Innumerable geese, gulls, coots, divers, water-crows, herons, ducks,
of which, when there is most plenty, in winter, or at moulting time,
I have seen hundreds taken at a time, by nets, springes, or
birdlime,' and so forth till, as he assures William, the Frenchman
may sit on Haddenham field blockading Ely for seven years more, 'ere
they will make one ploughman stop short in his furrow, one hunter
cease to set his nets, or one fowler to deceive the birds with
springe and snare.'
And yet there was another side to the picture. Man lived hard in
those days, under dark skies, in houses--even the most luxurious of
them--which we should think, from draughts and darkness, unfit for
felons' cells. Hardly they lived; and easily were they pleased, and
thankful to God for the least gleam of sunshine, the least patch of
green, after the terrible and long winters of the Middle Age. And
ugly enough those winters must have been, what with snow-storm and
darkness, flood and ice, ague and rheumatism; while through the long
drear winter nights the whistle of the wind and the wild cries of the
water-fowl were translated into the howls of witches and demons; and
(as in St.
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