410 OUTDOOR LIFE IN ENGLAND 



student to become a naturalist. Were children, 

 generally speaking, more carefully and wisely 

 instructed in these subjects, it would be to their 

 advantage, and afford them interest and amuse- 

 ment, not during the days of their childhood 

 alone, but also throughout their whole lives ; and 

 such instruction could hardly fail to indue them 

 with a true love and respect for bird and beast 

 and flower. A true lover of Nature is incapable 

 of cruelty to her children, and very surely do the 

 latter repay tenfold the benefits which increased 

 consideration for their welfare may accord them. 

 By the term respect, as applied to birds, animals, 

 and flowers, I mean such a measure of regard 

 for them as may suffice to afford protection to 

 each and all. Because certain wild-flowers may 

 chance to grow in profusion in certain places or 

 districts, that is no reason why they should there- 

 fore be ruthlessly gathered and wasted. Some 

 few years ago I was travelling on the South- 

 Western line in Hampshire ; it was spring-time, 

 and the earlier wild-flowers were at their best ; 

 the platform at one of the stations was crowded 

 with the members of a girls' school, of the class 

 known as ' young ladies/ who had evidently been 

 spending the afternoon in the neighbouring- 

 woods. Each one of them was carrying either 

 a basketful or a large bundle of wild daffodils, 

 and the platform was strewn with the golden 

 flowers which had fallen from their overcrowded 

 hands, and were lying crushed and trodden under- 



