NIGHTINGALE EOAD. 41 



watched them from the road, evening after evening, 

 issue one by one, calling as they appeared from a 

 breadth of mangolds. Their sleeping-place seemed 

 to be about a hundred yards from the wayside. 

 Another arable field just opposite is bounded by the 

 road with iron wire or railing, instead of a hedge, and 

 the low mound in which the stakes are fixed swarmed 

 one summer with ant-hills full of eggs, and a slight 

 rustle in the corn as I approached told where the 

 parent bird had just led her chicks from the feast to 

 shelter. 



Passing into the copse by the road, which is metalled 

 but weedgrown from lack of use, the grasshoppers sing 

 from the sward at the sides, but the birds are silent 

 as the summer ends. Pink striped bells of convol- 

 vulus flower over the flints and gravel, the stones 

 nearly hidden by their runners and leaves; yellow 

 toadflax or eggs and bacon grew here till a weeding 

 took place, since which it has not reappeared, but in 

 its place viper's bugloss sprang up, a plant which was 

 not previously to be found there. Hawkweeds, some 

 wild vetches, white yarrow, thistles, and burdocks 

 conceal the flints yet further, so that the track has 

 the appearance of a green drive. 



The slender birch and ash poles are hung with 

 woodbine and wild hops, both growing in profusion. 

 A cream-coloured wall of woodbine in flower extends 

 in one spot, in another festoons of hops hang grace- 

 fully, and so thick as to hide everything beyond them. 

 There is scarce a stole without its woodbine or hops ; 

 many of the poles, though larger than the arm, are 

 scored with spiral grooves left by the bines. Under 



