CHAPTER IV 



EARLY SPRING IN SAVERNAKE FOREST 



WHEN the spring-feeling is in the blood, infecting 

 us with vague longings for we know not what ; 

 when we are restless and seem to be waiting for 

 some obstruction to be removed blown away by 

 winds, or washed away by rains some change 

 that will open the way to liberty and happiness, 

 the feeling not unfrequently takes a more or 

 less definite form : we want to go away somewhere, 

 to be at a distance from our fellow-beings, and 

 nearer, if not to the sun, at all events to wild nature. 

 At such times I think of all the places where I 

 should like to be, and one is Savernake ; and 

 thither in two following seasons I have gone to 

 ramble day after day, forgetting the world and 

 myself in its endless woods. 



It is not that spring is early there ; on the con- 

 trary, it is actually later by many days than in the 

 surrounding country. It is flowerless at a time 

 when, outside the forest, on southern banks and 

 by the hedge-side, in coppices and all sheltered 



