82 THE FRUITS OF THE COUNTRY-SIDE 



as the holly are the holm, hulst, hull, and hulver. This 

 advice is given to the farmer for operations on the farm 

 in October. Stripped of its poetic charm and set forth 

 in the barest prose, the instruction is simply this — where 

 any sign of thinness in the fencing makes itself felt, fill 

 in the weak places either with bramble or with holly, 

 setting no time limitations to these planting operations, 

 so long only as the month when they are undertaken 

 justifies the work by the presence of the letter R in its 

 name. Hence the work might fitly be done in October ; 

 May, June, July, and August being by this stipulation 

 the only unsuitable months for the task. 



Blackberries, too, appeal to the sentimental side of 

 our nature as we recall the tragedy of the Children in 

 the Wood,^ how, deserted, they wandered up and down 

 the woodland glades, and how — 



Their pretty lips with blackberries 

 Were all besmeared and dyed, 

 And when they saw the darksome night 

 They sat them down and cry'd. 



Blackberry is, in the language of the grammarians, a 

 noun of multitude, and signifieth many things, for while 

 the ordinary individual thinks he knows a blackberry-bush 

 when he sees one, the plants vary much in details of 

 growth, and, according to the more or less of importance 

 attached to these variations of form, so species are 

 multiplied until at last we arrive at this point, that one 

 authority admits only one type form with five, well-marked 



' Then sad he sung the Children in the Wood ; 

 How blackberries they pluck'd in deserts wild. 



Gay, Pastorals. 



