OLD DITCHES. 89 



there are no mills ; but there used to be several large 

 ponds distinct from the stream, yet communicating by 

 a narrow channel. These likewise sheltered the fish, and 

 were favourable to their propagation. Improvements, 

 however, have swept them away ; they are filled up, every 

 inch of ground having become valuable for agricultural 

 purposes. Then there were vast ditches running up 

 beside the hedgerows, and ending in the brook ; perfect 

 storehouses these of all aquatic life. Fish used to go up 

 them for shelter (they were as deep or deeper than the 

 brook itself, and it was a good jump for a man across), 

 and to feed on the insects blown off the overhanging 

 trees and bushes, or brought down by the streamlet drain- 

 ing the field above. Wild duck made their nests among 

 the rushes, sitting there while their beautiful consorts, the 

 mallards, swam lonely in the mere. Moorhens were busy 

 in the weeds, or came out to feed upon the sward. 



Such great ditches are now filled up, and drains take 

 their place. It is better so, no doubt, in a purely utili- 

 tarian sense, but the fish haunt the spot no more. Some 

 of the reaches of the brook, where the ground was flat 

 and boggy, used to resemble a long narrow lake, extremely 

 shallow, with the deeper current running yards away from 

 the shore : and here the snipe came in the winter. But 

 the banks are now made up higher by artificial means, 

 and the marsh is dry. All these changes diminish those 

 aquatic nooks and corners in which fish love to linger. 



