THE FAERY YEAR 



anglers, who fished for trout with the oat-grass 

 flowers instead of with artificial flies ! 



In cure, or condiment, or foodstuff, our 

 country folk may have lost little or nothing by 

 modern neglect of wild herbs. The standard of 

 country comfort, if not of health, has risen since 

 the days when such country economy was in 

 practice. But there has been loss of another kind. 

 There was virtue in the simple studies passed 

 orally from generation to generation. It availed in 

 the forming of character ; it made people attentive 

 to the gifts and stores of nature around them, 

 careful in small things. I think it must have made 

 for kind memories and reverent thoughts ; the use 

 of a wild herb, the seeking and gathering of it 

 for cure or cookery, would often bring to mind 

 not without a pang the stilled lips from whom 

 the secret came. This was not the kind of educa- 

 tion they liked at Coketown under Mr. Gradgrind ; 

 but some people think that life would be none the 

 worse for it in England to-day. 



268 



