84 ON SURREY HILLS. 



according to the season ; and the heron comes to 

 see what he can bayonet with that bill of his. 

 Thirty - five years ago that pond and the streams 

 that fed it teemed with fish of all kinds ; the perch 

 and the pike ran very large there. It was not to 

 be wondered at, taking the vast supply of food into 

 consideration, I -have seen shoals of young carp 

 swim up a quiet part of one of the feeding-streams 

 and down again. As to the roach and gudgeon and 

 the loaches, their name was, in truth, legion. 



There was a tradition about the pond in connec- 

 tion with a secret outlet said to run from it into the 

 water-meadows. In most traditions there is a grain, 

 at least, of truth. An individual I knew well — he is 

 still alive, although sadly grizzled and battered with 

 the wear and tear of a very nomadic way of living — 

 who was of an inquiring turn of mind, set to work 

 to solve the problem of the exact whereabouts of 

 that secret outlet. He found it, but he kept the 

 knowledge of it to himself. 



This man dealt with the miller for siftings, pea- 

 meal, and other matter for the fattening of his 

 porkers ; so that he generally had one sack, if not 

 more, in his house, with the names of the miller and 



