NATURE NEAR LONDON 



wooded hills that bound them. The bank by the 

 towing-path is steep and shadowless, being bare of 

 trees or hedge ; but the grass is pleasant to rest on, 

 and heat is always more supportable near flowing 

 water. In places the friable earth has crumbled 

 away, and there, where the soil and the stones 

 are exposed, the stonecrop flourishes. A narrow 

 footpath on the summit, raised high above the 

 water, skirts the corn, and is overhung with grass 

 heavily laden by its own seed. 



Sometimes in early June the bright trifolium, 

 drooping with its weight of flower, brushes against 

 the passer-by acre after acre of purple. Oc- 

 casionally the odour of beans in blossom floats out 

 over the river. Again, above the green wheat 

 the larks rise, singing as they soar ; or later on 

 the butterflies wander over the yellow ears. Or, 

 as the law of rotation dictates, the barley whitens 

 under the sun. Still, whether in the dry day, or 

 under the dewy moonlight, the plain stretching 

 from the water to the hills is never without per- 

 fume, colour, or song. 



There stood, one summer not long since, in the 

 corner of a barley field close to the Lock, within a 

 stone's throw, perfect shrubs of mallow, rising to 

 the shoulder, thick as a walking-stick, and hung 

 with flower. Poppies filled every interstice be- 

 tween the barley stalks, their scarlet petals turned 

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