■Wild. 





Winter, with his wrathful nipping cold " (though 

 then, of course, your study must be pursued indoors). 

 Why, a few bare twigs make a lovely study, and will 

 teach you much of the growth of the various species 

 of tree ; a trail of ivy ; a few fallen beech leaves, 

 all curly from the frost ; and endless other things will suggest themselves. 

 One November, Miss Klickmann asked me to make some drawings 

 of " little stalky bits in the hedgerows," such as she herself had noticed 

 on a country walk that week in Sussex. And, on making a pilgrimage 

 to the nearest available spot in search of Hke material, I passed a most 

 delightful, though somewhat damp afternoon, coming home, in the early- 

 falling twilight, very muddy and bedraggled in appearance, but surprised 

 and delighted at the wealth of pretty things I had found — sprays of 

 frost-tinted leaves, mosses, dried and bleached grasses, and seed-vessels, 

 which the autumnal gales had robbed of their contents, but beautiful 

 even in their decay. 



There is always something of interest to be found in the hedgerows. 

 Once when I was staying in the West, and enjoying my inherent 

 propensity for grubbing in ditches, I used to " pass the time of day " 

 with an old hedger and ditcher, whose duty it was to keep tidy and spoil 

 the beauty of a lovely wild lane. He evidently thought my interest in 

 those flowering banks was purely a greedy one, for wild strawberries 

 grew in abundance, and he would tell me, with a smile, he had left a 

 nice lot round the corner for me 1 



But when he saw mc making sketches of " Ragged Robin " and 

 " Jock o' the Hedge," he seemed quite distressed at my bad taste in 

 selecting " they veeds ! " and invited m.e to work in his garden instead, 

 where he had " as vine a row of zunflowers as ever ee zee ! " 



The year, with its changing seasons, is a sort of processional pageant 

 of wild nature. Hardly has the old year breathed its last sigh than the 

 hazel tree hangs out its )cllow tassels to welcome the new. In February 

 the flower buds on the elm-trees show red against the changing sky ; 

 and so it goes on, month b\' month, a succession of beautx-, always 

 changing, never still. 



Nl. 



I^*^^"-^';, 



H 



56 



