SAXICOLA (ENANTHE. 405 



his reapers, "The Lord be with you/' and hear as reply, "The Lord bless 

 thee:'' these are the days of civilizationl Yet the shepherd of the downs, 

 though he knows not St. James, neither regards his day, and perhaps but 

 too little even casts a thought upon the owner of " the cattle on a thousand 

 hills," still continues at this period of the year to set his traps for these 

 passing birds, as his forefathers have done time out of mind ; and I have 

 endeavoured (before this thing, now rapidly on its decline, shall have ceased 

 to be) feebly to bring it home to the thoughts of the reader, so that he may 

 enter into and fully understand a local custom which, though expiring, even 

 now remains, on the chalky shores of the sunny south coast, in our native 

 land. Is there any one with ''soul so dead" as to ignore such things.^ 

 then let him ignore them. 



