THE IMMORTAL NIGHTINGALE 239 



not more than a dozen yards away a prelusive sound 

 almost startling in its suddenness and power, as of 

 vigorous, rapidly repeated strokes on a great golden 

 wire. 



And as in this one, so it is in hundreds of parishes all 

 over the country where the nightingale is thinly 

 scattered. Each home of the bird is known to every 

 man in the parish ; he can find it easily as, when 

 thirsty, he can find the spring of clear water hidden 

 away somewhere among the rocks and trees of his 

 native place ; and the song, too, is a fountain of beauti- 

 ful sound, crystal pure and sparkling, as it gushes from 

 the mysterious inexhaustible reservoir, refreshing to 

 the soul and a joy for ever. 



The loss of one of these nightingales where there 

 is but one, is a sorrow to the villagers, especially to the 

 young lovers, who are great admirers of the bird and 

 take a peculiar delight in listening to its evening per- 

 formance. For it does sometimes happen that the 

 nightingale whose " solitary song " is the delight of a 

 village, disappears from his place and returns no more. 

 The only explanation is that the faithful bird has at 

 length met with his end, after a dozen or twenty years, 

 or as many years as any old man can remember. The 

 most singular case of the loss of a bird I have come 

 across was in East Anglia, in a place where there were 

 very few nightingales. In my rambles I came to a 

 little rustic village, remote from railroads and towns, 

 which has a small, ancient, curious-looking church 

 standing by itself in a green meadow half a mile away 



