178 DICK ROOK. 



he not only had his own peculiar enjoyment of 

 the gentle winds and soft breezes, accompanied 

 with a delightful sunshine, but he would bivouac 

 near a trout-stream., and catch fish for the table 

 of a neighbouring squire, for which he was re- 

 warded with a small sum of money, or a good 

 dinner or supper. Sometimes he was employed 

 to assist in catching rabbits or vermin, and when 

 he had nothing else to do, he would make his way 

 down to the coast, and there he either shrimped 

 or prawned, collected stray pieces of wood or 

 whatever he could find on the sea- shore. In 

 this way he gained, as he said, an honest living, 

 and yet at the same time enjoyed that sort of 

 freedom and independence, without which it was 

 evident that life would have been irksome to 

 him. 



Such was Dick Rook, and the more I saw or 

 heard of him, the more inclined I felt to become 

 better acquainted with him. This was not difficult 

 during my protracted visit in the neighbourhood, 

 at which time this vagrant, as I sometimes heard 

 him called, was my constant companion. His 

 love of natural scenery, and quick perception of 

 what was beautiful in the little sequestered dells, 

 which are to be met with in the west of Sussex, 

 and the more expansive views from his favourite 

 heaths, were very striking, and his admiration of 

 them was always happily expressed. It was in 



