86 Country Rambles. 



forms, are represented in this delicious spot by upwards 

 of forty species' and varieties, many of them having very 

 numerous examples, all presenting, in the best manner, 

 the symmetrical outlines so remarkable in coniferous 

 trees, and holding positions with regard to their imme- 

 diate neighbours such as awaken the most agreeable ideas 

 of harmony. There is no taller Deodara in the neigh- 

 bourhood than one of the specimens near the lawn, nor 

 is there anywhere in this neighbourhood a more comely 

 Norway spruce, the top already seventy feet above the 

 turf, and covered annually with cones, which the'squirrels 

 are glad of, the spring never finding one that the little 

 creatures have overlooked. 



Norcliffe is equally remarkable in respect of its rhodo- 

 dendrons, the purple splendour, early in June, tossed up 

 like a floral surf. These last, being like the conifers, 

 evergreens, Norcliffe, if nothing else, is a place of 

 perennial verdure. Almost, as on the banks of old 

 Clitumnus 



Hie ver assiduum, atque alienis mensibus sestas ! 

 The walk through the sylvan part of the glen, tortuous, 

 and rarely on level ground, brings many beautiful wild- 

 flowers into view. Here, in the month of May, is the 

 wood-millet lightest and daintiest, after the Briza, of our 

 native grasses and yet more plentifully the sweet wood- 

 ruff, holding up in every corner its little handfuls of 

 snow-white crosses. Access to Norcliffe, the grounds 

 being strictly and in every portion private, is, of course, 

 only by favour. But the honoured name of Greg has 



