1 8 Spring 



ROBBERY FROM NATURE 



AFTER a long, hard winter the calling voice of spring 

 sounds its clear invitation even to the town's inmost 

 heart Something whispers the news to many who 

 never saw dark elm-boughs rocking above wild snow- 

 drops whiter than the lingering snow, or gathered the 

 odorous violets brought by murmuring April to our 

 English lanes who do not know what it is to watch 

 the first glister of flossy catkins on the river willow, 

 the earliest tassels that flutter from the hazel twigs, 

 to hear the first love music of the lark, to welcome 

 the earliest primrose. But if life's stirring renewal is 

 lightly felt and soon forgotten by these, it is gladly 

 welcomed and cherished by the increasing number 

 of those who, although obliged by modern conditions 

 to inhabit the city, even amid the strife and din of its 

 streets, lapse occasionally into dreams of clear brook 

 .and green field, and have leisure and means to gratify 

 their longing. I refer neither to the few who compete 

 for Highland deer-forests and are familiar figures by 

 the fox-covert, whom spring calls to the salmon river 

 and autumn to heather, and stubble, and turnip ; nor 

 to the huge multitudes who on Bank Holiday rouse 

 the dappled deer of Epping Forest with the noise of 

 their merry-go-rounds, and people the beach at Mar- 

 gate, and swarm into every show-place within reach 

 of an excursion ; but to a class between, in whose 



