262 ADVENTURES AMONG BIRDS 



during the last half of the eighteenth century, that the 

 idea first came into the mind of a landowner here and 

 there that a grove on the top of a high bare chalk down 

 would have a noble appearance, and form a striking 

 landmark for all the country round. The result is our 

 hill-top clumps : and one would have imagined that 

 the effect would be altogether bad ; for how could a 

 tall dark grove on a hill in a country of such an aspect, 

 of smooth rounded pale-green downs, be anything 

 but inharmonious ? Either it is not so, or long custom 

 has reconciled us to this ornament invented by man, 

 and has even made it pleasing to the eye. Association 

 comes in, too : I notice that the clumps which please 

 me best are those which are most temple-like in their 

 forms. Thus, a grove of trees of various kinds growing 

 in a dense mass, as in the case of the famous Chancton- 

 bury Ring on the South Downs, gives me no pleasure 

 at all : while a grove of Scotch firs, the trunks suffi- 

 ciently far apart as to appear like pillars upholding the 

 dark dense foliage, has a singular attraction. In some 

 instances the effect on the hill itself of its crown of 

 trees is to give it the appearance of a vast mound 

 artificially raised by man on which to build or plant his 

 temple. This is most striking when, as at Badbury 

 Rings, in Dorset, the hill is round and low, with a 

 grove of old, very large trees. In this case the effect 

 is heightened by the huge prehistoric earthworks, 

 ring within ring, enclosing the grove on the space in- 

 side. Indeed, the sublimest of these temple-groves 

 are not those which stand on the highest hills ; in 



