WILD LIFE IN A SOUTHERN COUNTY. 93 



loo, Culloden, Sedgmoor, or the Civil War ; but in 

 the end an old man declared that King Charles had 

 once slept in an old house just about to be pulled 

 down. But then " King Charles " slept, according 

 to local tradition, in most of the old houses in the 

 country. However, I resolved to visit the place. 



Tall yew hedges, reaching high overhead, thick and 

 impervious, such as could only be produced in a hun- 

 dred years of growth and countless clippings, en- 

 closing a green pleasaunce, the grass uncut for many 

 a year, weeds overrunning the smooth surface on 

 which the bowls once rolled true to their bias. In 

 the shelter of these hedges, upon the sunny side, you 

 might walk in early spring when the east wind is 

 harshest, without a breath penetrating to chill the 

 blood, warm as within a cloak of sables, enjoying 

 that peculiar genial feeling which is induced by sun 

 shine at that period only, and which is somewhat akin 

 to the sense of convalescence after a weary illness. 

 Thus, sauntering to and fro, your footstep, returning 

 on itself, passed the thrush sitting on her nest calm 

 and confident. 



No modern exotic evergreens ever attract our Eng- 

 lish birds like the true old English trees and shrubs. 

 In the box and yew they love to build ; spindly laurels 

 and rhododendrons, with vacant draughty spaces 

 underneath, they detest, avoiding them as much as 

 possible. The common hawthorn hedge round a 

 country garden shall contain three times as many 

 nests, and be visited by five times as many birds, 



