THE TEMPLES OF THE HILLS 263 



many cases they stand but a little above the surround- 

 ing level, as in the case of Badbury Rings and of Holly- 

 water Clump in Wolmer Forest, where the soil is sand. 



To my mind the best appearance presented by the 

 higher hill-top groves is on a hot, windless summer 

 day, during the phenomenon of " visible air," or " heat," 

 when the atmosphere near the surface appears as a 

 silvery mist, or as thinnest white and crystalline flames, 

 ascending, wavering, dancing, and producing an illusion 

 of motion in all distant solid objects, such as houses, 

 fences, trees, and cattle. If the sun had greater power, 

 this silvery flame-like appearance would become more 

 visible still and take the appearance of water of a 

 marvellous brilliancy, as of molten silver, flowing over 

 the earth, with cattle standing knee-deep in it, and 

 distant buildings and groves rising like islands out of it. 

 This effect of mirage is occasionally visible in England 

 in hot, dry summers, but is very rare. It is on these 

 burning silvery days, when air and sunlight have a 

 new magic, that I like best to see the hill-top grove ; 

 when at a distance of a mile or two the tall columnar 

 trunks of the pines, showing the light between, seem to 

 have a wavering motion, and, with the high dense roof 

 of branches, look absolutely black against the brilliant 

 whiteness of the air and the pale hot sky beyond. 



The downland groves are, however, less to me in 

 their aesthetic aspect, and as features in the landscape, 

 than as haunts of wild life. It is indeed as small islands 

 of animal life that I view them, scattered over the sea- 

 like smooth green waste, vacant as the sea. To others 



