BEDFORDSHIRE: TURVEY 125 



ally away for several days at a time when we sometimes had 

 nothing to go on with, he would amuse himself fishing, of 

 which he was very fond. Sometimes I went with him, but I 

 usually preferred walking about the country, though I cannot 

 remember that I had at this time any special interest in doing 

 so. He often caught some large, coarse fish, such as bream 

 or pike, which were the commonest fish in the river, but were 

 hardly worth eating. Towards the latter part of our survey 

 in the spring months, my brother left us a portion of the work 

 to do by ourselves when he was away for a week or two, and 

 as we worked very hard, and seldom got home before six in 

 the evening, we had an unusally good appetite for our even- 

 ing meal, and sometimes astonished our hosts. One occasion 

 of this kind I have never forgotten. They had provided for 

 our dinner a sparerib of young pork — a very delicate dish but 

 not very substantial — with potatoes. My friend first cut the 

 joint in half, about three or four ribs in each, and said to me, 

 " I know you like fat ; if I cut off this lean piece, will you 

 have the rest?" I joyfully assented, as I was very fond of 

 the picking on the bones. We soon finished our portions, and 

 then he cut the lean off the rest of the joint, gave me the ribs, 

 and we very soon left nothing but the cleaned-picked bones, 

 half of which I put on his plate so that it might not be thought 

 that I had eaten the whole joint myself. The servant looked 

 astonished at the empty dish when she brought us in a rather 

 small apple-pudding. This was cut in two, and was hardly 

 as much as we should have liked ; and when the servant saw 

 another empty dish she smiled, and told us that some people 

 had been waiting for the rest of the pork and pudding, and 

 now had nothing for dinner; at which we smiled, and asked 

 for bread-and-cheese to finish with. 



When at home and spending the larger part of every day 

 in the schoolroom, I had never liked fat, which often made 

 me ill. But exercise for about ten hours every day in the 

 open air had improved my digestion and my general health 

 so that I could eat most kinds of fat, and have been very fond 

 of it during my whole life. 



During our stay here we made the acquaintance of some 



