A Varied Coimtry-side. 115 



For all along the valley the observant passenger 

 will have been struck with the long lines of wood 

 which flank the Evenlode at intervals throughout 

 its course ; he passes beneath what remains of the 

 ancient forest of Wychwood, and again after a 

 considerable gap he has the abbey-woods of 

 Bruerne on his left, and once more after an 

 interval of cultivation his view is shut in by the 

 dense fox-covers of Bledington and Oddington, 

 the border villages of Gloucestershire. It is just 

 at this interval between Bruerne and Bledington 

 that the junction of the two streams with the 

 Evenlode takes place ; so that from this point, or 

 from the village already spoken of, it is but a short 

 distance to an ample and solitary woodland either 

 up or down the valley. Beyond that woodland 

 lies a stretch of pasture land which brings you to 

 the foot of the long ridge of hill forming the 

 north-eastern boundary and bulwark of the Cots- 

 wolds, and hiding from us the little old-world 

 towns of Burford and Northleach. We have 

 therefore within a radius of five or six miles 

 almost every kind of country in which birds 



rejoice to live. We have water-meadow, corn- 



I 2 



