-8o Wild Life in a Southern County 



year by year. Sometimes it is desired to enclose a section 

 of such a track to round off an estate : sometimes a path 

 has grown into a valuable thoroughfare through increase 

 of population ; and then the question comes, Who is to 

 repair it ? There is little or no documentary evidence to 

 be found — nothing can be traced except through the 

 memories of men ; and so they come to the old shepherd, 

 who has been stationary all his life, and remembers the 

 condition of the lane fifty years since. He always liked 

 to drive his sheep along it — first, because it saved the 

 turnpike tolls ; secondly, because they could graze on the 

 short herbage and rest under the shade of the thick 

 bushes. Even in the helplessness of his old age he is not 

 without his use at the very last, and his word settles the 

 matter. 



In the winter twilight, after a fall of snow, it is 

 difficult to find one's way across the ploughed fields of the 

 open plain, for it melts on the south of every furrow, 

 leaving a white line where it has lodged on the northern 

 side, till the furrows resemble an endless succession of 

 waves of earth tipped with foam-flecks of snow. These 

 are dazzling to the eyes, and there are few hedges or trees 

 visible for guidance. Snow lingers sometimes for weeks 

 on the northern slopes of the downs — where shallow dry 

 dykes, used as landmarks, are filled with it : the dark 

 mass of the hill is streaked like the black hull of a ship 

 with its line of white paint. Field work during what the 

 men call ' the dark days afore Christmas ' is necessarily 

 much restricted, and they are driven to find some amuse- 

 ment for the long evenings — such as blowing out candles 

 at the alehouse with muzzle-loader guns for wagers of 

 liquor, the wind of the cap alone being sufficient for the 

 purpose at a short distance. 



