Too Muck of a Good Thing 207 



covered with ivy. Over the top of it he could 

 see the church tower, also ivy-clad, the yewt of 

 the churchyard, and the elms in the close beyond, 

 in the tops of which the rooks were already busy 

 and noisy. A thick and tall yew hedge separated 

 the lawn from the village allotments, where one 

 or two early labourers were collecting the winter's 

 rubbish into heaps and setting them alight ; the 

 shadow of the hedge upon the lawn was sharply 

 marked by a silvery grey border of frost. On 

 these things the Poet's eye lingered with won- 

 derful content for a while, and then wandered 

 across the allotments over meadow and rich red 

 ploughland to the line of hills that shut in his 

 view to the south. There came into his mind 

 the name he used to give to the moors above 

 his Yorkshire dale in his young days when his 

 mother read the Pilgrim's Progress to her 

 children the Delectable Mountains. 



He was suddenly recalled to his garden by a 

 low melodious pipe, as of a bird practising its 

 voice for better use in warmer days; it came 

 from one of the rowans. Sometimes the notes 

 were almost whispered ; sometimes they rose for 



