36 



catching about a century ago. The village lads of Lowther and 

 Melkinthorp used to go to their haunts provided with empty sacks, 

 the mouths of which were kept open by wooden hoops. The 

 sack's mouth so extended was placed over the entrance to the 

 burrow, and steadied between the knees of the holder, means 

 being at the same time adopted to drive the badger from his lair. 

 The dread of a bite from the animal's formidable jaws was so 

 great, that my informant's knees "dadder'd" against the rim of the 

 sack. It is sad to think that all this ingenuity was exerted for the 

 cruel purpose of baiting the animals so captured. During the 

 summer of 1885, John Greenhow, the gamekeeper at Gowbarrow 

 Lodge, informed me that a solitary badger had taken up his 

 quarters among the rocks on the adjoining fell. After an unmo- 

 lested sojourn of several months, the animal had not long ago 

 disappeared. The Wes^ Cumberland Times of May 8th, 1886, 

 records the capture of a badger and a marten on the preceding 

 Monday by the Blencathra hounds, in the vale of Naddle, 

 St. John's, Keswick. It is quite possible that the wandering 

 "Brock" thus sacrificed, was the same animal that had temporarily 

 sojourned on Gowbarrow Fell, as recorded by Greenhow. The 

 distance from the latter place to Naddle is about six miles. 



The Hedgehog is another animal which has been the victim of 

 much absurd prejudice and superstitious ignorance. The idea of 

 his sucking the teats of recumbent cows may be considered as 

 exploded. The charge also of being destructive to young and 

 helpless fledglings, I consider to be grievously exaggerated. 

 Frequently as I have seen the animal questing for supplies, it has 

 been on some moss-covered bank or hedgerow, where, sniffing as 

 he went, and boring with his snout like a pig, you might hear a 

 low grunt of satisfaction as he unearthed some tiny snail or 

 chrysalis, which you could plainly hear him crunching between his 

 jaws the next moment. The Urchin is extremely pugnacious in 

 his temper. When bustard fishing one time in the Roe, I was 

 surprised by hearing piercing squeals of distress among the grass 

 of the meadow behind me. On quiedy reconnoitring the ground 

 whence the sound proceeded, I discovered two hedgehogs in 



