"Whose else would they be, sir?"
"And did he fence them in on that bit of ground?"
"There'd be a boy with 'em, I'm thinking, sir. There wasn't so much fencing of sheep then as there be now. Boys was cheaper in them days."
"Just so; and the parson wouldn't allow other sheep there?"
"Muster Smallbones mostly took all he could get, sir."
"Exactly. The parsons generally did, I believe. It was the way in which they followed most accurately the excellent examples set them by the bishops. But, Mr. Brattle, it wasn't in the way of tithes that he had this grass for his sheep?"
"I can't say how he had it, nor yet how Muster Fenwick has the meadows t'other side of the river, which he lets to farmer Pierce; but he do have 'em, and farmer Pierce do pay him the rent."
"Glebe land, you know," said Mr. Quickenham.
"That's what they calls it," said the miller.
"And none of the vicars that came after old Smallbones have ever done anything with that bit of ground?"