VACATION NOTES. 283 



away, when a mass of water is eternally beating upon it; whereas, how 

 that mass of water retires might be a riddle impossible of solution, unless 

 you could shew an encroachment on some other coast for which this was a 

 compensation; there may be submarine causes of which we can know nothing, 

 but so it is; and the "sisters" rear their heads, stark and silent, as on 

 the verge of eternity. 



There are few sea-side places where verdure ventures so near the shore. 

 Elms grow within a quarter of a mile of the beach, and a short half-mile finds 

 the country well wooded; but this is no doubt capable of explanation, having 

 regard to encroachments of the ocean beyond the original sea-line. Beyond 

 the town, eastward, there is a steep down, and here the entomologist 

 may always find employment. I have met with specimens of Lepidoptera 

 not common elsewhere, especially of the order Phaloena. Now, of course, 

 the heyday of butterfly life is past, but I saw a good many of the Blue 

 kinds and some Red Admirals. On the furze bushes I observed some 

 Stone and Whinchats, Whitethroats, and Titlarks; a few Wheatears, 

 chiefly young ones, ran along the pathway before us, and a pair of Flushers, 

 or Red-backed Butcher-birds, kept dodging before us, and we saw them 

 capture a large Dung Beetle beside the path; they also were young birds, 

 in that stage of plumage figured by Bewick under the name "Woodchat," 



There are some moist meadows not far from the sea, which are rather 

 below the water level; these have been for some time past the favourite, 

 resort of a party of Swifts, and I was curious to see how long these 

 gentry would prolong this pastime, inasmuch as their time for departure 

 drew very near, and I began to think that September would still see them 

 there; but instinct was too strong for that, and accordingly, the last 

 evening of August saw the last of them, and on the next day we looked 

 for them in vain. 



The country is very rich inland, well wooded and exceedingly picturesque. 

 This is a Hop country, and the crops are very fine, and now in course of 

 picking, but the chief plantations are near Maidstone. Canary seed is 

 also in great luxuriance, and there are some large fields unusually fine, 

 looking much like wheat, and harvested in the same manner; it is a 

 graceful circular ear, and is, I am told, an exhausting crop, though it 

 pays well. The fishermen complain that the steamers have spoiled their 

 trade, but a large fleet of oyster boats come forth from VVhitstable Bay 

 on a morning, and make a pretty sight, like so many birds in search of 

 prey : here, also, the sea has encroached much of late. There is a curious 

 trade carried on upon this portion of the coast, about a mile to the west 

 of Heme Bay, where a group of four or five miserable erections, known 

 as "Hampton Cottages," stand together, and send annually to market 

 ship-loads of Pyrites for the manufacture of copperas, which is picked up 



