LITTLE GADDESDEN. ' 267 



the roads through the villages into a fitter and dryer state 

 to go upon, partly and principally to procure by that 

 means an increase of manure for the fields, for this straw 

 or litter is trampled down by folk, horses, and other 

 animals, mixed with the droppings of the animals, and 

 the mud or soil the roads consist of, &c. 



When it has lain thus for some time it is shovelled 

 together into larger or smaller heaps by the wayside, 

 which mostly have the shape of a cube, or oblong. Their 

 height is seldom under 3 feet, but indeed more, up to a 

 fathom. Commonly a little mould is cast on the top that 

 the sun may not dry it too much. Here it gets to lie 

 thus the whole summer in the heaps to rot and ferment, 

 brinna tilhopa, after which it is carried out on to the 

 fields as a beautiful manure. 



Sades-stackar pa stalpar. Rich on posts. 



At Ivinghoe we saw a great collection of ricks at their 

 farms, which all stood on posts, just 3 feet from the 

 ground. The posts were mostly of Freestone* hewn 

 square. On the top of each stone-pillar, sten-stalpen, 

 was laid a 'flat stone,' or 'resting stone,' f halla, of the 

 same kind of stone, which reached far beyond the pillar 

 on all sides, to prevent mice from slipping up into the 

 stack. Some had the pillars either in the middle or to- 

 wards the upper ends, clad with a thin very smooth brass 

 or tin plate, massings eller black-skifva, which 

 likewise hindered the mice from climbing up into the 

 stack, because they could not possibly get fast hold of the 

 brass or tin. Yet it was equally necessary that no sticks, 

 timber, or other things should come to rest against the 

 stack, of which they could easily avail themselves to get 



* Totternhoe Stone. 



t Called Fktstone or ' Resting Stone,' 1886. [J. L.] 



