8 MY LIFE AS A NATURALIST 



unlike Wordsworth's tyro, to whom 



A Primrose by the river's brim 

 A yellow Primrose was to him, 

 And it was nothing more, 



to me that sulphur-tinted flower, Shakespeare's 



First-born child of Ver, 

 Merrie Springtime's harbinger, 



was something more than a pretty flower. 



It at once bequeathed to my childish fancy an indefinable 

 charm. Its little life was to me a fund of wonder and delight. 

 Its coming and going were both magical and mysterious. I 

 watched the chaste blossoms peeping from their cosy woodland 

 bed in the glad days of smiling April year after year. I wit- 

 nessed the beneficent sunlight caressing the open heart of the 

 flower and infusing it with energy. Old associations became 

 securely anchored in the garden of my mind, and I was entranced 

 thus early with the modest flower's awakening at the budding 

 coronal of Spring. The birds sang to me as a child as they do 

 now, but in those earlier days it was a muddled medley, an out- 

 burst of feathered song, decidedly orchestral, difficult to in- 

 dividualise. Now, the soloists are more distinctive, their notes 

 have a personal touch, and their sweet minstrelsy is the more 

 acceptable, for, as Emily Ridgway has written : 



" Experience teaches that discipline and hard training, which 

 someone has called ' the scourge-sticks of heaven,' are essentials 

 for making the sweetest music." 



And in studying Nature, with a view to acquiring any measure 

 of success, discipline and hard training are very necessary essentials. 



My Nature experiences up to, and including, my teens, were 

 made all the more memorable because my father and grand- 

 father were faithful disciples of Izaak Walton, and also great 

 cricketers. William Westell, playing against All-England, took 

 all ten wickets in the second innings. He was considered one 

 of the straightest ' bowlers of his day, and was never known to 

 bowl a wide. In 1884 my father scored 188 against Essex, 138 

 against Abbots Langley, and 129 against Kickmans worth in 

 three successive innings on successive days, at a time when such 

 a feat was more highly recognised than it is to-day. At the time 

 of writing he has 49 centuries to his credit. I have myself been 

 a keen cricketer all my life, and one of my happiest memories is 

 that, when about fourteen, I made a famous " stand " with 



