vi RIVERSIDE LETTERS 49 



mention of wood-lice reminds me that I re- 

 ceived a letter some time ago from your 

 brother John in which he tells me, apropos 

 of a note in one of my former letters, as to 

 woodlice being called " Gocl Almighty's 

 pigs," that his wife told him that her brother, 

 Fred Walker, and her sisters when children, 

 always called these animals "old sows," 

 and that they had the name from an old 

 'gardener. 



I have not much in the way of bird news 

 for you. On the i3th at lunch-time we had 

 the treat of seeing a little cock-tail wren 

 perch on a honeysuckle close to the dining- 

 room window, flit his wings, cock his tail, 

 and sing several times with unmistakable 

 signs of joy and exultation. I mention this 

 as a treat, as indeed it was, but it is also an 

 event to note, because it is so very seldom 

 that these dainty little birds ever allow you 

 to catch more than a momentary glimpse 

 of them as they flit and creep amongst 

 the hedges and along the old walls ; the 



E 



