NATURE AND SPORT IN BRITAIN 



of walnuts were among the chiefest of his simple 

 pleasures. 



Until past the year 1880 he brewed always his own 

 ale and beer, and, as was then the custom, supplied his 

 farm labourers with their liquor. Thus for the greater 

 part of his lifetime he had, like his father, been accus- 

 tomed to carry the small beer to his men in the old- 

 fashioned wooden bottles, disposed in a strong wallet 

 slung across his saddle. In harvest and hay-time the 

 demands upon his ale cellar were heavy, and the 

 replenishing of those wooden bottles a serious task. 

 I see his erect, white-headed figure still hooking out 

 each bottle deftly from his wallet with the end of his 

 long-lashed whip and depositing it by its iron handle 

 under the shade of the tall hedge. 



He was extremely fond of blood stock, and for years 

 kept a brood mare or two, from which he bred hunters 

 and steeplechasers. He dearly loved the sight of a 

 race, and occasionally indulged himself in that ex- 

 quisite pleasure. He seldom travelled far from his 

 land, however, and, although he read much for a 

 farmer, his personal contact with the great outer world 

 beyond his shire was small indeed. He had seen 

 Cossack's Derby, and had been in London perhaps 

 half a score of times. Once or twice in his younger 

 days he had ventured to the Isle of Wight or to Wales; 

 but in truth his place was at home, and he was seldom 

 happy if long away. The business visit to the market 

 town was always a quiet pleasure ; but of late years 

 the glories of the old-fashioned market ''ordinary" 

 have been reluctantly relinquished by most farmers 

 who mean to survive the bad times. The bottle of 

 port went first; then the "ordinary" itself was given 

 up, and in place of a half-crown dinner and a bottle 

 of wine a sandwich and a glass of ale sufficed to men 



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