School Naturalists
Among the several public schools that have made a name as homes of natural history are Gresham's School, Holt, and Bradfield College. The latter has just celebrated—in a very refreshing and original manner—its centenary ; and I liked the following lines in its most original play, A Midsummer-Day's Dream, where the May-time nightingales are said to " Combine with drumming snipe in the marshes and the redshanks' Pine."
" The Pang that flows down lazily beneath the Iron Bridge Through the old mill, the home of many a greedy trout Waiting to snap the crowded may-flies newly hatched: The rare fritillary, silver washed, in Great House Woods ; Pasque Flower or Norfolk Plover on the Unhill Down ; The magic charm of these must always weave its slid'.
Round Bradfield boys, who through them learn to love the English land."
It was on the Pang at Bradfield that I watched the best fisherman I ever knew—he was the village blacksmith—and heard a grasshopper warbler imitate with singular accuracy the sound of his fishing reel.
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