THE LIVING GARMENT 39 



a piece of turf the innumerable fibrous interwoven 

 roots have the appearance of cocoa-nut matting. It is 

 indeed this thick layer of interlaced fibres that gives 

 the turf its springiness, and makes it so delightful to 

 walk upon. It is fragrant, too. The air, especially in 

 the evening of a hot spring day, is full of a fresh 

 herby smell, to which many minute aromatic plants 

 contribute, reminding one a little of the smell of 

 bruised ground -ivy. Or it is like the smell of a 

 druggist's shop, blown abroad and rid of its grosser 

 elements : the medicine smell with something subtler 

 added aroma and perfume combined, the wholesome 

 fragrance of the divine Mother's green garment, and of 

 her breath. 



But all the untilled downland is not turf : there are 

 large patches of ground, often of twenty or thirty to a 

 hundred acres in extent, where there is no proper turf, 

 and the vegetation is of a different character. Some 

 of these patches have a very barren appearance, and 

 others are covered with grass and flowers in spring, 

 but in summer are dry and yellow or brown, when the 

 turf all round keeps its verdure. This difference in 

 the vegetation is not caused by a difference of soil, as 

 one is at first apt to imagine, but to the fact that the 

 ground at some former period has been tilled. I have 

 looked at many patches of this kind of land, which 

 had not been tilled for periods of from five to five-and- 

 twenty years, and they mostly had the same character. 

 In spring they produce a scanty crop of thin grass, 



