This etext was transcribed by Les Bowler [Picture: ‘Homeward Bound’] NEIGHBOURHOOD A YEAR’S LIFE IN AND ABOUT AN ENGLISH VILLAGE * * * * * BY TICKNER EDWARDES AUTHOR OF ‘THE LORE OF THE HONEY-BEE’ * * * * * WITH EIGHT ILLUSTRATIONS * * * * * NEW YORK E. P. DUTTON AND COMPANY 31 WEST TWENTY-THIRD STREET 1912 * * * * * CONTENTS PAGE INTRODUCTION xi JANUARY 1 I. Hard Times—Wild Life and the Frost—The Thaw at Last—Solitude and a Fireside—Cricket Music—Fiction and Life—Wood versus Coal. II. Truantry—Spring in January—Wind and Sun on the Downs—A Shepherd Family—Brothers in Arms—‘Rowster’—The Folding-Call—Dew-Ponds and their Making—The Sign in the Sky. III. The Starling Host. FEBRUARY 27 I. The Village Green—Daybreak—The Morning Dew. II. Under the ‘Seven Sisters’—Courting Days. III. The Elm Blossom—A Wild Night—By the River—The Hazel-Wood—Meadow Life IV. The Coming of the Lambs—Night in the Lambing-Pens—The Luck of Windlecombe—‘White Eye.’ MARCH 55 I. The Woodland Clearing—Rabbit and Stoat—The Rain Bird—‘Skugging’—The Lovers’ Tree—An Adventure in Forestry. II. The ‘Sea-Blue Bird of March’—The Old Ferryman. III. Lion and Lamb—The Churchyard Wall—Yew and Almond-Tree—Evensong—A Prophet of Evil. IV. Wild March—Rejuvenation—On the