DEAD MAN'S PLACK
AND
AN OLD THORN
BY W. H. HUDSON
1920
LONDON & TORONTO
J. M. DENT & SONS LTD.
New York: E. P. DUTTON & CO.
CONTENTS
DEAD MAN'S PLACK
PREAMBLE
I
II
III
IV
V
VI
VII
VIII
IX
X
XI
XII
AN OLD THORN
I
II
III
POSTSCRIPT
I
II
ILLUSTRATIONS
HAWTHORN AND IVY, NEAR THE GREAT RIDGE WOOD
DEAD MAN'S PLACK
DEAD MAN'S PLACK.
PREAMBLE
"The insect tribes of human kind" is a mode of expression we arefamiliar with in the poets, moralists and other superior persons, orbeings, who viewing mankind from their own vast elevation see us allmore or less of one size and very, very small. No doubt the comparisondates back to early, probably Pliocene, times, when some one climbed tothe summit of a very tall cliff, and looking down and seeing his fellowsso diminished in size as to resemble insects, not so gross as beetlesperhaps but rather like emmets, he laughed in the way they laughed thenat the enormous difference between his stature and theirs. Hence thetime-honoured and serviceable metaphor.
Now with me, in this particular instance, it was all the other wayabout—from insect to man—seeing that it was when occupied in watchingthe small comedies and tragedies of the insect world on its stage that Istumbled by chance upon a compelling reminder of one of the greatesttragedies in England's history—greatest, that is to say, in itsconsequences. And this is how it happened.
One summer day, prowling in an extensive oak wood, in Hampshire, knownas Harewood Forest, I discovered that it counted among its inhabitantsno fewer than three species of insects of peculiar interest to me, andfrom that time I haunted it, going there day after day to spend longhours in pursuit of my small quarry. Not to kill and preserve theirdiminutive corpses in a cabinet, but solely to witness the comedy oftheir brilliant little lives. And as I used to take my luncheon in mypocket I fell into the habit of going to a particular spot, some openingin the dense wood with a big tree to lean against and give me shade,where after refreshing myself with food and d