HAMPSHIRE DAYS 



ings. Their "meanness" produced a feeling in him 

 which is the nearest approach to indignation discover- 

 able in his pages. He is speaking of jackdaws breed- 

 ing in rabbit holes, and shrewdly conjectures that this 

 habit has arisen on account of the absence of steeples 

 and towers suitable as nesting-places. " Many Hamp- 



shire places of worship," he remarks, " make no better 

 appearance than dovecotes." He envied Northampton- 

 shire, Cambridgeshire, the Fens of Lincolnshire, and 

 other districts, the number of spires which presented 

 themselves in every point of view, and concludes : " As 

 an admirer of prospects I have reason to lament this 

 want in my own county, for such objects are very 

 necessary ingredients in an elegant landscape." 



