6 HAMPSHIRE DAYS 



the ground by the side of these dark plants were 

 laurel, syringa, and lilac bushes, and among these 

 such wildings as thorn, elder, and bramble had grown 

 up, flourishing greatly, and making of that flowery 

 spot a tangled thicket. At the side of the house 

 there was another plot of ground, grass-grown, which 

 had once been the orchard, and still had a few 

 ancient apple and pear trees, nearly past bearing, 

 with good nesting -holes for the tits and starlings in 

 their decayed mossy trunks. There were also a few old 

 ivied shade -trees chestnuts, fir, and evergreen oak. 



Best of all (for the birds) were the small old half- 

 ruined outhouses which had remained from the distant 

 days when the place, originally a manor, had been 

 turned into a farm-house. They were here and there, 

 scattered about, outside the enclosure, ivy-grown, each 

 looking as old and weather-stained and in harmony 

 with its surroundings as the house itself the small 

 tumble-down barns, the cow-sheds, the pig-house, the 

 granary with open door and the wooden staircase 

 falling to pieces. All was surrounded by old oak 

 woods, and the river was close by. It was an ideal 

 spot for small birds. I have never in England seen so 

 many breeding close together. The commoner species 

 were extraordinarily abundant. Chaffinch and green- 

 finch; blackbird, throstle, and missel-thrush; swallow 

 and martin, and common and lesser whitethroat; garden 

 warbler and blackcap; robin, dunnock, wren, flycatcher, 

 pied wagtail, starling, and sparrow ; one could go round 



