IN HAMPSHIRE HIGHLANDS n 



heavy masses of wild clematis, might save even 

 a decidedly flat country from the charge of tame- 

 ness ; but a bit of wild, open moorland, a bleak 

 hill without a green thing save its grass upon it, 

 or with, at the most, a few stunted bushes and 

 deformed trees, will always be a welcome change 

 to the lover of landscape. Towards a bare wind- 

 swept hill the eye will always be drawn. When 

 I turned homewards that evening Combe was all 

 grey ; the yellowhammer, a bird that seems quite 

 indifferent whether he lives and nests by bright 

 homestead, in grass-grown woodland glade, or on 

 a high and solitary spot like this, had ceased; 

 and round the oaks beneath, the nightjar, the 

 ' sombre gigantic swallow ' of the twilight, was 

 gliding and glancing like a bird-ghost. 



This range of high chalk-hills viewed from a 

 distance invites close inspection. It may be 

 reached from the south by Netherton valley, and 

 will well repay a visit. On each side of Netherton 

 valley there is a broad and smooth expanse of 

 turf with woods above on both hillsides, and the 

 whole wears somewhat the look of a road through 

 a park. Netherton rectory its garden was once 

 a rare place, I remember, for lilies of the valley 



