1828. | Hannah Bint. 573 
bloom is not past, although the grain be ripening, the beautiful buck- 
wheat, of which the transparent leaves and stalks are so brightly tinged 
with vermilion, while the delicate pink-white of the flower, a paler persi- 
caria, has a feathery fall, at once so rich and so graceful, and a fresh and 
reviving odour, like that of beech trees in the dew of a May evening. The 
bank that surmounts this attempt at cultivation is crowned with the 
late foxglove and the stately mullein ; the pasture of which so great a 
part of the waste consists, looks as green as an emerald ; a clear pond, 
with the bright sky reflected in it, lets ight into the picture ; the white 
cottage of the keeper peeps from the opposite coppice ; and the vine- 
covered dwelling of Hannah Bint rises from amidst the pretty garden, 
which lies bathed in the sunshine around it. 
The living and moving accessories are all in keeping with the cheer- 
fulness and repose of the landscape. Hannah’s cow grazing quietly 
beside the keeper’s pony ; a brace of fat pointer puppies holding ami- 
cable intercourse with a litter of young pigs; ducks, geese, cocks, hens, 
and chickens scattered over the yard; Hannah herself sallying forth 
from the cottage-door, with her milk-bucket in her hand, and her little 
brother following with the milking stool. 
My friend, Hannah Bint, is by no means an ordinary person. Her 
father, Jack Bint, (for in all his life he never arrived at the dignity of 
being called John, indeed, in our parts, he was commonly known by the 
cognomen of London Jack,) was a drover of high repute in his profes- 
sion. No man, between Salisbury Plain and Smithfield, was thought 
to conduct a flock of sheep so skilfully through all the difficulties of 
lanes and commons, streets and high-roads, as Jack Bint, and Jack 
Bint’s famous dog, Watch; for Watch’s rough, honest face, black, with 
a little white about the muzzle, and one white ear, was as well known at 
fairs and markets, as his master’s equally honest and weather-beaten 
visage. Lucky was the dealer that could secure their services; Watch 
being renowned for keeping a flock together, better than any shepherd’s 
dog on the road—Jack, for delivering them more punctually, and in 
better condition. No man had amore thorough knowledge of the proper 
night stations, where good feed might be procured for his charge, and 
good liquor for Watch and himself ; Watch, like other sheep dogs, being 
accustomed to live chiefly on bread and beer. His master, although not 
averse to a pot of good double X, preferred gin ; and they who plod 
slowly along, through wet and weary ways, in frost and in fog, have 
undoubtedly a stronger temptation to indulge in that cordial and reviv- 
ing stimulus, than we water-drinkers, sitting in warm and comfortable 
rooms, can readily imagine. For certain, our drover could never resist 
the gentle seduction of the gin-bottle, and being of a free, merry, jovial 
temperament, one of those persons commonly called good fellows, who 
like to see others happy in the same way with themselves, he was apt 
to circulate it at his own expense, to the great improvement of his popu- 
larity, and the great detriment of his finances. 
All this did vastly well whilst his earnings continued proportionate to 
his spendings, and the little family at home were comfortably supported 
by his industry : but when a rheumatic fever came on, one hard winter, 
and finally settled in his limbs, reducing the most active and hardy man in 
the parish tothe state of a confirmed cripple, then his reckless improvidence 
_ stared him in the face ; and poor Jack, a thoughtless, but kind creature, 
and a most affectionate father, looked at his three motherless children 
with the acute misery of a parent, who has brought those whom he 
