‘SUMMER IN SOMERSET. 279 
in some of the villages, something resembling a water- 
wheel placed horizontally. This was moved by horses 
-walking round and round, and drove machinery in the 
barn by belt or shafting. The labourers, greatly in- 
.censcd—for they regarded threshing by the flail as their 
right—tried to burn them, but the structures were 
guarded and still exist. Under the modern conditions 
of farming they are still found useful to cut chaff, crack 
corn, and so on. The ancient sickle is yet in use for 
reaping in Somerset ; the reapers sharpen it by drawing 
the edge through an apple, when the acid bites and 
cleans the steel. While we were sauntering through a 
village one morning, out rushed the boys from school, 
and instantly their tongues began to wag of those things 
on which their hearts were set. ‘I know a jay’s nest, 
said one; ‘I know an owl’s nest,’ cried a second ; a third 
hastened to claim knowledge of a pigeon’s nest. It will 
be long before education drives the natural love of the 
woods out of the children’s hearts. Of old time a village 
school used to be held in an ancient building, the lower 
-part of which was occupied as almshouses. Underneath 
the ancient folk lived as best they might, while the 
young folk learned and gave their class responses, or 
romped on the floor overhead. The upper part of the 
building belonged to one owner, the lower part to 
another landlord. It came about that the roof decayed 
and the upper owner suggested to the lower owner that 
they should agree in bearing the cost of repairs. Upon 
‘which the owner of the basement remarked that he con- 
templated pulling his part down., 
In these hamletsalong the foot of the hills ancient stone 
crosses are often found. One of them has retained its 
top perfect, and really is a cross, not a shaft only. This 
is, I think, rare. Sometimes in the village street, the 
