68 Fagoting. 



tarnished and worn awaj" before the storms, and 

 t\\Qy are now barely distinguishable ; and it is diffi- 

 cult to tell the precise time b}' the solitary pointer, 

 there being no minute hand. 



Past another slit, and the narrow stone steps — 

 }'ou must take care to keep close to the outer wall 

 where the}- are widest, for they narrow to the central 

 pillar — are scooped out by the passage of feet dur- 

 ing the centuries ; some, too, are broken, and others 

 are slippery with something that rolls and gives under 

 the foot. It is a number of little sticks and twigs 

 which have fallen down from the jackdaws' nests 

 above : higher up the steps are literally covered with 

 them, so that you have to kick them aside before you 

 can convenient!}' ascend. These sticks are nearly 

 all of the same size, brown and black from age and 

 the loss of the sap, the bark remaining on. It is sur- 

 prising how the birds contrive to find so many suit- 

 able to their purpose, searching about under the 

 trees ; for they do not break them off, but take those 

 that have fallen. 



The best place for finding these sticks — and those 

 the rooks use — is where a tree has been felled or a 

 thick hedge cut some months before. In cutting up 

 the smaller branches into fagots the men necessarily 

 frequently step on them, and so break off innumerable 

 twigs too short to be tied up in the bundle. After 

 the}' have finished fagoting, the women rake up the 

 fragments for their cottage fires ; and later on, as the 

 spring advances, the birds come for the remaining 

 twigs, of which great quantities are left. These they 

 pick up from among the grass ; and it is noticeable 

 that the}^ like twigs that are dead but not decayed : 



