INTRODUCTION 



month of March," our Rowland ("with no 

 desire, I protest, to fashion or forme hus- 

 bandry") was wandering by the mill-stream, 

 possibly whistling as he went for want of 

 thought, or thinking regretfully of those boon 

 companions, only now allowed to memory, 

 when his wandering eye fell upon a small 

 stream, or, as he would call it, a " waterprill" 

 issuing from a molehill, and from this small 

 beginning came his mighty scheme of irri- 

 gation. His difficulties were great. His 

 neighbour, Rowland Parry of Moorhampton 

 (whose son Stephen afterwards became our 

 Rowland's son-in-law), readily gave him per- 

 mission to make the necessary uses of his 

 side of the river; but one of his tenants 

 ("being very aged and simple") made such 

 a to-do, that, after Rowland had vainly tried 

 what he calls " bugg words" bribery had to be 

 resorted to, with the result that the simple(?) 

 rustic got a " meadow-plott " worth ^40, 

 instead of the three acres of old meadow-land, 

 heavily laden with moss, rush, and cowslip, 

 which his landlord so much coveted. Of the 

 money spent we can form no estimate. Over 

 one piece of trenching (which, the neighbours 

 said, would cost a thousand marks) Rowland 



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