192 NATURE NEAR LONDON 



where it is deepest and where there is some trifling shelter, 

 a flat hawthorn bush. It has grown as flat as a hurdle, 

 as if trained espalierwise or against a wall the effect, no 

 doubt, of the winds. Into and between its gnarled 

 branches, dry and leafless, furze boughs have been woven 

 in and out, so as to form a shield against the breeze, 

 On the lee of this natural hurdle there are black charcoal 

 fragments and ashes, where a fire has burnt itself out ; 

 the stick still leans over on which was hung the vessel 

 used at this wild bivouac. 



Descending again by the footpath, the spur of the hill 

 yonder looks larger and steeper and more ponderous in 

 the mist ; it seems higher than this, a not unusual ap- 

 pearance when the difference in altitude is not very great. 

 The level we are on seems to us beneath the level in the 

 distance, as the future is higher than the present. In 

 the hedge or scattered bushes, half-way down by the 

 chalk-pit, there grows a spreading shrub the wayfaring 

 tree bearing large, broad, downy leaves and clusters 

 of berries, some red and some black, flattened at their 

 sides. There are nuts, too, here, and large sloes or wild 

 bullace. This Ditchling Beacon is, I think, the nearest 

 and the most accessible of the southern Alps from 

 London ; it is so near it may almost be said to be 

 in the environs of the capital. But it is alone with 

 the wind. 



