336 A FARMER'S YEAR 



of a bean, but I am informed that its real dimensions are about 

 six times those of our own earth. Things in the sun happen on a 

 considerable scale. 



On Thursday at Bedingham I found that, except for about 

 half the bean field, that still remains to get, they have finished 

 harvest. When this is up, including the two hayricks, there 

 will stand in the yard nine large stacks of produce gathered off 

 this little farm, of which about half is pasture. I found also that 

 the grass is withering in the intense heat, which has stopped the 

 growth of the roots, and especially of the white turnips. But we 

 must not gruml)le at the drought, which has done us a good turn 

 this harvest. 



To-day I went out shooting, but 1 cannot say that the sport 

 was good. The birds are scarce and wild this year, and we 

 had no luck with what we saw ; indeed, I do not think that 

 personally I fired more than half a dozen shots all day. We often 

 read accounts of a good day's shooting, but few people venture to 

 publish the record of a bad one. In truth, there are not many 

 things more dreary and depressing than the last two hours of an 

 interminable trudge, in the burning heat, over ground like iron, 

 after partridges which are non-existing or will not be found. On 

 such occasions all the errors of your youth, all your rotten invest- 

 ments, all your worries, mistakes, doubts, and disappointments, all 

 your earnest but misdirected efforts, all your least effective plots, 

 marshal themselves in battalions within your mind as you drag 

 yourself through fences and stumble across acres of roots and 

 cornfields. Decidedly, walking up partridges when they are scarce 

 in burning weather in September has its drawbacks, but luckily 

 such days do not make up a season's sport. 



The Ditchingham land being lighter, the drought here has got 

 more hold than at Bedingham. As I trudged through the swedes 

 to-day I noticed that they are beginning to turn mildewed and 

 blue. The beet also are at a standstill and the grass is shrinking 

 much. We have been obliged to bring the young cattle up from 

 the marsh and turn them into the new pasture, No. 5, off which we 



