A Cotswold Village | Page 3

benevolent view of human
nature, and make my reader more in good humour with his fellow
beings and himself, surely, surely, I shall not then have written in vain."
The first half of Chapter II. originally appeared in the Pall Mall
Magazine. Portions of Chapters VII. and VIII., and "The Thruster's
Song," have also been published in Baily's Magazine. My thanks are
due to the editors for permission to reproduce them. Chapter XII. owes
its inspiration to Mr. Madden's excellent work on Shakespeare's
connection with sport and the Cotswolds, the "Diary of Master William
Silence." We have no local tradition of any kind about Shakespeare.
I am indebted to Miss E.F. Brickdale for the pen-and-ink sketches, and
to Colonel Mordaunt for his beautiful photographs. Three of the
photographs, however, are by H. Taunt, of Oxford, and a similar
number are by Mr. Gardner, of Fairford.
September 1898.

CONTENTS
PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION.
PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION.
CHAPTER I.
FLYING WESTWARDS
The Thames Valley--The Old White Horse--Entering the Cotswolds.
CHAPTER II.

A COTSWOLD VILLAGE
Far from the Madding Crowd--An Old Farmhouse and Its
Occupants--The Manor House--Inscription on Porch--Interior of the
House--The Garden--A Fairy Spring--The Village Club--Labouring
Folk--Village Politics--The Trout Stream--Flowing Seawards--Village
Architecture--The Charm of Antiquity--The Spirit of
Sacrifice--Wayside Crosses--Tithe Barns.
CHAPTER III.
VILLAGE CHARACTERS
Quaint Hamlet Folk--The Village Impostor--Rural Economy--Stories of
the People--A Curious Analogy--Tom Peregrine, the Keeper--A
Standing Dish--A Great Character--Peregrine's Accomplishments and
Proclivities--Farmers and Foxes--Concerning Churchwardens--The
Village Quack--An Excellent Prescription--His Lecture--How the Old
Fox was Found--A Good Sort--Heroes of the Hamlet--Political
Meetings--Humours of the Poll--Gloucestershire Farmers.
CHAPTER IV.
THE LANGUAGE OF THE COTSWOLDS, WITH SOME ANCIENT
SONGS AND LEGENDS
Strange Travellers--Smoking Concerts--The Carter's Song--Village
Choirs--The Chedworth Band--Sense of Humour of the Natives--Their
Geography "a Bit Mixed"--A Large Family--Noblesse Oblige--Rustic
Legends--Names of Fields--The Cotswold Dialect--How to Talk It--An
Ancient Ballad--Tom Peregrine Recites--Roger Plowman's
Excursion--An Expensive Luncheon--Oxtail Soup--"The Turmut
Hower."
CHAPTER V.
ON THE WOLDS

Varied Amusements--Nature on the Hills--The Mysteries of
Scent--Partridge-Shooting--A Mixed Bag--Plover--Pigeon-Shooting
with Decoys--Bird Life--Sunset on the Downs--A Wild, Deserted
Country--An Old Dog Fox.
CHAPTER VI.
A GALLOP OVER THE WALLS
An October Meet--Cub-Hunting--The Old Fox Again! A Fast Gallop
over the Walls--The Charm of Uncertainty--Fliers of the Hunt--A
Narrow Escape--A Check--A Reliable Hound--Failure of Scent--An
Excellent Tonic.
CHAPTER VII.
A COTSWOLD TROUT STREAM
Loch Leven Trout--Curious Capture of an Eel--The Author Catches a
Red-Herring--Macomber Falls--A Sad Episode--South Country
Streams--Course of the Coln--Charles Kingsley on Fishing--A May-Fly
Stream--Evening Fishing--Dry-Fly Dogmas--Flies for the
Coln--Scarcity of Poachers--An Evening Walk by the River--Spring's
Delights.
CHAPTER VIII.
WHEN THE MAY-FLY IS UP
Derby Day on the Coln--A Good Sportsman--The Right Fly--Pleasures
of the Country--Peregrine's Quaint Expressions--Sport with the Olive
Dun--A Fine Trout--Effects of Sheep-Washing--A Good Basket--Life
by the Brook--A Summer's Night--In the Heart of England.
CHAPTER IX.
BURFORD, A COTSWOLD TOWN

Curious Names--The Windrush--Burford Priory--An Empty Shell--The
Kingmaker--Lord Falkland--Speaker Lenthall--Bibury Races--An Old
Tradition--Valued Relics--Burford Church--Mr. Oman's
Discovery--Burford during the Civil Wars.
CHAPTER X.
STROLL THROUGH THE COTSWOLDS
The Old Coaching Days--Fairford--Anglo-Saxon
Relics--Hatherop--Coln-St.-Aldwyns--The "Knights Templar" of
Quenington--A Haunt of Ancient Peace--Bibury Village--Ancient
Barrows--The Prehistoric Age--Deserted Villages--The Philosopher's
Stone--True Nobleness--On Battues--Roman Remains--Chedworth
Woods--An Old Manor House.
CHAPTER XI.
COTSWOLD PASTIMES
Whitsun Ale--Sports of Various Kinds--The Peregrine Family at
Cricket--Prehistoric Cricket--A Bad Ground--A "Pretty" Ball--Charles
Dickens on Cricket--Dumkins and Podder, Limited--How Dumkins Hit
a "Sixer"--Downfall of "Podder"--Bourton-on-the-Water C.C.--A
Plague of Wasps--The Treatment of Cricket Grounds--The Author's
Recipe--Reflections on Modern Cricket.
CHAPTER XII.
THE COTSWOLDS THREE HUNDRED YEARS AGO.
The Centre of Elizabethan Sport--A Digression on South Africa--The
Halo of Association--A Day's Stag-Hunting in 1592--A Benighted
Sportsman--"A Goodly Dwelling and a Rich"--An Old English
Gentleman--Shakespeare on Hounds--He Describes the Run--The
Death of the Stag--The Ancestral Peregrine--Bacon not Wanted--A
"Black Ousel"--The Charm of Music--Shakespeare's Dream--A

Hawking Expedition--Peregrine, the Parson, and the Poet--Methods
and Language of Falconry--A Flight at a Heron--Peregrine Views a
Fox.
CHAPTER XIII.
CIRENCESTER
Roman Remains--The Corinium Museum--The Church--Cirencester
House--The Park--The Abbey--The "Mop" or Hiring Fair--A Great
Hunting Centre--A Varied Country--The Badminton Hounds--Lord
Bathurst's Hounds--The Cotswold Hounds--Charles Travess--A Born
Genius--The Cricklade Hounds--The Right Sort of Horse--The Oaksey
District--The Heythrop Hounds--A Defence of Hard Riding--A Day in
the Vale--A Hunting Poem.
CHAPTER XIV.
SPRING IN THE COTSWOLDS
Habits of Moorhens--Mallard and
Swan--Nuthatches--Woodpeckers--Humane
Traps--Badgers--Fox-terriers--Scotch
Deerhounds--Retrievers--Cray-fish--The
Rookery--Jackdaws--Foxes--Artificial Earths--Fox among
Sheep--Foxes and Fowls--Poultry Claims--Observations on Scent--The
Hygrometer--How Trout are Netted--Scarcity of Otters--Water-Voles.
CHAPTER XV.
THE PROMISE OF MAY
Wild Flowers--Cottage Gardens--The Paths of Literature--Description
of a Horse--Beauty of Trees--Their Loss Irreparable as the Loss of
Friends--A Fine Type of Englishman--Lines in Memory of W.D.
Llewelyn.

CHAPTER XVI.
SUMMER DAYS ON THE COTSWOLDS
A Walk in the Fields--Hedgerow Flowers--The Brookside--By "the
Pill"--Remarks on Gray--A Fine Piece of Miniature Scenery--The
Cricket Ground--The Book of Nature--At the Ford--Habits of
Observation--In the Conyger Wood--The Home of the Kingfisher--A
Limestone Quarry--The Great Stone Floor of the Earth--Nature's
Endless Cycle--Beauty of the Ash--Hedgehogs--Trout and
Snake--Sunset on the Hills.
CHAPTER XVII.
AUTUMN
Remarks on Country Life--Thrashing--The Flail--Gipsies--Harvest
Feasts--Fifty