268 LIFE AND SPORT IN HAMPSHIRE 



tied in a simple knot, seems invariable, the badge of 

 the cattle drover on shaving and clean-shirt days as 

 on all others. 



But beneath an uncouth surface the drover is human 

 enough, and English, too, and has the social instincts 

 and sympathies. One day I fell in with several 

 drovers travelling with an old dealer, who, perhaps, 

 had risen from their ranks. The talk turned on a 

 cattle dealer who had just died, and I never heard 

 anything of the kind so interesting. The old dealer had 

 most to tell, for he alone had been to the funeral ; he had 

 seen the " Missus " the day before, and the way she told 



him was this: "We've a vacant chair now, Mr. ." 



Then, to eager, deferential ears he described the 

 funeral ; anything " more lovelier " he vowed he had 

 never seen. Into the spirit of this the drovers 

 though none of them had been invited entered fully ; 

 one declared, with a voice of longing, that he would 

 dearly have liked to see it. All agreed that their 

 friend was a real loss ; each had some little touch of 

 intimacy or jest by which to depict him ; one of the 

 drovers, a darkey, who seemed to go by the name of 

 " Little Gipsy," could tell how he had been larking with 

 the man only a day or two before the end, and how the 

 two had joked with one another as to which would live 

 the longer. There was no mistaking the sympathy of 

 these unkempt men, though the subject was jumbled 

 up with most carnal talk of hides, carcasses, or the like. 

 What impressed one most was the clear note of satis- 



