IX RIVERSIDE LETTERS 69 



comes in I know not ; they speak of " Swin- 

 combe Cuckoo Pen," " Bright well Cuckoo 

 Pen," and so on. Swincombe Down itself is, 

 I think, one of the grandest of any of these 

 promontories, the view from the top being 

 very extensive. High Clere Beacon can be 

 easily seen from there, over the tops of the 

 Compton Downs. 



In the woods on the side of this chalk 

 down numbers of beautiful wild flowers are 

 to be found, of those kinds of course which 

 love a calcareous soil, many of the rarer 

 kinds being met with. Here I picked one 

 or two blooms, though I am sorry to say not 

 quite full out, of helleborine (Epipactis 

 Grandiflora] just about the time that the race 

 for the Derby was being run and won on 

 another celebrated chalk down in Surrey. I 

 thought the helleborine would have opened 

 in water and a warm room, but it did not, 

 and I drew it as it was ; it belongs to the 

 orchis tribe, and is very graceful. 



The agricultural show on the meadow 



