terms were, "no cure, no
pay," which impressed one with his confidence in his own remedies; but
these were profound secrets, and I had to be content with the
assurance that he used nothing harmful to man or domestic animals. He
was certainly successful, and effectually cleared the ricks and
buildings at one of my outlying places previously badly infested; no
dead rats were ever found, but all disappeared very soon after I
engaged him.

It is well known that rats will unexpectedly desert quarters which
they have occupied for a long time, and travel in large bodies to a
new locality. An old man told me that, in walking by the brook-side
footpath from Aldington to Badsey, he once encountered one of these
armies; they looked so threatening and were in such numbers, that he
had to turn aside to allow them to pass, as they showed no signs of
giving way for him.

One morning my bailiff came in to say that a bean-rick had suddenly
been taken possession of by an immense number of rats, where shortly
before not one could have been found. A man going to the rick-yard
quite early had seen the roof of the rick black with them; they were
apparently drinking the dew hanging in drops on the straws of the
thatch. They were so close together, "so thick," as he expressed it,
that one was killed by a stone thrown "into the brown" of them. We
sent for the thrashing machine a day or two later, and killed over
seventy, and many escaped. Every dead rat was plastered with mud
underneath, especially on their tails, and it was evident that they
had only just arrived when first seen, and had travelled some
distance, probably the evening before, along the clayey overhanging
bank of the brook.

We always had great numbers of water-rats about brook; they are no
relation of the land-rat, having blunter, noses, shorter tails, and
very soft fur. They have not the loathsome appearance of the land-rat,
and live, almost entirely, on water-weeds, rushes, and other vegetable
matter. It is pretty to see them swimming across a stream; they dive
when alarmed, and remain out of sight a long time; they never leave
the water or the bank, and are quite innocent of depredations on corn.

In some counties, but not so far as I am aware in Worcestershire, one
of the harmless snappers up of unconsidered trifles is the
truffle-hunter. At Alton, in Hampshire, one of these men appeared in
summer; he carried an implement like a short-handled thistle spud, but
with a m