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Micklehampton Down.’
    The lack of an immediate response suggested to Mary that this information threw up more than one possibility, since a while passed before the second voice replied, ‘Ah, you’d be meaning Eli , then.’
    ‘Aye, that sounds like the fellow: Eli.’ To this, she could picture vigorous nodding followed by ale slopping from their mugs. ‘So, you heard from him then?’ the enquirer persisted.
    ‘Not these last weeks, no.’
    ‘Oh.’
    She shook her head; all that convolution and apparently for nothing.
    ‘But ’tis a mite strange you should ask.’
    Although, perhaps there was still a chance that this tortuous conversation might yet turn out to be interesting.
    ‘Oh? How’d that be, then?’
    ‘Well, see, I hadn’t thought to see him again now until the Goose Fair come the end of next month. But that’s on account of my overlooking Alresford Sheep Fair on Old Michaelmas, since you’ll no doubt recall how I always lends old Braisher a hand with the drove.’
    ‘Aye, I do indeed recall how you do just that.’
    ‘We–ll, you know how it is; makes for a couple of days’ work now the harvest’s in. That’s if you can call it a harvest this year. By my reckoning ’twas as bad a year as last.’
    ‘Worse even. An’ there’s no one as can blame the weather for it this time.’
    ‘No; a shrewd observation if ever there was one. But either way, there’ll be no one wanting much help with the threshin’ this year and that’s for sure.’
    ‘No, them’s true words you speak; true words indeed.’
    The sound of feet shuffling about in the straw suggested that one or other of the men was shifting his weight against the side of the barn.
    ‘So what’s your interest in old Eli, then, if I might enquire?’
    At this, the two voices, having grown steadily louder, were lowered so much that she found herself straining to hear the reply.
    ‘Well, ’tis like this, see; last time you came back from your Eli’s, you brought word of them disturbances over Sussex and Kent and told us all how your Eli was quite a figure in the carrying of news around the villages, him being able to read an’ all.’ At this, the speaker paused and she sensed that disguised beneath his apparently circuitous approach to finding out what he wanted to know, lay the guile of a poacher. ‘So I was thinking how you might just know summat of more recent events…’
    The poacher’s quarry, however, having by this stage overindulged in the generous supply of ale, apparently failed to notice the skilfully laid trap.
    ‘Aye, ’tis true; Eli’s as much a figure as any at they gatherings , as he calls them.’
    ‘They Radicals , you mean?’
    ‘Shh! Quiet yourself. ’Tis well known that barns have ears and in any event, it don’t do to go about calling them Radicals , since it serves to attract the wrong sort of attention, if you catch my meaning. ’Tis precarious-enough business anyway. No, they call themselves The Musical and Radical Society .’
    ‘Oh aye? Sings to theyselves, do they?’
    Ducking her head, she smothered a giggle.
    ‘In point of fact, they do, aye. Each and every gathering starts with the singing of songs and then they sit and listen to the reading of pamphlets and tracts so as to discuss matters for themselves.’
    ‘Well forgive me then. I meant no disrespect but knowing so little of such things…’
    ‘No, well, ’tis fair enough. Indeed, I should like to go along meself before much longer, since the matters they discuss are of the utmost import.’
    ‘Well they must be, if they’re written down. In pamphlets .’
    What on earth, she wondered, were pamphlets ? Perhaps George would know. She would try and remember to ask him. Although that supposed that he was ever going to come back.
    ‘Aye, matters such as the raising of wages…’
    ‘I should say!’
    ‘…an’ reductions in them blasted tithes, an’ fairer rents an’ better poor-rates for them that falls on the