WINTER IN WEST DOWNLAND 291 



these, the flat bottom of the basin is filled with a 

 beechen wood. Seated on the turf on the rim of this 

 great hollow in the side of the hill, one evening in 

 late January, I had beneath me a scene to make a 

 man's heart glad. I had only just discovered this 

 hidden wood, and it came as a complete surprise ; 

 nothing quite like it had I seen before. In summer, 

 when the beeches would appear from above as a floor 

 of deep uniform green, there would not perhaps have 

 been any special beauty in this spot. Winter had 

 given the charm and magical effect it had for me on 

 that evening, when the sun was going down in a cold 

 but very clear sky. For the tall beeches on which I 

 looked down appeared as innumerable white or pale 

 columns standing on a floor of red and russet gold, 

 and white columns and golden floor were all the more 

 beautiful for being seen through the almost cloud-like 

 tracery of innumerable purple and purplish-red or 

 " murrey "-coloured branchlets. The rich colour of 

 that temple and palace of nature — the golden floor 

 and purple roof — made the wide band of the yew 

 wood seem black by contrast ; and above the black 

 yews the smooth turf of the hill-top looked a pale 

 green. 



One thing that added greatly to the charm of 

 this wood was the vast multitude of wood-pigeons 

 which were congregated in it. It was, I found, 

 their favourite roosting-place in this neighbourhood. 

 Alarmed at my presence they began to rush out of 



