A JOURNAL KEPT IN THE COUNTRY. 49 



to part the fray. But it is hard to see why a man 

 should suffer his own property to be knocked and 

 bullied out of its value, unless one refers it, with 

 many another riddle besides, to that complex affair 

 of causes and effects, the mystery of Agricultural 

 Depression. 



I went back to Idlehurst about noon, to find the 

 order and peace of the pleasance deeper and saner 

 for even the little tumult of the Fair. Bish not being 

 in his most active state to-day, owing to the remnant 

 of a cherished cough, left from the winter's inevitable 

 " brown-kiters," I ran the hoe over certain borders 

 myself. The sun struggled out and the wind 

 freshened, and I was able to indulge that small 

 destructive instinct which I allow in cutting groundsel 

 and shepherd's-purse through the collar and turning 

 the roots of little grasses up to the atmosphere. 

 The daffodils, undashed this year by the accustomed 

 sleet, swayed in full glory ; the crown-imperials stood 

 rigid at the full height of their ebony stems clear 

 of the whorls of pale green leaves. The Van Thol 

 tulips shone between me and the sun with the 

 translucent glow which is their true colour, far above 

 the raw and dead hue they show by reflected light. 

 Well out of the range of these, shone together the 

 cushions of purple aubrietia and clear yellow alyssum ; 



E 



