THE SALT MARSHES OF SUFFOLK 109 



beautiful mauve flowers wide stretches of marshland. 

 The sea-lavender both the common species and the 

 rarer kind with more spreading panicles is plentiful 

 near the ferry at Walberswick and also in the salt 

 marshes beside the heronry. Sitting one evening in 

 August on the rising ground beneath the great Scotch 

 firs, in which earlier in the season some forty pairs of 

 herons had made their nests, the sea-lavender on the 

 mud-flats below presented a striking appearance. The 

 entire level was aglow with a pale purple sheen of 

 colour. The surroundings, too, added charm to the 

 picture. A stately heron was standing motionless in 

 the shallow water at the edge of the tidal river, flocks 

 of sea-gulls and ringed plover were feeding on the mud 

 left bare by the receding tide ; in the distance the trees 

 of Henham Park bounded the landscape ; to the left, 

 beyond a dense jungle of reed-grass and rushes, rose the 

 magnificent church tower of Blythburgh ; while im- 

 mediately below, on the stretch of salting lying between 

 the fir-trees and the river, gleamed in the soft glow of 

 the setting sun the beautiful expanse of sea-lavender. 



