WEST OF THE ADUR 229 



patch or strip of green turf among or near the trees 

 is thickly sprinkled over with little masses or blobs 

 of disgorged fruit, bright pinky red in colour, looking 

 like strawberries scattered about the ground and 

 crushed by passing feet. In a single blob or pellet 

 I have counted as many as twenty- three whole berries, 

 as bright red as when on the tree, embedded in a 

 mass of viscid pulp, mixed with many of the dark 

 green and poisonous stones of the half-digested 

 berries. 



The wood I have described, where the intemperate 

 missel-thrushes have their revels, is almost unique in 

 character : there is on the downs west of the Adur 

 another wood of a kind rarely seen that has a singular 

 charm. This is a hawthorn wood growing on the 

 high downs east of the village of Findon, and about 

 halfway between Cissbury Hill and Chanctonbury 

 Ring. I have come across patches of wood, exclu- 

 sively thorns, in Savernake Forest, Albury Park, and 

 on private estates in different parts of the country, 

 but not one comparable to this in extent and beauty. 

 The peculiar charm of the hawthorn — and that it 

 possesses a very great charm every one will allow 

 — appears to be due to its variety — to the individu- 

 ality as well as the beauty of the tree. It certainly 

 has a specific character as marked as that of any 

 forest tree we have, and is quite unlike any other, 

 unless we say that it is a miniature oak in appear- 

 ance, and has the attractive roughness and majesty 



