NATURE NEAR LONDON 



guard cottages, turn aside from the road, and go up 

 on the rough path along the ridge of shingle. The 

 hills are away on the right, the sea on the left ; 

 the yards of the ships in the basin slant across the 

 sky in front. 



With a quick, sudden heave the summer sea, 

 calm and gleaming, runs a little way up the side 

 of the groyne, and again retires. There is scarce 

 a gurgle or a bubble, but the solid timbers are 

 polished and smooth where the storms have worn 

 them with pebbles. From a grassy spot ahead a 

 bird rises, marked with white, and another follows 

 it ; they are wheatears ; they frequent the land by 

 the low beach in the autumn. 



A shrill but feeble pipe is the cry of the sand- 

 piper, disturbed on his moist feeding-ground. 

 Among the stones by the waste places there are 

 pale-green wrinkled leaves, and the large yellow 

 petals of the sea-poppy. The bright colour is 

 pleasant, but it is a flower best left ungathered, for 

 its odour is not sweet. On the wiry sward the light 

 pink of the sea-daisies (or thrift) is dotted here and 

 there : of these gather as you will. The presence 

 even of such simple flowers, of such well-known 

 birds, distinguishes the solitary from the trodden 

 beach. The pier is in view, but the sea is dif- 

 ferent here. 



Drive eastwards along the cliff's to the rough 

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