VE: Wild Life in a Southern County. 
put on. Sometimes a village blacksmith acquires a 
fame for shoeing horses which extends far beyond his 
forge, and gentlemen residing in the market towns 
send out their horses to him to be shod. He still 
uses a ground-ash sapling to hold the short chisel 
with which he cuts off the glowing iron on the anvil. 
He keeps bundles of the young, pliant ground-ash 
sticks, which twist easily and are peculiarly tough ; 
and, taking one of these, with a few turns of his wrist 
winds it round the chisel so as to have a long handle. 
One advantage of the wood is that it ‘gives’ a little 
and does not jar when struck. 
The tinker, notwithstanding his vagrant habits, is. 
sometimes a man of substance, owning two or more 
small cottages, built out of his savings by the village 
mason—the materials perhaps carted for him free by 
a friendly farmer. When sober and steady, he has a 
capital trade: his hands are never idle. Milk-tins, 
pots, pans, &c., constantly need mending ; he travels. 
from door to door, and may be seen sitting on a stool 
in the cart-house in the farmyard, tinkering on his 
small portable anvil, with two or three cottagers’ 
children—sturdy, yellow-haired youngsters—intently 
watching the mystery of the craft. 
In despite of machine-sewn boots and their cheap- 
ness, the village cobbler is still an institution, and has a 
considerable number of patrons. The labourers work- 
ing in the fields need a boot that will keep out the 
damp, and for that purpose it must be hand-sewn: 
