228 WITHIN AN HOUR OF LONDON TOWN. 



moors, will be sure to have his share of them if he 

 be in the district* So partial is he to this fruit, that 

 I have known him stay his flight and come close 

 to houses near Dorking town, where some of the 

 mountain - ash trees have been grown as orna- 

 mental objects on either side of the entrance-gates. 

 This was very late in the season. That ring-ousels 

 are about during the winter months I have had 

 most convincing proof, having seen some that 

 had been shot by men when out blackbird- 

 shooting. 



It is the frost that punishes and kills our wild 

 creatures unless they are extremely hard to kill 

 not the snow, which protects and keeps them warm. 

 The hare that sits in her form of dry tussocky grass 

 and dead ferns, roofed over with stout trailing 

 brambles, which the weight of snow actually makes 

 to touch the ground just in front, is snug and warm. 

 Her food is close within reach, and, so far, she has 

 nothing to fear from the weather. It is very enjoy- 

 able walking across large unfrequented woodland 

 fields after a good fall of snow, providing there is a 

 public right-of-way through. There is no silence 

 that I know which is so impressive as the silence of 



