WITH THE WOODLANDEKS. 



elders. Only those who lived among the wood- 

 landers forty years ago know what their daily lives 

 were like. There are still some lonely enough home- 

 steads scattered here and there through the forest ; 

 but roads intersect it now in all directions, whereas 

 at the time I allude to no roads existed only a 

 network of tracks, amongst which I frequently went 

 astray until I learned to know the country well. 



Neighbours, so-called, lived far apart. "I'll 

 jest step over an' fetch Will's missis to ye, dame 

 you bein' so uncommon poorly like," was the 

 sort of thing often heard amongst them ; " Will's 

 missis " living probably a couple of miles away. 

 Six, and even eight miles away from a doctor many 

 of them were ; so no wonder the women - folks 

 were well skilled in simple remedies, productions 

 of their own garden-plots, for "mother" always 

 had a bit of ground for her herb-garden. It was 

 not very often that a doctor was required, and 

 chiefly when those accidents occurred that house- 

 hold medicines cannot alleviate. 



Of the town's people or their ways they knew 

 nothing : in fact, all town - dwellers were looked 

 on with suspicion, when through changes they 



