There is one vision of the roads in the Forest which nobody who saw it can ever forget: the companies of infantry, the serious officers, the ruddy-faced men, and the then untried guns of the glorious Seventh Division, on their route marches, with fife and drum to cheer the way with the now classic strains of "It's a long, long way to Tipperary." There are spots where I met them in the autumn of 1914 that I never pass without feeling that for all time these places are sacred to the memory of heroes.

Besides the fancied pageantry of the roads there are the natural objects of the woods, the lanes, and the fields; the blossoming hawthorn and the wild roses trailing from the hedges, the hares and rabbits, the birds, the butterflies, and the flowers; sturdy teams with the time-honoured ploughs and harrows, the sowing of the seed, the young gleaming corn, the scented hayfields or the golden harvest; every man at his honourable labour, happy children dashing out of school; noble timber, hazel coppices, grey old villages; cattle in the pastures, or enjoying the cool waters of shallow pools or brooks; sheep in the field or the fold, the shepherd and his dog; apple blossom, or the ripe and ruddy fruit, bowery hop-gardens, mellow old cottages, country-folk going to market, fat beasts, cows and calves, carriers' carts full of gossips.

Pictures, real pictures, everywhere, endless in variety. Steady! go steady past these woods; see the blue haze of wild hyacinths, the cool carpet of primroses. Look at the cowslips yellowing that meadow; do you see the heron standing patiently in the marsh? Look overhead, watch the hovering hawk; hark! there is the nightingale. Stop a moment at the bridge; can you see the speckled beauties with their heads upstream? Thank God for the blue, blue sky! thank God for the glory of the sun, for the lights and shadows beneath the trees! Thank God for the live air, the growth, the life of plant and tree, the fragrance and the beauty! Thank God for rural England!

One can tell the most ancient, apart from the scientifically made Roman roads, by the way they were worn down from the original level, especially on hillsides, by the constant and heavy traffic. Every passing wheel abraded a portion of the surface, and the next rain carried the debris down the hill, forming in time a deep depression, between banks at the sides, often many feet deep, and giving the impression of the track having been purposely dug out to lessen the gradient. In places where the road became impassable from long use and wet, deviations on either side were made, so that ten or a dozen disused tracks can be seen side by side, often extending laterally quite a long distance from the existing road in unenclosed surroundings.

A great charm of the bicycle is its noiselessness which, with its speed, affords peeps of wild creatures under natural conditions. Cycling on the Cotswolds I came upon two hares at a boxing match; they were so absorbed that I was able to get quite close, and it was amusing to watch them standing upright on their hind legs, and sparring with their little fists like professionals. I have often seen the pursuit of a rabbit by a persistent stoat; the rabbit has little chance of escape, as the stoat can follow it underground as well as over; finally the rabbit appears to be paralyzed with fright, lies down and makes no further effort. Weasels, which probably make up for depredations of game by their destruction of rats, often cross the road, and sometimes whole families may be seen playing by the roadside. I was shooting in Surrey when I once had an excellent view of an ermine—the stoat in its winter dress. I did not recognize it until it was out of sight, but I should not have shot it in any case, for the ermine is a very rare occurrence in the south of England. I believe that further north it is not unusual, as is natural where the light colour would protect it from observation in snow, but as far south as Surrey this would be a danger, and I should scarcely have noticed it in the thick undergrowth had it been normal in colour.

We had a squirrel's nest, or "drey," as it is called, near my house last year, and the squirrels have been about my lawn and the Forest trees ever since. It was charming, in the summer, to watch them nibbling the fleshy galls produced on the young oaks by a gall-fly (Cynips). They chattered to each other all the time, holding the galls between their fore feet, fragments dropping to the ground beneath the trees. Squirrels are fond of animal food, and I wondered, as there was so much apparent waste, whether they were not really searching for the grubs in the galls. Of late years squirrels have been scarce here; they were formerly abundant, but their numbers were much reduced by an epidemic. They seem to be increasing again, possibly the felling of so many Scots-firs has driven them from their former haunts into adjoining oak and beech woods, such as those which almost surround my land.

During lunch in a meadow by the roadside, on a cycling ride, we found a snake with a toad almost down its throat; the snake disgorged the toad and escaped, but before we had finished lunch it returned and repeated the process. This time I carried the toad, none the worse for the adventure, some distance away, where I hope it was safe. Hedgehogs are said to eat toads, frogs, beetles, and snakes, as well as the eggs of game, to which I have already referred (p. 264); it is curious that the old name "urchin" has been superseded in some places by "hedgehog," but still survives in the "sea-urchin," and is also used for a troublesome boy.

It is very interesting, when cycling, to notice the changes in passing from one geological formation to another, and in railway travelling, with a geological map, one can quickly observe the transition; the cuttings give an immediate clue, and the contours of the surface and the agriculture are further guides. The alteration in the flora is particularly marked in passing from the Bagshot Sands, for instance, to the Chalk, or from the Lias Clay to the Lias Limestone or the Oolite; the lime-loving plants appear on the Chalk and Limestone, and disappear on the Sands and Clays.

The sunken appearance of the old roads is one of the best proofs of their antiquity, and one is inclined to wonder at their windings, but in following the tracks across the Forest moors one gets an insight into the way roads originated. The ancients simply adopted the line of least resistance by avoiding hills, boggy places, and the deep parts of streams, choosing the shallow fordable spots for crossing. The winding road is, of course, much more interesting and beautiful than the later straight roads of the Romans, though no doubt many of the former were improved by the invaders for their more important traffic. It is to be regretted that the formal lines of telegraph and telephone poles and wires have vulgarized so many of our beautiful roads, and destroyed their retired and venerable expression; more especially as in many places these were erected against the will of the inhabitants, and under the mistaken idea that the farmer's business is retail, and that he is prepared to deal in and deliver small quantities of goods daily, receiving urgent orders and enquiries by telephone.

The villages in the Vale of Evesham and the Cotswolds afford an excellent illustration of building in harmony with surroundings, and the suitability of making use of local materials. Thus, in the Vale we find mellow old brick, has limestone, half timber and thatch; while on the Cotswolds, oolite freestone and "stone slates" of the same freestone seem the only suitable material. Where the ugly pink bricks and blue slates have of late years been introduced, they appear out of place and contemptible. There is an immense charm about these old villages of hill and vale, and it is curious to think that Aldington was an established community with, probably, as many inhabitants as at the present day, when London and Westminster were divided by green fields.

A story is told of the time before the line to Oxford from Wolverhampton and Worcester was built, when persons visiting Oxford from the Vale of Evesham had to travel by road. An old yeoman family, having decided upon the Church as the vocation for one of the sons, sent him, in the year 1818, on an old pony, under the protection of an ancient retainer for his matriculation examination. On their return, in reply to the question, "Well, did you get the young master through?" "Oh, yes," he said, "and we could have got the old pony passed too, if we'd only had enough money!"

Partly as an excuse for a bicycle ride I used often to visit distant villages where auction sales at farm-houses were proceeding, and sometimes I came home with old china and other treasures. Wherever there are old villages with manor houses and long occupied rich land, wealth formerly accumulated and evidenced itself in well-designed and well-made furniture, upon which time has had comparatively little destructive effect. As old fashions were superseded, as oak gave way to walnut, and walnut to Spanish mahogany, the out-of-date furniture found its way to the smaller farm-houses and cottages, in which it descended from generation to generation. Now that the cottages have been ransacked by dealers and collectors, the treasures have not only been absorbed by wealthy townspeople, but are finding their way with those of impoverished landowners and occupiers to the millionaire mansions on the other side of the Atlantic.

There is no limit to the temptation to collect when once the fascination of such old things has made itself felt—furniture, china, earthenware, glass, paintings, brass and pewter become an obsession. If I had only filled my barns with Jacobean and Stuart oak and walnut, William and Mary, and Queen Ann marquetry, and Chippendale, Sheraton and Hepplewhite mahogany, instead of wheat for an unsympathetic British public, and at the end of my time at Aldington offered a few of the least interesting specimens for sale by auction, I might still have carried away a houseful of treasures which would have cost me less than nothing.

An old friend of mine, who had been collecting for many years, and in comparison with whom I was a novice, though my enthusiasm long preceded the fashion of the last twenty-five years, told me that he once discovered a warehouse in a Cotswold village crammed with Chippendale, and that the owner, having no sale for it, was glad to exchange a waggon-load for the same quantity of hay and straw chaff.

Among the more interesting articles which my cycling excursions and previous pilgrimages on foot produced, I have a charming blue and white carnation pattern, Worcester china cider mug with the crescent mark. These mugs are said to have been specially made for the Shakespeare Jubilee of 1769 at Stratford-on-Avon when Garrick was present. The date corresponds with the time when the mark was in use, and establishes the age of the mug as 150 years. The china in my old neighbourhood was naturally Worcester, Bristol and Salopian, of which I have many specimens—of the Worcester more especially—ranging from the earliest days of unmarked pieces through the Dr. Wall period, Barr, Flight and Barr, down to the later Chamberlain.

An old pair of bellows is a favourite of mine; it is made of pear-tree wood, decorated with an incised pattern of thistles and foliage, referring possibly to the Union of England and Scotland in 1707, or as a Jacobite emblem of a few years later. The carving is surrounded by the motto:

"WITH MEE MY FREND MAY STILL BE FREE YET VSE MEE NOT TILL COLD YOV BEE."

These old bellows show unmistakable signs of their more than 200 years of honourable service, and they have literally breathed their last though still surviving; but it would be sacrilege to renew the leather, and might disturb the ghosts of generations of old ladies who blew the dying embers into a ruddy glow when awaiting, in the twilight of a winter's evening, their good-men's return from the field or the chase.

One of my greatest finds was a pair of Chippendale chairs at a sale at Mickleton at the foot of the Cotswolds; they belong to the early part of the Chippendale period, before the Chinese style was abandoned. That influence appears in incised fretted designs on the legs, and the frieze below the seats. The seats are covered with the original tapestry, adding much to the interest, and the backs present examples of the most spirited carving of the maker. At the sale, when I went to have a second look, I found two dealers sitting on them and chatting quite casually; the intention was evidently to prevent possible purchasers from noticing them, and more especially to hide the tapestry coverings. The value of the chairs immediately rose in my estimation, and I increased the limit which I had given to a bidder on my behalf, so that I made sure of buying them. The old chairs looked very shabby when they came out into the light of day, and they fell to my representative's bid amid roars of laughter from the rustic crowd. What a price for "them two old cheers"! they "never heard talk of such a job!" It would surprise them to know that I have been offered five times what they then cost.

My wife has had to do with many parochial committees from time to time, and I have often trembled for my Chippendale chairs when these meetings, accompanied by tea, have been held at my house, for it is not everybody who regards them with the reverence due to their external beauty and true inwardness, or who recognizes in them the

"Tea-cup times of hood and hoop, Or while the patch was worn."

A very successful afternoon was one I spent at a sale at North Littleton. I remember the beautiful spring day, and the old weather-worn grey house in an orchard of immense pear-trees covered with sheets of snowy blossom. I secured a Jacobean elm chest with well-carved panels, a Jacobean oak chest of drawers on a curious stand, a complete tea set of Staffordshire ware, including twelve cups and saucers, teapot, and other pieces, with Chinese decoration; four Nankin blue handleless tea-cups, a Delft plate, and a Battersea enamel patch-box. My bill was a very moderate one, but the executor who had the matter of the sale in hand was well pleased that these old family relics had passed into the possession of someone who would value them, and not to careless and indifferent neighbours, and was more than satisfied with the amount realized. Next morning, as a token of his satisfaction, he brought me a charming old brass Dutch tobacco box, with an oil painting inside the lid, of a smoker enjoying a pipe.

I have seen some amusing incidents at sales of household goods in remote places; incredulous smiles as to the possibility of the usefulness of anything in the shape of a bath generally greeted the appearance of such an article, and on one of these occasions an ancient, with great gravity, and as an apology for its existence, remarked that it was "A very good thing for an invalid!" I am reminded thereby of an old-fashioned hunting man in Surrey, who was astonished to hear from a friend of mine that he enjoyed a cold bath every morning. He "didn't think," he said, "that cold water was at all a good thing—next to the skin!"



CHAPTER XXV.



DIALECT—LOCAL PHRASEOLOGY IN SHAKESPEARE—NAMES—STUPID PLACES.

"Our echoes roll from soul to soul." —The Princess.

Compulsory education has eliminated many of the old words and phrases formerly in general use in Worcestershire, and is still striving to substitute a more "genteel," but not always more correct, and a much less picturesque, form of speech. When I first went to Aldington I found it difficult to understand the dialect, but I soon got accustomed to it, and used it myself in speaking to the villagers. Farrar used to tell us at school, in one of the resounding phrases of which he was rather fond, that "All phonetic corruption is due to muscular effeminacy," which accounts for some of the words in use, but does not alter the fact that many so-called corrupt words are more correct than the modern accepted form.

It is difficult to convey the peculiar intonation of the Worcestershire villager's voice, and the ipsissima verba I have given in my anecdotes lose a good deal in reading by anyone unacquainted with their method. Each sentence is uttered in a rising scale with a drop on the last few words, forming, as a whole, a not unmusical rhythmical drawl. As instances of "muscular effeminacy," two fields of mine, where flax was formerly grown, went by the name of "Pax grounds"; the words "rivet" and "vine," were rendered "ribet" and "bine." "March," a boundary, became "Marsh," so that Moreton-on-the-March became, most unjustly, "Moreton-in-the-Marsh." "Do out," was "dout"; "pound," was "pun"; "starved," starred. The Saxon plural is still in use: "housen" for houses, "flen" for fleas; and I noticed, with pleasure, that a school inspector did not correct the children for using the ancient form. Gilbert White, who died in 1793, writes in the section of his book devoted to the Antiquities of Selborne, that "Within the author's memory the Saxon plurals, housen and peason," were in common use. So that Selborne more than a hundred years ago had, in that particular at any rate, advanced to a stage of dialect which in Worcestershire is still not fully established. Certain words beginning with "h" seem a difficulty; a "y" is sometimes prefixed, and the "h" omitted. Thus height becomes "yacth," as nearly as I can spell it, and herring is "yerring." "N" is an ill-treated letter sometimes, when it begins a word; nettles are always "ettles," but when not wanted, and two consecutive words run easier, it is added, as in "osier nait" for osier ait.

The word "charm," from the Anglo-Saxon cyrm, is used both in Worcestershire and Hampshire for a continuous noise, such as the cawing of nesting rooks, or the hum of swarming bees. Similarly, a witch's incantation—probably in monotone—is a charm, and then comes to mean the object given by a witch to an applicant. "Charming" and "bewitching" thus both proclaim their origins, but have now acquired a totally different signification.

There are an immense number of curious words and phrases in everyday use, and they were collected by Mr. A. Porson, M.A., who published a very interesting list with explanatory notes in 1875, under the title of Notes of Quaint Words and Sayings in the Dialect of South Worcestershire. I append a list of the local archaic words and phrases which can also be found in Shakespeare's Plays. This list was compiled by me some years ago, and appeared in the "Notes and Queries" column of the Evesham Journal; I think all are still to be heard in Evesham and the villages in that corner of Worcestershire.

SHIP—sheep; cf. Shipton, Shipston, etc.; Two Gentlemen of Verona, Act I., Scene 1; Comedy of Errors, Act IV., Scene 1.

FALSING—the present participle of the verb "to false"; Comedy of Errors, Act II., Scene 2; Cymbeline, Act II., Scene 3.

FALL—verb active; Comedy of Errors, Act II., Scene 2; Midsummer Night's Dream, Act V., Scene 1.

CUSTOMERS—companions; Comedy of Errors, Act IV., Scene 4.

KNOTS—flower beds; Love's Labour's Lost, Act I., Scene 1; Richard II., Act III., Scene 4.

TALENT—for talon; cf. "tenant" for tenon; Love's Labour's Lost, Act IV., Scene 2.

METHEGLIN—mead, a drink made from honey; Love's Labour's Lost, Act V., Scene 2; Merry Wives, Act V., Scene 5.

HANDKERCHER—handkerchief; King John, Act IV., Scene 1; King Henry V., Act III., Scene 2.

NOR NEVER SHALL—two negatives strengthening each other; King John, Act IV., Scene 1, and Act V., Scene 7.

CONTRARY—stress on the penultimate syllable; cf. "matrimony," "secretary," "January," etc.; King John, Act IV., Scene 2.

To RESOLVE—to dissolve; King John, Act V., Scene 4; Hamlet, Act I., Scene 2.

STROND—strand; cf. "hommer"—hammer, "opples"—apples, etc.; 1 King Henry IV., Act I., Scene 1.

APPLE JOHN—John Apple (?); 1 King Henry IV., Act III., Scene 3; 2 King Henry IV., Act II., Scene 4.

GULL—young cuckoo; 1 King Henry IV., Act V., Scene 1.

TO BUCKLE—to bend; 2 King Henry IV., Act I., Scene 1.

NICE—weak; cf. "naish"—weak; 2 King Henry IV., Act I., Scene 1.

OLD—extreme, very good; 2 King Henry IV., Act II., Scene 4.

PEASCOD-TIME—peapicking time; 2 King Henry IV., Act II., Scene 4.

WAS LIKE—had nearly; King Henry V., Act I., Scene 1.

SCAMBLING—scrambling; King Henry V., Act I., Scene 1.

MARCHES—boundaries; cf. Moreton-in-the-Marsh, i.e., March; King Henry V., Act I., Scene 2.

SWILLED—washed; King Henry V., Act III., Scene 1.

To DRESS—to decorate with evergreens, etc.; Taming of the Shrew, Act III., Scene 1.

YELLOWS—jaundice; Taming of the Shrew, Act III., Scene 2.

DRINK—ale; "Drink" is still used for ale as distinguished from cider; Midsummer Night's Dream, Act II., Scene 1.

BARM—yeast; Midsummer Night's Dream, Act II., Scene 1.

LOFFE—laugh; Midsummer Night's Dream, Act II., Scene 1.

LEATHERN—(bats); cf. "leatherun bats," as distinguished from "bats"—beetles; Midsummer Night's Dream, Act II., Scene 3.

EANING TIME—lambing time; Merchant of Venice, Act I., Scene 3.

SPET—spit; cf. set—sit, sperit—spirit, etc.; Merchant of Venice, Act I., Scene 3.

FILL-HORSE—shaft horse; cf. "filler" and "thiller"; Merchant of Venice, Act II., Scene 2.

PROUD ON—proud of; Much Ado, Act IV., Scene 1

ODDS—difference; cf. "wide odds"; As you Like It, Act I., Scene 2.

COME YOUR WAYS—come on; As You Like It, Act I., Scene 2.

TO SAUCE—to be impertinent; As You Like It, Act III., Scene 5.

THE MOTION—the usual form; Winter's Tale, Act IV., Scene 2.

INCHMEAL—bit by bit; Tempest, Act II., Scene 2.

FILBERDS—filberts; Tempest, Act II., Scene 2.

TO LADE—to bale (liquid); 3 King Henry VI., Act III., Scene 3.

TO LAP—to wrap; King Richard III., Act II., Scene 1; Macbeth, Act I., Scene 2.

BITTER SWEETING—an apple of poor quality grown from a kernel; cf. "bitter sweet"—the same; Romeo and Juliet, Act II., Scene 4.

VARSAL WORLD—universal world; Romeo and Juliet, Act II., Scene 4.

MAMMET—a puppet; cf. "mommet"—scarecrow; Romeo and Juliet, Act III., Scene 5.

TO GRUNT—to grumble; Hamlet, Act III., Scene 1.

TO FUST—to become mouldy; Hamlet, Act IV., Scene 5.

DOUT—do out; cf. "don"—do on; Hamlet, Act IV., Scene 7.

MAGOT PIES—Magpies; Macbeth, Act III., Scene 4.

SET DOWN—write down; Macbeth, Act V., Scene 1.

TO PUN—to pound; Troilus and Cressida, Act II., Scene 1.

NATIVE—place of origin; cf. "natif"; Coriolanus, Act III., Scene 1.

SLEEK—bald; cf. "slick"; Julius Caesar, Act I., Scene 2.

WARN—summon; cf. "backwarn"—tell a person not to come; Julius Caesar, Act V., Scene 1.

BREESE—gadfly; Antony and Cleopatra, Act III., Scene 8.

WOO'T—wilt thou; Antony and Cleopatra, Act IV., Scene 13.

URCHIN—hedgehog; Titus Andronicus, Act II., Scene 3.

MESHED—mashed (a term used in brewing); Titus Andronicus, Act III., Scene 2.

All the above words and phrases the writer has frequently heard used in the neighbourhood in the senses indicated, but to make the list more complete the following are added on the authority of Mr. A. Porson, in the pamphlet referred to:

COLLIED—black; Midsummer Nights Dream, Act I., Scene 1.

LIMMEL—limb from limb; cf. "inchmeal"—bit by bit; Cymbeline, Act II., Scene 4.

TO MAMMOCK—to tear to pieces; Coriolanus, Act I., Scene 3.

TO MOIL—to dirty; Taming of the Shrew, Act IV., Scene 1.

SALLET—salad; 2 King Henry VI., Act IV., Scene 10.

UTIS—great noise; 2 King Henry IV., Act II., Scene 4.

Place-names everywhere are a most interesting study; as a rule, people do not recognize that every place-name has a meaning or reference to some outstanding peculiarity or characteristic of the place, and that much history can be gathered from interpretation. In cycling, it is one of the many interests to unravel these derivations; merely as an instance, I may mention that in Dorset and Wilts the name of Winterbourne, with a prefix or suffix, often occurs; of course, "bourne" means a stream, but until one knows that a "winterbourne" is a stream that appears in winter only, and does not exist in summer, the name carries no special signification.

One hears some curious personal names in the Worcestershire villages; scriptural names are quite common, and seem very suitable for the older labourers engaged upon their honourable employment on the land. We had a maid named Vashti, and she was quite shy about mentioning it at her first interview with my wife. In all country neighbourhoods there is a special place with the unenviable reputation of stupidity; such was "Yabberton" (Ebrington, on the Cotswolds), and Vashti was somewhat reluctant to admit that it was her "natif," as a birthplace is called in the district. Among the traditions of Yabberton it is related that the farmers, being anxious to prolong the summer, erected hurdles to wall in the cuckoo, and that they manured the church tower, expecting it to sprout into an imposing steeple! There is a place in Surrey, Send, with a similar reputation, where the inhabitants had to visit a pond before they could tell that rain was falling!

But perhaps the best story of the kind is told in the New Forest, where the Isle of Wight is regarded as the acme of stupidity. When the Isle of Wight people first began to walk erect, instead of on all fours, they are said to have waggled their arms and hands helplessly before them, saying, "And what be we to do with these-um?"

Classical names are very uncommon among villagers, but in my old Surrey parish there was one which was the cause of much speculation. The name was Hercules; it originated in a disagreement between the parents, before the child was christened. The mother wanted his name to be John, but the father insisted, that as an older son was Noah, the only possible name for the new baby was "Hark" (Ark). They had a lengthy argument, and there was no definite understanding before reaching the church. The mother, when asked to "name this child," being flustered, hesitated, but finally stammered out, "Hark, please." The vicar was puzzled, and repeated the question with the same result; a third attempt was equally unsuccessful, and the vicar, in despair, falling back upon his classical knowledge, christened the child Hercules. A few days later the vicar called at the cottage, and the mother explained the matter, relating how indignant she was with her husband, and how on the way home, "Hark, I says to him, ain't the name of a Christian, it's the name of a barge!"



CHAPTER XXVI.



IS ALDINGTON (FORMER SITE) THE ROMAN ANTONA?

"Imperious Caesar, dead and turn'd to clay, Might stop a hole to keep the wind away: O, that that earth, which kept the world in awe Should patch a wall to expel the winter's flaw!" —Hamlet.

One of my fields—about five acres—called Blackbanks from its extraordinarily black soil, over a yard deep in places, and the more remarkable because the soil of the surrounding fields is stiff yellowish clay, showed other indications of long and very ancient habitation. Among the relics found was a stone quern, measuring about 21 inches by 12 by 7-3/4, and having, on each of two opposite sides, a basin-shaped depression about 6 inches in diameter at the top, and 2-3/4 inches in depth; also a small stone ring, 1-1/4 inches in diameter, and 3/8ths in thickness, with a hole in the centre 1/4 inch across; the edges are rounded, and it is similar to those I have seen in museums, called spindle whorls. The quern and the ring I imagine to be British. This field and the fields adjacent on the north side of the stream formed, I think, primarily a British settlement and area of cultivation, afterwards appropriated by the Romans in the earliest days of the Roman occupation of Britain, and inhabited by them as a military station until they left the country.

Among other relics found in Blackbanks and in the fields to the north, called Blackminster, between Blackbanks and the present line of the Great Western Railway, aggregating about a hundred acres, there were found large quantities of fragments of pottery of several kinds, including black, grey, and red, and among the latter the smoothly glazed Samian. Many pieces are ornamented with patterns, some very primitive, others geometrical; others are in texture like Wedgwood basalt ware, and similar in colour and decoration. The Samian is mostly plain, but a few pieces have patterns and representations of human figures.

The fields, but especially Blackbanks, contained quantities of bones, the horns of sheep or goats, pieces of stags, horns, iron spear and arrow-heads, horses' molar teeth, and flint pebbles worn flat on one side by the passage of innumerable feet for many years. A millstone showing marks of rotation on the surface, a bronze clasp or brooch with fragments of enamel inlay, the ornamental bronze handle of an important key, a glass lacrymatory (tear-bottle), numerous coins—referred to below—and other objects in bronze and iron, were also found.

Only centuries of habitation and cultivation could have changed the three feet of surface soil in Blackbanks from a stiff unworkable clay to a black friable garden mould, and it is probable that the British occupation had lasted for a very long period before the Romans took possession. The settlement must have been a place of importance, because it was approached from the north by a track, still existing though practically disused, probably British, from a ford over the Avon, near the present Fish and Anchor Inn. This track passes to the west of South Littleton, on through the middle of the Blackminster land, and immediately to the east of Blackbanks, joining what I believe to be the Ryknield Street at the bridge over the stream on the South Littleton road. Near the present Royal Oak Inn it formerly crossed the present Evesham-Bretforton road, and became what is still called Salter Street. It appears to have given access to two more sites on which Roman coins and relics are found—Foxhill about 9-1/2 acres, and Blackground about 4 acres—and passing east of the present Badsey church, proceeded through Wickhamford, and by a well-defined track to Hinton-on-the-Green, and on to Tewkesbury and Gloucester.

The occurrence of the name Salter Street gives a clue to one of the original uses of the road, at any rate in Roman times, for salt was an absolute necessity in those days, as may be gathered from a passage in The Natural History of Selborne, written in 1778:

"Three or four centuries ago, before there were any enclosures, sown grasses, field turnips, or field carrots, or hay, all the cattle which had grown fat in summer, and were not killed for winter use, were turned out soon after Michaelmas to shift as they could through the dead months; so that no fresh meat could be had in winter or spring. Hence the vast stores of salted flesh found in the larder of the elder Spencer in the days of Edward II., even so late in the spring as the 3rd of May." A note adds that the store consisted of "Six hundred bacons, eighty carcasses of beef and six hundred muttons."

It is not difficult to trace the route over which the salt was carried from Droitwich. Starting thence the track can be approximately identified by the names of places in which the root, sal (salt), occurs, and we find Sale Way, Salding, Sale Green, and, further south, Salford. Crossing the Worcester-Alcelster road at Radford, and proceeding through Rouse Lench and Church Lench, we reach Harvington, from whence the track takes us across the low-lying meadows to the ferry and ford over the Avon, near the Fish and Anchor Inn mentioned above.

In recent times it has been assumed that the road from Bidford to Weston Subedge, known as Buckle Street, is identical with Ryknield Street, but I should prefer to call Buckle Street a branch of the latter only, for the purpose of joining Ryknield Street and the Foss Way near Burton-on-the-Water. I consider the real course of Ryknield Street to be as described in Leland's Itinerary (inserted by Hearne), Edition III., 1768, in which he quotes, from R. Gale's Essay concerning the Four Great Roman Ways, that "from Bitford on the southern edge of Warwickshire it (Ryknield Street) runs into Worcestershire, and taking its course thro' South Littleton goes on a little to the east of Evesham, and then by Hinton and west of Sedgebarrow into Gloucestershire, near Aston-under-Hill, and so by Bekford, Ashchurch, and a little east of Tewksbury, thro' Norton to Gloucester."

Such a course for Ryknield Street would make it the connection between the north, running through the Roman Alauna (Alcester) to Glevum (Gloucester). It must be remembered that there was, in Roman times, nothing at Evesham to take the road there, for Evesham did not exist as a town until long after the Romans left. Leland says that there was "noe towene at Eovesham before the foundation of the Abbey," which took place about A.D. 701, about 250 years later, and there was no road from Alcester to Gloucester except the one we are following.

Another important road passed the northern extremity of Blackminster and crossed the road just referred to so that the Blackminster area was situated at the junction. This was the old road from Worcester, passing the present site of Evesham a mile or more to the north, crossing the Avon at Twyford, and the Ryknield Street at Blackminster, and going onwards through Chipping Campden towards London.

The following passage in the Annals of Tacitus, Book XII., chapter xxxi., Ille (Ostorius) ... detrahere arma suspectis, cinctosque castris Antonam et Sabrinam fluvios cohibere parat, which refers to the fortification of the Antona and Severn rivers by the Roman general P. Ostorius Scapula, has been the subject of various readings and controversy about the word Antona, no river of that name having been identified. The reading given above may not be good Latin, but the names of the rivers are quite plain. Another reading substitutes Avonam for Antonam; but probably Tacitus avoided the use of the word Avon because it was then a Celtic term for rivers in general, and confusion would arise between the Avon which joins the Severn at Tewkesbury and the Avon a little further south which runs into the Severn estuary at Bristol. To make his meaning quite clear he did exactly what we do now in speaking of the Stratford Avon (i.e., river) and the Bristol Avon(i.e., river) when he prefixed Antonam (et Sabrinam) to the word fluvios.

If, therefore, we can find a place of importance with the name of Antona, or a name that may fairly represent it, having regard to subsequent corruptions, existing also in Roman times on or near the Avon branch of the Severn, we shall be justified in assuming that this particular Avon was the river he had in his mind. Such a place is the area I have described as full of traces of long Roman and pre-Roman occupation, situated at the junction of two ancient roads, very important from the military point of view, and within a mile of the Avon.

On the supposition that Antona and Aldington may be identical, the present site of the latter is perhaps a quarter of a mile from the Roman area which I have described, but the original Aldington Mill, traces of the foundations of which are still to be seen, was actually on the Roman area. A better position for it was found later, away from the difficulties of approach caused by floods, and it was moved to the site occupied by the present mill just below the Manor House, probably in Anglo-Saxon times. Although the name of the village became, in Anglo-Saxon, Aldington, or something similar, the old name of Anton or Aunton was evidently in common local use, as appears in the following list of names which the present village has borne at different times. It is specially interesting to notice that the more elaborate "Aldington" and its variants appear in the more scholarly records, such as those of Evesham Abbey and Domesday Survey, written by people not living in the village; while the parish churchwardens 1527-1571, the will of Richard Yardley 1531, the village constable 1715, and the villagers at the present day, all living in the place itself, carry on the old tradition in the names they use which approximate very closely to the Roman Antona, and are indeed identical in their manuscripts, if the Latin terminal a is omitted.

Date Aldintone, Charter of the Kings Kenred and Offa, possessions of Evesham Abbey 709

Aldingtone } Aldintun } Domesday Survey circ. 1086 Aldintona }

Aldringtona, An Adjudication; Evesham Abbey 1176

Aldetone, Institutes of Abbot Randulf, died 1229

Awnton, Will of Richard Yardley of Awnton 1531

Aunton, Churchwardens accounts 1527 to 1571

Anton, Old MS. "A Bill for ye Constable" 1715

Alne or Auln, Villagers present day

As parallels of the local persistence of old names, the neighbouring village of Wickhamford (present-day name) is still called Wicwon by the villagers, the same name under which it appears in the Charter of the Abbey possessions in 709. And the Celtic London still persists in spite of the Roman attempt to confer upon it the grander name of Augusta.

The disappearance of anything in the shape of foundations of former buildings is accounted for by the fact that the whole area was quarried many years ago for the building stone and limestone beneath, and any surface stone would have been removed at the same time. One of the fields still bears the name of the "Quar Ground," and the remains of lime-kilns can be found in several places.

It is right to add that Blackbanks as the site of Antona was suggested to me many years ago by the late Canon Winnington Ingram, Rector of Harvington; in discussing the matter, however, we got no further than the bare suggestion derived from the appearance of long habitation and the occurrence of Roman coins and pottery in Blackbanks only, and without reference to the much larger area of Blackminster. Canon Winnington Ingram was not familiar with the place, and I had not apprehended the importance of the track from the "Fish and Anchor" as a salt way starting from Droitwich, nor was I aware of Salter Street, its continuation after passing Blackbanks. Neither had I distinguished between Buckle Street as the junction between Ryknield Street and the Foss Way, and Ryknield Street itself as the direct road from the north through Birmingham, Alcester, Bidford, Antona(?) Hinton, and Gloucester.

Virgil, in his first Georgic, refers to the possible future discovery of Roman remains, and Dryden translates the passage thus:

"Then after lapse of time, the lab'ring swains, Who turn the turfs of these unhappy plains, Shall rusty piles from the plough'd furrows take, And over empty helmets pass the rake."

Such is almost prophetic of my Roman site to-day; little did Virgil imagine that his lines would apply so nearly in Britain two thousand years later.

A LIST OF THE COINS FOUND AND NAMES OF THE EMPERORS TO WHOSE REIGNS THEY BELONG, WITH SHORT NOTES ON THE LEADING INCIDENTS IN CONNECTION WITH BRITAIN WHICH OCCURRED IN THEIR REIGNS:

1. A Denarius, 88 B.C.

2. A Denarius, 88 B.C. plated. As consular denarii passed out of circulation soon after A.D. 70, these two coins suggest that the site was under Roman influence by that date at the latest.

3. Claudius, Emperor (A.D. 41-54).

4. Nerva, Emperor (96-98).

5. Antoninus Pius, Emperor (138-161).

6. Marcus Aurelius, Emperor (161-180).

7. Severus Alexander, Emperor (222-235).

8. The Thirty Tyrants (211-284). Several coins of this period, badly defaced.

9. Etruscilla, wife of Traianus Decius (249-251).

10. Gallienus, Emperor (253-268).

11. Postumus, Gallic Emperor (258-268)

12. Claudius Gothicus, Emperor (268-270)

13. Tetricus, Gallic Emperor (270-273).

14. Tacitus, Emperor (275-276)

15. Diocletianus, Emperor (284-305).

16. Carausius, Emperor in Britain (286-294).

17. Allectus, Emperor in Britain (294-296).

18. Theodora, second wife of Constantius I. (Chlorus, Caesar, 293-305; Augustus, 305-6).

19. Licinius, Emperor (307-324).

20. Constantinus Emperor (306-337); (Constantine the Great).

21. Coin with head of Constantinopolis (City Deity)(circ. 330).

22. Constantinus II., Emperor (337-340).

23. Constantius II., Emperor (337-361).

24. Gratianus, Emperor (367-383).

BRITISH COIN.

25. Antedrigus, British Prince (circ. 50).

The figures in brackets in the following notes refer to the coins as numbered in the above list:

(3) The Claudian invasion of Britain was begun in A.D. 43 by an army under the command of Aulus Plautius Silvanus. He led his army from the coast of Kent, where he probably landed, to the Thames, and waited for Claudius himself, in whose presence the advance to Camulodunum (Colchester) was made during the latter part of 43. Claudius apparently left Rome in July, and was absent for six months, but his stay in Britain is said to have lasted only sixteen days.

In the pacification which occupied the next three years there are two points of interest to notice. The first is a series of minor campaigns conducted by Vespasian—Emperor 69-79—who subdued the Isle of Wight and penetrated from Hampshire, perhaps, to the Mendip Hills. The second is the submission of Prasutagus, the British philo-Roman prince of the Iceni.

It is conjectured that his policy led a certain number of patriots under a rival prince, Antedrigus, to migrate towards the unoccupied west. A coin (25) of Antedrigus, with an extremely barbarous head in profile on the obverse and a horse on the reverse, was found on the Roman area at Aldington. The types of this coin are ultimately derived from those on the gold staters struck by Philip of Makedon, father of Alexander the Great. The original had a young male head (? of Apollo) on obverse and a two-horse chariot as reverse type. The influence came to Britain from Gaul, where the coins of Makedon may have arrived by the valleys of Danube and Rhine; but it is not improbable that the types reached Gaul through Massilia (Marseilles).

In 47 Plautius was succeeded by P. Ostorius Scapula, who pressed westwards and fought a great battle with the nationalist army of Caratacus in 51. Camulodunum became a colonia in 50, and the military organization of Britain then began to take shape by the establishment of four legionary headquarters—Isca Silurum (Caerleon-on-Usk), Viroconium (Wroxeter), Deva (Chester) and Lindum (Lincoln). This disposition, which faced north and west, came near to breaking down in 61, when the east rose under Boudicca (Boadicea), queen of the Iceni, partly in protest against the usury of Seneca, the philosopher and tutor of Nero.

(4) It was in the year 97, during the principate of Nerva, that Tacitus the historian was consul. By this time the IXth Hispana legion had been transferred from Lindum to Eburacum (York).

(5) Under Antoninus Pius a revolt of the Brigantes (between Humber and Mersey) was put down by A. Lollius Urbicus in A.D. 140. Lollius also completed the northern defences, begun by Hadrian, with a new wall further north between the Firth and the Clyde.

(6) While Marcus Aurelius was emperor, according to a tradition preserved by Bede, the British Church came into close connection with Rome and received what he calls a mission—more probably a band of fugitives from persecution. Though the tale is doubtful in details, it is evidence to show that Christianity was strong in the island by this time.

(9) Decius, husband of Etruscilla, was responsible for the great persecution of Christians in 250-51; the occasion was the 1,000th anniversary of Rome's foundation.

(10) Gallienus, son of Valerian, was entrusted with the west on his father's accession in 253 and defended the Rhine frontier until he was left sole Emperor in 258, when Valerian was captured by Shapur of Persia. Various usurpations compelled Gallienus to enter Italy, and he left the Rhine defences in charge of a general—M. Cassianius Latinius Postumus.

(11) Postumus at once had to face a great invasion of Franks. He gained some successes and was therefore proclaimed emperor by the armies of Gaul and Britain. Before long dissensions broke out in the Gallic empire and several commanders rose and fell in rapid succession. It is conceivable that some of these are represented in the coins found in Blackbanks, but these specimens are too badly weathered for certain identification to be possible.

(12) On March 4, 268, Gallienus was assassinated. His successor was M. Aurelius Claudius, afterwards surnamed Gothicus, a skilful general who did the empire great service by his victories over invaders from Switzerland and the Tyrol by the shores of the Lago di Garda, and over the Goths at Naissus (Nish).

(13) Tetricus is of interest only because his surrender to Aurelian in 273 marks the collapse of the Gallic empire.

(15-18) Diocletian became Augustus in 284, and co-opted Maximian as his colleague two years later. About the same time Carausius, commander of the Channel fleet, crossed to Britain and had himself proclaimed independent emperor. In 290 he was acknowledged as third colleague by the Augusti, but no place was found for him when in 293 the government of the Roman world was divided between Diocletian, Maximian, and two newly chosen Caesars—Galerius and Flavius Valerius Constantius, later called Chlorus. By this arrangement the recovery of Britain from Allectus—who had murdered Carausius about 294—fell to Constantius, and he accomplished this by a sudden attack in 296. Constantius was twice married. His first wife, Helena, bore him a son, Constantine the Great; his second was a step-daughter of Maximian, named Theodora, to whom coin 18 belongs.

Britain was now divided into four Diocletian provinces, to which a fifth—Valentia—was later added when the country north of Hadrian's wall was re-occupied. The only other event of Diocletian's reign to be noticed is the persecution of Christians in which, according to tradition, St. Alban lost his life at Verulam about 303.

(19-20) On May 1, 305, Diocletian and Maximian abdicated. Constantius and Galerius now became Augusti. Trouble arose over the two vacant Caesarships. It was the aim of Galerius to exclude Constantine, but the latter escaped to his father's camp at York, a few weeks before Constantius died on July 25, 306, after a victory over the Picts and Scots. Constantine was in power under various titles in Gaul and Britain for five years until, in 311, when Galerius died, he began his march on Rome, during which he is said to have had his vision of the cross with the words [Greek: en touto nika]. In 314 the bishops of York, London, and some other uncertain British see attended the Council of Arles which sat to deal with the Donatist schism. The British Church was also represented at the Council of Nicaea, called by Constantine in 325 to consider the Arian heresy, when the Nicene Creed in its original form was authorized; the British vote was orthodox. It was Constantine who in 321 first made Sunday a holiday, but whether Christianity or Mithraism prompted him to this is doubtful.

(22-23) When Constantine the Great died in 337 the empire was divided between his sons. Constantius II. received the east; Constans, Africa, Italy, and the Danuvian region; Constantine II., Gaul and Spain. In 340 Constantine II. attacked Constans and was killed. Constans then ruled the united west; it seems that Constans and Constantius II. visited Britain in 343. Constans was assassinated in 350; this left Constantius II. alone. His policy of toleration towards the Arians led to a great Church Council in 359. The eastern bishops met at Seleucia, the western at Ariminum, where Britain was represented. By a certain amount of coercion Constantius forced his views on the Western Council. At this time the prosperity of Britain was great and corn was exported in large quantities.

(24) In 367 Valentinian I. made his son Gratian, Augustus. Gratian was later married to Constantia, daughter of Constantius II. Roman power was now asserted once more against the Picts and Scots, and also against the Saxon raiders by Theodosius, whose son became Augustus in 379. Gratian himself was occupied on the Continent. In 383 Magnus Maximus was proclaimed emperor in Britain, and Gratian was murdered on August 25.

The coins were not a hoard; they were found all over the Roman area I have described, but especially in Blackbanks, and they became visible generally when the surface was fallow and had broken down into fine mould from the action of the weather. Their scattered occurrence, and the period they cover, suggest continuous habitation throughout the most important part of the Roman occupation of Britain, and, with their related history, they occupy a distinguished place in a record of the harvest of Grain and Chaff from an English Manor.



NOTES

[1: Celebrated breeders of the respective sorts.]

[2: Fig. 1 shows the flattened S formed by the stream. Fig. 2 shows the short circuit formed later at A and the island B When the old bed of the stream round B gets filled up, the island B disappears, and its area and that part of the old bed formerly on the west side of the stream is transferred to the east side.]

[3: Mr. H.A. Evans sends me a very interesting note on this subject. He refers me to Shakespeare, Henry VIII., III., II., 282, where Surrey, alluding to Wolsey, says:

"If we live thus tamely, To be thus jaded by a piece of scarlet, Farewell nobility; let his grace go forward, And dare us with his cap like larks."

The verb dare here used is quite a distinct word from dare = to venture to do. It means to daze or render helpless with the sight of something. To dare larks is to fascinate or daze them in order to catch them. The "dare" is made of small bits of looking-glass fastened on scarlet cloth. Shakespeare's use of the word in the passage quoted is evidently an allusion to the scarlet biretta of the cardinal. In Hogarth's "Distressed Poet" a "dare" is suspended above the chimney-piece.]



INDEX

"AKERMAST," 197. . Albinism, 255.

"Alcoholiday," 177.

Aldington, 1; band, 122; chapel, 5; concerts, 123; constable, 8; derivation, 1; farm, 3; hosiery factory, 7; manor, 2; prepares to resist Jacobites, 7; variants, 5, 8, 298, 299; village, 3.

Allsebrook, Rev. W.C., 5.

Alresford fair, 49.

Antona, 294, 297, 298.

Apples, 103, 169, 170, 171.

Archdeacon's visitations, 101, 102.

Arch, Joseph, 59.

Asparagus, 85, 86, 87.

Avebury, Lord, 214.

Avon, meaning of, 297.

Bad debts, farmers', 215.

Badsey, 1; church innovations, 102, 110; church restoration, 89, 90; churchyard, 97, 98, 101; "Feld," 207; market gardeners, 85.

Barley, 216, 217.

Barnard, Mr. E.A.B., 5.

Barnard, parish clerk, 65, 92, 93, 95.

Bateman, Miss Isabel, 92.

Beech, 195, 196, 197; "groaning tree," 197; stage effect, 198, 199; Waterloo beeches, 197, 198.

Beef, American, 72, 155.

Bees, 17, 18.

Bell, William, farm bailiff, 12; bee-master, 17; brewer, 18; courage, 14, 15; generosity, 13; honesty, 20; limited outlook, 18; memory, 16; peace-maker, 15; quoted, 11, 14; repartee and wit, 13, 24; salesman, 17.

Bell, Mrs. William, 21.

Bellows, antique, 285.

Bell-ringers, 94.

Bewick, 258.

Bible, cunning use of, 40.

Blackbanks, 294.

Blackbirds, 265.

Blackminster, 294, 299.

Blackmore quoted, 182, 196, 225.

Blacksmith, 151, 152.

Blue distance, 237, 238.

Boer War, 66.

Boys at farm work, 39, 69.

Brandram, Mr., 92.

Bredon Hill, 237.

"Breese," 156.

Brigg, 241.

Brooks, changing course, 239, 241; diagram of, 252.

Buckle Street, 166, 296.

Buggilde Street, 157.

Bull, 54.

Bullfinch, 185, 186.

Buller, C.F., 113.

Butterflies, 273, 274, 275, 276.

Caldecott, Randolph, 191, 225, 236, 265.

Caravoglia, Signor, 123.

Carter boys, 39.

Caterpillars, 184, 248, 259.

Cattle, 153, 154, 157.

Chamberlain, Mr. Arthur, 88.

"Chap-money," 127, 129, 216.

Charles II., 7, 190, 227.

Charley, "silly," 93.

"Chawns," 211.

Cherries, 185.

China, old, 285, 286, 287.

Chinese slavery, 88.

Chippendale furniture, 95, 165, 285.

Chipping Campden, 18, 129.

Christ Church, Oxford, 90, 98.

Christmas, 21, 79, 95.

Church music, 102, 103.

Churning, 154.

Cider, 174-177; apples, 176; lead poisoning, 178.

Cirencester College, 147, 148.

Climate, effects on animals, 135, 136.

Cloud-burst, 249.

Coal-club, 63, 64.

Cockatoo, 265.

Coffers, antique, 193.

Coins, Roman, 300.

Coleridge quoted, 234.

Collins, Mr. Thomas, 90.

Colour, discordant, 95.

Competition, American, 59, 208.

Compton, Lady Alwyne, 92.

Confirmation, 103.

Constable, John, painter, 193.

"Co-rider," 30.

Coroner's jury, 64, 65.

Cotswolds, 2, 19, 29.

Cottagers, see Labourers; married couples, 72.

Council, County, election, 65.

Councils, parish, etc., 100.

Courtene, Sir Peter, 5.

Cowper quoted, 106, 264.

"Crabbing," 130.

Cream separator, 82.

Cricket, 119, 120; Eton and Harrow match, 234, 235.

Cromwell, 227.

Cronje, 66.

Cruikshank, George, 133, 207.

Cuckoo, 184, 249, 259.

Curmudgeon, village, 99.

Cycling, 278; geology, 282; pageants of the roads, 279; pictures, real, 280; roadside creatures, 281, 282.

Dairy, 153, 154, 155.

Damsons, 182.

Dandie Dinmont, 266.

Daniel, M.N., on Pekingese, 268.

Daniel, S., 105.

D'Aumale, Duc, 203.

Dealers, artificial fertilizers, 149, 150; cattle, 127, 134, 135; horse, 126, 127; pig, 130; sheep, 127, 128, 129; wool, 145, 146.

Dewponds, 242.

Dialect, 158, 288-291.

Disease, human and plant, analogy, 224.

Dorset labourer, a, 71, 72.

Draining, 212, 213.

Duck, pet, 264.

Edgehill, Battle of, 6, 7.

Education, compulsory, 58, 116, 117, 118.

Eggs, disqualified, 121; hens', 164, 165, 166.

Elephant, African, 115, 116.

Elevator, 82.

Elms, 187, 188.

Emperors, Roman, 300-305.

Ermine, 281.

Evans, Mr. Herbert A, 263.

Evesham, Abbey, 1, 4; agricultural depression, 245, 246; Vale of, 2; water supply, 243, 244.

Fairs, 37, 49, 130, 227, 228.

Fairy rings, 47.

Farmers Newstyle and Oldstyle, 217, 218, 219.

Farrar, Dean, 111, 112, 113, 114, 288.

Fields, derivation, 207; large and small, 83.

Finance, 58, 68.

Fishing, 35, 36.

Flail, 80.

Floods, 241, 242.

Flower show, village, 121.

Foley, Lady Emily, 91.

Football, 120.

Forks, steel, 85, 86.

Foxes, 201, 254.

Fox terrier, "Chips," 266.

Fruit markets, 172.

Furniture, antique, 284; Chippendale, 285, 286; faked, 97.

Gainsborough, market cart, 193.

Gardener, an old, 53.

Ghosts, 67, 93.

Gipsies, 49, 200, 228.

Gladstone quoted, on ancient church, 89.

Gleaning, 211.

"Gloving," 77.

Goldfinch, 260.

Gold, hoarded, 58.

Goose, pet, 264.

Grace, Dr. W.G., 119.

Grafter, a, 141, 142.

Gray's Elegy quoted, 23, 46, 198.

Gryphea incurva, 213.

"Hag-ridden," 47.

Hardy, Mr. Thomas, 77.

Harrow School, 111; chapel, 113; fourth form room, 114; cricket match at Lords, 234, 235.

Harvest, 33, 244.

Hawfinch, 259.

Hawks, 202.

Hay-making, 69.

Hazel, 202.

Hedges, overgrown, 205; "pleaching," 59.

Heredity, 117, 118.

Herrick, reference to Gospel Oak, 195.

History of Evesham, May's, 68; Tindal's, 8.

Hoarding gold, 58.

Hoby, Sir Philip, 4.

Holiday outings, 78, 79.

Holly, 205.

Hood, reference to butterflies, 276.

Hops, aphis, 221; dioescious, 226; drying, 31, 32; introduction of Flemish, 205; natural protection, 222; pocket at R.A.S.E. show, 139; Saturnalia, 227; tying, 75.

Hop-poles, 202, 203.

Hop-yards, derivation, 221.

Horace, reference to farm work, 207.

Horizon, parochial, 18, 19.

Horses, 36, 40.

Hoskins, Chandos Wren, Talpa, on farming, 132; draining, 133; illustrates Horace's lines, 207.

Hospitium at Badsey, 67.

Huguenots, 7.

Hurdle-making, 150, 151.

Indian troops at Lyndhurst, 158.

Ingram, Canon Winnington, 300.

Inquest, 64, 65.

I.P., honesty, 56.

Irving, Sir Henry, 120.

Irving, Washington, Bracebridge Hall, on public distress, 245.

Jackdaw, pet, 264.

Jackson, Sir Thomas Graham, 90,96.

Jacobites, 7, 8.

Jarge, 23; bon vivant, 28; cider-maker, 175; daughter, 24, 26; discrimination, 26; hop foreman, 25; London trip, 28; narrow escape, 201; soloist, 29; sporting reputation, 24.

Jarrett monument, 6.

Jays, 265.

J.E., carter, accidents, 54, 55; hop-washing, 55.

J.E., Mrs., 55.

Jim, carter, 35; angler, 35; foresight, 41; French horses, 37; loyalty, 37; ploughman, 38; rheumatism, 40; salesman, 37; tender-hearted, 38.

"Jingoism," derivation, 72.

John C., shepherd, 46.

Keats, reference to trees, 187.

"King Arthur," 254.

King Edward VII., 138, 203, 234.

Kingfisher, 257.

King George V., 19, 249.

Kingham Old and New, 77.

Kingham Station, 59.

"Know-all," the, 73, 74.

Kruger, 66.

Labourers, agricultural: bad temper, effect on animals, 74; aesthetic feeling, 61; enfranchised, 83; enjoyment of grievance, 65; feuds, 71; honesty, 56; interest in horrors, 64; limited vocabulary, 62; literal use of words, 62, 63; not callous, 62; "not paid to think," exceptional, 45; recognize visible property only, 57; resignation and fortitude, 60; responsibility, effect of, 73; reticence, 61; savings, 57; seldom slackers, 69; suspicious of change, 63; sympathetic, 58; understand sarcasm, seldom irony, 73.

Ladybirds, 225.

Lamb, New Zealand, 162.

Lambs not to be killed, 160, 161, 162.

Land, division of, 84.

Land girls, 76.

"Leasing," derivation of, 211.

Leland, 4, 296.

Lind, Jenny, 124, 125.

Liver-rot, 160.

London, Bishop of, a former, 198.

Long Marston, 7. Loudon, John, 197.

Machinery, 80.

Magpies, 256.

Maid-servants, 76.

Malvern concerts, 27, 90, 91, 92.

Martin, Mr. C.S., 139, 140; on cabbage butterflies, 275; wasps, 275.

Martin, Mr. Wm., on finding wasps' nests, 274.

Matriculation, young yeoman's, 283, 284.

May's History of Evesham, 68.

May, shelter during, 155.

Medicinal herbs during war, 45.

Melanism, 255.

"'Merican beef," 72, 155.

Merry gardens, derivation, 186.

Meteorology, 230-234, 237.

Mickleton tunnel, 29.

"Mist-bow,", 251.

Mistifier, 55.

Mist-lake, 252.

Mistletoe, 173.

Mole-catcher, 143.

Moths, 271, 272, 273.

Mountford's restaurant, 20, 21.

Mowing machines, 81.

"Mug," a, 140.

Names, place, 291-292; villagers, 292-293.

New Forest, "commoners," 194; communion between man and trees, 199; land mostly poor, 188; oaks, 189, 190, 199; timber during war, 194, 204.

Nightingales, 261.

Nuthatch, 257.

Oak, 188, 189; American, 96, 97; attitudes of, 190; bark, 193; "Gospel," 195; history in, 195; heart of, 193; plantations, 192.

Obadiah B., thatcher, 148.

Onomatopoeia, use of, 196, 256.

Omnicycle, 22, 61.

Orchards, 167, 168.

Overton fair, 49.

"Ox-droves," 157.

Pageants of the roads, 279.

Parochial horizon, 18, 19.

Peacocks, 253, 254.

Pear trees, 179, 180.

Peking, relief of, 104.

Pekingese, 267, 268, 269.

Perry, 179, 180.

Pershore, 37, 197.

Peruvian guano, 87.

Pheasants, 204, 255.

Philips, Cyder, 175.

Picker, a, 103.

"Pleaching," 59.

Ploughing, 38, 39, 213, 214.

Plumber's story, 45.

Plums, 182, 183, 184.

Pony, "Taffy," 270.

Poodle, 266.

"Popery," 20, 110.

Postman, 122.

Potatoes, 18; disease, 222; Myatt's ashleaf, origin, 54.

Poulton, Miss, 90.

Poultry, 164.

Punch quoted, 19, 102.

Queen Victoria, 255.

Railway accident, 163; sleepers, 204-205.

Randell, Mr. Charles, 81.

Randulf, Abbot, 4.

Rat-catcher, 143.

Rats, 143.

"Reconstruction," 246.

Ridge and furrow, 213, 214.

Rival hedgers, 105.

Roads, ancient, 279-280, 283, 296-297.

Roberts, Lord, 66.

Roman coins, 300; Emperors, 301-305; remains, 294, 295.

Rooks' arithmetic, 260; building, 91.

Rottingdean, 262, 271, 276.

Rough music, 77, 78.

Royal Agricultural Society of England, 138, 139.

Rus in urbe, 234-237.

Ruskin, 81.

Ryknield Street, 156, 295-297, 300.

Sabbath-breaking, 163, 164.

Sales, by bailiff, 132, 133; books, 133; fruit, 172; sheep, 136, 137; short-horns, 134, 135.

Salisbury, Lord, 90, 91.

Salter Street, 296.

"Satan leading on," 105.

Savory, Mrs. A.H., 86, 90, 122-124, 153, 164.

Savory, Mr. F.E., 250.

Selborne (see White), Church, 94.

Seventh Division in New Forest, 280.

Scapula, P. Ostorius, 297.

School Board, Badsey, 106; chairman, 107; economy, 115; "first duty" of members, 107; grouped parishes, 108; "ignoramus," an, 115; inspectors, 111, 114; mares' nests, 116; reading-book, 114; religious instruction, 109-111; reporters at meetings, 108; site for building, 109; "six little pigs," 114.

"Score," derivation of, 16.

Scots-fir, 204.

Scottish wool trade, 145.

Scot, Reynolde, on hops, 220.

Scrutator, 253.

Shakespeare, local phraseology, 289, 290; local reputation, 120.

Shakespeare quoted, on bargains, 126; carouse at Bidford, 179; content, 57; "daring" larks, 263; England if true to self, 66; fairy rings, 47; fool i' the forest, 191; gadfly, 156; hope and despair, 220; lady-smocks, 276; narrow outlook, 19; "pleaching," 59; Providence, 1; sweet of the year, 232.

Shappen, derivation, 129.

Sheep, 47-50, 158-160.

Sheep dipper, 142.

Shelley on skylark, 253.

Shepherds, 46, 50, 76, 77.

"Shepherd's neglect," 48.

Signhurst, derivation, 67.

Skylark, 263.

Sladden, Mr. Julius, 89, 121.

Snake and Toad, 282.

Snewin, carpenter, 42.

Squirrels, 281.

Stag-beetles, 277.

Steam power, 83.

Stockmen often resemble their animals, 162.

Stupid places, 292.

"Summer dance," 251.

"Summer-time," 230, 231.

Sunday work, 244.

Superstition, 18, 21, 46, 47, 67.

Tacitus, 297.

"Tantiddy's fire," 33.

Taylor, Chevalier, 52.

Telegraph wires in frost, 183.

Tennyson quoted, on apples, 167; business men, 141; changes of earth's surface, 239; dairy, 153; farming walk, 207; hazels, 202; home-made bread, 211; Morte d'Arthur, 1; music, 119; old oaks, 187; onomatopoeic lines, 196; our echoes, 288; politics, 80; royal oak, 195; spring-time, 202; steam cultivation, 83; "summer dance," 251; tea-cup times, 286; town and country, 230.

Tennyson at agricultural show, 139.

Temper, effect on animals, 74.

Temple, Sir Richard, 83-86, 88.

Thatching, 148, 149, 200.

Thistles, 260.

Thomson quoted, 36.

Thoreau quoted, 199.

Thrashing, 80, 81, 215.

"Three acres and a cow," 84.

Tom, 29; caution, 33, 34; draining, 31; harvesting, 32, 33; hop-drying, 31; mowing, 30; musical critic, 33; tree-felling, 30.

Tom G., 41; accuracy, 42; builder, 44; carpenter, 41; efficiency, 45; epigram, 43, 44; teetotal, 41.

Trees, paintings of, 192, 193.

Tricker, 50, 51, 52.

Trout, 35, 36, 49.

Truffle-hunter, 144, 145.

Tusser, Thomas, on hop-growing, 220, 221.

Urchins, 264, 282, 291.

Valentine's Day, St., 160.

Vestry meetings, 99, 100.

Veterinary surgeons, 147, 148.

Vicar (my first) as prosecutor, 101; former ways of parishioners, 94, 95; impressive reader, 98, 99; "new farmers," 13; procession with choir, 102; restoration of church, 89, 90.

Vicar (my second) declines to act on School Board, 109; religious instruction, 110; scholar, 104.

Vicar (my third), innovations, 110; relief of Peking, 104; religious instruction, 110, 111.

Vicar, a Gloucestershire, 104.

Vicar of Old Basing, 165.

Victory, old battleship, 194.

Villagers, see Labourers, funeral, 15.

Villages, Cotswold and Vale of Evesham, 283.

"Viper," egg-eater, 166; rescues children, 21, 22; avoids "dipping," 142.

Virgil, Georgics, and farm work, 207; onomatopoeic lines, 195, 196; on planting trees, 168; prophetic lines, 300.

Wages, 68, 69, 70.

Waggon, an ancient, 139; name on a, 131, 132.

Wakefield, Bishop of, 230.

Walnut chair, 7.

War, great, 45, 161, 227.

Warde Fowler, Mr., 77, 78.

Washington, Penelope, 9, 10.

Wasps, 274, 275.

Water-rats, 144.

Waterspouts, 250.

Way-warden, 100.

Weather, abnormal, 247, 248, 249; signs, 233.

Wedding feast, a village, 65.

Weeds, 70.

Weighing machine, incorrect, 43.

Wellington, Duke of, 197.

"Welsher," a, 137.

"Wendy," Pekingese, 267.

Westwood, Professor, 276.

Weyhill Fair, 228.

Wickhamford, 8, 94, 299.

Wild geese, 263.

Wild, Miss Margaret, 92.

Will Hall farm, 235.

Will-o'-the-wisp, 249.

Willow ("withy"), 199, 201.

Wheatear, bird, 262.

Wheat: growing, ruined by importations, 208; harvest, 210; hoeing, 70; rick building, 212.

Whisky, 131, 178.

White, Gilbert, black bullfinch, 257; dew-ponds, 243; salted flesh, 296; Saxon plurals, 289; Selborne Church bells, 94.

White, Miss Maude V., 124.

Women on the land, 74, 75, 76.

Woodcock, 258, 259.

Woodpecker, green, 256.

Woodpigeons, 261.

Wool, 146, 147; staplers, 145.

"Woonts," 143.

Worcester, Battle of, 7; Bishops of, 103; butter market, 154; china, 161; hop-fair, 227.

Words, confusion of, 51, 52.

Wordsworth quoted, 61, 263.

Wren, golden-crested, 261.

"Wusser and wusser, old," 29.

Wych-elm, 53.

Yardley, Richard, will of, 5.

THE END