12 FRESH FIELDS 



thriftiest trees and the finest fruit I ever saw. We 

 invaded one of the orchards, and proposed to pur- 

 chase some of the fruit of the men engaged in gath- 

 ering it. But they refused to sell it; had no right 

 to do so, they said; but one of them followed us 

 across the orchard, and said in a confidential way 

 that he would see that we had some cherries. He 

 filled my companion's hat, and accepted our shilling 

 with alacrity. In getting back into the highway, 

 over the wire fence, I got my clothes well tarred 

 before I was aware of it. The fence proved to be 

 well besmeared with a mixture of tar and grease, 

 an ingenious device for marking trespassers. We 

 sat in the shade of a tree and ate our fruit and 

 scraped our clothes, while a troop of bicyclists filed 

 by. About the best glimpses I had of Canterbury 

 cathedral after the first view from Harbledown 

 hill were obtained while lying upon my back on 

 the grass, under the shadow of its walls, and gazing 

 up at the jackdaws flying about the central tower 

 and going out and in weather-worn openings three 

 hundred feet above me. There seemed to be some 

 wild, pinnacled mountain peak or rocky ledge up 

 there toward the sky, where the fowls of the air 

 had made their nests, secure from molestation. 

 The way the birds make themselves at home about 

 these vast architectural piles is very pleasing. 

 Doves, starlings, jackdaws, swalloAvs, sparrows, take 

 to them as to a wood or to a cliff. If there were 

 only something to give a corresponding touch of 

 nature or a throb of life inside ! But their interiors 



