INTRODUCTION. 15 



observations, appears to have had an uneventful existence. 

 It lies, we are told, "on a very ancient road," running 

 between the cities of Gloucester and Bristol ; doubtless the 

 tide of war and adventure, must often have swept over 

 the track on many occasions, when the interests of Eng- 

 land were battled for in the western counties of the king- 

 dom, but only scanty vestiges of its passage have been 

 found in the little community. A few skeletons, acci- 

 dentally dug up by the road-side, the bones of horses, the - 

 iron head of a single lance, are alone alluded to as me- 

 morials of some nameless conflict of the period of Crom- 

 well, and his wars. No stern feudal towers, no ambitious 

 monastic edifices appear to have been raised within the 

 limits of the parish ; and, in short, the position of the 

 spot is one associated chiefly with simple rustic labors, and 

 rural quiet, a field especially in harmony with the inquiries 

 and pursuits of the lover of nature. 



It is with the vegetation of this unambitious region, 

 and with the living creatures by which it is peopled, that 

 the Naturalist would make us acquainted. He tells us of 

 the trees found in the groves and copses of that open 

 country ; of the grasses which grow in the meadows on 

 the banks of the Severn ; of the grains and plants culti- 

 vated in the hedged fields which line his ancient road. 

 He has a great deal to say about the birds which fly to 



