NATURE IN ENGLAND 21 



clings to their rough or slanting sides like moist 

 flakes. In the little valleys and chasms it appears 

 to lie. deepest. Only the peaks and broken rocky 

 crests of the highest Scotch and Cumberland moun- 

 tains are bare. Adown their treeless sides the 

 moist, fresh greenness fairly drips. Grass, grass, 

 grass, and evermore grass. Is there another coun- 

 try under the sun so becushioned, becarpeted, and 

 becurtained with grass? Even the woods are full 

 of grass, and I have seen them mowing in a forest. 

 Grass grows upon the rocks, upon the walls, on the 

 tops of the old castles, on the roofs of the houses, 

 and in winter the hay-seed sometimes sprouts upon 

 the backs of the sheep. Turf used as capping to 

 a stone fence thrives and blooms as if upon the 

 ground. There seems to be a deposit from the at- 

 mosphere, a slow but steady accumulation of a 

 black, peaty mould upon all exposed surfaces, 

 that by and by supports some of the lower or cryp- 

 togamous forms of vegetation. These decay and 

 add to the soil, till thus in time grass and other 

 plants will grow. The walls of the old castles and 

 cathedrals support a variety of plant life. On 

 Rochester Castle I saw two or three species of large 

 wild flowers growing one hundred feet from the 

 ground and tempting the tourist to perilous reach- 

 ings and climbings to get them. The very stones 

 seem to sprout. My companion made a sketch of 

 a striking group of red and white flowers blooming 

 far up on one of the buttresses of Rochester Cathe- 

 dral. The soil will climb to any height. Indeed, 



