[Footnote: A General View of the Agriculture of the County of Lincoln,
p. 330. "It well deserves noting that a shepherd, who, when young, was
shepherd's boy to an old man, who lived at Netlam, near Lincoln, a place
famous for the rot, told Mr. Neve that he was persuaded sheep took the
rot only of a morning, before the dew was well off. At that time they
folded, being open field: his master's shepherd kept his flock in fold
always till the dew was gone; and, with no other attention, his sheep
were kept sound, when all the neighbours lost their flocks."] Such are
the negligences and blunders of those who endeavour to do half a dozen
things at once.

The failure of one undertaking never discouraged Marvel from beginning
another; and it is a pity, that, with so much spirit and activity, he
had so little steadiness and prudence. His sheep died, and he set out
for Spalding full of the thoughts of the heronry. Now this heronry
belonged to Sir Plantagenet Mowbray, an elderly gentleman, who was
almost distracted with family pride: he valued himself upon never having
parted with one inch of the landed property that had descended to him,
through a long line of ancestors, from the Plantagenets. He looked down
upon the whole race of farmers and traders as beings of a different
species from himself; and the indignation with which he heard, from a
Lincolnshire farmer, a proposal to purchase his heronry, may perhaps be
imagined, but cannot be described. It was in vain that Marvel rose in
his offers; it was in vain that he declared he was ready to give any
price that Sir Plantagenet would set upon the heronry. Sir Plantagenet
sent word, by his steward, that not a feather of his birds should be
touched; that he was astonished at the insolence of such a proposal; and
that he advised Marvel to keep out of the way of _his people_, lest they
should revenge the insult that had been offered to their master.