222 BRITISH SERPENTS. 



" A neighbour who lives by tells me that he was 

 riding a bicycle last summer through Dane Court 

 grounds when he saw an adder crossing the road in 

 front of him, and thinking he could break its back 

 by riding over it, he steered straight for it, when just 

 as he thought he had got it, the adder suddenly 

 reared itself up on its tail, and he missed it in con- 

 sequence. The adder's head was raised up quite 

 close to the calf of his leg as he rode by." — W. 

 Jacob, Eythorne, Dover. 



What the Archbishop saw. — "Even the closest 

 observers of snakes are apt at times to be mistaken. 

 For instance, I rind in the Life of the late Archbishop 

 of Canterbury (vol. i. p. 22) that on one occasion ' he 

 was returning alone from the village, and in the dust 

 of the road, on the bridge which crossed the stream, 

 he saw a thing which looked like a snake, with ob- 

 jects like small wheels on its head, that were running 

 round and round at a furious rate, so that the dust 

 flew up in clouds. He was much too frightened to 

 examine it, but ran home and told his mother. He 

 was sent to substantiate his story — to look for the 

 object and bring it home ; but it was gone, and he was 

 whipped for telling a lie. " Yet I can see it still," he 

 used to say, " as it lay there ; " and in later life I 

 have met with few people who knew more about the 

 natural history of Berkshire than he did." — J. L. Bevir, 

 M.A., letter to the < Outlook/ November 10, 1900. 



