Peacock : The Beck — A Study. 



the exact spot from which the fish had been drawn so swiftly, 

 my head cradled on a portion of the bank on which I had been 

 standing - . I was in a sad case. The banks were of liassic 

 clay and steep, and in my soaked condition it took a hard and 

 long- struggle to gain the top, after many useless attempts, with 

 the lustre of one's exploit dimmed, and a good suit of clothes 

 ruined by mud and water. The moral is simple. Do not go 

 poaching - , even in the name of science, be you parson or layman; 

 for it is poaching - now to take a pike at that season of the year 

 even in your own private fish ponds. 



But let us imag-ine we are sweeping the whole wood side 

 beyond the field, called the park, which skirts the beck, in order 

 to notice its abundant animal and bird life. A mole has left the 

 ground, on beetles and grubs intent, and is walking along with 

 unprepossessing gait. They do so occasionally, but I am not 

 satisfied that we know why. Perhaps like some of ourselves 

 they every now and again evince an inquiring disposition, and 

 once having come abroad in the summer daylight, find food too 

 plentiful to be content to carry on their eternal digging opera- 

 tions without a little variety in the way of change, till the winter 

 forces them below ground for good. Though once I remember 

 while out shooting with my brother I saw one above ground in 

 a sharp frost. In this case perhaps a weasel may have been 

 tracking it in its underground galleries. Lincolnshire folk-lore 

 says the mole leaves the ground but once a year to take a little 

 fresh air in the daylight. The upper side of the wood stands 

 upon a bed of stiff liassic clay, the lower side and the grass on 

 the loam and sand deposited by the beck. This light soil is 

 burrowed through and through by rabbits, not the ordinary 

 bunny either, nor the black ones which are almost as common 

 in some districts, but 'the silver-haired,' the rare product of 

 a few isolated spots now, though at the end of last century 

 common enough in places in this county, the skins at that time 

 being worth as much as 3s. 6d. each. There are few above 

 ground at mid-day, but in the evening there will be thousands. 

 The sand where they are now found was not their native homo, 

 though the}' look like natives. They were introduced a couple 

 of generations ago, when the skins were valuable, under the 

 following circumstances : — In a neighbouring - lordship a well- 

 known squire possessed a warren which had existed time out ot 

 mind ; and he set such store by it that he w ould not give 

 a neighbour and friend, who owned the ground 1 am speaking 

 ot, a few couples of his rabbits to start a warren ot his own. 

 1900 September i. 



