ON SUSSEX HERONRIES. 73 



The Sowden-Wood heronry is illustrated by a woodcut by Mr. Pearson 

 and a lithograph by Mr. Keulemans, both copied from photographs taken for 

 this work. 



In the woodcut the general aspect is given as the spectator stands 

 in the Rye-and-Finchall turnpike-road and looks down on the tops of 

 the trees, which are not allowed to be cut. In the left-hand corner, on the 

 opposite hills, may be observed certain hop-gardens, in which no " pickers " 

 have yet arrived. Soon, however, will a quarter of a million* of such persons 

 carry off the hops to be " oasted " (i. e. dried by a charcoal fire) at the 

 oasting-house, of which every farm has one, some more. Here they will be 

 put into "pockets ;" while he who treads them down comes out a "green 

 man," and the steam and smell can be perceived to a long distance. 



In the lithograph, I ara bound to say (for pictorial truth should be most 

 sacred, which it frequently is not !), the Herons had to be put in after- 

 wards : though they were there, they could not be photographed. It is 

 observable how late these nests of young Herons were. In a large wood, 

 however, it is not easy to photograph the nests ; standing out in a park, they 

 could be better seen. 



In conclusion, if an ornithologist w^ere to make out a list of birds 

 prominent in classical or modern superstition, both as respects water and 

 land (such as, notably, the Kingfisher and the Vulturef in the one, and the 

 Petrel or the Magpie in the other), he would perhaps enumerate the Heron 

 in both. 



* This number is founded on an estimate in an article published in the ' Times/ Thursday, 

 August 30, 1877, where it is stated that from London alone at least 35,000 pickers start, and that 

 Kent and Sussex employ a quarter of a million. The London, Chatham, and Dover Company takes 

 these people at reduced fares. 



t Romulus and Remus. 



VOL. III. ^ 



