258 THE FERN OWL. 



far to exceed those which were reared there, it appeared as if 

 the united hroods of the neighbourhood had, by common 

 consent, fixed upon it as a favoured central rendezvous. All 

 was exhilaration, a perpetual twittering was kept up ; a few 

 of the old ones would, after flying in circles round the battle- 

 ments, pass screaming by the reposing ranks of young ones, 

 and then, as if by word of command, the whole body would 

 sweep from their resting-places, and in loud chorus take a 

 wider circuit, as if to try their powers ; and then in an 

 instant crowd again together, and rest as before. But 

 those days are gone by ; year after year the numbers have 

 fallen off, and at present we are not aware of even a single 

 nest. 



There may be, however, some solitary exceptions to their 

 diminution; one, indeed, fell under our observation, on the 

 17th of June, 1833, when we were delighted with a little 

 colony of upwards of fifty nests, attached in closest order 

 beneath the eaves of a lone public-house, called " Gates' 

 Cabin," between Stamford and Huntingdon, in the parish of 

 Chesterton.* 



The Goat-suckers, or Fern-Owls, so called from being fre- 



* There are some interesting circumstances connected with this public- 

 house which may be worth recording. The name of Gates' Cabin, being 

 derived from Catius, the officer who commanded the station at the great 

 Roman Camp, mentioned by Camden and Stukeley. The sign of this 

 inn has also its peculiar interest, being the head of Dry den, painted by 

 Sir William Beechey in his early days, under the following circum- 

 stances: About 400 yards from Gates' Cabin stood a fine old manor- 

 house, built in the reign of James I., the seat of the'Drydens, collaterals 

 of the poet. This estate descended to a Mr. Pigott (through his mother, 

 a Dryden) of the family of Pigott of Chetwynd, in Salop, who was in his 

 day famous on the turf; having become embarrassed, he sold his patri- 

 mony at Chesterton to a Mr. Walker, and purchased a few acres in 

 Anwalton parish, only a few miles from Cates' Cabin, and built a 

 house, which was called " Pigott's Folly." Retaining a taste for the 

 pursuits and luxuries of his prosperous days, he resolved to adorn 

 " Pigott's Folly" with paintings of the heathen gods and goddesses, and 

 finding in London a sprightly youth, an artist, he brought him down to 

 paint his house ; this was young Beechey, who was lodged during his 

 employment at Gates' Cabin, and, in his leisure hours, painted for his 

 landlady its sign, the Dryden Head (this was about the year 1770), 

 copied from an engraving of the poet in the frontispiece of his Miscel- 

 lanies, borrowed by the landlady from a neighbouring clergyman. 



