230 MEN OF MY TIME. 



I asked him, ' Why did you not shoot ?' and he 

 replied : 



' I thought they were out of all distance ; they get 

 up so much closer to us in Devonshire.' 



I have previously, I think, mentioned Mr. Wre- 

 ford's name in connection Avith the notion of keeping 

 the sheep off the Downs and watering the gallops. 

 In both cases he was the originator of the idea. The 

 water-carts were tried by Lord George Bentinck ; 

 but the system was found too expensive for practical 

 use — or, at least, did not give compensating results, 

 the water being too far off — and the undertaking was 

 abandoned. The other idea was more successful. 

 Mr. Wreford argued that, as in the young plantations, 

 where sheep did not go, the grass was not only 

 longer, but the herbage thicker, and consequently 

 more retentive of moisture and better able to stand 

 the effects of dry weather than where it was cropped 

 by sheep, the Downs also would be improved if they 

 were kept off them. At Danebury the Downs have 

 been so preserved until this day. 



Mr. Wreford was a man of good common-sense, 

 prudent and careful. He was a rationalist ; believing 

 only in what he could see ; and he used to say ' he 

 should like to live here as long as he could, know- 

 ing what this life is, but not what the next might be.' 

 Poor fellow, he was destined to suffer great distress 

 before leaving the former. A delicate wife, and 

 family disappointments which have been hinted at, 



