166 FIELD AND HEDGEROW. 



Spanish, and Italian blood. It is, in fact, the inter- 

 marriages that have kept the falsely so-called pure races 

 of these human parasites alive. The mixing is con- 

 tinually going on. The gipsies who still stay in their 

 tents, however, look askance upon those who desert them 

 for the roof. Two gipsy women, thorough-bred, came 

 into a village shop and bought a variety of groceries, 

 ending with a pound of biscuits and a Guy Fawkes mask 

 for a boy. They were clad in dirty jackets and hats, 

 draggle-tails, unkempt and unwashed, with orange and 

 red kerchiefs round their necks (the gipsy colours). Hap- 

 pening to look out of window, they saw a young servant 

 girl with a perambulator on the opposite side of the ' street; ' 

 she was tidy and decently dressed, looking after her mis- 

 tress's children in civilised fashion ; but they recognised 

 her as a deserter from the tribe, and blazed with contempt. 

 1 Don't she look a figure ! ' exclaimed these dirty creatures. 

 The short hours shorten, and the leaf-crop is gathered 

 to the great barn of the earth ; the oaks alone, more 

 tenacious, retain their leaves, that have now become a 

 colour like new leather. It is too brown for buff — it is 

 more like fresh harness. The berries are red on the 

 holly bushes and holly trees that grow, whole copses of 

 them, on the forest slopes — ' the Great Rough ; ' the 

 half- wild sheep have polished the stems of these holly trees 

 till they shine, by rubbing their fleeces against them. 

 The farmers have been drying their damp wheat in the 

 oast-houses over charcoal fires, and wages are lowered, 

 and men discharged. Vast loads of brambles and 

 thorns, dead firs, useless hop-poles and hop-bines, and 

 gorse are drawn together for the great bonfire on the 

 green. The 5th of November bonfires are still vital 

 institutions, and from the top of the hill you may see 

 them burning in all directions, as if an enemy had set 

 fire to the hamlets. 



