WILD LIFE IN A SOUTHERN COUNTY. 181 



one of the favourite places. It is like one of those 

 Eastern marts where men of fifty different nation- 

 alities, and picturesquely clad, jostle each other in 

 the bazaars : so here feathered travellers of every 

 species have a kind of leafy capital. When the nest- 

 ing time is over the goldfinches quit the orchard, and 

 only return for a brief call now and then. I almost 

 think the finches have got regular caravan routes 

 round and across the fields which they travel in small 

 bands. 



In the meadow, just without the close-cropped haw- 

 thorn which encloses one side of the orchard, is a thick 

 hedge, the end of which comes right up to the apple 

 trees, being only separated by the ha-ha wall and a 

 ditch. This hedge, dividing two meadows, is about 

 two hundred yards long, and well grown with a variety 

 of underwood, hazel, willow, maple, hawthorn, black- 

 thorn, elder, etc., and studded with some few elms 

 and ashes and a fine horse-chestnut. Down the ditch 

 for some distance runs a little stream (except in a long 

 drought) ; and where another hedge branches from it 

 is a hollow space arched over and roofed with boughs. 

 Now this hedge is a favourite highway of birds and 

 other wild creatures, and leads direct to the orchard. 

 Most of the visitors to the house and garden come 

 down it ; it is one of their caravan routes. 



If on a summer's morning you go and sit in the 

 gateway about halfway up the hedge, partly hidden 

 by a pollard ash and great hawthorn bushes, you will 

 not have long to wait before you hear the pleasant 



