78 IN THE WEALD 
magic style. Some travellers that way turned back, 
and got home by another road ; and one individual I 
knew, carried for some time a large horse-pistol with a 
flint-lock. He told us ' she had got a double charge 
in her.' It was a mercy * she ' never went off near 
that entomologist, for the man had been so frightened 
by the wild figures thrown on the sheet, that several 
times in my hearing he spoke rashly, and declared 
he would shoot the first thing that came in front of 
him in the night-time. When the real truth became 
known, the entomologist had to clear out of the 
neighbourhood. 
A blue sky without a cloud is overhead. All dis- 
tant objects are shimmering in the heat, which appears 
like a soft grey veil over everything. The fields and 
trees, and the farms in the distance, look faint and 
dim. In front is a long lane without a bend for more 
than a mile, covered in for the greater part of the dis- 
tance by the hedgerow growths. Not one house is 
to be seen the whole length of it. We have already 
passed through several very like this, but with more 
houses showing. The bits of landscape we see 
through the openings in the hedges, where the gates 
are leading into the large fields, would be very beau- 
tiful peeps to place on canvas. It is very quiet, 
for the birds have done singing. Their young ones 
