LITTLE GADDESDEN. 1 99 



The boys thus cut down with this scythe Furze, 

 Brackens, old grass, and whatever came in their way, all 

 of which they then raked together into heaps, bound 

 them into bundles, and used the thin shoots of black- 

 -berry-bushes, Rubus, 409 [R. Fruticosus] as a band 

 to bind them with. It was, therefore, highly neces- 

 sary for one who would bind these into bundles that he 

 should have good gloves, because both furze and the 

 blackberry bushes are among the most thorny kinds of 

 trees or bushes. We saw several heaps of such bundles, 

 which lay here upon the plain, and which were to be 

 carried home for fuel. This [T. I. p. 200] furze with its 

 thorns, had the effect that, when one walked where it 

 grew, it tore great scratches on the shoes, and where it 

 encountered the stockings, they were not respected. It 

 pricked the legs savagely. We afterwards saw boys in 

 many places in this district cut down the same in the 

 above-described way for fuel. 



Plinta. Flint of the ordinary and common kind, 

 which is used to strike fire with, and in fire-arms, lay 

 plentifully on the arable fields. On some fields there 

 was such an abundance of them, that one had difficulty 

 in seeing a bit of earth for them. It was found here 

 both of the lighter and darker sort, and sometimes in 

 larger sometimes in smaller pieces. The largest as large 

 as a common clod, klot, but mostly they were quite as 

 small as the closed fist and less. Since there is not the 

 least sign of granite, gr&sten, in this district, it is often 

 the practice to take flints for the foundations of houses. 

 In one place and another the outhouses are for the most 

 part built of them. Bricks also are commonly used both 

 for foundations and walls. 



The 2gth March, 1748. 



PS,r. Sheep are found everywhere in this country 



