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particular case being an adjoining smithy, wherein the 

 ancient industry, in that part, of manufacturing spades, 

 forks and other agricultural implements was carried on 

 with the aid of a ponderous hammer worked by water 

 power which began at, to us, an abnormally early hour, to 

 create miniature earthquakes which woke up something 

 more substantial than mere echoes, viz. ourselves. Being, 

 however, happily both of a philosophical turn of mind, we 

 compromised the matter, as it were, by getting up when the 

 turmoil began and thus adding an hour or two to the en- 

 joyment of the day. As soon as we had deposited our 

 traps, I sallied forth to survey the ground and found, as I 

 anticipated, plently of material in the hedges and bye- 

 lanes, and noticing one of these latter leading towards the 

 moor, marked it down for exploration on the following day. 

 Accordingly, the next morning, Sunday, breakfast being 

 done, I suggested a stroll to my better half, but she being 

 rather fatigued with the previous day's journey, and 

 possibly the earlier rising, suggested that I should go alone, 

 and being a Scotch woman, remarked more humorously 

 however than seriously, knowing me as she did, that it 

 would be wrong to go fern hunting on the Sabbath. 

 Accepting this in the spirit in which it was uttered, I drew 

 out my trowel and threw it on the table as a sort of pledge 

 that 1 would refrain from such villainous conduct. The 

 weather was glorious, the sky without a cloud, and the air 

 was full of the sound of the rushing waters of the adjacent 

 river. Making my way direct to the lane aforesaid I found 

 it barred at a short distance by a gate, on the other side of 

 which I found myself on a path by the side of a small 

 tributary stream from the moor. From the path down to 

 the stream was a steepish slope of some ten to fifteen yards 

 wide, and despite the Sabbath, my irreligious eye persisted 

 in noting that this slope was dotted over here and there 

 with fine robust specimens of Lastvea viontana, the 

 Lemon-scented Buckler Fern, two or three feet high. I 



