8 NATURE NEAR LONDON 



in shocks. From the stubble by the nearest shock 

 two turtle doves rise, alarmed, and swiftly fly towards 

 a wood which bounds the field. This wood, indeed, 

 upon looking again, clearly bounds not this field only, 

 but the second and the third, and so far as the eye can 

 see over the low hedges of the corn, the trees continue. 

 The green lane as it enters the wood, becomes wilder 

 and rougher at every step, widening, too, considerably. 



In the centre the wheels of timber carriages, heavily 

 laden with trunks of trees which were dragged through 

 by straining teams in the rainy days of spring, have left 

 vast ruts, showing that they must have sunk to the axle 

 in the soft clay. These then filled with water, and on 

 the water duck-weed grew, and aquatic grasses at the 

 sides. Summer heats have evaporated the water, leaving 

 the weeds and grasses prone upon the still moist earth. 



Rushes have sprung up and mark the line of the ruts, 

 and willow stoles, bramble bushes, and thorns grow- 

 ing at the side, make, as it were, a third hedge in the 

 middle of the lane. The best path is by the wood itself, 

 but even there occasional leaps are necessary over pools 

 of dark water full of vegetation. These alternate with 

 places where the ground, being higher, yawns with wide 

 cracks crumbling at the edge, the heat causing the clay 

 to split and open. In winter it must be an impassable 

 quagmire ; now it is dry and arid. 



Rising out of this low-lying spot the lane again 

 becomes green and pleasant, and is crossed by another. 

 At the meeting of these four ways some boughs hang 

 over a green bank where I have often rested. In front 

 the lane is barred by a gate, but beyond the gate it 

 still continues its straight course into the wood. To 

 the left the track, crossing at right angles, also proceeds 

 into the wood, but it is so overhung with trees and 



