68 The Gamekeeper at Home. 



CHAPTER IV. 



HIS DOMINIONS : — THE WOODS — MEADOWS — 

 AND WATER. 



There is a part of the wood where the bushes grow 

 but thinly and the ash-stoles are scattered at some 

 distance from each other. It is on a steep slope — 

 almost cliff — where the white chalk comes to the 

 surface. On the edge above rise tall beech trees with 

 smooth round trunks, whose roots push and project 

 through the wall of chalk, and bend downwards, 

 sometimes dislodging lumps of rubble to roll head- 

 long among the bushes below. A few small firs cling 

 half-way up, and a tangled, matted mass of briar and 

 bramble climbs nearly to them, with many a stout 

 thistle flourishing vigorously. 



To get up this cliff is a work of some little diffi- 

 culty : it is done by planting the foot on the ledges 

 of rubble, or in the holes which the rabbits have 

 made, holding tight to roots which curl and twist" in. 



