164 BENEDICITE 



By which it appears that a law-abiding citizen need 

 abate no jot of his civic privileges. 



Thereafter we continued together, he in the 

 swirling dust-clouds gasping something about judg- 

 ment overtaking those who strayed from the clear 

 path of duty, I seeking an escape from the conse- 

 quences of a playful statute by which a car-fiend is 

 forbidden under pain of fine to pelt dirt at a 

 pedestrian with a velocity exceeding twenty miles an 

 hour. I hope I am as good a patriot as most of my 

 countrymen ; but, even so, I have no desire to eat 

 my native land. This is a sample of what may be 

 called trespass of the land upon the person, a form of 

 trespass the law, with its usual acumen, distinguishes 

 favourably from trespass by the person on the land. 



Striking the river Bollin, we turned aside over the 

 stile, and left the snorting Juggernauts of the high- 

 road behind. 



In passing over some rolling grass land diversified 

 by clumps of fresh-leafed covert, we came upon a 

 scene of conflict. Two birds had been conspicuously 

 in evidence as we wound along the Bollin valley 

 the Lapwing of the open, and the Pheasant of the 

 coverts. The former had eggs or young out all the 

 way, and when one pair had swooped about and 

 reviled us to heart's content for our intrusion, they 

 passed us on to another inhabiting a neighbouring 

 field, who received us with equal contumely, so that 

 we continued to make a triumphal progress, our part 

 therein being performed at the car- wheels. It was, 

 therefore, with some relief that we came upon a pair 

 whose attention, being preoccupied with other objects, 

 allowed us to play the part of spectators. Four 



