DECEMBER 439 



first in carting the hay and straw up to the machine at the Home 

 Farm, and secondly in carting them back in the form of chaff. 



My correspondence to-day contains a letter from that rare 

 person, an agricultural enthusiast. This gentleman, who is earning 

 a very handsome salary in an office, proposes to abandon it in order 

 to commence farming, apparently on borrowed capital. And what, 

 my reader, do you suppose has led him to his resolve ? No, not 

 the earlier pages of a certain book, but — the teachings of Carlyle and 

 Ruskin. If a study of these leaders of thought tends to such 

 amiable insanity, Avhich I confess has never struck me in reading 

 them, surely so far as the young are concerned, they should be 

 placed upon the Index Expurgatorius. 



I have written imi)loring my correspondent to forsake these 

 false lights and stick to his safe and gilded stool, but if he declines 

 to listen to me, I can only hope that he will reap the reward of 

 his pluck and succeed in this difficult adventure. 



Yesterday, as the frost continued, we were obliged to give up 

 the ploughing and take to the carting of manure. While I was 

 walking along a hedgerow I saw a sight that I have never seen 

 before. Suddenly, about fifty yards ahead of me, a cock pheasant 

 sprang from the fence and lit upon the ground with an angry crow, 

 flicking up one wing in a very curious fashion. Next second I 

 learned the reason, for after him came a medium-sized black and 

 white cat, which evidently had tried to pounce upon him in the 

 hedge. On seeing it the pheasant took to his legs, and the disap- 

 pointed cat slunk back to shelter. I did not know before that a 

 cat would attack so powerful a bird. 



Royal Duke, the prize ox, made his last appearance at 

 Ditchingham this evening in the shape of sirloin of beef. The 

 meeting was painful to me who had known him from a calf, but 

 I must admit that he was excellent eating. Oh ! what carnivorae 

 we are ! 



Yesterday the frost broke, with the result that this Christmas 

 has not the beauty of that of last year, the weather being dull and 

 mild, towards nightfall softening into rain. In the afternoon I went 



