26 A YEAR IN A LANCASHIRE GARDEN. 



IV. 



The Rookery Daffodils Peach Blossoms Spring Flowers Prim- 

 roses Violets The Shrubs of Spring. 



March 6. We have a tradition, or, if you will, a 

 superstition, in this part of the world, that rooks 

 always begin to build on the first Sunday in March. 

 Last year my rooks were punctual to a day. This 

 year, although they began a day or two earlier, it 

 was not till the morning of Sunday the 1st that 

 they showed real activity. Then the belt of trees 

 which they frequent, and which for want of any 

 better name we call " our wood," was all alive and 

 clamorous. These rooks are only with us from 

 March to the end of May, and then they are off 

 again for the rest of the year to the woods which 

 cluster thickly round the stately hall of the great 

 nobleman of our county. But they never quite 

 forget their nests among our Elms ; and it is 

 pleasant to see them in summer, and oftener still 

 in late autumn, winging their way across the 



