OCTOBER 373 



her own drawing-room, and within twenty-four hours she had passed 

 away. 



I have sold two of my red-poll cows, mother and daughter, to 

 a gentleman in the neighbourhood for 35/. They are of a good 

 milking strain, but rather long in the leg, so I weeded them out, 

 It is not a very grand price, but nowadays one can only keep the 

 best. On the farm and at Bedingham we have been drilling wheat 

 and getting forward with the ploughing. 



I have been reading a most instructive pamphlet sent to me by 

 Messrs. Carton, of whose labours I have already spoken, dealing 

 with the production of new types of clovers and grasses by selec- 

 tion and cross-fertilisation. Curiously enough, the results of their 

 experiments with red clover do not at all coincide with those of 

 other experiments carried out by Darwin. Whether they are right 

 or Darwin is right it is of course impossible for me to say, but if 

 it should chance that Darwin was wrong upon this point the fact 

 is suggestive. 



The weather is lovely, more like that of August than the end 

 of October. Here, on the Norfolk coast, where I am staying for 

 a few days at Kessingland, the autumns are frequently the finest 

 part of the year. July and August are the fashionable months 

 upon this shore, but if I were a town-dweller I should prefer those 

 of September and October. This is very generally recognised 

 in these counties, where people like to visit the sea at the fall of 

 the leaf. 



October 26. — To-day I was one of the party of guns at a 

 pheasant shoot in a neighbouring parish, where we killed be- 

 tween four and five hundred birds, which, to my mind, is as 

 many as anyone can want to see brought to bag in six hours. 

 This particular shooting, although not by any means one of 

 the largest, is certainly one of the best managed in Norfolk. 

 The place to be occupied by each gun at every beat is arranged 

 beforehand and marked with sticks; there is no delay; the 

 beaters advance without shouting or unnecessary noise, and the 



