JUNE 239 



she knows them all by sight or by smell, and looks after them to 

 the best of her ability, although, with the selhshness of the young, 

 they decline to abandon a single habit in deference to her preju- 

 dices. I have heard a story of an unfortunate hen — I will 

 not vouch for the truth of it — under whom some mischievous 

 person placed a fine variety of eggs — a duck or two, some guinea- 

 fowls, chickens, pheasants, and partridges. In due course they 

 hatched out, but at the end of a week that hen was found dead, 

 presumably of worry and nerve exhaustion. 



On the road I met a pedlar, who produced for my inspection 

 some nice Egyptian or Cyprian tear-bottles, one or two of them 

 very iridescent. Also he had a finely proportioned small silver 

 church paten stamped with a fleur-de-lis only, for it was made 

 before hall-marks came in; I think that the date of it was 1581. 

 From this pedlar I have from time to time purchased some of the 

 best things in my small collection, notably a little bronze, which 

 I believe to be one of the very few extant portraits of the great 

 Egyptian queen, Taia. (I possess her golden ring, taken from her 

 corpse.) On this bronze the crown is made of a perfect circle 

 of tiraei. 



This afternoon, whilst walking on the Bath Hills, I noticed 

 two pairs of swifts wheeling far above me, on wings so motionless 

 that they might have been not living birds, but crescents of bright 

 jet travelling the sky. I have often seen them here in bygone 

 years, but have never yet been able to discover where they build. 

 Generally, though not here, these birds rear their young in church 

 towers. I suppose that these particular pairs nest at a distance, but 

 visit this spot to hawk for the insects that haunt the slope. After all, 

 a ten or twenty mile journey home would not be much to a swift. 



The common beneath me looked unusually rich and lovely in 

 the afternoon lights to-day, as they glowed upon the gorse, which 

 is just bursting into yellow bloom, and on the red roofs of 

 Bungay town beyond. 



As I studied the scene, with the winding river and the rich 

 pasture land dotted by scores of cattle and horses, it reminded 



