Natural history -- England -- Hampshire; Natural history -- Outdoor books
That was how Newland came to be buried at that {219} spot; but before
many days the vicar went to them in a great state of mind, and said
that he had made a terrible mistake, that he had done wrong in
consenting to the grave being made there, and that their father must
be taken up and placed at some other spot in the churchyard. They
were grieved at this, but could say nothing. But for some reason the
removal never took place, and in time the son and daughter themselves
began to regret that they had buried their father there where they
could never keep the mound green and fresh. People going in or
coming out of church on dark evenings stumbled or kicked their boots
against it, or when they stood there talking to each other they would
rest a foot on it, and romping children sat on it, so that it always
had a ragged, unkept appearance, do what they would.
It is certainly an unsightly mound. It would be better to do away
with it, and to substitute a small memorial stone with a suitable
inscription placed level with the turf.
{220}
CHAPTER XI
The Hampshire people--Racial differences in neighbouring counties--A
neglected subject--Inhabitants of towns--Gentry and peasantry--Four
distinct types--The common blonde type--Lean women--Deleterious
effects of tea-drinking--A shepherd's testimony--A mixed race--The
Anglo-Saxon--Case of reversion of type--Un-Saxon character of the
British--Dark-eyed Hampshire people--Racial feeling with regard to
eye-colours--The Iberian type--Its persistence--Character of the
small dark man--Dark and blonde children--A dark village child.
The history of the horn-blower and his old wife, and their still
living aged children, serves to remind me that this book, which
contains so much about all sorts of creatures and forms of life, from
spiders and flies to birds and beasts, and from red alga on
gravestones to oaks and yews, has so far had almost nothing to say
about our own species--of that variety which inhabits Hampshire.
[Sidenote: Racial differences]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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