164 THE HOLLY 



more yellow, it seems, than his British cousins fluttered 

 down upon the stream a few yards above the bridge. 

 Its voyage was short ; just as it floated over a little ripple 

 above a cushion of weed, a dark, shining nose broke 

 the surface, Ephemera disappeared, and a broad yellow 

 gleam shone through the flood. Tantalus! what 

 pangs were mine ! For many kilometres we followed 

 that fair stream, nor saw a single fisher, fair or foul, 

 though trout were rising in every reach. Near London 

 such a brook would command a rent of 100 a mile : 

 the Blesois, it seems, have yet to learn what foolish 

 folks will pay as the price of their folly. 



De minimis John Evelyn, in a robuster age, brought 

 home from Blois forest the remembrance of ' a gentle- 

 man, who was resting himselfe under a tree, with his 

 horse grazing by him, who told us that, halfe an houre 

 before, two wolves had set upon his horse, and had in 

 probability devour'd him, but for a dog which lay by 

 him.' I, closing my eyes, behold, as the chief event of 

 a day in the same forest, a fragile fly, a trout's nose, 

 and a gleam of gold in the fleeting Cisson. 



XL 



The flowers of the holly are individually incon- 

 spicuous, and are seldom produced in such 

 abundance as to attract much notice collec- 

 tively ; but this year (1899) they have formed quite a 

 notable feature in the landscape. Hollies are naturally 

 abundant in Hertfordshire, and many fine ones adorn 

 the field and roadside hedges near St. Albans. A few 



