. WILD EX MO OR 25 



surface, so that there is no dust or crumbled 

 stone and wheels run on the original hard 

 ground. Approaching the summit the fields 

 inside the beech hedge lose the green of 

 those lower down, the grass is not so long 

 and fresh, and is strewn with rushes. Pre- 

 sently there is heather instead of sward, and 

 the moor is on either hand. The road goes 

 on over the hill, always between beech 

 hedges ; but I left it here, and walked out 

 anions the cotton-grass of the moor. 



June had come in hot and dry, so that the 

 dark, peaty earth was firm, and comparatively 

 easy to walk on. Even now there were places 

 where water stood, and I crossed by stepping 

 on thick tufts of matted grass, dark water 

 spirting aside under the pressure. Where the 

 turf had been cut away there were ponds 

 which it was necessary to go round. Pale, 

 short grass, the blades far apart, and not 

 close like the luxuriant growth of a meadow, 

 interspersed, too, with much that was grey 

 and dead, covered the broad moor, which 



