The Hedge Warbler 



CHAPTER XXI 



The Marsh Warbler's Music 



From Wells I went on to Bristol and thence to Chep- 

 stow, where, a few miles out, I hoped to find one of 

 my rare birds, but on enquiry discovered that it had 

 long vanished from this haunt. There was nothing for 

 me but to extract what pleasure I could from the castle, 

 the valley of the Wye, and Tintern Abbey. At Chep- 

 stow, a small parasitic town much given to drink, I saw 

 two wonderful things, which the guidebook writers 

 probably do not notice — a walnut tree and an ivy tree, 

 both growing in the castle. The first must be one of 

 the finest walnut trees in the country: one of its 

 enormous horizontal branches measured eighteen yards 

 from the trunk to the end; the branch on the opposite 



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