CHAPTER XV 

 WINTER IN WEST DOWNLAND 



A good-bye to towns Charm of West Downland in winter A 

 cow-boy singing and a missel- thrush A vein of stupidity 

 Anecdotes Bats eating bacon Riding to Kingmer and a 

 downland man's ignorance Chilgrove Gilbert White Yew, 

 juniper, and clematis A wooded combe A host of wood- 

 pigeons Beautiful downland scenery Fallen beech-leaves on 

 snow South Harting Conclusion. 



IT would not be appropriate, nor even seemly, that a 

 book of this sort, treating of rural scenes and wild life, 

 in which, while keeping a vigilant eye on what my 

 pen was doing, I have yet allowed it to hint or sug- 

 gest, in a few faintly- traced lines, what communion 

 with nature really is to me it would not be proper 

 that it should conclude with an account of any town, 

 and the writer's adventures, the thoughts and expe- 

 riences that afflicted him, during his sojourn in it. 



A friend of mine, a downland rector, expressed his 

 disappointment at finding that this book was not 

 what he had thought it was intended to be a Flora 

 of the South Downs. It was true, he said, that plants 

 had not interested him, and that the only wild flowers 

 he could give a name to when he saw them were the 

 daisy and dandelion ; still it would have been a satis- 



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