1 74 The Amateur Poacher 



A narrow lane crosses it on a low bank or cause- 

 way but just raised above the level of the floods. It 

 is bordered on either side by thick hawthorn hedges, 

 and these again are further rendered more impassable 

 by the rankest growth of hemlocks, 'gicks,' nettles, 

 hedge-parsley, and similar coarse plants. In these 

 the nettle-creeper (white-throat) hides her nest, and 

 they have so encroached that the footpath is almost 

 threatened. This lane leads from the Upper Woods 

 across the marshy level to the cornfields, being a 

 branch from that down which Luke the contractor 

 carried his rabbits. 



Now a hare coming from the uplands beyond the 

 woods, or from the woods, and desirous of visiting 

 the cornfields of the level grounds below, found it 

 difficult to pass the water. For besides the marsh 

 itself, the mere, and the brook, another slow, stagnant 

 stream, quite choked with sedges and flags, uncut for 

 years, ran into it, or rather joined it, and before doing 

 so meandered along the very foot of the hill-side over 

 which the woods grew. To a hare or a rabbit, there- 

 fore, there was but one path or exit without taking 

 to the water in this direction for nearly a mile, and 

 that was across this narrow raised causeway. The 

 pheasants frequently used it, as if preferring to walk 

 than to fly. Partridges came too, to seat themselves 



