LITTLE GADDESDEN. 207 



May they are kept at home at the farm in a cow- 

 shed, hemma vid garden i hus, and fed with dry 

 hay, but afterwards they have freedom to go out in the 

 pastures, beteshagarna, during the summer, and there 

 seek their food. The reason why they have so few cows in 

 this village and the other villages lying round about, is said 

 to be this, that they have so little pasture and meadow 

 land ; because it is mostly arable ; but in other places 

 some distance from here where they have large pastures, 

 betes-marker, there are said to be plenty of cows. 



Getter brukades ej har. Goats are not used here. 



One farmer only, Mr. Williams, had two goats, viz., 

 a buck and a goat, which were shown to me, as something 

 rare, that they believed I had never seen before. He 

 said he kept them mostly in the stable because he was 

 of the opinion that the horses did well with them. 



Ormbunkar, Pteris, 843. [Pt. Aquilina] Brackens 

 grew in very great abundance on the hills, near and in 

 the hedges, and elsewhere. At a farm I saw the same 

 dried, carried home, and there laid in two heaps, each of 

 them as large as a small house, and nicely thatched with 

 straw. I asked for what purpose they would use this 

 large quantity of brackens. They answered " for fuel for 

 all purposes for which otherwise wood or furze, &c, is 

 used." In particular they said they used this in the pre- 

 paration and drying of malt, [T. I. p. 209] brewing, 

 and such like. In my walks afterwards on different sides 

 around Little Gaddesden, I always found this growing in 

 great abundance on all common pastures or hills. From 

 the good soil, it had commonly grown here to a greater 

 height and luxuriance than with us in Sweden. We 

 also saw several places where they cut the same and 

 collected it for fuel. In the Duke of Bridgwater's Park 

 [Ashridge] which lay close to Little Gaddesden, there 



