NATURE NEAR LONDON 



two or three farms, which keep him in constant 

 work. There is not, perhaps, another home- 

 made implement of old English agriculture left 

 in use; certainly, none at once so curious and in- 

 teresting, and, when drawn by oxen, so thoroughly 

 characteristic. 



Under the September sun, flowers may still be 

 found in sheltered places, as at the side of furze, 

 on the highest of the Downs. Wild thyme con- 

 tinues to bloom the shepherd's thyme wild 

 mignonette, blue scabious, white dropwort, yellow 

 bedstraw, and the large purple blooms of greater 

 knapweed. Here and there a blue field gentian 

 is still in flower ; " eggs and bacon " grow beside 

 the waggon tracks. Grasshoppers hop among the 

 short dry grass ; bees and humble-bees are buzz- 

 ing about, and there are places quite bright with 

 yellow hawkweeds. 



The furze is everywhere full of finches, troops 

 of them ; and there are many more swallows than 

 were flying here a month since. No doubt they 

 are on their way southwards, and stay, as it were, 

 on the edge of the sea while yet the sun shines. 

 As the evening falls the sheep come slowly home 

 to the fold. When the flock is penned some 

 stand panting, and the whole body at each pant 

 moves to and fro lengthways ; some press against 

 the flakes till the wood creaks ; some paw the 

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