124 A Midland Village: Garden and Meadow. 



which is so abundant on the Continent all through 

 the summer, never comes to this country except 

 in the autumn, and then only in very small num- 

 bers, chiefly along the south-west coast. It is 

 generally seen in Dorset, Devon, and Cornwall 

 in November, but never breeds there, and it is 

 seldom that a straggler finds his way further 

 north. On the 6th of November, 1884, I was 

 returning from a morning walk, and about a mile 

 from the village came to a spot which a few years 

 ago was one of the prettiest in the country-side. 

 Here one road crosses another, and formerly the 

 crossing was enclosed by high hedges and banks, 

 forming a comfortable nook where the hounds 

 used to meet, and where the Sand-martins bored 

 their way into the light and sandy soil. A land- 

 agent descended here one day, like a bird of ill 

 omen, and swept the hedges away, filling their 

 place with long lines of bare and ugly wall ; the 

 martins sought a lodging elsewhere, for they 

 could no longer feed their young with the insect- 

 life of the hedgerows ; the hounds followed their 

 example, and all my associations with the spot 

 were broken. But it was upon this very wall, 



