30 



RECREATIONS OF A NATURALIST 



Barrington in December 1773, and the number of 

 these birds which used to be taken years ago upon 

 the South Downs in autumn was a matter of 

 notoriety. 



" Hereabouts," says an old chronicle of East- 

 bourne, "is the chief place for catching the delicious 

 birds called Wheatears, which much resemble the 

 French Ortolans," and they have played an im- 

 portant part in the history of this town. Squire 



THE WHEATEAR. 



William Wilson, of Hitchin, Lord of the Manor of 

 Eastbourne, was in Oliver Cromwell's time vehe- 

 mently suspected of loyalty to the Stuarts, and one 

 Lieut. Hopkins with a troop of dragoons swooped 

 down into Eastbourne to search the squire's house, 

 and, if needful, to arrest him as a malignant. The 

 squire was laid up with the gout, but Mistress 

 Wilson, his true wife, with the rarely failing shrewd- 

 ness of her sex, at once placed before Lieut. 

 Hopkins and his troopers a prodigious pie filled 

 with Wheatears, which rare repast, the chronicle 



