328 WITH NATURE AND A CAMEBA. 



the town clock because "its hands i)()intcd to one 

 tiling and it kept on striking- and striking another 

 every quarter of an 'oor " ; and he saluted a girl 

 who was washing the solicitor's office steps down 

 with "Is thy faather in?" 



He told us that he had once been sunnnoned 

 by the parish in whicli he lived to appear at York 

 as a witness in a trial against a farmer for over- 

 stocking the moor with sheep. AYhen the witnesses 

 were about to enter the "justice room," one of 

 them, on catching sight of the judge and advocates 

 in their wigs and gowns, ran back to him in alarm 

 and exclaimed "Ay, Poonder, I niver saw such a 

 lot of grey-headed old men all together in my life ! 

 They must be older than Methuselah I " 



During our stay an old fanner dropped in and 

 ordered himself a glass of ale. In tlie course of 

 conversation it fell out that he had been to London 

 three times, and stayed for several days upon each 

 occasion. I asked him how he liked tlie Metropolis. 

 "Fine! " said he: "London's a grand spot to spend 

 a holiday at, but I always took good care niver 

 to be oot after dark." 



In the summer of 1896 a pair of Barn Swallows 

 made their nest and reared a l)rood of young in 

 a fowl-house at the back of Tan Hill Inn, and 

 the landlord told me he used to leave tlie door 

 open every night for their convenience. I examined 

 the old nest witli a ladder, and calculated that, as 

 the l)uilding was one of two floors, and it was 

 nearly in the highest })art of the roof, it must have 

 been not less than l,7o{) feet above th(> sea-level. 



Last Whitsuntide my bi'othcr and 1 found our- 

 selves in a remote Essex village, and, as we were* 

 unable to obtain any sort of inn accommodation, we 

 stayed with a gamekeeper in his tiny, old-fashioned 



