CHAPTER IV 



EARLY SPRING IN SAVERNAKE FOREST 



When the spring-feeling is in the blood, infecting 

 us with vague longings for we know not what ; 

 when we are restless and seem to be waiting for 

 some obstruction to be removed — blown away by 

 winds, or washed away by rains — some change 

 that will open the way to liberty and happiness, 

 — the feeling not unfrequently takes a more or 

 less definite form : we want to go away somewhere, 

 to be at a distance from our fellow-beings, and 

 nearer, if not to the sun, at all events to wild nature. 

 At such times I think of all the places where I 

 should like to be, and one is Savernake ; and 

 thither in two following seasons I have gone to 

 ramble day after day, forgetting the world and 

 myself in its endless woods. 



It is not that spring is early there ; on the con- 

 trary, it is actually later by many days than in the 

 surrounding country. It is flowerless at a time 

 when, outside the forest, on southern banks and 

 by the hedge-side, in coppices and all sheltered 



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