4 LIFE AND SPORT IN HAMPSHIRE 



paths perhaps; from time to time the sound of a 

 swing-gate falls on the ear. I value highly such public 

 rights; but the fact remains that a wood with foot- 

 paths and bridle-ways, trod by many feet, must lose 

 this possession of depth. Nature in such spots does 

 not seem to brood upon herself. Her reveries are 

 always subject to interruption ; and then for a while 

 the mystery, the day mystery at least, is gone. The 

 place, however good to look at, becomes humanised : 

 the fairies and fauns of it, shyest of folk, are scared off. 

 I think the footfall of one stranger from the outer 

 world with that outer world in his thoughts will 

 scare them away for hours. True, at dusk they may 

 return, but that is another matter; at dusk they may 

 be at home in almost any wood, even in little coppices 

 and plantations within sound of a city that lights with 

 its dull glare the sky high above their tree tops. 



There is a thing besides extent of ground covered, 

 and aloofness from the outer world, that makes for 

 depth and mystery in a wood thick underwood 

 and undergrowth. For the best landscape effects, 

 for landscape gardening on a large scale, thick under- 

 woods are often a drawback. They prevent those 

 long vistas and views which tell hi a picture. The 

 trained eye for a landscape will prefer at least to 

 break them up, have here a patch of thick under- 

 wood, there a break through which the eye can 

 travel and admire a distant glade or knoll or hollow. 

 The forms of the oak trees cannot be seen to full 



