VIII. 

 IN THE WOODLAND 



I IMAGINE that the woods round about are old. 

 They show every sign of being mere patches 

 of a woodland of much greater size, covering the 

 whole space they mark out, and were probably 

 left on the less promising spots, mainly bare and 

 exposed ridges, when the rest was broken up into 

 farms. Many of these patches are still joined at 

 the corners, and zigzag about in a manner which 

 will admit of no other explanation. 



Very curiously shaped some of these farms are, 

 as they run in and out among the trees in a game 

 of hide-and-seek. One part is cut off from another 

 by an intervening strip, which the ploughman or 

 the reaper must skirt or cross. So closely are 

 some of the fields invested, that in broken seasons 

 the farmer finds it hard to get the grain to ripen, 

 until it is so late in the year that the sun only 



