CHAPTER VII. 



The farmhouse Traditions Hunting pictures The farmer's year 

 Sport The auction festival A summer's day Beauty of 

 wheat. 



THE stream, after leaving the village and the wash- 

 pool, rushes swiftly down the descending slope, 

 and then entering the meadows, quickly loses its original 

 impetuous character. Not much more than a mile from 

 the village it flows placidly through meads and pas- 

 tures, a broad, deep brook, thickly fringed with green 

 flags bearing here and there large yellow flowers. 

 By some old thatched cattle-sheds and rickyards, 

 overshadowed with elm trees, a strong bay or dam 

 crosses it, forcing the water into a pond for the cattle, 

 and answering the occasional purpose of a ford ; for 

 the labourers in their heavy boots walk over the bay, 

 though the current rises to the instep. They call these 

 sheds, some few hundred yards from the farmhouse, 

 the " Lower Pen." Wick Farm almost every village 

 has its outlying " wick " stands alone in the fields. 

 It is an ancient rambling building, the present form of 

 which is the result of successive additions at different 

 dates and in various styles. 



