108 Wild Life in a Southern County. 
and force your way along it between thorns and. 
stoles, till you reach the channel through which the 
current is rushing. Across that an old tree trunk 
will probably lie, and by grasping a bough as a hand-. 
railit is possible to get over. But either way, by lane 
or footpath, you are sure to get what the country 
folk call ‘watchet’ ze. wet. So that in winter the: 
hamlet is practically isolated ; for even in moderately 
good weather the lane is an inch or two deep in 
finely puddled adhesive mud. It is so shaded by 
elms and thick hedges that the dirt requires a length 
of time to dry, while the passage of hundreds of 
sheep tread and puddle it as only sheep. can. 
In summer the place is lovely; but then the 
inhabitants are one and all busy in the fields, and 
have little time for social intercourse or for travel 
into the next parish. It is ten to one if you knock 
at a cottage door you will find it locked, if indeed, 
you get so far as that, a padlock being often on the 
garden gate. Being so isolated and apart from the 
current of modern life and manners, the hamlet folk 
retain something of the old-fashioned way of thinking. 
They do not believe their own superstitions with the 
implicit credence of yore, but they have not yet. 
forgotten them. I have known women, for instance,. 
who seriously asserted that such-and-such an aged 
person possessed a magic book which contained 
spells, and enabled her to foresee some kinds of 
coming events. The influence of the moon, so firm 
