AN IMPRESSION OF AXE EDGE 119 



than can be experienced by the man of unlimited 

 opportunities. My humbler triumph is like that of 

 the lover of literature of small means, who from time 

 to time, by some lucky chance, becomes the possessor 

 of some long-desired book. For how much greater 

 is his joy in fingering and in reading it than the wealthy 

 owner of a great library can know ? It is true the 

 poor book-lover dreams of better things : more leisure 

 to hunt, more money to buy — a legacy perhaps from 

 some kindly being he knows not of, which will enable 

 him to grasp greater prizes than have ever come in his 

 way. So with me : year by year I dream of longer 

 journeys into remoter and wilder places in search of 

 other charming species not yet seen in their native 

 haunts. And that was my dream last winter — it 

 always is my dream — which, when summer came 

 round, found its usual ending. The longer journey 

 had to be postponed to another year and a shorter one 

 taken ; so it came about that I got no further than 

 the Peak district, just to spend a few weeks during the 

 breeding season with half a dozen birds, all familiar 

 enough to most ornithologists, but which are not 

 found, at all events not all together, nearer to London 

 than the Derbyshire hills. 



Axe Edge, where I elected to stay, is not the highest 

 hill in that part, being about eighteen hundred feet 

 above the sea, whereas Kinder Scout rises to quite two 

 thousand ; but I found it high enough for one who 

 modestly prefers walking and cycling on the level 

 ground. And here I found what I wanted — the bird 



