16 FRESH FIELDS 



walked across the fields to Shottery, and then fol- 

 lowed the road as it wound amid the quaint little 

 thatched cottages till it ended at a stile from which 

 a footpath led across broad, sunny fields to a stately 

 highway. To give a more minute account of Eng- 

 lish country scenes and sounds in midsummer, I 

 will here copy some jottings in my note-book, made 

 then and there : — 



^^July 16. In the fields beyond Shottery. 

 Bright and breezy, with appearance of slight show- 

 ers in the distance. Thermometer probably about 

 seventy; a good working temperature. Clover — 

 white, red, and yellow (white predominating) — in 

 the fields all about me. The red very ruddy; the 

 white large. The only noticeable bird voice that 

 of the yellow-hammer, two or three being within 

 ear-shot. The song is much like certain sparrow 

 songs, only inferior: Sip, sip, sip, see-e-e-e ; or, 

 -?/*> if} if y^'^ ple-e-ease. Honey-bees on the 

 white clover. Turf very thick and springy, sup- 

 porting two or three kinds of grass resembling red- 

 top and bearded rye-grass. Narrow-leaved plantain, 

 a few buttercups, a small yellow flower unknown to 

 me (probably ladies' fingers), also a species of dan- 

 delion and prunella. The land thrown into marked 

 swells twenty feet broad. Two Sunday-school girls 

 lying on the grass in the other end of the field. A 

 number of young men playing some game, perhaps 

 cards, seated on the ground in an adjoining field. 

 Scarcely any signs of midsummer to me; no ripe- 

 ness or maturity in nature yet. The grass very 



