12-05-2025
Country diary 1925: Don't question the wisdom of the mole-catcher
CUMBERLAND: When I came upon the mole-catcher again he scoffed at my having, a week or two ago, held up 100 yards as a somewhat long distance for a mole to tunnel without once putting his nose above ground. 'Come with me,' he said, 'and I'll show you what a 'mowdy' will do when he is travelling to a good feeding place.' We walked half a mile into the country and he pointed to a mound at the gate on the roadside. 'That's the starting-place. Now follow this dyke (of thorn and beech) and I'll give you my spade if you can spot a single mole working on the way.' Of course there was not one.
Here and there the mole-catcher, regarding me as a doubting Thomas, lifted a spadeful of soil to reveal the tunnel. That ended at the garden of a cottager on the estate. 'The mole likes a newly-dug garden with plenty of 'management' in it,' commented the catcher. 'He gets his grub easily there.' Afterwards I paced the distance from gate to cottage garden. It was 275 yards.
