The soil cmd the countryside 111 



figwort, and many a plant rare in other places, like the 

 wild orchids ; while the cornfields are often yellow with 

 charlock. In the hedgerows are hazels, guelder roses, 

 maples, dogwood, all intwined with long trails of bryony 

 and traveller's joy. In the autumn the traveller's joy 

 produces the long, hairy tufts that have earned for it 

 the name of old man's beard, while the guelder roses 

 bear clusters of red berries. The great variety of flowers 

 attracts a corresponding variety of butterflies, moths 

 and other insects ; there are also numbers of birds and 

 rabbits — indeed a chalk country teems with life in spite 

 of the bare look of the Downs. The roads running at the 

 foot of the chalk Downs and connecting the villages and 

 farmhouses built there for the good water supply, are 

 particularly rich in plants because they sometimes cut 

 into the chalk and sometimes into the neighbouring 

 clay, sand or rock. Now and then a spring bursts out 

 and a little stream takes its rise : if you follow it you 

 will generally find watercress cultivated somewhere. 



Besides the beech trees you also find ash, sycamore, 

 maples, and, in the church yards, some venerable 

 yews. Usually the chalk districts were inhabited very 

 early : they are dry and healthy, the land can be 

 cultivated and the heights command extensive views 

 over the country, so that approaching enemies could 

 easily be seen. On the chalk downs and plains are 

 found many remains of tribes that lived there in the 

 remote ages of the past, whose very names are now 

 lost. Strange weapons and ornaments are sometimes 

 dug up in the camps where they lived and worked ; the 

 barrows can be seen in which they were buried, and 

 the temples in which they worshipped ; Stonehenge 

 itself, the best known of all these, lies on the chalk. 



