THE MANOR FARM 



and early April days the men and lads were at work 

 on the large field with plough, roller, and harrow. 

 Finally the plough is driven round the edges and 

 corners of the field, and the couch is picked off by 

 hand and carried away in baskets. 



April Coppices 



In days of April heaven, I know no place quite 

 equal to the cuckoo coppices, and no physical craft 

 so good to watch as the hurdler's. Baths of sun 

 and shower, the pale green of the birch just begin- 

 ning to mask the nesting haunt of the jay, the 

 gold sweets of the sallow the emperor butterfly's 

 sallow with everywhere bees' murmur about it 

 these are a few of the chief items in the great 

 programme of April. Nerve, heart, eye, digestion 

 must all be helped and repaired by the hours spent 

 in the coppices of April when cumulus is packed 

 on the faint blue sky. The cumulus has not the 

 variety of form and grouping that cirrus, the fine- 

 weather cloud of the ice heights, delights us with, 

 the fine threads and wavy lines and wisps ; and it 

 has not the mystery of stratus, the cold eve and 

 night shroud ; but there is a solid restfulness about 

 its piled-up creamy masses. These are great days 

 of life. 



The ground ivy is adding its blue to Gerarde's 

 dog violet, and the open coppices are near their 

 anemone zenith. But only the open coppices where 



