62 By Stream and Sea. 



safely through the close thoroughfares, and get the leaders 

 in sober trim. When a long hill invites him to slacken 

 rein he tells you the life and adventures of all his " harses." 

 Not very romantic are those equine histories, except that of 

 the near leader — " a sort of a kind of a silver-tailed roan," 

 as Jehu describes him, and who is blessed or cursed with 

 such an insatiable appetite for chaff that the stable-keepers, 

 in fine irony, impose upon him the task of working the chaff- 

 cutting machine for the benefit of the general stable. 



We must be careful in descending these steep, winding 

 hills ; five-and-twenty persons who, by their purchase of 

 British Association tickets, are fairly entitled to rank 

 amongst the wise of the earth, are too precious a cargo to be 

 spilled in the ditch like water. So we apply drag-shoe as 

 well as brake, and pick our way at a gingerly walk down 

 the white hills which the Wells mail-coaches of the good 

 old times used to clear at full tilt. The sportsmen are 

 abroad, as we may hear by the frequent breech-loader in 

 the stubble. Here is a country squire quizzing us from 

 behind the hedge, gun over shoulder and setters by his 

 side ; there comes a gang of nutbrown labourers, sickle in 

 hand, and gaping open-mouthed at the philosophers until 

 the last consignment has rolled by in a cloud of dust. The 

 business of every village is temporarily paralyzed during 

 our passage. 



Never mind ; a balance is struck. The rustics admire us, 

 and we are charmed with their thatched cottages, the purple 

 plums, golden apples, green walnuts, blooming hollyhocks, ; 

 sunflowers and fuchsias, drooping vines, and homely beehives ' 

 of their gardens. 



And what does not a country drive owe to the hedge- 

 rows? We are a somewhat miscellanous party, but we 

 all sing its praises ; all, save the worthy geologist who finds 



