JULY. 203 



thither; and though many a goodly superstition, 

 many a jocund folly have fled before it, I trust, and 

 I think I know, that much simplicity of heart and 

 manner remains, and is likely to remain, in what 

 may be truly called the country ; and instead of 

 ignorance and laughter, we have more intelligence, 

 industry stimulated by higher views, and, whenever 

 there is cause to display it, mirth and good-fellow- 

 ship enough. This is never more conspicuous than 

 in harvest time. 



With the exception of a casual song of the lark 

 in a fresh morning, and the blackbird and thrush at 

 sunset, or the monotonous wail of the yellowham- 

 mer, the silence of birds is now complete ; even the 

 lesser reed-sparrow, which may very properly be 

 called the English mock-bird, and which kept up a 

 perpetual clatter with the notes of the sparrow, the 

 swallow, the white-throat, etc. in every hedge- 

 bottom, day and night, has now ceased its song also. 



Boys will now be seen in the evening twilight, 

 with match, gunpowder, etc. and green boughs for 

 self-defence, busy in storming the paper-built castles 

 of wasps, the larvae of which furnish anglers with 

 plenty of excellent baits. The hornet is very un- 

 common now in the midland counties. It is a diffi- 

 cult matter to find a person who has seen a single 

 insect, much less a nest ; a fact certainly not to be 

 regretted, when we recollect that three of these fiery 

 insects are said to be capable of stinging a horse to 

 death ; or when we read the admirable description 

 of Homer 



