8 Wild Life in a Southern Coiinty 



cally isolated; for even in moderately good weather the 

 lane is an inch or two deep in finely puddled adhesive mud. 

 It is so shaded by elms and thick hedges that the dirt re- 

 quires a length of time to dry, while the passage of hundreds 

 of sheep tread and puddle it as only sheep can. 



In summer the place is lovely ; but then the inhabitants 

 are one and all busy in the fields, and have little time for 

 social intercourse or for travel into the next parish. It is 

 ten to one if you knock at a cottage door you will find it 

 locked if, indeed, you get so far as that, a padlock being 

 often on the garden gate. Being so isolated, and apart 

 from the current of modern life and manners, the hamlet 

 folk retain something of the old-fashioned way of thinking. 

 They do not believe their own superstitions with the implicit 

 credence of yore, but they have not yet forgotten them. I 

 have known women, for instance, who seriously asserted 

 that such-and-such an aged person possessed a magic book 

 which contained spells, and enabled her to foresee some 

 kinds of coming events. The influence of the moon, so 

 firm an article of faith among their forefathers, is not al- 

 together overlooked ; and they watch for the new moon 

 carefully. If the crescent slopes, it will be wet weather. 

 But if the horns of the crescent touch, or nearly, a vertical 

 line, if it stands upright, then it will be fine. Something, 

 too, must be allowed for the degree of sharpness of defini- 

 tion of the crescent, which reveals the state of the atmo- 

 sphere. And the cottage astrologer has a whole table of 

 the quarters, aspects, and so on, and lays much stress upon 

 the day and hour of the change : indeed, it is a very com- 

 plicated business to understand the moon. 



The belief in the power of certain persons to l rule the 

 planets ' is profound ; so profound that neither ridicule, 

 argument, nor authority will shake it in the minds of the 



