134 NATURE IN DOWNLAND 



A middle-aged man, a native of the village of East 

 Dean, described to me how a very great lady of East- 

 bourne, who entertained a good deal, and liked her 

 birds fresh caught, used often to go out driving in a 

 carriage and pair on the downs ; and he, a boy of 

 twelve, used to run after the carriage in hopes of 

 getting a penny; and how, on arriving at a number 

 of coops, the big liveried footman would jump down 

 and uncover coop after coop and wring the necks of 

 the little birds he took out, until he had got as many 

 as his mistress wanted, and then she would hand him 

 the money to leave in a trench, and the carriage would 

 drive off. 



A shepherd of the South Downs, named John 

 Dudeney, afterwards a schoolmaster in Lewes, where 

 I believe one or two of his granddaughters still 

 keep a school, was included by M. A. Lower in his 

 Worthies of Sussex, on account of his passion for 

 books and other virtues. And it will be allowed 

 by every one that a poor peasant youth, who, when 

 shepherding on the hills, acquired a knowledge of 

 astronomy and of other out-of-the-way subjects, and 

 taught himself to read the Bible in Hebrew, was de- 

 serving of a place among the lesser celebrities of his 

 county. 



In a too short account which Dudeney gave of his 

 early life and struggles to make money enough to buy 

 books as well as to live, there is an interesting note 

 or two on his experiences as a wheatear catcher. Here 



