or + dog. + </p> + <p> + Caleb stooped, and after patting the dog gripped him firmly + by the neck and pulled him up, while with his free hand he + undid his leather belt to turn it into a dog's collar and + leash; then, the end of the strap in his hand, he said + "Come," and started home with the dog at his side. Arrived at + the cottage he got a bucket and mixed as much meal as would + make two good feeds, the dog all the time watching him with + his muscles twitching and the water running from his mouth. + The meal well mixed he emptied it out on the turf, and what + followed, he said, was an amazing thing to see: the dog + hurled himself down on the food and started devouring it as + if the mass of meal had been some living savage creature he + had captured and was frenziedly tearing to pieces. He turned + round and round, floundering on the earth, uttering strange + noises like half-choking growls and screams while gobbling + down the meal; then when he had devoured it all he began + tearing up and swallowing the turf for the sake of the little + wet meal still adhering to it. + </p> + <p> + Such rage of hunger Caleb had never seen, and it was painful + to him to think of what the dog had endured during those days + when it had been roaming foodless about the neighbourhood. + Yet it was among sheep all the time—scores of flocks + left folded by night at a distance from the village; one + would have imagined that the old wolf and wild-dog instinct + would have come to life in such circumstances, but the + instinct was to all appearance dead. + </p> + <p> + My belief is that the pure-bred sheep-dog is indeed the last + dog to revert to a state of nature; and that when + sheep-killing by night is traced to a sheep-dog, the animal + has a bad strain in him, of retriever, or cur, or + "rabbit-dog," as the shepherds call all terriers. When I was + a boy on the pampas sheep-killing dogs were common enough, + and they were always curs, or the common dog of the country, + a smooth-haired animal about the size of a coach-dog, red, or + black, or white. I recall one instance of sheep-killing being + traced to our own dogs—we had about six or eight just + then. A native neighbour, a few miles away, caught them at it + one morning; they escaped him in spite of his good horse, + with lasso and bolas also, but his sharp eyes saw them pretty + well in the dim light, and by and by he identified them, and + my father had to pay him for about thirty slain and badly + injured sheep; after which a gallows was erected and our + guardians ignominiously hanged. Here we shoot dogs; in some + countries the old custom of hanging them, which is perhaps + less painful, is still followed. + </p> + <p> + To go back to our story. From that time the stray dog was + Caleb's obedient and affectionate slave, always watching his + face and every gesture, and starting up at his slightest word + in readiness to do his bidding. When put with the flock he + turned out to be a useful sheep-dog, but unfortunately he had + not been trained on the Wiltshire Downs. It was plain to see + that the work was strange to him, that he had been taught in + a different school, and could never forget the old and + acquire a new method. But as to what conditions he had been + reared in or in what district or country no one could guess. + Every one said that he was a sheep-dog, but unlike any + sheep-dog they had ever seen; he was not Wiltshire, nor + Welsh, nor Sussex, nor Scotch, and they could say no more. + Whenever a shepherd saw him for the first time his attention + was immediately attracted, and he would stop to speak with + Caleb. "What sort of a dog do you call that?" he would say. + "I never see'd one just like 'n before." + </p> + <p> + At length one day when passing by a new building which some + workmen had been brought from a distance to erect in the + village, one of the men hailed Caleb and said, "Where did you + get that dog, mate?" + </p> + <p> + "Why do you ask me that?" said the shepherd. + </p> + <p> + "Because I know where he come from: he's a Rooshian, that's + what he is. I've see'd many just like him in the Crimea when + I was there. But I never see'd one before in England." + </p> + <p> + Caleb was quite ready to believe it, and was a little proud + at having a sheep-dog from that distant country. He said that + it also put something new into his mind. He didn't know + nothing about Russia before that, though he had been hearing + so much of our great war there and of all the people that had + been killed. Now he realized that Russia was a great country, + a land where there were hills and valleys and villages, where + there were flocks and herds, and shepherds and sheepdogs just + as in the Wiltshire Downs. He only wished that + Tramp—that was the name he had given his + dog—could have told him his history. + </p> + <p> + Tramp, in spite of being strange to the downs and the + downland sheep-dog's work, would probably have been kept by + Caleb to the end but for his ineradicable passion for hunting + rabbits. He did not neglect his duty, but he would slip away + too often, and eventually when a man who wanted a good dog + for rabbits one day offered Caleb fifteen shillings for + Tramp, he sold him, and as he was taken away to a distance by + his new master, he never saw him again. + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p><a name="ch21"><!--Marker--></a> + <h2> + CHAPTER XXI + </h2> + <h3> + THE SHEPHERD AS NATURALIST + </h3> + <blockquote> + General remarks—Great Ridge Wood—Encounter with a + roe-deer—A hare on a stump—A gamekeeper's + memory—Talk with a gipsy—A strange story of a + hedgehog—A gipsy on memory—The shepherd's feeling + for animals—Anecdote of a shrew—Anecdote of an + owl—Reflex effect of the gamekeeper's calling—We + remember best what we see emotionally + </blockquote> + <p> + It will appear to some of my readers that the interesting + facts about wild life, or rather about animal life, wild and + domestic, gathered in my talks with the old shepherd, do not + amount to much. If this is all there is to show after a long + life spent out of doors, or all that is best worth + preserving, it is a somewhat scanty harvest, they will say. + To me it appears a somewhat abundant one. We field + naturalists, who set down what we see and hear in a notebook, + lest we forget it, do not always bear in mind that it is + exceedingly rare for those who are not naturalists, whose + senses and minds are occupied with other things, to come upon + a new and interesting fact in animal life, or that these + chance observations are quickly forgotten. This was strongly + borne in upon me lately while staying in the village of + Hindon in the neighbourhood of the Great Ridge Wood, which + clothes the summit of the long high down overlooking the vale + of the Wylye. It is an immense wood, mostly of scrub or dwarf + oak, very dense in some parts, in others thin, with open, + barren patches, and like a wild forest, covering altogether + twelve or fourteen square miles—perhaps more. There are + no houses near, and no people in it except a few gamekeepers: + I spent long days in it without meeting a human being. It was + a joy to me to find such a spot in England, so wild and + solitary, and I was filled with pleasing anticipation of all + the wild life I should see in such a place, especially after + an experience I had on my second day in it. I was standing in + an open glade when a cock-pheasant uttered a cry of alarm, + and immediately afterwards, startled by the cry perhaps, a + roe-deer rushed out of the close thicket of oak and holly in + which it had been hiding, and ran past me at a very short + distance, giving me a good sight of this shyest of the large + wild animals still left to us. He looked very beautiful to + me, in that mouse-coloured coat which makes him invisible in + the deep shade in which he is accustomed to pass the daylight + hours in hiding, as he fled across the green open space in + the brilliant May sunshine. But he was only one, a chance + visitor, a wanderer from wood to wood about the land; and he + had been seen once, a month before my encounter with him, and + ever since then the keepers had been watching and waiting for + him, gun in hand, to send a charge of shot into his side. + </p> + <p> + That was the best and the only great thing I saw in the Great + Ridge Wood, for the curse of the pheasant is on it as on all + the woods and forests in Wiltshire, and all wild life + considered injurious to the semi-domestic bird, from the + sparrowhawk to the harrier and buzzard and goshawk, and from + the little mousing weasel to the badger; and all the wild + life that is only beautiful, or which delights us because of + its wildness, from the squirrel to the roe-deer, must be + included in the slaughter. + </p> + <p> + One very long summer day spent in roaming about in this + endless wood, always on the watch, had for sole result, so + far as anything out of the common goes, the spectacle of a + hare sitting on a stump. The hare started up at a distance of + over a hundred yards before me and rushed straight away at + first, then turned, and ran on my left so as to get round to + the side from which I had come. I stood still and watched him + as he moved swiftly over the ground, seeing him not as a hare + but as a dim brown object successively appearing, vanishing, + and reappearing, behind and between the brown tree-trunks, + until he had traced half a circle and was then suddenly lost + to sight. Thinking that he had come to a stand I put my + binocular on the spot where he had vanished, and saw him + sitting on an old oak stump about thirty inches long. It was + a round mossy stump, about eighteen inches in diameter, + standing in a bed of brown dead leaves, with the rough brown + trunks of other dwarf oak-trees on either side of it. The + animal was sitting motionless, in profile, its ears erect, + seeing me with one eye, and was like a carved figure of a + hare set on a pedestal, and had a very striking appearance. + </p> + <p> + As I had never seen such a thing before I thought it was + worth mentioning to a keeper I called to see at his lodge on + my way back in the evening. It had been a blank day, I told + him—a hare sitting on a stump being the only thing I + could remember to tell him. "Well," he said, "you've seen + something I've never seen in all the years I've been in these + woods. And yet, when you come to think of it, it's just what + one might expect a hare would do. The wood is full of old + stumps, and it seems only natural a hare should jump on to + one to get a better view of a man or animal at a distance + among the trees. But I never saw it." + </p> + <p> + What, then, had he seen worth remembering during his long + hours in the wood on that day, or the day before, or on any + day during the last thirty years since he had been policing + that wood, I asked him. He answered that he had seen many + strange things, but he was not now able to remember one to + tell me! He said, further, that the only things he remembered + were those that related to his business of guarding and + rearing the birds; all other things he observed in animals, + however remarkable they might seem to him at the moment, were + things that didn't matter and were quickly forgotten. + </p> + <p> + On the very next day I was out on the down with a gipsy, and + we got talking about wild animals. He was a middle-aged man + and a very perfect specimen of his race—not one of the + blue-eyed and red or light-haired bastard gipsies, but dark + as a Red Indian, with eyes like a hawk, and altogether a + hawk-like being, lean, wiry, alert, a perfectly wild man in a + tame, civilized land. The lean, mouse-coloured lurcher that + followed at his heels was perfect too, in his way—man + and dog appeared made for one another. When this man spoke of + his life, spent in roaming about the country, of his very + perfect health, and of his hatred of houses, the very + atmosphere of any indoor place producing a suffocating and + sickening effect on him, I envied him as I envy birds their + wings and as I can never envy men who live in mansions. His + was the wild, the real life, and it seemed to me that there + was no other worth living. + </p> + <p> + "You know," said he, in the course of our talk about wild + animals, "we are very fond of hedgehogs—we like them + better than rabbits." + </p> + <p> + "Well, so do I," was my remark. I am not quite sure that I + do, but that is what I told him. "But now you talk of + hedgehogs," I said, "it's funny to think that, common as the + animal is, it has some queer habits I can't find anything + about from gamekeepers and others I've talked to on the + subject, or from my own observation. Yet one would imagine + that we know all there is to be known about the little beast; + you'll find his history in a hundred books—perhaps in + five hundred. There's one book about our British animals so + big you'd hardly be able to lift its three volumes from the + ground with all your strength, in which its author has raked + together everything known about the hedgehog, but he doesn't + give me the information I want—just what I went to the + book to find. Now here's what a friend of mine once saw. He's + not a naturalist, nor a sportsman, nor a gamekeeper, and not + a gipsy; he doesn't observe animals or want to find out their + ways; he is a writer, occupied day and night with his + writing, sitting among books, yet he saw something which the + naturalists and gamekeepers haven't seen, so far as I know. + He was going home one moonlight night by a footpath through + the woods when he heard a very strange noise a little + distance ahead, a low whistling sound, very sharp, like the + continuous twittering of a little bird with a voice like a + bat, or a shrew, only softer, more musical. He went on very + cautiously, until he spied two hedgehogs standing on the path + facing each other, with their noses almost or quite touching. + He remained watching and listening to them for some moments, + then tried to go a little nearer and they ran away. + </p> + <p> + "Now I've asked about a dozen gamekeepers if they ever saw + such a thing, and all said they hadn't; they never heard + hedgehogs make that twittering sound, like a bird or a + singing mouse; they had only heard them scream like a rabbit + when in a trap. Now what do you say about it?" + </p> + <p> + "I've never seen anything like that," said the gipsy. "I only + know the hedgehog makes a little whistling sound when he + first comes out at night; I believe it is a sort of call they + have." + </p> + <p> + "But no doubt," I said, "you've seen other queer things in + hedgehogs and in other little animals which I should like to + hear." + </p> + <p> + Yes, he had, first and last, seen a good many queer things + both by day and night, in woods and other places, he replied, + and then continued: "But you see it's like this. We see + something and say, 'Now that's a very curious thing!' and + then we forget all about it. You see, we don't lay no store + by such things; we ain't scholards and don't know nothing + about what's said in books. We see something and say + <i>That's</i> something we never saw before and never heard + tell of, but maybe others have seen it and you can find it in + the books. So that's how 'tis, but if I hadn't forgotten them + I could have told you a lot of queer things." + </p> + <p> + That was all he could say, and few can say more. Caleb was + one of the few who could, and one wonders why it was so, + seeing that he was occupied with his own tasks in the fields + and on the down where wild life is least abundant and varied, + and that his opportunities were so few compared with those of + the gamekeeper. It was, I take it, because he had sympathy + for the creatures he observed, that their actions had stamped + themselves on his memory, because he had seen them + emotionally. We have seen how well he remembered the many + sheep-dogs he had owned, how vividly their various characters + are portrayed in his account of them. I have met with + shepherds who had little to tell about the dogs they had + possessed; they had regarded their dogs as useful servants + and nothing more as long as they lived, and when dead they + were forgotten. But Caleb had a feeling for his dogs which + made it impossible for him to forget them or to recall them + without that tenderness which accompanies the thought of + vanished human friends. In a lesser degree he had something + of this feeling for all animals, down even to the most minute + and unconsidered. I recall here one of his anecdotes of a + very small creature—a shrew, or over-runner, as he + called it. + </p> + <p> + One day when out with his flock a sudden storm of rain caused + him to seek for shelter in an old untrimmed hedge close by. + He crept into the ditch, full of old dead leaves beneath the + tangle of thorns and brambles, and setting his back against + the bank he thrust his legs out, and as he did so was + startled by an outburst of shrill little screams at his feet. + Looking down he spied a shrew standing on the dead leaves + close to his boot, screaming with all its might, its long + thin snout pointed upwards and its mouth wide open; and just + above it, two or three inches perhaps, hovered a small brown + butterfly. There for a few moments it continued hovering + while the shrew continued screaming; then the butterfly + flitted away and the shrew disappeared among the dead leaves. + </p> + <p> + Caleb laughed (a rare thing with him) when he narrated this + little incident, then remarked: "The over-runner was a-crying + 'cause he couldn't catch that leetel butterfly." + </p> + <p> + The shepherd's inference was wrong; he did not know—few + do—that the shrew has the singular habit, when + surprised on the surface and in danger, of remaining + motionless and uttering shrill cries. His foot, set down + close to it, had set it screaming; the small butterfly, no + doubt disturbed at the same moment, was there by chance. I + recall here another little story he related of a bird—a + long-eared owl. + </p> + <p> + One summer there was a great drought, and the rooks, unable + to get their usual food from the hard, sun-baked + pasture-lands, attacked the roots and would have pretty well + destroyed them if the farmer had not protected his swedes by + driving in stakes and running cotton-thread and twine from + stake to stake all over the field. This kept them off, just + as thread keeps the chaffinches from the seed-beds in small + gardens, and as it keeps the sparrows from the crocuses on + lawn and ornamental grounds. One day Caleb caught sight of an + odd-looking, brownish-grey object out in the middle of the + turnip-field, and as he looked it rose up two or three feet + into the air, then dropped back again, and this curious + movement was repeated at intervals of two or three minutes + until he went to see what the thing was. It turned out to be + a long-eared owl, with its foot accidentally caught by a + slack thread, which allowed the bird to rise a couple of feet + into the air; but every such attempt to escape ended in its + being pulled back to the ground again. It was so excessively + lean, so weightless in his hand, when he took it up after + disengaging its foot, that he thought it must have been + captive for the space of two or three days. The wonder was + that it had kept alive during those long midsummer days of + intolerable heat out there in the middle of the burning + field. Yet it was in very fine feather and beautiful to look + at with its long, black ear-tufts and round, orange-yellow + eyes, which would never lose their fiery lustre until glazed + in death. Caleb's first thought on seeing it closely was that + it would have been a prize to anyone who liked to have a + handsome bird stuffed in a glass case. Then raising it over + his head he allowed it to fly, whereupon it flew off a + distance of a dozen or fifteen yards and pitched among the + turnips, after which it ran a little space and rose again + with labour, but soon recovering strength it flew away over + the field and finally disappeared in the deep shade of the + copse beyond. + </p> + <p> + In relating these things the voice, the manner, the + expression in his eyes were more than the mere words, and + displayed the feeling which had caused these little incidents + to endure so long in his memory. + </p> + <p> + The gamekeeper cannot have this feeling: he may come to his + task with the liveliest interest in, even with sympathy for, + the wild creatures amidst which he will spend his life, but + it is all soon lost. His business in the woods is to kill, + and the reflex effect is to extinguish all interest in the + living animal—in its life and mind. It would, indeed, + be a wonderful thing if he could remember any singular action + or appearance of an animal which he had witnessed before + bringing his gun automatically to his shoulder. + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p><a name="ch22"><!--Marker--></a> + <h2> + CHAPTER XXII + </h2> + <h3> + THE MASTER OF THE VILLAGE + </h3> + <blockquote> + Moral effect of the great man—An orphaned + village—The masters of the village.—Elijah + Raven—Strange appearance and character—Elijah's + house—The owls—Two rooms in the + house—Elijah hardens with time—The village club + and its arbitrary secretary—Caleb dips the lambs and + falls ill—His claim on the club rejected—Elijah + in court + </blockquote> + <p> + In my roamings about the downs it is always a relief—a + positive pleasure in fact—to find myself in a village + which has no squire or other magnificent and munificent + person who dominates everybody and everything, and, if he + chooses to do so, plays providence in the community. I may + have no personal objection to him—he is sometimes + almost if not quite human; what I heartily dislike is the + effect of his position (that of a giant among pigmies) on the + lowly minds about him, and the servility, hypocrisy, and + parasitism which spring up and flourish in his wide shadow + whether he likes these moral weeds or not. As a rule he likes + them, since the poor devil has this in common with the rest + of us, that he likes to stand high in the general regard. But + how is he to know it unless he witnesses its outward + beautiful signs every day and every hour on every countenance + he looks upon? Better, to my mind, the severer conditions, + the poverty and unmerited sufferings which cannot be + relieved, with the greater manliness and self-dependence when + the people are left to work out their own destiny. On this + account I was pleased to make the discovery on my first visit + to Caleb's native village that there was no magnate, or other + big man, and no gentleman except the parson, who was not a + rich man. It was, so to speak, one of the orphaned villages + left to fend for itself and fight its own way in a hard + world, and had nobody even to give the customary blankets and + sack of coals to its old women. Nor was there any very big + farmer in the place, certainly no gentleman farmer; they were + mostly small men, some of them hardly to be distinguished in + speech and appearance from their hired labourers. + </p> + <p> + In these small isolated communities it is common to find men + who have succeeded in rising above the others and in + establishing a sort of mastery over them. They are not as a + rule much more intelligent than the others who are never able + to better themselves; the main difference is that they are + harder and more grasping and have more self-control. These + qualities tell eventually, and set a man a little apart, a + little higher than the others, and he gets the taste of + power, which reacts on him like the first taste of blood on + the big cat. Henceforward he has his ideal, his definite + goal, which is to get the upper hand—to be on top. He + may be, and generally is, an exceedingly unpleasant fellow to + have for a neighbour—mean, sordid, greedy, tyrannous, + even cruel, and he may be generally hated and despised as + well, but along with these feelings there will be a kind of + shamefaced respect and admiration for his courage in + following his own line in defiance of what others think and + feel. It is after all with man as with the social animals: he + must have a master—not a policeman, or magistrate, or a + vague, far-away, impersonal something called the authorities + or the government; but a head of the pack or herd, a being + like himself whom he knows and sees and hears and feels every + day. A real man, dressed in old familiar clothes, a + fellow-villager, who, wolf or dog-like, has fought his way to + the mastership. + </p> + <p> + There was a person of this kind at Winterbourne Bishop who + was often mentioned in Caleb's reminiscences, for he had left + a very strong impression on the shepherd's mind—as + strong, perhaps, though in a disagreeable way, as that of + Isaac his father, and of Mr. Ellerby of Doveton. For not only + was he a man of great force of character, but he was of + eccentric habits and of a somewhat grotesque appearance. The + curious name of this person was Elijah Raven. He was a native + of the village and lived till extreme old age in it, the last + of his family, in a small house inherited from his father, + situated about the centre of the village street. It was a + quaint, old, timbered house, little bigger than a cottage, + with a thatched roof, and behind it some outbuildings, a + small orchard, and a field of a dozen or fifteen acres. Here + he lived with one other person, an old man who did the + cooking and housework, but after this man died he lived + alone. Not only was he a bachelor, but he would never allow + any woman to come inside his house. Elijah's one idea was to + get the advantage of others—to make himself master in + the village. Beginning poor, he worked in a small, cautious, + peddling way at farming, taking a field or meadow or strip of + down here and there in the neighbourhood, keeping a few + sheep, a few cows, buying and selling and breeding horses. + The men he employed were those he could get at low + wages—poor labourers who were without a place and + wanted to fill up a vacant time, or men like the Targetts + described in a former chapter who could be imposed upon; also + gipsies who flitted about the country, working in a spasmodic + way when in the mood for the farmers who could tolerate them, + and who were paid about half the wages of an ordinary + labourer. If a poor man had to find money quickly, on account + of illness or some other cause, he could get it from Elijah + at once—not borrowed, since Elijah neither lent nor + gave—but he could sell him anything he + possessed—a horse or cow, or sheepdog, or a piece of + furniture; and if he had nothing to sell, Elijah would give + him something to do and pay him something for it. The great + thing was that Elijah had money which he was always willing + to circulate. At his unlamented death he left several + thousands of pounds, which went to a distant relation, and a + name which does not smell sweet, but is still remembered not + only at Winterbourne Bishop but at many other villages on + Salisbury Plain. + </p> + <p> + Elijah was short of stature, broad-shouldered, with an + abnormally big head and large dark eyes. They say that he + never cut his hair in his life. It was abundant and curly, + and grew to his shoulders, and when he was old and his great + mass of hair and beard became white it was said that he + resembled a gigantic white owl. Mothers frightened their + children into quiet by saying, "Elijah will get you if you + don't behave yourself." He knew and resented this, and though + he never noticed a child, he hated to have the little ones + staring in a half-terrified way at him. To seclude himself + more from the villagers he planted holly and yew bushes + before his house, and eventually the entire building was + hidden from sight by the dense evergreen thicket. The trees + were cut down after his death: they were gone when I first + visited the village and by chance found a lodging in the + house, and congratulated myself that I had got the quaintest, + old rambling rooms I had ever inhabited. I did not know that + I was in Elijah Raven's house, although his name had long + been familiar to me: it only came out one day when I asked my + landlady, who was a native, to tell me the history of the + place. She remembered how as a little girl, full of mischief + and greatly daring, she had sometimes climbed over the low + front wall to hide under the thick yew bushes and watch to + catch a sight of the owlish old man at his door or window. + </p> + <p> + For many years Elijah had two feathered tenants, a pair of + white owls—the birds he so much resembled. They + occupied a small garret at the end of his bedroom, having + access to it through a hole under the thatch. They bred there + in peace, and on summer evenings one of the common sights of + the village was Elijah's owls flying from the house behind + the evergreens and returning to it with mice in their talons. + At such seasons the threat to the unruly children would be + varied to "Old Elijah's owls will get you." Naturally, the + children grew up with the idea of the birds and the owlish + old man associated in their minds. + </p> + <p> + It was odd that the two very rooms which Elijah had occupied + during all those solitary years, the others being given over + to spiders and dust, should have been assigned to me when I + came to lodge in the house. The first, my sitting-room, was + so low that my hair touched the ceiling when I stood up my + full height; it had a brick floor and a wide old fireplace on + one side. Though so low-ceilinged it was very large and good + to be in when I returned from a long ramble on the downs, + sometimes wet and cold, to sit by a wood fire and warm + myself. At night when I climbed to my bedroom by means of the + narrow, crooked, worm-eaten staircase, with two difficult and + dangerous corners to get round, I would lie awake staring at + the small square patch of greyness in the black interior made + by the latticed window; and listening to the wind and rain + outside, would remember that the sordid, owlish old man had + slept there and stared nightly at that same grey patch in the + dark for very many years. If, I thought, that something of a + man which remains here below to haunt the scene of its past + life is more likely to exist and appear to mortal eyes in the + case of a person of strong individuality, then there is a + chance that I may be visited this night by Elijah Raven his + ghost. But his owlish countenance never appeared between me + and that patch of pale dim light; nor did I ever feel a + breath of cold unearthly air on me. + </p> + <p> + Elijah did not improve with time; the years that made him + long-haired, whiter, and more owl-like also made him more + penurious and grasping, and anxious to get the better of + every person about him. There was scarcely a poor person in + the village—not a field labourer nor shepherd nor + farmer's boy, nor any old woman he had employed, who did not + consider that they had suffered at his hands. The very + poorest could not escape; if he got some one to work for + fourpence a day he would find a reason to keep back a portion + of the small sum due to him. At the same time he wanted to be + well thought of, and at length an opportunity came to him to + figure as one who did not live wholly for himself but rather + as a person ready to go out of his way to help his + neighbours. + </p> + <p> + There had long existed a small benefit society or club in the + village to which most of the farm-hands in the parish + belonged, the members numbering about sixty or seventy. + Subscriptions were paid quarterly, but the rules were not + strict, and any member could take a week or a fortnight + longer to pay; when a member fell ill he received half the + amount of his wages a week from the funds in hand, and once a + year they had a dinner. The secretary was a labourer, and in + time he grew old and infirm and could not hold a pen in his + rheumaticky fingers, and a meeting was held to consider what + was to be done in the matter. It was not an easy one to + settle. There were few members capable of keeping the books + who would undertake the duty, as it was unpaid, and no one + among them well known and trusted by all the members. It was + then that Elijah Raven came to the rescue. He attended the + meeting, which he was allowed to do owing to his being a + person of importance—the only one of that description + in the village; and getting up on his legs he made the offer + to act as secretary himself. This came as a great surprise, + and the offer was at once and unanimously accepted, all + unpleasant feelings being forgotten, and for the first time + in his life Elijah heard himself praised as a disinterested + person, one it was good to have in the village. + </p> + <p> + Things went on very well for a time, and at the yearly dinner + of the club, a few months later, Elijah gave an account of + his stewardship, showing that the club had a surplus of two + hundred pounds. Shortly after this trouble began; Elijah, it + was said, was making use of his position as secretary for his + own private interests and to pay off old scores against those + he disliked. When a man came with his quarterly subscription + Elijah would perhaps remember that this person had refused to + work for him or that he had some quarrel with him, and if the + subscription was overdue he would refuse to take it; he would + tell the man that he was no longer a member, and he also + refused to give sick pay to any applicant whose last + subscription was still due, if he happened to be in Elijah's + black book. By and by he came into collision with Caleb, one + of the villagers against whom he cherished a special grudge, + and this small affair resulted in the dissolution of the + club. + </p> + <p> + At this time Caleb was head-shepherd at Bartle's Cross, a + large farm above a mile and a half from the village. One + excessively hot day in August he had to dip the lambs; it was + very hard work to drive them from the farm over a high down + to the stream a mile below the village, where there was a + dipping place, and he was tired and hot, and in a sweat when + he began the work. With his arms bared to the shoulders he + took and plunged his first lamb into the tank. When engaged + in dipping, he said, he always kept his mouth closed tightly + for fear of getting even a drop of the mixture in it, but on + this occasion it unfortunately happened that the man + assisting him spoke to him and he was compelled to reply, but + had no sooner opened his mouth to speak than the lamb made a + violent struggle in his arms and splashed the water over his + face and into his mouth. He got rid of it as quickly as he + could, but soon began to feel bad, and before the work was + over he had to sit down two or three times to rest. However, + he struggled on to the finish, then took the flock home and + went to his cottage. He could do no more. The farmer came to + see what the matter was, and found him in a fever, with face + and throat greatly swollen. "You look bad," he said; "you + must be off to the doctor." But it was five miles to the + village where the doctor lived, and Bawcombe replied that he + couldn't go. "I'm too bad—I couldn't go, master, if you + offered me money for it," he said. + </p> + <p> + Then the farmer mounted his horse and went himself, and the + doctor came. "No doubt," he said, "you've got some of the + poison into your system and took a chill at the same time." + The illness lasted six weeks, and then the shepherd resumed + work, although still feeling very shaky. By and by when the + opportunity came, he went to claim his sick pay—six + shillings a week for the six weeks, his wages being then + twelve shillings. Elijah flatly refused to pay him; his + subscription, he said, had been due for several weeks and he + had consequently forfeited his right to anything. In vain the + shepherd explained that he could not pay when lying ill at + home with no money in the house and receiving no pay from the + farmer. The old man remained obdurate, and with a very heavy + heart the shepherd came out and found three or four of the + villagers waiting in the road outside to hear the result of + the application. + </p> + <p> + They, too, were men who had been turned away from the club by + the arbitrary secretary. Caleb was telling them about his + interview when Elijah came out of the house and, leaning over + the front gate, began to listen. The shepherd then turned + towards him and said in a loud voice: "Mr. Elijah Raven, + don't you think this is a tarrible hard case! I've paid my + subscription every quarter for thirty years and never had + nothing from the fund except two weeks' pay when I were bad + some years ago. Now I've been bad six weeks, and my master + giv' me nothing for that time, and I've got the doctor to pay + and nothing to live on. What am I to do?" + </p> + <p> + Elijah stared at him in silence for some time, then spoke: "I + told you in there I wouldn't pay you one penny of the money + and I'll hold to what I said—in there I said it + indoors, and I say again that indoors I'll never pay + you—no, not one penny piece. But if I happen some day + to meet you out of doors then I'll pay you. Now go." + </p> + <p> + And go he did, very meekly, his wrath going down as he + trudged home; for after all he would have his money by and + by, although the hard old man would punish him for past + offences by making him wait for it. + </p> + <p> + A week or so went by, and then one day while passing through + the village he saw Elijah coming towards him, and said to + himself, Now I'll be paid! When the two men drew near + together he cried out cheerfully, "Good morning, Mr. Raven." + The other without a word and without a pause passed by on his + way, leaving the poor shepherd gazing crestfallen after him. + </p> + <p> + After all he would not get his money! The question was + discussed in the cottages, and by and by one of the villagers + who was not so poor as most of them, and went occasionally to + Salisbury, said he would ask an attorney's advice about the + matter. He would pay for the advice out of his own pocket; he + wanted to know if Elijah could lawfully do such things. + </p> + <p> + To the man's astonishment the attorney said that as the club + was not registered and the members had themselves made Elijah + their head he could do as he liked—no action would lie + against him. But if it was true and it could be proved that + he had spoken those words about paying the shepherd his money + if he met him out of doors, then he could be made to pay. He + also said he would take the case up and bring it into court + if a sum of five pounds was guaranteed to cover expenses in + case the decision went against them. + </p> + <p> + Poor Caleb, with twelve shillings a week to pay his debts and + live on, could guarantee nothing, but by and by when the + lawyer's opinion had been discussed at great length at the + inn and in all the cottages in the village, it was found that + several of Bawcombe's friends were willing to contribute + something towards a guarantee fund, and eventually the sum of + five pounds was raised and handed over to the person who had + seen the lawyer. + </p> + <p> + His first step was to send for Bawcombe, who had to get a day + off and journey in the carrier's cart one market-day to + Salisbury. The result was that action was taken, and in due + time the case came on. Elijah Raven was in court with two or + three of his friends—small working farmers who had some + interested motive in desiring to appear as his supporters. + He, too, had engaged a lawyer to conduct his case. The judge, + said Bawcombe, who had never seen one before, was a tarrible + stern-looking old man in his wig. The plaintiff's lawyer he + did open the case and he did talk and talk a lot, but + Elijah's counsel he did keep on interrupting him, and they + two argued and argued, but the judge he never said no word, + only he looked blacker and more tarrible stern. Then when the + talk did seem all over, Bawcombe, ignorant of the forms, got + up and said, "I beg your lordship's pardon, but may I speak?" + He didn't rightly remember afterwards what he called him, but + 'twere your lordship or your worship, he was sure. "Yes, + certainly, you are here to speak," said the judge, and + Bawcombe then gave an account of his interview with Elijah + and of the conversation outside the house. + </p> + <p> + Then up rose Elijah Raven, and in a loud voice exclaimed, + "Lord, Lord, what a sad thing it is to have to sit here and + listen to this man's lies!" + </p> + <p> + "Sit down, sir," thundered the judge; "sit down and hold your + tongue, or I shall have you removed." + </p> + <p> + Then Elijah's lawyer jumped up, and the judge told him he'd + better sit down too because he knowed who the liar was in + this case. "A brutal case!" he said, and that was the end, + and Bawcombe got his six weeks' sick pay and expenses, and + about three pounds besides, being his share of the society's + funds which Elijah had been advised to distribute to the + members. + </p> + <p> + And that was the end of the Winterbourne Bishop club, and + from that time it has continued without one. + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p><a name="ch23"><!--Marker--></a> + <h2> + CHAPTER XXIII + </h2> + <h3> + ISAAC'S CHILDREN + </h3> + <blockquote> + Isaac Bawcombe's family—The youngest son—Caleb + goes to seek David at Wilton sheep-fair—Martha, the + eldest daughter—Her beauty—She marries Shepherd + Ierat—The name of Ierat—Story of Ellen + Ierat—The Ierats go to Somerset—Martha and the + lady of the manor—Martha's travels—Her mistress + dies—Return to Winterbourne Bishop—Shepherd + Ierat's end + </blockquote> + <p> + Caleb was one of five, the middle one, with a brother and + sister older and a brother and sister younger than + himself—a symmetrical family. I have already written + incidentally of the elder brother and the youngest sister, + and in this chapter will complete the history of Isaac's + children by giving an account of the eldest sister and + youngest brother. + </p> + <p> + The brother was David, the hot-tempered young shepherd who + killed his dog Monk, and who afterwards followed his brother + to Warminster. In spite of his temper and "want of sense" + Caleb was deeply attached to him, and when as an old man his + shepherding days were finished he followed his wife to their + new home, he grieved at being so far removed from his + favourite brother. For some time he managed to make the + journey to visit him once a year. Not to his home near + Warminster, but to Wilton, at the time of the great annual + sheep-fair held on 12th September. From his cottage he would + go by the carrier's cart to the nearest town, and thence by + rail with one or two changes by Salisbury to Wilton. + </p> + <p> + After I became acquainted with Caleb he was ill and not + likely to recover, and for over two years could not get + about. During all this time he spoke often to me of his + brother and wished he could see him. I wondered why he did + not write; but he would not, nor would the other. These + people of the older generation do not write to each other; + years are allowed to pass without tidings, and they wonder + and wish and talk of this and that absent member of the + family, trusting it is well with them, but to write a letter + never enters into their minds. + </p> + <p> + At last Caleb began to mend and determined to go again to + Wilton sheep-fair to look for his beloved brother; to + Warminster he could not go; it was too far. September the + 12th saw him once more at the old meeting-place, painfully + making his slow way to that part of the ground where Shepherd + David Bawcombe was accustomed to put his sheep. But he was + not there. "I be here too soon," said Caleb, and sat himself + patiently down to wait, but hours passed and David did not + appear, so he got up and made his way about the fair in + search of him, but couldn't find 'n. Returning to the old + spot he got into conversation with two young shepherds and + told them he was waiting for his brother who always put his + sheep in that part. "What be his name?" they asked, and when + he gave it they looked at one another and were silent. Then + one of them said, "Be you Shepherd Caleb Bawcombe?" and when + he had answered them the other said, "You'll not see your + brother at Wilton to-day. We've come from Doveton, and knew + he. You'll not see your brother no more. He be dead these two + years." + </p> + <p> + Caleb thanked them for telling him, and got up and went his + way very quietly, and got back that night to his cottage. He + was very tired, said his wife; he wouldn't eat and he + wouldn't talk. Many days passed and he still sat in his + corner and brooded, until the wife was angry and said she + never knowed a man make so great a trouble over losing a + brother. 'Twas not like losing a wife or a son, she said; but + he answered not a word, and it was many weeks before that + dreadful sadness began to wear off, and he could talk + cheerfully once more of his old life in the village. + </p> + <p> + Of the sister, Martha, there is much more to say; her life + was an eventful one as lives go in this quiet downland + country, and she was, moreover, distinguished above the + others of the family by her beauty and vivacity. I only knew + her when her age was over eighty, in her native village where + her life ended some time ago, but even at that age there was + something of her beauty left and a good deal of her charm. + She had a good figure still and was of a good height; and had + dark, fine eyes, clear, dark, unwrinkled skin, a finely + shaped face, and her grey hair, once black, was very + abundant. Her manner, too, was very engaging. At the age of + twenty-five she married a shepherd named Thomas Ierat—a + surname I had not heard before and which made me wonder where + were the Ierats in Wiltshire that in all my rambles among the + downland villages I had never come across them, not even in + the churchyards. Nobody knew—there were no Ierats + except Martha Ierat, the widow, of Winterbourne Bishop and + her son—nobody had ever heard of any other family of + the name. I began to doubt that there ever had been such a + name until quite recently when, on going over an old downland + village church, the rector took me out to show me "a strange + name" on a tablet let into the wall of the building outside. + The name was Ierat and the date the seventeenth century. He + had never seen the name excepting on that tablet. Who, then, + was Martha's husband? It was a queer story which she would + never have told me, but I had it from her brother and his + wife. + </p> + <p> + A generation before that of Martha, at a farm in the village + of Bower Chalk on the Ebble, there was a girl named Ellen + Ierat employed as a dairymaid. She was not a native of the + village, and if her parentage and place of birth were ever + known they have long passed out of memory. She was a + good-looking, nice-tempered girl, and was much liked by her + master and mistress, so that after she had been about two + years in their service it came as a great shock to find that + she was in the family way. The shock was all the greater when + the fresh discovery was made one day that another unmarried + woman in the house, who was also a valued servant, was in the + same condition. The two unhappy women had kept their secret + from every one except from each other until it could be kept + no longer, and they consulted together and determined to + confess it to their mistress and abide the consequences. + </p> + <p> + Who were the men? was the first question asked There was only + one—Robert Coombe, the shepherd, who lived at the + farm-house, a slow, silent, almost inarticulate man, with a + round head and flaxen hair; a bachelor of whom people were + accustomed to say that he would never marry because no woman + would have such a stolid, dull-witted fellow for a husband. + But he was a good shepherd and had been many years on the + farm, and it was altogether a terrible business. Forthwith + the farmer got out his horse and rode to the downs to have it + out with the unconscionable wretch who had brought that shame + and trouble on them. He found him sitting on the turf eating + his midday bread and bacon, with a can of cold tea at his + side, and getting off his horse he went up to him and damned + him for a scoundrel and abused him until he had no words + left, then told his shepherd that he must choose between the + two women and marry at once, so as to make an honest woman of + one of the two poor fools; either he must do that or quit the + farm forthwith. + </p> + <p> + Coombe heard in silence and without a change in his + countenance, masticating his food the while and washing it + down with an occasional draught from his can, until he had + finished his meal; then taking his crook he got up, and + remarking that he would "think of it" went after his flock. + </p> + <p> + The farmer rode back cursing him for a clod; and in the + evening Coombe, after folding his flock, came in to give his + decision, and said he had thought of it and would take Jane + to wife. She was a good deal older than Ellen and not so + good-looking, but she belonged to the village and her people + were there, and everybody knowed who Jane was, an' she was an + old servant an' would be wanted on the farm. Ellen was a + stranger among them, and being only a dairymaid was of less + account than the other one. + </p> + <p> + So it was settled, and on the following morning Ellen, the + rejected, was told to take up her traps and walk. + </p> + <p> + What was she to do in her condition, no longer to be + concealed, alone and friendless in the world? She thought of + Mrs. Poole, an elderly woman of Winterbourne Bishop, whose + children were grown up and away from home, who when staying + at Bower Chalk some months before had taken a great liking + for Ellen, and when parting with her had kissed her and said: + "My dear, I lived among strangers too when I were a girl and + had no one of my own, and know what 'tis." That was all; but + there was nobody else, and she resolved to go to Mrs. Poole, + and so laden with her few belongings she set out to walk the + long miles over the downs to Winterbourne Bishop where she + had never been. It was far to walk in hot August weather when + she went that sad journey, and she rested at intervals in the + hot shade of a furze-bush, haunted all day by the miserable + fear that the woman she sought, of whom she knew so little, + would probably harden her heart and close her door against + her. But the good woman took compassion on her and gave her + shelter in her poor cottage, and kept her till her child was + born, in spite of all the women's bitter tongues. And in the + village where she had found refuge she remained to the end of + her life, without a home of her own, but always in a room or + two with her boy in some poor person's cottage. Her life was + hard but not unpeaceful, and the old people, all dead and + gone now, remembered Ellen as a very quiet, staid woman who + worked hard for a living, sometimes at the wash-tub, but + mostly in the fields, haymaking and harvesting and at other + times weeding, or collecting flints, or with a spud or sickle + extirpating thistles in the pasture-land. She worked alone or + with other poor women, but with the men she had no + friendships; the sharpest women's eyes in the village could + see no fault in her in this respect; if it had not been so, + if she had talked pleasantly with them and smiled when + addressed by them, her life would have been made a burden to + her. She would have been often asked who her brat's father + was. The dreadful experience of that day, when she had been + cast out and was alone in the world, when, burdened with her + unborn child, she had walked over the downs in the hot August + weather, in anguish of apprehension, had sunk into her soul. + Her very nature was changed, and in a man's presence her + blood seemed frozen, and if spoken to she answered in + monosyllables with her eyes on the earth. This was noted, + with the result that all the village women were her good + friends; they never reminded her of her fall, and when she + died still young they grieved for her and befriended the + little orphan boy she had left on their hands. + </p> + <p> + He was then about eleven years old, and was a stout little + fellow with a round head and flaxen hair like his father; but + he was not so stolid and not like him in character; at all + events his old widow in speaking of him to me said that never + in all his life did he do one unkind or unjust thing. He came + from a long line of shepherds, and shepherding was perhaps + almost instinctive in him; from his earliest boyhood the + tremulous bleating of the sheep and half-muffled clink of the + copper bells and the sharp bark of the sheep-dog had a + strange attraction for him. He was always ready when a boy + was wanted to take charge of a flock during a temporary + absence of the shepherd, and eventually, when only about + fifteen, he was engaged as under-shepherd, and for the rest + of his life shepherding was his trade. + </p> + <p> + His marriage to Martha Bawcombe came as a surprise to the + village, for though no one had any fault to find with Tommy + Ierat there was a slur on him, and Martha, who was the finest + girl in the place, might, it was thought, have looked for + some one better. But Martha had always liked Tommy; they were + of the same age and had been playmates in their childhood; + growing up together their childish affection had turned to + love, and after they had waited some years and Tommy had a + cottage and seven shillings a week, Isaac and his wife gave + their consent and they were married. Still they felt hurt at + being discussed in this way by the villagers, so that when + Ierat was offered a place as shepherd at a distance from + home, where his family history was not known, he was glad to + take it and his wife to go with him, about a month after her + child was born. + </p> + <p> + The new place was in Somerset, thirty-five to forty miles + from their native village, and Ierat as shepherd at the + manor-house farm on a large estate would have better wages + than he had ever had before and a nice cottage to live in. + Martha was delighted with her new home—the cottage, the + entire village, the great park and mansion close by, all made + it seem like paradise to her. Better than everything was the + pleasant welcome she received from the villagers, who looked + in to make her acquaintance and seemed very much taken with + her appearance and nice, friendly manner. They were all eager + to tell her about the squire and his lady, who were young, + and of how great an interest they took in their people and + how much they did for them and how they were loved by + everybody on the estate. + </p> + <p> + It happens, oddly enough, that I became acquainted with this + same man, the squire, over fifty years after the events I am + relating, when he was past eighty. This acquaintance came + about by means of a letter he wrote me in reference to the + habits of a bird or some such small matter, a way in which I + have become acquainted with scores—perhaps I should say + hundreds—of persons in many parts of the country. He + was a very fine man, the head of an old and distinguished + county family; an ideal squire, and one of the few large + landowners I have had the happiness to meet who was not + devoted to that utterly selfish and degraded form of sport + which consists in the annual rearing and subsequent slaughter + of a host of pheasants. + </p> + <p> + Now when Martha was entertaining half a dozen of her new + neighbours who had come in to see her, and exhibited her baby + to them and then proceeded to suckle it, they looked at one + another and laughed, and one said, "Just you wait till the + lady at the mansion sees 'ee—she'll soon want 'ee to + nurse her little one." + </p> + <p> + What did they mean? They told her that the great lady was a + mother too, and had a little sickly baby and wanted a nurse + for it, but couldn't find a woman to please her. + </p> + <p> + Martha fired up at that. Did they imagine, she asked, that + any great lady in the world with all her gold could tempt her + to leave her own darling to nurse another woman's? She would + not do such a thing—she would rather leave the place + than submit to it. But she didn't believe it—they had + only said that to tease and frighten her! + </p> + <p> + They laughed again, looking admiringly at her as she stood + before them with sparkling eyes, flushed cheeks, and fine + full bust, and only answered, "Just you wait, my dear, till + she sees 'ee." + </p> + <p> + And very soon the lady did see her. The people at the manor + were strict in their religious observances, and it had been + impressed on Martha that she had better attend at morning + service on her first Sunday, and a girl was found by one of + her neighbours to look after the baby in the meantime. And so + when Sunday came she dressed herself in her best clothes and + went to church with the others. The service over, the squire + and his wife came out first and were standing in the path + exchanging greetings with their friends; then as the others + came out with Martha in the midst of the crowd the lady + turned and fixed her eyes on her, and suddenly stepping out + from the group she stopped Martha and said, "Who are + you?—I don't remember your face." + </p> + <p> + "No, ma'am," said Martha, blushing and curtsying. "I be the + new shepherd's wife at the manor-house farm—we've only + been here a few days." + </p> + <p> + The other then said she had heard of her and that she was + nursing her child, and she then told Martha to go to the + mansion that afternoon as she had something to say to her. + </p> + <p> + The poor young mother went in fear and trembling, trying to + stiffen herself against the expected blandishments. + </p> + <p> + Then followed the fateful interview. The lady was satisfied + that she had got hold of the right person at last—the + one in the world who would be able to save her precious + little one "from to die," the poor pining infant on whose + frail little life so much depended! She would feed it from + her full, healthy breasts and give it something of her own + abounding, splendid life. Martha's own baby would do very + well—there was nothing the matter with it, and it would + flourish on "the bottle" or anything else, no matter what. + All she had to do was to go back to her cottage and make the + necessary arrangements, then come to stay at the mansion. + </p> + <p> + Martha refused, and the other smiled; then Martha pleaded and + cried and said she would never never leave her own child, and + as all that had no effect she was angry, and it came into her + mind that if the lady would get angry too she would be + ordered out and all would be over. But the lady wouldn't get + angry, for when Martha stormed she grew more gentle and spoke + tenderly and sweetly, but would still have it her own way, + until the poor young mother could stand it no longer, and so + rushed away in a great state of agitation to tell her husband + and ask him to help her against her enemy. But Tommy took the + lady's side, and his young wife hated him for it, and was in + despair and ready to snatch up her child and run away from + them all, when all at once a carriage appeared at the + cottage, and the great lady herself, followed by a nurse with + the sickly baby in her arms, came in. She had come, she said + very gently, almost pleadingly, to ask Martha to feed her + child once, and Martha was flattered and pleased at the + request, and took and fondled the infant in her arms, then + gave it suck at her beautiful breast. And when she had fed + the child, acting very tenderly towards it like a mother, her + visitor suddenly burst into tears, and taking Martha in her + arms she kissed her and pleaded with her again until she + could resist no more; and it was settled that she was to live + at the mansion and come once every day to the village to feed + her own child from the breast. + </p> + <p> + Martha's connexion with the people at the mansion did not end + when she had safely reared the sickly child. The lady had + become attached to her and wanted to have her always, + although Martha could not act again as wet nurse, for she had + no more children herself. And by and by when her mistress + lost her health after the birth of a third child and was + ordered abroad, she took Martha with her, and she passed a + whole year with her on the Continent, residing in France and + Italy. They came home again, but as the lady continued to + decline in health she travelled again, still taking Martha + with her, and they visited India and other distant countries, + including the Holy Land; but travel and wealth and all that + the greatest physicians in the world could do for her, and + the tender care of a husband who worshipped her, availed not, + and she came home in the end to die; and Martha went back to + her Tommy and the boy, to be separated no more while their + lives lasted. + </p> + <p> + The great house was shut up and remained so for years. The + squire was the last man in England to shirk his duties as + landlord and to his people whom he loved, and who loved him + as few great landowners are loved in England, but his grief + was too great for even his great strength to bear up against, + and it was long feared by his friends that he would never + recover from his loss. But he was healed in time, and ten + years later married again and returned to his home, to live + there until nigh upon his ninetieth year. Long before this + the Ierats had returned to their native village. When I last + saw Martha, then in her eighty-second year, she gave me the + following account of her Tommy's end. + </p> + <p> + He continued shepherding up to the age of seventy-eight. One + Sunday, early in the afternoon, when she was ill with an + attack of influenza, he came home, and putting aside his + crook said, "I've done work." + </p> + <p> + "It's early," she replied, "but maybe you got the boy to mind + the sheep for you." + </p> + <p> + "I don't mean I've done work for the day," he returned. "I've + done for good—I'll not go with the flock no more." + </p> + <p> + "What be saying?" she cried in sudden alarm. "Be you feeling + bad—what be the matter?" + </p> + <p> + "No, I'm not bad," he said. "I'm perfectly well, but I've + done work;" and more than that he would not say. + </p> + <p> + She watched him anxiously but could see nothing wrong with + him; his appetite was good, he smoked his pipe, and was + cheerful. + </p> + <p> + Three days later she noticed that he had some difficulty in + pulling on a stocking when dressing in the morning, and went + to his assistance. He laughed and said, "Here's a funny + thing! You be ill and I be well, and you've got to help me + put on a stocking!" and he laughed again. + </p> + <p> + After dinner that day he said he wanted a drink and would + have a glass of beer. There was no beer in the house, and she + asked him if he would have a cup of tea. + </p> + <p> + "Oh, yes, that'll do very well," he said, and she made it for + him. + </p> + <p> + After drinking his cup of tea he got a footstool, and placing + it at her feet sat down on it and rested his head on her + knees; he remained a long time in this position so perfectly + still that she at length bent over and felt and examined his + face, only to discover that he was dead. + </p> + <p> + And that was the end of Tommy Ierat, the son of Ellen. He + died, she said, like a baby that has been fed and falls + asleep on its mother's breast. + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p><a name="ch24"><!--Marker--></a> + <h2> + CHAPTER XXIV + </h2> + <h3> + LIVING IN THE PAST + </h3> + <blockquote> + Evening talks—On the construction of + sheep-folds—Making hurdles—Devil's + guts—Character in sheep-dogs—Sally the spiteful + dog—Dyke the lost dog who returned—Strange + recovery of a lost dog—Badger the playful + dog—Badger shepherds the fowls—A ghost + story—A Sunday-evening talk—Parsons and + ministers—Noisy religion—The shepherd's love of + his calling—Mark Dick and the giddy + sheep—Conclusion + </blockquote> + <p> + During our frequent evening talks, often continued till a + late hour, it was borne in on Caleb Bawcombe that his + anecdotes of wild creatures interested me more than anything + else he had to tell; but in spite of this, or because he + could not always bear it in mind, the conversation almost + invariably drifted back to the old subject of sheep, of which + he was never tired. Even in his sleep he does not forget + them; his dreams, he says, are always about sheep; he is with + the flock, shifting the hurdles, or following it out on the + down. A troubled dream when he is ill or uneasy in his sleep + is invariably about some difficulty with the flock; it gets + out of his control, and the dog cannot understand him or + refuses to obey when everything depends on his instant + action. The subject was so much to him, so important above + all others, that he would not spare the listener even the + minutest details of the shepherd's life and work. His "hints + on the construction of sheep-folds" would have filled a + volume; and if any farmer had purchased the book he would not + have found the title a misleading one and that he had been + defrauded of his money. But with his singular fawn-like face + and clear eyes on his listener it was impossible to fall + asleep, or even to let the attention wander; and incidentally + even in his driest discourse there were little bright touches + which one would not willingly have missed. + </p> + <p> + About hurdles he explained that it was common for the + downland shepherds to repair the broken and worn-out ones + with the long woody stems of the bithywind from the hedges; + and when I asked what the plant was he described the wild + clematis or traveller's-joy; but those names he did not + know—to him the plant had always been known as + <i>bithywind</i> or else <i>Devil's guts</i>. It struck me + that bithywind might have come by the transposition of two + letters from withybind, as if one should say flutterby for + butterfly, or flagondry for dragonfly. Withybind is one of + the numerous vernacular names of the common convolvulus. + Lilybind is another. But what would old Gerarde, who invented + the pretty name of traveller's-joy for that ornament of the + wayside hedges, have said to such a name as Devil's guts? + </p> + <p> + There was, said Caleb, an old farmer in the parish of Bishop + who had a peculiar fondness for this plant, and if a shepherd + pulled any of it out of one of his hedges after leafing-time + he would be very much put out; he would shout at him, "Just + you leave my Devil's guts alone or I'll not keep you on the + farm." And the shepherds in revenge gave him the unpleasant + nickname of "Old Devil's Guts," by which he was known in that + part of the country. + </p> + <p> + As a rule, talk about sheep, or any subject connected with + sheep, would suggest something about sheepdogs individual + dogs he had known or possessed, and who always had their own + character and peculiarities, like human beings. They were + good and bad and indifferent; a really bad dog was a rarity; + but a fairly good dog might have some trick or vice or + weakness. There was Sally, for example, a stump-tail bitch, + as good a dog with sheep as he ever possessed, but you had to + consider her feelings. She would keenly resent any injustice + from her master. If he spoke too sharply to her, or rebuked + her unnecessarily for going a little out of her way just to + smell at a rabbit burrow, she would nurse her anger until an + opportunity came of inflicting a bite on some erring sheep. + Punishing her would have made matters worse: the only way was + to treat her as a reasonable being and never to speak to her + as a dog—a mere slave. + </p> + <p> + Dyke was another dog he remembered well. He belonged to old + Shepherd Matthew Titt, who was head-shepherd at a farm near + Warminster, adjacent to the one where Caleb worked. Old Mat + and his wife lived alone in their cottage out of the village, + all their children having long grown up and gone away to a + distance from home, and being so lonely "by their two selves" + they loved their dog just as others love their relations. But + Dyke deserved it, for he was a very good dog. One year Mat + was sent by his master with lambs to Weyhill, the little + village near Andover, where a great sheep-fair is held in + October every year. It was distant over thirty miles, but Mat + though old was a strong man still and greatly trusted by his + master. From this journey he returned with a sad heart, for + he had lost Dyke. He had disappeared one night while they + were at Weyhill. Old Mrs. Titt cried for him as she would + have cried for a lost son, and for many a long day they went + about with heavy hearts. + </p> + <p> + Just a year had gone by when one night the old woman was + roused from sleep by loud knocks on the window-pane of the + living-room below. "Mat! Mat!" she cried, shaking him + vigorously, "wake up—old Dyke has come back to us!" + "What be you talking about?" growled the old shepherd. "Lie + down and go to sleep—you've been dreaming." "'Tain't no + dream; 'tis Dyke—I know his knock," she cried, and + getting up she opened the window and put her head well out, + and there sure enough was Dyke, standing up against the wall + and gazing up at her, and knocking with his paw against the + window below. + </p> + <p> + Then Mat jumped up, and going together downstairs they + unbarred the door and embraced the dog with joy, and the rest + of the night was spent in feeding and caressing him, and + asking him a hundred questions, which he could only answer by + licking their hands and wagging his tail. + </p> + <p> + It was supposed that he had been stolen at the fair, probably + by one of the wild, little, lawless men called "general + dealers," who go flying about the country in a trap drawn by + a fast-trotting pony; that he had been thrown, muffled up, + into the cart and carried many a mile away, and sold to some + shepherd, and that he had lost his sense of direction. But + after serving a stranger a full year he had been taken with + sheep to Weyhill Fair once more, and once there he knew where + he was, and had remembered the road leading to his old home + and master, and making his escape had travelled the thirty + long miles back to Warminster. + </p> + <p> + The account of Dyke's return reminded me of an equally good + story of the recovery of a lost dog which I heard from a + shepherd on the Avon. He had been lost over a year, when one + day the shepherd, being out on the down with his flock, stood + watching two drovers travelling with a flock on the turnpike + road below, nearly a mile away, and by and by hearing one of + their dogs bark he knew at that distance that it was his dog. + "I haven't a doubt," he said to himself, "and if I know his + bark he'll know my whistle." With that he thrust two fingers + in his mouth and blew his shrillest and longest whistle, then + waited the result. Presently he spied a dog, still at a great + distance, coming swiftly towards him; it was his own dog, mad + with joy at finding his old master. + </p> + <p> + Did ever two friends, long sundered by unhappy chance, + recognize each other's voices at such a distance and so come + together once more! + </p> + <p> + Whether the drovers had seen him desert them or not, they did + not follow to recover him, nor did the shepherd go to them to + find out how they had got possession of him; it was enough + that he had got his dog back. + </p> + <p> + No doubt in this case the dog had recognized his old home + when taken by it, but he was in another man's hands now, and + the habits and discipline of a life made it impossible for + him to desert until that old, familiar, and imperative call + reached his ears and he could not disobey. + </p> + <p> + Then (to go on with Caleb's reminiscences) there was Badger, + owned by a farmer and worked for some years by + Caleb—the very best stump-tail he ever had to help him. + This dog differed from others in his vivacious temper and + ceaseless activity. When the sheep were feeding quietly and + there was little or nothing to do for hours at a time, he + would not lie down and go to sleep like any other sheep-dog, + but would spend his vacant time "amusing of hisself" on some + smooth slope where he could roll over and over; then run back + and roll over again and again, playing by himself just like a + child. Or he would chase a butterfly or scamper about over + the down hunting for large white flints, which he would bring + one by one and deposit them at his master's feet, pretending + they were something of value and greatly enjoying the game. + This dog, Caleb said, would make him laugh every day with his + games and capers. + </p> + <p> + When Badger got old his sight and hearing failed; yet when he + was very nearly blind and so deaf that he could not hear a + word of command, even when it was shouted out quite close to + him, he was still kept with the flock because he was so + intelligent and willing. But he was too old at last; it was + time for him to be put out of the way. The farmer, however, + who owned him, would not consent to have him shot, and so the + wistful old dog was ordered to keep at home at the + farm-house. Still he refused to be superannuated, and not + allowed to go to the flock he took to shepherding the fowls. + In the morning he would drive them out to their run and keep + them there in a flock, going round and round them by the + hour, and furiously hunting back the poor hens that tried to + steal off to lay their eggs in some secret place. This could + not be allowed, and so poor old Badger, who would have been + too miserable if tied up, had to be shot after all. + </p> + <p> + These were always his best stories—his recollections of + sheep-dogs, for of all creatures, sheep alone excepted, he + knew and loved them best. Yet for one whose life had been + spent in that small isolated village and on the bare down + about it, his range was pretty wide, and it even included one + memory of a visitor from the other world. Let him tell it in + his own words. + </p> + <p> + "Many say they don't believe there be such things as + ghosties. They niver see'd 'n. An' I don't say I believe or + disbelieve what I hear tell. I warn't there to see. I only + know what I see'd myself: but I don't say that it were a + ghostie or that it wasn't one. I was coming home late one + night from the sheep; 'twere close on 'leven o'clock, a very + quiet night, with moonsheen that made it a'most like day. + Near th' end of the village I come to the stepping-stones, as + we call 'n, where there be a gate and the road, an' just by + the road the four big white stones for people going from the + village to the copse an' the down on t'other side to step + over the water. In winter 'twas a stream there, but the water + it dried in summer, and now 'twere summer-time and there wur + no water. When I git there I see'd two women, both on 'em + tall, with black gowns on, an' big bonnets they used to wear; + an' they were standing face to face so close that the tops o' + their bonnets wur a'most touching together. Who be these + women out so late? says I to myself. Why, says I, they be + Mrs. Durk from up in the village an' Mrs. Gaarge Durk, the + keeper's wife down by the copse. Then I thought I know'd how + 'twas: Mrs. Gaarge, she'd a been to see Mrs. Durk in the + village, and Mrs. Durk she were coming out a leetel way with + her, so far as the stepping-stones, and they wur just having + a last leetel talk before saying Good night. But mind, I + hear'd no talking when I passed 'n. An' I'd hardly got past + 'n before I says, Why, what a fool be I! Mrs. Durk she be + dead a twelvemonth, an' I were in the churchyard and see'd + her buried myself. Whatever be I thinking of? That made me + stop and turn round to look at 'n agin. An' there they was + just as I see'd 'n at first—Mrs. Durk, who was dead a + twelvemonth, an' Mrs. Gaarge Durk from the copse, standing + there with their bonnets a'most touching together. An' I + couldn't hear nothing—no talking, they were so still as + two posties. Then something came over me like a tarrible + coldness in the blood and down my back, an' I were afraid, + and turning I runned faster than I ever runned in my life, + an' never stopped—not till I got to the cottage." + </p> + <p> + It was not a bad ghost story: but then such stories seldom + are when coming from those who have actually seen, or believe + they have seen, an immaterial being. Their principal charm is + in their infinite variety; you never find two real or true + ghost stories quite alike, and in this they differ from the + weary inventions of the fictionist. + </p> + <p> + But invariably the principal subject was sheep. + </p> + <p> + "I did always like sheep," said Caleb. "Some did say to me + that they couldn't abide shepherding because of the Sunday + work. But I always said, Someone must do it; they must have + food in winter and water in summer, and must be looked after, + and it can't be worse for me to do it." + </p> + <p> + It was on a Sunday afternoon, and the distant sound of the + church bells had set him talking on this subject. He told me + how once, after a long interval, he went to the Sunday + morning service in his native village, and the vicar preached + a sermon about true religion. Just going to church, he said, + did not make men religious. Out there on the downs there were + shepherds who seldom saw the inside of a church, who were + sober, righteous men and walked with God every day of their + lives. Caleb said that this seemed to touch his heart because + he knowed it was true. + </p> + <p> + When I asked him if he would not change the church for the + chapel, now he was ill and his vicar paid him no attention, + while the minister came often to see and talk to him, as I + had witnessed, he shook his head and said that he would never + change. He then added: "We always say that the chapel + ministers are good men: some say they be better than the + parsons; but all I've knowed—all them that have talked + to me—have said bad things of the Church, and that's + not true religion: I say that the Bible teaches different." + </p> + <p> + Caleb could not have had a very wide experience, and most of + us know Dissenting ministers who are wholly free from the + fault he pointed out; but in the purely rural districts, in + the small villages where the small men are found, it is + certainly common to hear unpleasant things said of the parish + priest by his Nonconformist rival; and should the parson have + some well-known fault or make a slip, the other is apt to + chuckle over it with a very manifest and most unchristian + delight. + </p> + <p> + The atmosphere on that Sunday afternoon was very still, and + by and by through the open window floated a strain of music; + it was from the brass band of the Salvationists who were + marching through the next village, about two miles away. We + listened, then Caleb remarked: "Somehow I never cared to go + with them Army people. Many say they've done a great good, + and I don't disbelieve it, but there was too much what I + call—NOISE; if, sir, you can understand what I mean." + </p> + <p> + I once heard the great Dr. Parker speak the word imagination, + or, as he pronounced it, im-madge-i-na-shun, with a volume of + sound which filled a large building and made the quality he + named seem the biggest thing in the universe. That in my + experience was his loftiest oratorical feat; but I think the + old shepherd rose to a greater height when, after a long + pause during which he filled his lungs with air, he brought + forth the tremendous word, dragging it out gratingly, so as + to illustrate the sense in the prolonged harsh sound. + </p> + <p> + To show him that I understood what he meant very well, I + explained the philosophy of the matter as follows: He was a + shepherd of the downs, who had lived always in a quiet + atmosphere, a noiseless world, and from lifelong custom had + become a lover of quiet. The Salvation Army was born in a + very different world, in East London—the dusty, busy, + crowded world of streets, where men wake at dawn to sounds + that are like the opening of hell's gates, and spend their + long strenuous days and their lives in that atmosphere + peopled with innumerable harsh noises, until they, too, + acquire the noisy habit, and come at last to think that if + they have anything to say to their fellows, anything to sell + or advise or recommend, from the smallest thing—from a + mackerel or a cabbage or a penn'orth of milk, to a newspaper + or a book or a picture or a religion—they must howl and + yell it out at every passer-by. And the human voice not being + sufficiently powerful, they provide themselves with bells and + gongs and cymbals and trumpets and drums to help them in + attracting the attention of the public. + </p> + <p> + He listened gravely to this outburst, and said he didn't know + exactly 'bout that, but agreed that it was very quiet on the + downs, and that he loved their quiet. "Fifty years," he said, + "I've been on the downs and fields, day and night, seven days + a week, and I've been told that it's a poor way to spend a + life, working seven days for ten or twelve, or at most + thirteen shillings. But I never seen it like that; I liked + it, and I always did my best. You see, sir, I took a pride in + it. I never left a place but I was asked to stay. When I left + it was because of something I didn't like. I couldn't never + abide cruelty to a dog or any beast. And I couldn't abide bad + language. If my master swore at the sheep or the dog I + wouldn't bide with he—no, not for a pound a week. I + liked my work, and I liked knowing things about sheep. Not + things in books, for I never had no books, but what I found + out with my own sense, if you can understand me. + </p> + <p> + "I remember, when I were young, a very old shepherd on the + farm; he had been more 'n forty years there, and he was + called Mark Dick. He told me that when he were a young man he + was once putting the sheep in the fold, and there was one + that was giddy—a young ewe. She was always a-turning + round and round and round, and when she got to the gate she + wouldn't go in but kept on a-turning and turning, until at + last he got angry and, lifting his crook, gave her a crack on + the head, and down she went, and he thought he'd killed her. + But in a little while up she jumps and trotted straight into + the fold, and from that time she were well. Next day he told + his master, and his master said, with a laugh, 'Well, now you + know what to do when you gits a giddy sheep.' Some time after + that Mark Dick he had another giddy one, and remembering what + his master had said, he swung his stick and gave her a big + crack on the skull, and down went the sheep, dead. He'd + killed it this time, sure enough. When he tells of this one + his master said, 'You've cured one and you've killed one; now + don't you try to cure no more,' he says. + </p> + <p> + "Well, some time after that I had a giddy one in my flock. + I'd been thinking of what Mark Dick had told me, so I caught + the ewe to see if I could find out anything. I were always a + tarrible one for examining sheep when they were ill. I found + this one had a swelling at the back of her head; it were like + a soft ball, bigger 'n a walnut. So I took my knife and + opened it, and out ran a lot of water, quite clear; and when + I let her go she ran quite straight, and got well. After that + I did cure other giddy sheep with my knife, but I found out + there were some I couldn't cure. They had no swelling, and + was giddy because they'd got a maggot on the brain or some + other trouble I couldn't find out." + </p> + <p> + Caleb could not have finished even this quiet Sunday + afternoon conversation, in the course of which we had risen + to lofty matters, without a return to his old favourite + subjects of sheep and his shepherding life on the downs. He + was long miles away from his beloved home now, lying on his + back, a disabled man who would never again follow a flock on + the hills nor listen to the sounds he loved best to + hear—the multitudinous tremulous bleatings of the + sheep, the tinklings of numerous bells, and crisp ringing + bark of his dog. But his heart was there still, and the + images of past scenes were more vivid in him than they can + ever be in the minds of those who live in towns and read + books. "I can see it now," was a favourite expression of his + when relating some incident in his past life. Whenever a + sudden light, a kind of smile, came into his eyes, I knew + that it was at some ancient memory, a touch of quaintness or + humour in some farmer or shepherd he had known in the + vanished time—his father, perhaps, or old John, or Mark + Dick, or Liddy, or Dan'l Burdon, the solemn seeker after + buried treasure. + </p> + <p> + After our long Sunday talk we were silent for a time, and + then he uttered these impressive words: "I don't say that I + want to have my life again, because 'twould be sinful. We + must take what is sent. But if 'twas offered to me and I was + told to choose my work, I'd say, Give me my Wiltsheer Downs + again and let me be a shepherd there all my life long." + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p> + <p> + + </p> + +<PRE> + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, A SHEPHERD'S LIFE *** + +This file should be named shlif10h.htm or shlif10h.zip +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, shlif11h.htm +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, shlif10ah.htm + + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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