132 AN AMERICAN FARMER IN ENGLAND, 



CHAPTER XVI. 



FLOCKS, DOGS, AND SHEPHERDS OF SALISBURY PLAIN. VILLAGE ALMS- 

 HOUSES OSTENTATION IN ALMS-GIVING. A FORCED MARCH. AT HOME 



IN SALISBURY. THE STREET BROOKS. THE CATHEDRAL. ARCHITECTURAL. 



REMARKS AND ADVICE. VILLAGE CHURCHES. 



THE chalk-hills, or downs, (known also in local parlance as 

 leak-land?) are unenclosed or divided, and rarely separated 

 from the cultivated land by more than a low turf-wall, and 

 often not at all. Once, in the course of the morning, I came 

 near a flock of about two hundred sheep, feeding close to the 

 road, and stopped a few moments to look at them. They 

 were thorough-bred South-downs ; the shepherd sat at a little 

 distance, upon a knoll, and the dog was nearer the flock. 

 Growing close up to the edge of the road, opposite the sheep, 

 was a heavy piece of wheat ; one of them strayed over to it. 

 The dog cocked his ears and turned quickly several times 

 towards his master, as if knowing there was business for him, 

 and waiting for orders. But the shepherd was looking another 

 way, and others of the flock, lifting their heads as I approached 

 them, and seeing their comrade on the other side of the road, 

 began to rush after him, as is the manner of sheep ; and di 

 rectly there were a dozen eagerly nipping the wheat, and 

 more following : the dog, sitting up very erect, and on the 

 qui vive, still waited for orders, till the shepherd, turning 

 quickly, gave the signal in a monosyllable. Right over the 

 heads of the flock, bounding from head to head, sprang the 



