230 HAMPSHIRE DAYS 



with others on this subject that they are affected in 

 the same way. I doubt if any one can fail to experi- 

 ence such a feeling when looking on that great hill-top 

 grove, a stupendous pillared temple, with its dome-like 

 black roof against the sky, standing high above and 

 dominating the sombre pine and heath country for 

 miles around. 



Gilbert White described Wolmer as a naked heath 

 with very few trees growing on it, The Hollywater 

 Clump must, one cannot but think, have been planted 

 before or during his time. One old native of Wolmer 

 whose memory over five years ago went back about 

 sixty years, assured me that the trees looked just as big 

 when he was a little boy as they do now. Undoubtedly 

 they are very old, and many, we see, are decaying, and 

 some are dead, and for many years past they have 

 been dying and falling. 



The green woodpecker had discovered the unsound- 

 ness of many of them ; in some of the trunks, in their 

 higher part, the birds had made several holes. These 

 were in line, one above the other, like stops in a flute. 

 Most of these far-up houses or flats were tenanted by 

 starlings. This was only too apparent, for the starling, 

 although neat and glossy in his dress, is an untidy 

 tenant, and smears the trunk beneath the entrance to 

 his nest with numberless droppings. You might fancy 

 that he had set himself to whitewash his tenement, 

 and had carelessly capsized his little bucket of lime 

 on the threshold. 



