284 FIELD AND HEDGEROW. 



show sport. The otter, I fear, is going ; I hope the 

 sportsmen of Somerset will see that it remains in their 

 county, at all events, when it has become a tradition 

 elsewhere. Otter hounds frequently visit the rivers, and 

 first-rate sport is obtained. In these villages, two hun- 

 dred miles from London, and often far from the rail, 

 some of the conditions resemble those in the United 

 States, where, instead of shops, ' stores ' supply every 

 article from one counter. So here you buy everything 

 in one shop ; it is really a ' store ' in the American sense. 

 A house which seems amid fields is called ' The Dragon ; ' 

 you would suppose it an inn, but it is a shop, and has 

 been so ever since the olden times when every trader put 

 out a sign. The sign has gone, but the name remains. 

 Somewhere in a wood there is a stone, supposed to 

 be a tombstone of the prophetess Mother Shipton, 

 and bearing an undecipherable inscription. One of her 

 rhymes is well remembered in the neighbourhood : 



When Watchet is all washed down 

 Williton shall be a seaport town. 



This is founded on the gradual encroachment of the sea, 

 which is a fact, but it will be some time yet before masts 

 are seen at Williton. 



At Dunstcr there is a curious mill which has two 

 wheels, overshot, one in front of the other, and both 

 driven by the same sluice. It was very hot as we stood 

 by the wheels ; the mill dust came forth and sprinkled 

 the foliage so that the leaves seemed scarce able to 

 breathe ; it drifted almost to the stream hard by, where 

 trout were watching under a cloud of midges dancing 

 over the ripples. They look as if entangled in an inextri- 

 cable maze, but if you let your eye travel, say to the 

 right, as you would follow the flight of a bird, you find 



