NATURE NEAR LONDON 



the sedges, for it was quite hidden under them. 

 Sedges and flags grew so thick that everything was 

 concealed except the yellow bloom above. 



One bunch grew on a bank raised a few inches 

 above the flood which the swollen brook had 

 poured in, and there I walked among them ; the 

 leaves came nearly up to the shoulder, the golden 

 flowers on the stalks stood equally high. It was 

 a thicket of iris. Never before had they risen to 

 such a height ; it was like the vegetation of tropical 

 swamps, so much was everything drawn up by the 

 continual moisture. Who could have supposed 

 that such a downpour as occurred that summer 

 would have had the effect it had upon flowers ? 

 Most would have imagined that the excessive rain 

 would have destroyed them ; yet never was there 

 such floral beauty as that year. Meadow orchis, 

 buttercups, the yellow iris, all the spring flowers 

 came forth in extraordinary profusion. The hay 

 was spoiled, the farmers ruined, but their fields 

 were one broad expanse of flower. 



As that spring was one of the wettest, so that 

 of the year in present view was one of the driest, 

 and hence the plantation between the lane and the 

 brook was accessible, the sedges and flags short, 

 and the sedge-birds visible. There is a beech in 

 the plantation standing so near the verge of the 

 stream that its boughs droop over. It has a num- 

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