IN THE WEALD 73 
Their knowledge of all things that shelter beneath 
green leaves is very great ; in fact, it is the know- 
ledge of a long and necessarily observant life. 
Nearly all the cottages have orchards the fruit-trees 
in some instances trail over the hedge that separates 
the garden from the road. Great boughs, loaded 
with fine fruit in the season, lie on the hedge, 
mingling with the fine blackberries. If you see the 
owner or his ' missus,' and ask if you may have an 
apple or pear to offer to pay would be considered a 
direct affront permission will be gladly given. He 
or his wife, as the case may be, will get you two or 
three from the top boughs, where the sun shines right 
on them. 
A collector of insects cannot expect to be received 
very favourably when he goes about round the 
borders of covers at night with a dark lantern, 
sugaring trees with treacle and strong ale to capture 
intoxicated moths. One I knew had to run for 
dear life ; for the keepers, seeing the flashes of light, 
now here, now there, for the first time in this district, 
thought it was some new poaching device that 
was being practised. When the entomologist was 
walking to a fresh lot of trees on the edge of the 
next small cover from the one he had just finished 
exploring, he heard voices stating, in no measured 
