MARLBOROUGH COLLEGE. 109 



My man also tells me he can trace his ancestry back in an unbroken 

 line so far as our registers extend, and that his progenitors all lie 

 in our church-yard. So that when I view their last resting place, I 

 feel incHned to say : 



" Some mute inglorious Milton there may rest." 



But speaking of village amusements, in the summer) none was 

 followed, when I was at home from school, with greater zeal than 

 cray-fishing. This is truly the poor man's recreation ; and on 

 summer evenings the banks of our streams were lined with joyous 

 bands, eagerly engaged in catching the little crustacean in nets. 

 The air till long past midnight was filled with happy sounds and 

 laughter ; and if the hooting owl and foxes calling to their cronies, 

 made the timid keep together, the party seldom broke up without 

 promises to meet again at the river bank to-morrow. 



But as I said before, civilization, factories, and gas have com- 

 pletely put an end to this favourite recreation — in one of our 

 streams at least. The sewage refuse and other poisonous com- 

 pounds, which are emptied into our brook at Chipping Norton, 

 have killed every living thing within it. I and the other riparian 

 owners remonstrated in vain ; and when, as a modern Naboth, I 

 sent in a humble petition that my water might be spared, I was 

 advised to go to law — With a Corporation rich as Croesus, and 

 lawyers, who although socially the best of men, are so acute in 

 argument that I should be rash indeed to try a fall with them. 

 In fact, justice in such a cause must be viewed like the golden 

 apples in Hera's garden, guarded by the Hesperides. 



During the holidays I passed a great deal of my cray-fishing time 

 in company with a farmer, long since dead, who always alluded to 

 any unusual occurrence as " a coincidence which had transpired." 

 He was somewhat inclined to en-bon-point, and so was Keren - 

 happuch,* his wife, a very worthy soul. These two one day went to 



* This, in old days, was a rare village for what were called good scripture names. We had Pharoah, David, 

 Amos, Caleb, Joshua, Eli, Noah, Jonah, besides girls called after the daughters of Job and others. 



