NIGHTINGALE ROAD 39 



far as it extends, shelters the wayfarer, the road being on 

 the southern side, so that he can enjoy such gleams of 

 sunshine as appear. In summer the place is, of course 

 for the same reason, extremely warm, unless the breeze 

 chances to come up strong from the west, when it sweeps 

 over the open cornfields fresh and sweet. Stoats and 

 weasels are common on the mound, or crossing the road 

 to the corn ; they seem more numerous in autumn, and 

 I fear leveret and partridge are thinned by them. 



Mice abound ; in spring they are sometimes up in the 

 blackthorn bushes, perhaps for the young buds. In 

 summer they may often be heard rushing along the 

 furrows across the wayside sward, scarce concealed by 

 the wiry grass. Flowers are very local in habit ; the 

 spurge, for instance, which is common in a road parallel 

 to this, is not to be seen, and not very much cow-parsnip, 

 or "gix," one of the most freely -growing hedge plants, 

 which almost chokes the mounds near by. Willowherbs, 

 however, fill every place in the ditch here where they can 

 find room between the bushes, and the arum is equally 

 common, but the lesser celandine absent. 



Towards evening, as the clover and vetches closed 

 their leaves under the dew, giving the fields a different 

 aspect and another green, I used occasionally to watch 

 from here a pair of herons, sailing over in their calm 

 serene way. Their flight was in the direction of the 

 Thames, and they then passed evening after evening, but 

 the following summer they did not come. One evening, 

 later on in autumn, two birds appeared descending across 

 the cornfields towards a secluded hollow where there 

 was water, and, although at a considerable distance, from 

 their manner of flight I could have no doubt they were 

 teal. 



The spotted leaves of the arum appeared in the ditches 



