COUNTRY LIFE

St. Martin's Weapon-Still-Stand

On Armistice day, which is the first day of St. Martin's summer, the thrushes sang divinely ; and it is at such times that one would maintain their supremacy in England. In the sum we get more pleasure out of the song thrush than any other bird. So at least I have long thought.

" See, on that oaken spray, apart, Fronting the wind and rain, November's thrush will still repeat (Again, again, with might and main)

A song to him and us so sweet Because it comes too near the heart To touch the brain."- On that, same day I _ found in blossom wild poppy, Iceland poppy, Pyrus .7aponica, briar roses, tree lupin, bladder campion, heather., gorse and broom among a host of others. My experience is that there are such things as interpolated spells of untimely warmth (as Buchan held) ; none is so punctual or certain as St. Martin's summer. This year the weather has been halcyon, a word that suggests one of the quaintest of weather prophecies.

Country Words A query about three very rural words—molly, bagging hook and runt (with its synonyms)—has produced a store of informa- tion ; but the smallest pig of the litter is the favourite. A molly, which is a roughly cut head of wood with a short handle, is in common use among hedgers in very many counties ;- and most hedgers use their own weapon, manufactured (in the true sense of the term) out of ash or hornbeam or other wood. It is plausibly suggested that the word, used in many districts in the form " mall ", is a corruption of mallet. The favourite wood for mallet heads is apple ; and one ingenious philologist suggests that the derivation is from luaus, not malleus, but countrymen are not scholars. As to sickle, the word is little used by country folk, and when it is, means large and sometimes long-handled weapon used for reaping corn. The heavier sickle-like tool used for cutting hedges is frequently known as a " flasher," though this word, as well as " slasher," also describes a straight or very slightly curved tool used for much the same purpose, but designed for rather stouter wood. The common word for the commonest tool is " bagging- hook," or one of its various forms, such as badging or fagging hook. Some hold that it has a knife-like edge as opposed to a sickle that is jagged, but the distinction will hardly stand In one quotation, I think, from a novel, the man with the bagging hook is described as cutting a shorter stubble than other workers. A collection, it seems, has been made of the variant designations for the smallest pig of a litter. One list is as follows : Boak, 1878) gives nisgal for Miss Jackson (Shropshire Year

chicks as well as pigs.

The correspondent who sends words in her book are by no means Nisgill Nislerige Nestletripe Darling Daniel Dolly Harry Underling Ridding Reckling Little David

Dillin Dilling

Midlands

1. Hants.

I- Kent J

Cad Gramper Nestletribe Nestledrag Nestlebird Dab-chick Wastrill Weed Dandlin Anthony Runt Nest Squab Putman Ratling Domudy

1

Scottish

Stratford-on-Avon

The Titman (Vermont) Nestledraft Pigot Rutland Luchan Piggy-Widden Parson's pig (the least valu- able, to be devoted to tithe purposes)

the above adds : " The confined to Shropshire, but.,

many there are (still in use) which are precious to an ear bred on the border. Mingicummumbus, for example, and oonty- tump meaning mole hill."

* * * *

Sport and Authority in two parts of England, on the hill and in the valley, a certain confliction of interest, I will not say quarrel, is dividing sportsmen and public authorities. The Access to Mountains Act, which everyone will accept in principle, has worked well enough in general, but there are some few places where it has greatly offended landowners and in some degree naturalists. One of these is the neighbourhood of the Peak of Derbyshire. This still wild and beautiful upland is closely juitaposed to a very large urban population who find there a glorious escape into a free air and spacious views. Not much witting harm is done ; but a large influx of people into a place where birds nest may be quite fatal at certain seasons, especially no doubt in this district to grouse. A meeting was held thereabouts last week to discuss the subject, and Sir Lawrence Chubb, the most active and capable of all who work for the preservation of commons and footpaths and rights of way, has himself suggested, has indeed urged, that the Minister of Agriculture or someone of like authority should have the power to save the nesting birds, and, if he thought well, to interpolate a close time for motorists and pedestrians. Access to the mountain would be refused round critical dates.

* * * A Canalised Avon The other difference of opinion concerns the canalising of the Avon. Authority in its desk:: to regulate and control the flow of water has acted stringently. It has, it seems, gone so far as to dig up the weeds in adjoining brooks without paying attention to the fact that these weeds (some very beautiful like the water-buttercup) were especially and at some cost planted by fishermen in order to give harbourage both to the trout and the creatures they feed upon. A further complaint, which finds expression in last week's Field, is that the charm of the river has been totally destroyed by canalisation. It certainly sounds like a sin in the soul to canalise a river of so sweet a name and presence : it is like Bowdlerising Shakespeare. Doubtless there are strong reasons for the sacrilege : we cannot allow all rivers to behave like the Lea, which " oft doth lose its way " ; and fishermen in

such regards must come second ; but yet, but yet The Avon has a stronger case in sentiment than the Peak,

* * * * In the Garden

The first precocious, indeed untimely, sweet-smelling violets in the frame have been plucked. Most violets are easy enough to grow, and for some reason their culture has become a special fashion among members of the Stock Exchange, who may pay 'little attention to other flowers. They are easy to grow ; but it is an oddity, which seems contrary to nature, that the core of the secret is to keep the leaves severely free from water in the winter months and in continual touch in Many other months. It used to be regretted by one of our greatest gardeners that the wild violets, especially Viola odorata, were neglected in gardens. He cultivated a great many in the wild garden and lengthened their season by planting them in different situations. In- general the sunnier sites ' produce earlier flowers but less enduring plants. That most lusty and useful of edging plants, Viola gra-tills, announced its likes and dislikes with unusual emphasis this year. It withered to nothing in the drought and recovered as completely as if there had been no setback very soon after the air moistened. A much appreciated treasure in my garden is a clump of a rather rare wild variety of Viola sulphurea. How very bright at this moment are the winter-flowering violas, and the expectation is that they will endure for months.- The brighter colours—yellow, white or light mauve—give • perhaps the most satisfaction in the dark days.