SOUTH-WEST LONDON 257 



Over all is the vast void sky and the rapturous 

 music of the skylark. 



At Wimbledon one has the idea of being at 

 a considerable elevation ; the highest point is 

 really only 300 feet above the sea level, but it 

 is set in a deep depression, and from some points 

 the sight may range as far as the hills about 

 Guildford and Godalming. There are persons 

 of sensitive olfactories who affirm that when the 

 wind blows from the south coast they can smell 

 the sea-salt in it. 



But Wimbledon is not all open heath and 

 common ; it has also an extensive wood, de- 

 lightfully wild, the only large birch wood near 

 the metropolis, The missel- thrush, nuthatch, 

 and tree-creeper breed here, and the jay is 

 common and tame ; I have seen as many as 

 six together. In this wood a finer concert of 

 nightingales may be heard in summer than at 

 any other place near London. In winter field- 

 fares and pewits are often seen. Carrion crows 

 from Coombe Woods and other breeding-places 

 in the neighbourhood are constantly seen on the 

 common in pairs and small parties, and are 

 strangely familiar. Eooks, too, are extremely 

 abundant. Eichmond Park is their roosting- 



s 



