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This place is a great resort of swallows and tlieir kindred. The Sand 

 Martin builds in many places ; there used to be great numbers of nests, and 

 perhaps are still, in the abandoned quarry on the left hand just before entering 

 the village from Mortimer's Cross. Swifts build every year in the church tower, 

 and I think they must build also in the rocks above Lye Pole, for I have 

 seen them sailing round there, high in the air. Their shrill scream is associated 

 in my recollections with the long, bright days of early summer. The Kingfisher 

 often shoots past us by the river-side ; the Heron may not unfrequently be seen 

 standing in full enjoyment of "the contemplative man's recreation." Since 

 the destruction of the Heronry at Willey, one wonders where these stragglers 

 come from. I have most often seen them near Lye Pole. Perhaps they build 

 somewhere in those solitary wood3. 



I have said nothing of song birds, though we have a full chorus of them. 

 There is, however, one strain wanting, which is, perhaps, the sweetest of all, 

 that of the Nightingale. I think I have been told that others have heard, or 

 thought they heard it. I cjrtainly never did ; and I have been accustomed 

 to the song of the Nightingale for many years, and do not think I could mistake 

 it. [I am living now in a favourite haunt of Nightingales, and often hear them 

 near my own house both by day and night.] 



But, to pass on. The variety of trees and plants here is extraordinary. 

 The woods and copses, for instance, instead of being composed of one or two 

 kinds of tree only, include almost every wild forest tree. Oak prevails ; and 

 one's first impression on looking at the wooded hills in summer is that they are 

 clothed with oak ; but autumn reveals the great variety of other trees which 

 really exists, and brings them into the most picturesque relief. The "VVych Elm 

 flourishes here in great abundance and beauty ; the Beech, the Mountain Ash, 

 the Wild Cherry, the Maple, and the Sycamore occur in profusion. 



The underwood chiefly consists of hazel and young oaks. The coppice- 

 wood is generally cut down and cleared off at intervals of about twenty years, 

 some taller standards being spared ; and as this process is going on every year 

 in some part or other of the many hundred acres of wood which this parish 

 contains, one is always sure of finding some open spaces amidst the 



" Boundless contiguity of shade." 

 From such clearings the eye catches the most charming glimpses of woodland, 

 hill, and valley ; and underfoot they are often carpeted with flowers of the 

 gayest hues. In the first year of the clearing the ground is of course covered 

 with little else but broken wood and dead leaves ; but in the next year and the 

 one following, before the young coppice has sprung up much, large patches of 

 vegetation appear. One kind of plant generally extends over a large area ; fox- 

 gloves, for instance, may be sometimes found by the acre. In such cases one 

 must suppose that the seeds have laid dormant ever since that piece of ground 

 was open to sun and air before, perhaps twenty years ago. 



Considerable quantities of charcoal are made here. The charcoal burners 

 pitch their rude huts on some clearing in the woods, and often remain there 



