RUSTIC NATURALISTS 211 



rest, such contemplation fails to give the change of 

 thoughts they need. Like Piers the Ploughman, they 

 would turn their backs upon the fields and go 



"Wide into the world, 

 Wonders for to hear." 



It must not, however, be supposed that because the 

 farmer and farm labourer usually confine their interests 

 in outdoor life to the practical problems of the land, the 

 rustic naturalist is a rare or eccentric character in village 

 life. There are numbers of men employed in sedentary 

 occupations in villages and small country towns, who 

 find in the pursuit of natural history the same change 

 and excitement which the London artisan does in his 

 favourite hobby of angling in the well-fished waters of 

 the Thames and Lea. Village tailors, cobblers, and 

 harness-makers are among the greatest enthusiasts of 

 this class. The most intelligent of the class whom the 

 writer has known was, like Thomas Edward, the Banff 

 naturalist, a shoemaker. His trade was hereditary, and 

 accidental. Mechanical invention was the natural 

 tendency of his mind ; he learned the whole of Euclid, 

 taught himself algebra, and became a rapid and exact 

 calculator. Had he lived in Lancashire, and not in a 

 country village, he would have improved the machinery 

 in the mill or invented a new process. As it was, the 

 sole mechanical appliances open to his observation were 

 those used in making tiles and bricks. For this he 

 invented new machinery, and went to London to 

 exhibit his drawings. There his ideas were stolen ; and 



