NATURE NEAR LONDON 



hind. White horse-chestnut blooms stand up in 

 their stately way, lighting the path which is strewn 

 with the green moss-like flowers fallen from the 

 oaks. There is an early bush of May. When 

 the young apples take form and shape, the grass is 

 so high even the buttercups are overtopped by it. 

 Along the edge of the roadside footpath, where the 

 dandelions, plantains, and grasses are thick with 

 seed, the greenfinches come down and feed. 



Now the apples are red that are left, and they 

 hang on 'boughs from which the leaves are blown 

 by every gust. But it does not matter when you 

 pass, summer or autumn, this little orchard has 

 always something to offer. It is not neglected 

 it is true attention to leave it to itself. 



Left to itself, so that the grass reaches its fullest 

 height ; so that bryony vines trail over the bushes 

 and stay till the berries fall of their own ripeness ; 

 so that the brown leaves lie and are not swept 

 away unless the wind chooses; so that all things 

 follow their own course and bent. The hedge 

 opposite in autumn, when reapers are busy with 

 the sheaves, is white with the large trumpet flowers 

 of the great wild convolvulus (or bindweed). The 

 hedge there seems made of convolvulus then ; 

 nothing but convolvulus, and nowhere else does the 

 flower flourish so strongly ; the bines remain till 

 the following spring. 



-192 



