LICHENS. 189 



and man, and as medicine, they have performed, and do 

 perform, no mean part in vegetable economy. T was im- 

 patient to make personal acquaintance with them, and 

 resolved to sally forth in search thereof immediately on 

 my arrival at Hawkhurst. 



A small plot of high ground, still waste, where the 

 purple ling and dwarf furze flourish, was my first hunt 

 ing ground. The plot in question rejoices in the name of 

 " Starvegoose," in allusion, I suppose, to its barrenness. 

 At noon, then, I found myself traversing the wooded 

 road leading up from the village to this last plot of moor- 

 land, and quickly I transferred myself from the sandy 

 road to the other side of the barrier gate. . I took one 

 glance around on that wide-spread landscape so essenti- 

 ally English ; the hop-gardens were still mere forests of 

 poles, and the corn-fields bore an emerald hue. Yet, 

 though the rich woods were leafless and the orchards 

 bare, the form of beauty was present in the variety of 

 hill and hollow ; and gray towers, rising now from woods 

 or park-like fields, and now as land-marks on the sea- 

 ward cliffs, pointed the eye upward to a clear blue sky, 

 flecked with white clouds, where neither the form nor tint 

 of beauty was absent. They pointed the eye — yes, and 

 the heart too ; for a soundless voice seemed to issue from 

 them, mingling with the song of birds and the distant 

 tinkle of the sheep-bells, saying, " Set your affections on 

 things above." 



A rough path traversed Starvegoose, and, seeing it 

 coloured with various tints, I knelt to examine it. A 

 greenish gray crust spread along the ground, sometimes 

 thicker and sometimes thinner, so as to form an uneven 



