MAGPIE FIELDS 157 



of the copses, wherever there is the least cover, so soon 

 as the sun sinks, the blackbirds announce their presence 

 by their calls. Their " ching-chinging " sounds every- 

 where; they come out on the projecting branches and 

 cry, then fly fifty yards farther down the hedge, and cry 

 again. During the day they may not have been noticed, 

 scattered as they were under the bushes, but the dusky 

 shadows darkening the fields send them to roost, and 

 before finally retiring, they " ching-ching " to each other. 

 Then, almost immediately after the sun has gone 

 down, looking to the south-west the sky seen above the 

 trees (which hide the yellow sunset) becomes a delicate 

 violet. Soon a speck of light gleams faintly through it 

 the merest speck. The first appearance of a star is 

 very beautiful ; the actual moment of first contact as it 

 were of the ray with the eye is always a surprise, however 

 often you may have enjoyed it, and notwithstanding that 

 you are aware it will happen. Where there was only the 

 indefinite violet before, the most intense gaze into which 

 could discover nothing, suddenly, as if at that moment 

 born, the point of light arrives. 



So glorious is the night that not all London, with its 

 glare and smoke, can smother the sky ; in the midst of 

 the gas, and the roar and the driving crowd, look up 

 from the pavement, and there, straight above, are the 

 calm stars. I never forget them, not even in the restless 

 Strand ; they face one coming down the hill of the Hay- 

 market; in Trafalgar Square, looking towards the high 

 dark structure of the House at Westminster, the clear 

 bright steel silver of the planet Jupiter shines unwearied, 

 without sparkle or flicker. 



Apart from the grand atmospheric changes caused by 

 a storm wave from the Atlantic, or an anti-cyclone, 

 London produces its own sky. Put a shepherd on St. 



