a^as; NATURE NEAR LONDON 



berries, semi-poisonous fruit, flowers, creepers ; and 

 hazel, with markings under its outer bark like a 

 gun-barrel. 



This is the last of the plain. Now every step 

 exposes the climber to the force of the unchecked 

 wind. The harebells swing before it, the ben nets 

 whistle, but the sward springs to the foot, and the 

 heart grows lighter as the height increases. The 

 ancient hill is alone with the wind. The broad 

 summit is left to scattered furze and fern cowering 

 under its shelter. A sunken fosse and earthwork 

 have slipped together. So lowly are they now 

 after these fourteen hundred years that in places 

 the long rough grass covers and conceals them 

 altogether. 



Down in the hollow the breeze does not come, 

 and the bennets do not whistle, yet gazing upwards 

 at the vapour in the sky I fancy I can hear the 

 mass, as it were, of the wind going over. Stand- 

 ing presently at the edge of the steep descent look- 

 ing into the Weald, it seems as if the mighty blast 

 rising from that vast plain and glancing up the 

 slope like an arrow from a tree could lift me up 

 and bear me as it bears a hawk with outspread 

 wings. 



A mist which does not roll along or move is 

 drawn across the immense stage below like a cur- 

 tain. There is, indeed, a brown wood beneath ; 

 -256- 



