184 BIRDS IN LONDON 



hawfinch, with his metaUic cUcking note ; and 

 the minute, arrow-shape'd, long-tailed tits that 

 stream through the upper branches in a pretty 

 procession. But even the warmest friend to 

 the birds would not like to see these woods 

 thinned and cut through with innumerable 

 roads, and the place changed from a wilderness 

 to an artificial garden or show park. 



The adjoining Churchyard Bottom Wood 

 is the wildest and most picturesque spot in 

 North London, with an uneven surface, hill and 

 valley, a small stream running through it, old 

 unmutilated trees of many kinds scattered about 

 in groups and groves, and everywhere masses 

 of bramble and furze. It is quite unspoiled, in 

 character a mixture of park and wild, rough 

 common, and wholly delightful. Indeed, it is 

 believed to be a veritable fragment — the only 

 one left — of the primnsval forest of Middlesex. 



It is earnestly to be hoped that the land- 

 scape gardener will not be called in to prepare 

 this place for the reception of the public — the 

 improver on nature, whose conventional mind is 

 only concerned with a fine show of fashionable 

 blooms, whose highest standard is the pretty, 

 cloying artificiality of Kevv Gardens. Let him 



