154 SUMMER-TIDE IN A HIGHLAND FOREST 



date of the translation of the ancient laws from which 

 I am quoting) the distinction had not been lost between 

 the present participle in -and and the gerund or noun of 

 action in -ing. The two forms may be seen together in 

 the following sentence from the same volume : ' congre- 

 gation of men dwelland together ... for the better 

 establishing of their estate.' 



I am conscious of some signs of impatience on the part 

 of the reader who has got thus far. ' The fellow under- 

 took,' he is muttering, 'to describe summer in a forest, 

 and he can't get away from his dusty old bookshelves. 

 These antiquaries really ought to be put down.' A timely 

 rebuke : let us get to the forest with all speed we may ; 

 only be it understood that I have nothing to tell 

 about deer-stalking this time, but about some of those 

 pleasures which a deer-forest affords to those who will 

 resort to it at unfashionable seasons while the velvet is 

 still on the horn, who value its mighty solitude as the 

 asylum of the golden eagle, buzzard, and osprey, the wild 

 cat, marten, otter, and seal, as well as of the red-deer. 

 Few of those who rent these hunting-grounds ever see 

 them in their prime. They defer moving north till the 

 evenings are getting short and chill, till the growth of 

 herbage is stayed and the wealth of blossom past. The 

 wild roses alone, which deepen in hue the farther you 

 leave London behind, are worth a seven-hundred-mile trip 

 to enjoy, but these come to an end with July. There is, 

 also, a lovely little plant, the bog asphodel (Narthecium 

 ossifragum), of which the blooming season exactly corre- 

 sponds with the sweet o' the year. It is scattered all over 

 the wet hillsides and bogs, gathering here and there into 



