SLEEP OF FISHES 57 



friends; and therefore if he will come over next summer, 

 when you are here, from Pepperharrow for a night or two, 

 that I shall be glad to see him: and we will show him 

 some such prospects in these parts as may not be unworthy 

 his attention. To say the truth, the lower part of the 

 Bostal began to be dirty so that the Zigzagians (who 

 have horns and hoofs) began to triumph. Many of them, 

 in the shape of horses and heifers, ran up and down it, 

 doing it great damage with their feet: but to silence all 

 clamour I had all the bad part well-bedded with a quantity 

 of fern. Since this amendment Mrs. Etty and her sister 

 Stebbing, and Mrs. Yalden have been up and down it 

 by night and by day: so that party feuds are like to be 

 at an end. You do not, I hope, flatter me about my 

 Natural History: if you do not, I am much pleased to 

 find that an intelligent person like yourself approves of 

 it. Were it not for want of a good amanuensis, I think 

 I should make more progress: but much writing and 

 transcribing always hurts me. All I know about the sleep 

 of fishes is, that at the Black-Bear-inn in Eeading there 

 is a stream in the garden which runs under the stables, 

 and so under the road into the meadows; it is a branch 

 of the Kennet. Now this water all the summer is full 

 of carps, which roll about, and are fed by travellers, who 

 divert themselves by tossing them crumbs of bread. When 

 the cold weather comes, these fishes withdraw under the 

 stables, and are invisible for months; during which period, 

 I conclude, they must sleep. Thus the inhabitants of the 

 water, as well as of the air and the earth, retire from the 

 severity of winter. Timothy, your friend, retreated into 

 his hyhernaculum last week: he is laid up in the fruit- 

 border, in a dry, wholesome, sunny spot: at Kingmer he 

 was forced to lie in a swamp. My nephew Eichard has 

 been here : he was quite transported beyond himself with 

 the pleasures of shooting; and, after walking more than 



