308 BIBDSIN LONDON 



and it has been discredited . by the discovery 

 that a rookery existed at the Temple prior to 

 Queen Anne's time. Aubrey's statement, which 

 has been quoted in disproof of the Northey 

 legend, is that the rooks built their nests there 

 in the spring after the plague, 1665. My 

 inference is that the rookeiy was an old one, 

 which the birds abandoned during the plague, 

 and afterwards reoccupied. We may then 

 suppose that later on the birds went away again 

 for good ; and that Northey, knowing that a 

 rookery had formerly existed at the Temple, 

 and inspired by a lawyer's very natural admira- 

 tion for the grave, black-coated, contentious 

 bird, succeeded in restoring it in the manner 

 described. In any case, it is not probable that 

 such a story would have been told of the 

 Temple rookery if the plan attributed to Northey 

 had not been successfully employed somewhere 

 and somewhen. It is well worth trying again. 

 I should like very much to see the experiment 

 made by Lord Ilchester, who has long desired to 

 see the rooks back in Holland Park ; he would 

 not have to bring the young birds in their nests 

 in open waggons all the way from Melbury or 

 Abbotsbury, as there are several rookeries where 



