OLD HEDGEROWS. 63 



the meadow through which at one time that fine 

 hedge ran. 



Bryonies, vetches, the convolvuli, traveller's joy, 

 or old man's beard, "bethvine," thistles, mulleins, 

 and arums, kexes, or teasles, all grew in the hedge 

 bottoms : a wealth of vegetation in the summer, a 

 mass of rich glowing colour in autumn, and in win- 

 ter the branches were crimson with wild berries 

 yielding food for the birds. 



Here the hedge-sparrows built their early nests, 

 also the blackbirds and thrushes, followed by the 

 finches. When the crops were ready for reaping, 

 clouds of birds flew from the corn-fields up to the 

 hedge and back again. Dormice, field-mice, rats, 

 rabbits, and hares sheltered there ; as well as stoats 

 and weasels to look after the others : there was 

 room for all. 



As I write, a group comes before me, sitting under 

 a hedge, with their poor curs between them, during 

 a driving hailstorm, each one holding forth on the 

 merits, or at any rate the fancied ones, of his hum- 

 ble four-footed companion. The others are now 

 gone; I am the only one left out of that group. 

 Hedges that covered small brooks in, the feeders 



