138 A Midland Village: Garden and Meadow. 



Green Sandpiper is much more regular in his 

 visits, and stays with us, in autumn at least, much 

 longer. A stray pair found their way here last 

 winter in a hard frost, and rose from beneath my 

 feet as I walked along the Evenlode on December 

 24th. This is the only time I have ever seen 

 them here except in the other brook ; and I have 

 very little doubt that they were total strangers to 

 the locality. Had they ever been here before, I 

 make bold to say that they would have gone to 

 their old haunts. 



Beyond the brook lies a magnificent meadow 

 nearly a mile long, called the Yantle, in which, a 

 century and a half ago, the little Warren Hastings 

 used to lie and look up with ambitious hopes and 

 fears at the hills and woods of Daylesford. This 

 meadow was once doubtless the common pasture 

 ground of the parish : it now serves as ager 

 publicus for great numbers of winged families 

 bred in our gardens and orchards. Goldfinches, 

 linnets, starlings, redstarts, pipits, wagtails, white- 

 throats, and a dozen or two of other kinds, spend 

 their whole day here when the broods are reared. 

 The Yellow Wagtails are always conspicuous 



