78 WILD LIFE IN A SOUTHERN COUNTY. 



on account of a wall or enclosure, will they ever rush 

 into a pond. If a sheep gets into a brook and cannot 

 get out his narrow feet sink deep into the mud 

 should he not be speedily relieved he will die, even 

 though his head be above water, from chill and fright. 

 Cattle, on the other hand, love to stand in water on a 

 warm day. 



In rubbing together and struggling with the shep- 

 herds and their assistants a good deal of wool is torn 

 from the sheep, and floats down the current. This is 

 caught by a net stretched across below, and finally 

 comes into the possession of one or two old women of 

 the village, who seem to have a prescriptive right to 

 it, on payment of a small toll for beer-money. These 

 women are also on the lookout during the year for 

 such stray scraps of wool as they can pick up from the 

 bushes beside the roads and lanes much travelled by 

 sheep; also from the tall thistles and briers, where 

 they have got through a gap. This wool is more or 

 less stained by the weather and by particles of dust ; 

 but it answers the purpose, which is the manufacture 

 of mops. 



The old-fashioned wool mop is still a necessary 

 adjunct of the farmhouse, and especially the dairy, 

 which has to be constantly " swilled " out and mopped 

 clean. With the ancient spinning-wheel they work up 

 the wool thus gathered ; and so, even at this late day, 

 in odd nooks and corners, the wheel may now and then 

 be found. The peculiar broad-headed nail which 

 fastens the mop to the stout ashen " steale," or handle, 



