SHEPHERDS AND WHEATEARS 



And in the end, recalling how he was delivered 

 and by whom, he resolves that his hand shall " at 

 distance imitate" 



And to the feathery captive give release, 

 The pence of ransom placing in its stead. 

 Go, fool, be cheated of thy wing no more ! 



His "pence of ransom " requires a word of explana- 

 tion. It was customary for those who required a 

 supply of wheatears for a big dinner, when there were 

 none or not enough to be had in the market, to go out 

 themselves to the downs and collect them from the 

 coops, and to leave the price of as many birds as 

 were found caught and taken. All the coops from 

 which the birds were taken were left uncovered, and 

 a small pile of silver and copper coins, the market 

 value of the birds, placed in the last trench. The 

 shepherd going the rounds of his coops would count 

 the money, reset the springes, and go back satisfied 

 to his flock. 



When the tender-hearted clergyman-poet left his 

 pence for the birds, which he took from the coops 

 merely to set them free, his neighbours must have 

 regarded him as an exceedingly eccentric person, for 

 the birds were caught to be eaten by important persons 

 in Sussex ; indeed, the wheatear was created for that 

 purpose, even as the robin redbreast, wren, and swallow 

 sacred birds in other lands were made to be eaten 

 by the people of Italy. 



