NATURE NEAR LONDON 



fringe to a garment of pure green. Parsley and 

 " gix," and clogvveed, and sauce-alone, whose white 

 flowers smell of garlic if crushed in the fingers, 

 came up along the hedge; by the gateway from the 

 bare trodden earth appeared the shepherd's purse ; 

 small must be the coin to go in its seed capsule, and 

 therefore it was so called with grim and truthful 

 humour, for the shepherd, hard as is his work, facing 

 wind and weather, carries home but little money. 



Yellow charlock shot up faster and shone bright 

 above the corn ; the oaks showered down their 

 green flowers like moss upon the ground ; the tree 

 pipits sang on the branches and descending to the 

 wheat. The rusty chain-harrow, lying inside the 

 gate, all tangled together, was concealed with 

 grasses. Yonder the magpies fluttered over the 

 beans, among which they are always searching in 

 spring ; blackbirds, too, are fond of a beanfield. 



Time advanced again, and afar on the slope 

 bright yellow mustard flowered, a hill of yellow 

 behind the elms. The luxuriant purple of trifo- 

 lium, acres of rich colour, glowed in the sunlight. 

 There was a scent of flowering beans, the vetches 

 were in flower, and the peas which clung together 

 for support the stalk of the pea goes through 

 the leaf as a painter thrusts his thumb through 

 his palette. Under the edge of the footpath 

 through the wheat a wild pansy blooms. 



