26 ON SURREY HILLS. 



their part. I have known a well-to-do farmer's wife 

 and daughter put aside a heavy three-weeks' wash for 

 that day, because a splendid specimen of the death's- 

 head moth had been found on one of the tubs that 

 they intended to use. In spite of the progress made 

 in education, many curious superstitions linger, and 

 will linger still for many years to come, in our more 

 isolated country districts. With the superstitions the 

 old folk-lore, valuable in its way, will go too. Many 

 of our cottagers will still forbid the bringing of wild 

 birds' eggs into the house. Woe betide the children, 

 though, if they do not at once bring in those of the 

 hen or duck that may be laying away ! 



By roadside waters I have in my wanderings lin- 

 gered, rod in hand : nearly all the mill pools or ponds 

 are naturally close to the highways. The streams 

 that feed them run in a line with the roads as a rule, 

 or they cross them. But all mill-ponds and mill- 

 streams have peculiar rights attached to them — rights 

 which are most jealously guarded by the owners. 

 Our rustic miller puts his foot down and states in 

 the most emphatic manner "that he wunt hev the 

 feathered critturs shot at, nor the fish dragged out 

 on it." Though the wayfarer may study bird-life 



