lack of such and such birds, and so on; and they talked of these
things not in a fatuous and conventional way, but as taking, I say,
real interest in them. Moreover, I found that the women knew as much
about all these things as the men: could name a flower, and knew its
qualities; could tell you the habitat of such and such birds and
fish, and the like.

It is almost strange what a difference this intelligence made in my
estimate of the country life of that day; for it used to be said in
past times, and on the whole truly, that outside their daily work
country people knew little of the country, and at least could tell
you nothing about it; while here were these people as eager about all
the goings on in the fields and woods and downs as if they had been
Cockneys newly escaped from the tyranny of bricks and mortar.

I may mention as a detail worth noticing that not only did there seem
to be a great many more birds about of the non-predatory kinds, but
their enemies the birds of prey were also commoner. A kite hung over
our heads as we passed Medmenham yesterday; magpies were quite common
in the hedgerows; I saw several sparrow-hawks, and I think a merlin;
and now just as we were passing the pretty bridge which had taken the
place of Basildon railway-bridge, a couple of ravens croaked above
our boat, as they sailed off to the higher ground of the downs. I
concluded from all this that the days of the gamekeeper were over,
and did not even need to ask Dick a question about it.



CHAPTER XXVI: THE OBSTINATE REFUSERS