222 LIFE AND SPORT IN HAMPSHIRE 



swelling leaf within ? The beech leaf when very young 

 looks one of the tenderest things, and the most sus- 

 ceptible to frost even when every wood and hedge is 

 crammed with tender-looking things. But whether 

 its look belies its real character I cannot say. The 

 young oak leaves are sometimes singed by frost in 

 May far more severely than those of the beech one 

 year they were shrivelled by frost at the very end 

 of May. 



The second phase of beech beauty is when the leaf 

 is quite free of its wrap, but not yet smoothed out. It 

 is deeply lined, ridge and furrow, like the hornbeam 

 leaf, and, though fairly long, is wanting in breadth. 

 The third phase comes a few days later, and is the 

 most beautiful. I doubt whether there is any green- 

 ing thing of May more exquisite, more delicate in 

 loveliness, than a little twig of the beech, tree or 

 underwood, in this state. The leaves are now un- 

 crinkled ; though they are still ribbed and mid-ribbed 

 distinctly, they have lost the ridge and furrow and are 

 smoothing out into final form. They are half green 

 and half bronze, edged with the white silky hairlets, 

 smooth now and shining a little, and with a gentle 

 droop and poise, especially about the twig tip, that is 

 grace itself. The whole twig is so soft and juicy that 

 it withers almost as soon as it is plucked. In the 

 fourth phase chorophyll has played its part : the leaves 

 are pure green. 



I find it hard, in fact, impossible, to look closely at 



