Chapter III: 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 Years Ago--The Wolds in Autumn--By the Stream--Wildfowl--Migration of Birds--Lapwings--Winter Visitants--Thunderstorms--Glow-Worms--A Brilliant Meteor--Night on the Hills--The "Blowing-Stone"--Christmas Day on the Cotswolds--A Solar Halo--Hamlet Festivities--Tom Peregrine Baffled--The Mummers Play--The Victorian Era--The True Days of "Merrie England"--_Carpe Diem_.

CHAPTER XVIII.

WHEN THE SUN GOES DOWN

A Glorious Panorama--Peregrine as Secretary--The Light of Setting Suns--Conclusion.

APPENDIX.

GEORGE RIDLER'S OVEN

INDEX

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

PORTRAIT OF THE AUTHOR, FROM A PHOTOGRAPH BY MESSRS. SHAWCROSS.

STOKE POGES CHURCH.

THE OLD MANOR HOUSE.

INSCRIPTION ON PORCH OF MANOR HOUSE.

INTERIOR OF MANOR HOUSE.

IN THE GARDEN.

A COTSWOLD MANOR HOUSE.

COTSWOLD COTTAGES.

A FARMHOUSE BY THE COLN.

AN OLD COTTAGE.

THE HAMLET.

ON THE WOLDS.

OXEN PLOUGHING.

THE OLD CUSTOMER.

THE OLD MILL, ABLINGTON.

THE COLN NEAR BIBURY.

A BRIDGE OVER THE COLN.

A DISH OF FISH.

BURFORD PRIORY.

BURFORD PRIORY.

THE MANOR HOUSE, COLN-ST.-ALDWYNS.

BIBURY STREET.

ARLINGTON ROW.

VILLAGE CRICKETERS.

HAWKING.

BIBURY COURT.

THE ABBEY GATEWAY, CIRENCESTER.

MARKET-PLACE, CIRENCESTER.

AN OLD BARN.

THE "PILL" BRIDGE.

IN BIBURY VILLAGE.

SIDE VIEW OF MANOR HOUSE.

BIBURY MILL.

BELOW THE "PILL".

ABLINGTON MANOR.

AN OLD-FASHIONED LABOURING COUPLE.

COLN-ST.-ALDWYNS.

A COTSWOLD VILLAGE.