142 
NATURE NOTES. 
ing, and chatted witli the Avomen ; and a very pretty sight it was, 
as they scattered themselves about the pale gold fields. The 
babies sat in perambulators or sprawled about, munching apples, 
ripe or otherwise. And the broad sweet sunshine fell on the 
corn, and on the hedges with their fair greenness, from among 
w’hich we paused now and then to pluck the dainty “ robin’s 
cushion.” 
The first queen, who had abdicated some time before I saw 
her, had reigned for twenty-three years. She told me she had 
been made queen by consent of the farmers, the rector, and 
Mr. , who “ had such a beautiful way of life, and had 
died worth /”23,ooo.” She had been the only candidate whom 
they had nominated. She said they thought it would be a good 
thing to have a woman over the others. I think she said she 
had been elected “ on account of her principles.” It was a 
verj? grand day, she told me, and she was crowned with flowers. 
“ I had white satin butes, and chevened [clocked] silk stockings 
(here she raised her gown), and I had a ball dress.” 
“ Was it white ? ” 
“ No, coloured, but ver}- nice, and a cap, and a black veil. 
_ It was silk, and very good. I was carried round in a cheer, and 
.there, was a^ great tea. All the farmers were theer, and the 
fd/piers’ wivdb poured out. I was theer, at the head, and if any 
of them went wrong I rung my bell — I had it in my lap — and it 
was hush at once. You might have heard a pin drop. I put 
my name to a paper, sapng I was to be queen all my life. 1 
made the law's — not to hurt the gai;’e, or break the hedges, or 
pull a turnip. Once they knocked down a leveret — I saw them 
— a boy put it in his gleaning apron. .vThe boy and his mother, 
when I said ‘ M’hat have you there : show' me ! ’ said ‘ Nothing.’ 
I said they must. Then I said, ‘If ever 3mu do that again. I’ll 
report you, and \'ou’ll be sent to Nottingham, and persecuted 
according to law'.” 
“ You never told about the leveret ? ” 
“ No, I never made mischief.” 
“ Did your subjects obey }'OU ? ” 
“ They all obeyed me. Ye see what’s needed is strictness, 
an’ when ye say a thing to stick to it.” 
The ex-queen, as is not unusual under similar circumstances, 
did not consider her successor’s “ ways ” as good as her own. 
“ She comes home to dinner, and takes a bit, and then nips off, 
without telling ’em, or ringing her bell. I used to go out at 
nine, come back an hour for dinner, and then go back again till 
six. S — , if they see a nearer field than the one she towd 
them to go to, let’s ’em. [Implication, “ I never did.”] They 
often stopped at a turnip field, ‘ Oh I should like a turnip ! ’ 
‘ No, no; here’s the queen, and she’ll see j'ou ! ’ I w'ent round 
the village with my bell and cried out the law's.” 
The ex-queen told me of the irregular proceedings at 
the tea in the second year of her reign. “ They spent seven 
shillings in rum ; they mixed it up in the cream-jugs, and got 
