Knapping Flints 59 



bob a week,' he says sturdily. His interests all lie in 

 flint and chalk, in pits and burrows, and even his chron- 

 ology differs from that of other men. ' Since the 

 first pit was opened in the plantation,' ' Since the last 

 break of wheat was taken in ' dates like these are 

 his landmarks. Winter and summer, autumn and 

 spring follow and succeed without affecting him. The 

 gorse flowers beside the chalk-heap, the poppy and 

 blueweed come among the corn, wind and sun ripen 

 the ears of wheat, but seventy feet below the surface 

 there is no change of weather. All that he knows is 

 on sunny days to get his new pit opened, and if the 

 rain comes to dive into his deepest burrow and resume 

 the interrupted task. 



He is an inveterate Tory, and by his nature stub- 

 bornly opposed to change of every kind. He does 

 not dispute as how could he ? that the flint might 

 be more easily and expeditiously excavated, but the 

 habit of solitude and independence is so ingrained in 

 him that he continues to work by the old methods, to 

 avoid all sorts of modern improvements, and to carry 

 on his work without associates. 



His only tools are a spade and shovel, a pickaxe 

 and a hammer no engine, no winch, no pulley, not 

 even a ladder. The operations make one think of an 

 unusually intelligent rabbit. Firstly he digs out a 

 square hole to a depth of about six feet, then he bur- 

 rows to right or left, and from the stage thus made 

 drops another six feet, burrowing and dropping alter- 



