192 THE RECTORY AND ITS BIRDS 



to all the surrounding villages. A cluster of ricks, 

 his handiwork, marvels of symmetry and neatness, 

 and often set off with fantastically twisted orna- 

 ments of straw on the top, are the admiration of 

 every passer-by. His personality often ranks next 

 after that of the village clerk, the chief of the village 

 hierarchy, and is as marked in its way as that of 

 the gamekeeper, of the mole-catcher, of the " ruddle- 

 man," so well described by Mr Thomas Hardy in 

 his Return of the Native. He is often skilled in 

 folk-lore. He knows the inner character of each 

 house and household better, perhaps, than any one 

 else ; for he has advantages of his own ; he can look 

 down upon the inhabitants, observing but often 

 unobserved, from his lofty perch, and can hardly 

 help catching hasty glimpses of them through the 

 windows, as he ascends or descends his inseparable 

 companion, the ladder. 



A beauty and interest of its own attaches to 

 every portion of his handiwork, and that, too, at 

 each succeeding stage of its youth, its maturity, its 

 decay. Notice, for instance, the exquisitely neat 

 finish of the roof-ridge, the most critical point of the 

 whole ; the geometrical patterns formed by the spars 

 just below, which help, by their grip, to hold it in 

 its place for years ; the faultless symmetry of the 



