e manor came down after Parliament rose, there used to be a
competition to get hold of his coachman. So few agricultural people
travelled, and news came so slowly and in such distorted fashion, that
the coachman became a great authority. Such a brook as this was then
often a serious obstacle.

There was still an old punt, seldom used, to be found in a rickyard of
Hilary's, close by which was an extensive pond. The punt was thatched
over with flags from the stream. The moorhens were fond of this pond
because it was surrounded with a great quantity of rushes; they were
numerous all up the brook. These birds, being tame and common, are not
much regarded either for sport or the table, yet a moorhen shot at the
right time of the year--not till the frosts have begun--is delicious
eating. If the bird were rare it would be thought to rival the
woodcock; as it is, probably few people ever taste it. The path to
Lucketts' Place from this rickyard passed a stone-quarry, where the
excavated stone was built up in square heaps. In these heaps, in which
there were many interstices and hollows, rabbits often sat out; and by
stopping the entrance and carefully removing the stones they might
occasionally be taken by hand. Next by the barn where in spring the
sparrows made a continuous noise, chirping and quarrelling as they
carried on their nesting operations: they sometimes flew up with long
green bennets and grass fibres as well as with dry straws.

Then across the road, where the flint-heaps always put me in mind of
young Aaron; for he once gravely assured me that they were the very
best places in the world on which to rest or sleep. The flints were
dry, and preserved the slumbering wayfarer from damp. He had no doubt
proved this when the ale was too strong. At the house, as I passed
through the courtyard, I found him just on the point of starting for
Overboro' with a wallet, to bring back some goods from the shops. The
wallet is almost unknown even in farmsteads now: it is a kind of long
bag closed at each end, but with a slit in the centre for the
insertion of the things to be conveyed. When filled it is slung over
the shoulder, one end in front and the other behind, so as to balance.
Without knowing the shape of a wallet the story of Jack the
Giant-Killer stowing away such enormous quantities of pudding is
scarcely to be understood: children nowadays never see such a thing.
Many nursery tales contain allusions of this kind, the mea