86 WILD LIFE IN A SOUTHERN COUNTY. 



on the beams, which at least are fixed. It is a giddy 

 height to fall from down to the stone pavement below, 

 where the ringers stand. Their ropes are bound round 

 with list or cloth, or some such thing, for a better 

 grasp for the hand. High as it is to this the first 

 floor, if you should attempt to ring one of these bells, 

 and forget to let the rope slip quickly, it will jerk 

 you almost to the ceiling : thus many a man has 

 broken his bones close to the font where he was 

 christened as a child. 



Against the wall up here are iron clamps to strengthen 

 the ancient fabric, settling somewhat in its latter days ; 

 and opening the worm-eaten door of the clock-case 

 the key stands in it you may study the works of the 

 old clock for a full hour, if so it please you ; for the 

 clerk is away labouring in the field, and his aged wife, 

 who produced the key of the church and pointed the 

 nearest way across the meadow, has gone to the 

 spring. The ancient building, standing lonely on the 

 hill, is utterly deserted ; the creak of the boards under- 

 foot or the grate of the rusty hinge sounds hollow and 

 gloomy. But a streak of sunlight enters from the arrow- 

 slit, a bee comes in through the larger open windows 

 with a low, inquiring buzz ; there is a chattering of 

 sparrows, the peculiar, shrill screech of the swifts, and 

 a " jack-jack-daw-jack-daw "-ing outside. The sweet 

 scent of clover and of mown grass comes upon the 

 light breeze mayhap the laughter of haymakers pass- 

 ing through the churchyard underneath to their work, 

 and idling by the way as haymakers can idle. 



