In all country neighbourhoods
there is a special place with the unenviable reputation of stupidity;
such was "Yabberton" (Ebrington, on the Cotswolds), and Vashti was
somewhat reluctant to admit that it was her "natif," as a birthplace
is called in the district. Among the traditions of Yabberton it is
related that the farmers, being anxious to prolong the summer, erected
hurdles to wall in the cuckoo, and that they manured the church tower,
expecting it to sprout into an imposing steeple! There is a place in
Surrey, Send, with a similar reputation, where the inhabitants had to
visit a pond before they could tell that rain was falling!
But perhaps the best story of the kind is told in the New Forest,
where the Isle of Wight is regarded as the acme of stupidity. When the
Isle of Wight people first began to walk erect, instead of on all
fours, they are said to have waggled their arms and hands helplessly
before them, saying, "And what be we to do with these-um?"
Classical names are very uncommon among villagers, but in my old
Surrey parish there was one which was the cause of much speculation.
The name was Hercules; it originated in a disagreement between the
parents, before the child was christened. The mother wanted his name
to be John, but the father insisted, that as an older son was Noah,
the only possible name for the new baby was "Hark" (Ark).
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