CONTENTS xix 



CHAPTER XXII 



PAGE 



The myths and monastic legends of Ruckinghamshire — St. 

 Osyth — Rip Van Winkle and the Seven Sleepers — The be- 

 heading and miraculous restoration of St. Osyth — The Nun's 

 Wood and Fountain — Existing local traditions — Sacred wells 

 — ' The Holy Touch' — Hartwell and Dr. Lee . . .213 



CHAPTER XXIII 



Poultry rearing for profit — Statistics of imports — Breeds that 

 should be adopted — Records of exhibition birds — Major- 

 General Hassard — Pheasant-rearing and the production of 

 pheasants' eggs as a profitable agricultural industry — Remark- 

 able statistics — Prices of eggs — Names of noted dealers — 

 Accounts of profit and loss — Numbers of eggs laid and young 

 pheasants reared — Expenditure on the establishment of a 

 pheasant farm . . . . 220 



CHAPTER XXIV 



The homing instinct — Andre's pigeons — Mr. Tegetmeier — 

 Curious instances of homing instinct in the dog — Quaint epi- 

 taph — The agricultural labourer — Dialects — The agricultural 

 labourer's rustic speech — His humour— The worth and native 

 shrewdness of his character — His industry — Wages and the 

 cheap loaf — Old times and new — Bounties on foreign grown 

 sugar — The growth of flax and hemp — A chance for English 

 agriculture — ' The backbone of Old England ' . . . 



