BIRD LIFE ON THE DOWNS 



it only half-a-dozen dry words was it a common 

 wild flower on the Hampshire rivers more than half 

 a century ago ? 



From the valley and the river with its shining 

 yellow mimulus and floating water -grass in the 

 crystal current that green hair-like grass that one 

 is never tired of looking at back to the ivy-green 

 cottage, its ancient limes and noble solitary oaks, and, 

 above all, its birds; then back again to the stream 

 that mainly was our life. But close by on either side 

 of the valley were the downs, and these too drew us 

 with that immemorial fascination which the higher 

 ground has for all of us, because of the sense of 

 freedom and power which comes with a wide horizon. 

 That was a fine saying of Lord Herbert of Cherbury 

 that a man mounted on a good horse is lifted above 

 himself: one experiences the feeling in a greater degree 

 on any chalk down. One extensive open down within 

 easy distance was a favourite afternoon walk. Here 

 on the short fragrant turf an army of peewits were to 

 be found every day, and usually there were a few 

 stone curlews with them. It is not here as in the 

 country about Salisbury, where the Hawking Club has 

 its headquarters, and where they have been "having 

 fun with the thick-knees," as they express it in their 

 lingo, until there are no thick-knees left. But the 

 chief attraction of this down was an extensive thicket 



of thorn and bramble, mixed with furze and juniper 



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