s of huge hairy giants, enemies of mankind even
as the "double-fatal" yew itself was supposed to be in other days.
The bark stands in distinct layers, the outer ridges mouldering
away, like the fragments of a wall of some ruined castle. The tops
are fresh and green, but all below in that sunless recess seems
dead."

In another respect Norbury Park has changed--in the opportunities the
Mole running through the park offers to anglers wishing to catch large
trout. Mr. C.J. Swete, writing in his _Handbook of Epsom_, not longer
ago than 1853, is pleased to take his reader with him by the banks of
the Mole, in which he has obtained "permission from the proprietor to
gather some of the finny treasures of its liquid mines." Quite
unwarrantably, he assumes that his reader is no fisherman:--

"Well, now, cast out your line, you have a respectable cast, for
here the river is broad, you can scarce cast your line across it.
Well, you must be a little patient,--You cannot expect to catch a
fish the moment you throw in.... I see you are not a great
proficient at the piscatory science. Cast out very little line at
first, perhaps about the length of your rod, and then increasing by
degrees, you will soon be able to throw full across and with
precision. Ah! now you have a fine fish; let him down the stream a
little. Now bring him close to the shore. Stay! It is safer to land
him with the net. For this stream it is a very excellent fish,
exactly three pounds weight, I find. How do I know it is just three
pounds? I will tell you."

He proceeds to do so. He knows because he has measured the fish and
finds him nineteen inches long by ten in girth, and if you do the sum
his way, it works out at three pounds. "This is in accordance, as you
suppose, with the mathematical law that similar solids are to each other
in the triplicate ratio of one of their dimensions." That is the way to
measure trout in Norbury Park.

Two quaintly spelt epitaphs can be read on the black marble tombstones
in Mickleham Church. Under one lies the body of Peter de la Hay, "Eldest
Yeoman of his Majesties Confectionary Office, who Departed this Liee" in
1684, and under the other Thomas Tooth, "Yeaman of his Ma^ties Sculery,
who deceased this Life" a year later.

Almost opposite Juniper Hall is Fredley Farm, once the home of
"Conversation" Sharp, hat-maker, poet and member of Parliament. Fredley
Far