THE MARITIME DISTRICT 247 



wild birds may pass a very pleasant winter season. 

 For others, too, the flat land with its mild climate and 

 perpetual verdure must have a charm in spite of miry 

 ways and sodden soil. Even under a grey sky, and 

 it is not always grey, there is colour in the landscape. 

 The trees are mostly elms, and their rich browns and 

 purples relieve the universal green of the earth. Ivy 

 is most luxuriant in this damp land, and wraps the 

 trunks and branches of trees, and houses and fences,^ 

 in its dark mantle. On account of the very limited 

 horizon a man has when on a perfectly flat surface, 

 the leaflessness of the winter trees is an advantage 

 here, and enables one to see the distant small villages 

 scattered over the district ; the stone farm-house, its 

 old red-tiled roof stained with many-coloured moss 

 and lichen ; the great barn and outbuildings, thatched 

 with pale yellow straw ; and the small, ancient, ivied 

 Norman church, with the sacred yew in its church- 

 yard. 



In late autumn, when the shortness and darkness 

 of the days are most noticeable, and in winter, there are 

 often long spells of mild, wet weather, when the south- 

 west wind blows continuously, when it rains every day, 

 until the green earth is like a swollen sponge, and the 

 roads are deep with mire, and stream and ditch and 

 drain are full to overflowing; when in the intervals 

 of the rain and in rainless days there are driving 

 mists, sudden showers, and everywhere the spray and 

 smell of salt water and of seaweed. Days, too, with- 



