APRIL 151 



couples of these sweet-tongued birds build year by year. It is a 

 very public place, but they do not mind that in the least ; indeed 

 if you stand in the road they will often sit and trill within a few 

 feet of your head, as though they knew that you appreciated their 

 music and that they were singing to you. I should have thought, 

 however, that the boys who break in and steal their eggs would have 

 frightened them away ; but fortunately the nests of nightingales are 

 very difficult to find, so possibly they escape. 



April 20. There is not much to record since last Friday. 

 On Saturday we had a heavy shower in the evening, and two more 

 lambs died from the effects of the cutting. Sunday was a lovely 

 day, and another lamb died. While I was in church on that 

 morning an incident occurred which shows how varied are the 

 duties of a country magistrate. 



As I chance to be one of the justices nominated to exercise 

 the powers conferred by the Lunacy Acts, I am brought a good 

 deal into contact with the insanity of this district, which, by the 

 way, seems to be greatly on the increase and to occur chiefly 

 among women. About breakfast-time on Sunday morning I was 

 requested by an overseer to attend in a neighbouring village to 

 satisfy myself by personal examination as to the madness of a certain 

 pauper lunatic before she was removed to the asylum. This I 

 promised to do, fixing the hour of two o'clock. In the middle 

 of the service, however, on returning from the lectern after reading 

 one of the Lessons, I found a young man by my pew with a note, 

 on which was written, ' Lunatic waiting for you at church gate. 

 Sir, please come and examine.' 



Accordingly, as I judged that the case must have become 

 urgent, I went to investigate the condition of the poor woman's 

 mind by means of a tete-a-tete with her in a fly at the gate of the 

 churchyard. Having satisfied myself as to her insanity, I signed 

 the orders necessary for her removal to the asylum, and reappeared 

 in church before the conclusion of the Litany. It seems that it 

 was not considered advisable that the patient should remain longer 



