80 BIRDS AND MAN 



spots, the firstlings of the year are seen — purple 

 and white and yellow. The woods, which are 

 composed almost entirely of beech and oak, are 

 leafless. The aspect on a dull cold day is some- 

 what cheerless. On the other hand, there is that 

 largeness and wildness which accord with the spring 

 mood ; and there are signs of the coming change 

 even in the greyest weather. Standing in some 

 wide green drive or other open space, you see all 

 about you acres on acres, miles on miles, of majestic 

 beeches, and their upper branches and network of 

 terminal twigs, that look at a distance like heavy 

 banked-up clouds, are dusky red and purple with 

 the renewed life that is surging in them. There 

 are jubilant cries of wild creatures that have felt 

 the seasonal change far more keenly than we are 

 able to feel it. Above everything, we find here 

 that solitariness and absence of human interest 

 now so rare in England. For albeit social creatures 

 in the main, we are yet all of us at times hermits 

 in heart, if not exactly wild men of the woods ; 

 and that solitude which we create by shutting 

 ourselves from the world in a room or a house, is 

 but a poor substitute — nay, a sham : it is to im- 

 mure ourselves in a cage, a prison, which hardly 

 serves to keep out the all-pervading atmosphere 



