HINTS TO ADDER-SEEKERS 17 



the village school, and pulling his pets out, would 

 play with and make the children handle them 

 and take note of their beautiful form and motions. 



This snake-lover possessed at Aldermaston one 

 of the largest parks in southern England, abounding 

 in oak trees so ancient and of so noble a growth 

 that they are a wonder to all who see them. This 

 vast park was his snake-preserve, and in moist 

 green places, by running waters, he planted thickets 

 for their shelter. But when his time came and he 

 died, the son who succeeded him thought he would 

 get more glory and sport by preserving pheasants, 

 and accordingly engaged a little army of men and 

 boys to extirpate the reptiles. There is nothing 

 now to recall the dead man's " fantastic hobby " 

 but a stained-glass window I wish it had been 

 done by a better artist placed by his pious widow 

 in the beautiful parish church, where you can see 

 him among angelic figures surrounded by a com- 

 pany of birds and beasts and reptiles of many 

 shapes and colours, and at the margins the familiar 

 words, He prayeth best who loveth best, etc. 



Let us return to our quest. The trouble is 

 when you have arrived at the adder-haunt to find 

 the adder. A man may spend years, even a life- 

 time, without seeing one. Some time ago I talked 

 to an aged shepherd whose flock fed in a wide 

 furze - grown hollow in the South Downs where 

 adders were not uncommon. He told me he had 

 been shepherding forty years in that place, and 

 during the entire period had found three adders ! 



c 



