FOLK-LORE REMINISCENCES. 65 



Sometimes one gets a rebuff in attempting to get behind 

 the scenes. One day I was walking round a farm with one 

 of the driest old pieces of " double Dorset " that I know. 

 He began to pour out his troubles as to the losses he had had 

 with his stock. I thought that I had a splendid opportunity 

 to get some folk lore, so quietly asked if he had ever been to 

 the wise woman who I knew lived about half a mile from his 

 farm. He turned on me with this remark : " I dwont believe 

 in any o' they ther' things, nor in vets neither. If they be 

 took vur death they dies, and if they lives they lives." Well, 

 that was Kismet with a vengeance, and I could say no more. 



Such are some of the quaint sayings and practices of the 

 farmers and yokels of the recesses of the Blackmore Vale 

 which may still be gleaned as one rambles amongst its well- 

 timbered pastures ; but, alas ! how much has been for ever 

 buried under the new conditions created by the Education 

 Acts. 



