To-day we will go a
little further off, three miles away.
You say, "Surely that is a long way off for the farmer to have a field."
It is not exactly a field. The Chase is a great open common or moor,
which belongs to the village or parish where Willow Farm is. Nearly all
the people of the village have certain rights of pasturage on it; they
may let their horses and cattle and sheep graze there. Every now and
then Mr. Hammond sends some of his sheep to the Chase to feed there for
a few weeks. It is very high dry ground, and that is good for sheep.
The road runs through the middle of the great common without any hedge
or fence on either side. There are horses and sheep and cattle here on
this May morning; donkeys too. All the sheep are marked, and we soon see
some which belong to Willow Farm; they are stamped on the back in large
letters "W.H." for William Hammond. A farmer easily knows his own horses
and cows; sheep are less easy to recognise, and are usually marked.
[Illustration: GORSE.]
One of the flowers of the Chase we see at once. In whatever direction we
look across the common there is a perfect blaze of gold--the blossoms of
the prickly Gorse or Furze.
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