174 WATER SUPPLY 



jocund in these latitudes has been so, in fact, for 

 the last week, dealing ugly buffets from the east, and 

 splashing viciously with icy rain ; but to-day she is all 

 smiles, argent and azure aloft, vert and or dominant 

 in her heraldry below. Towering cliffs rise on either 

 shore, sombre still for the most part, being clad chiefly 

 with oak ; but there are breadths of larchwood too, of 

 tenderest green, frosty display of blackthorn with milky 

 splendour of wild cherries, and here and there a 

 stately sycamore by the waterside, well-leaved and in 

 full flower. Nor is it a flower to be despised, though, 

 being green like the leaves, it is not particularly 

 decorative. 



It is doubtful whether a blind man could always 

 discern the exact season by the odours afloat; but 

 of these there are two which, above all others, con- 

 tribute to the indescribable scent of spring, which 

 we all know and rejoice in. The source of one 

 of these is in the open gorse-blossom to wit. 

 Nobody standing on an English common when the 

 gorse is in bloom could fail, however blind he were, to 

 perceive that spring had come. The other fragrance 

 is of the woodland, and is breathed from the myriad 

 tassels of the sycamore the plane, as we call it incor- 

 rectly in the north. Being from the north myself, 

 I never can associate the plane of London streets 

 and squares the true plane with Arthur dough's 

 beautiful lines on the coming of spring. He surely 

 meant our plane and your sycamore, but sycamore 

 wouldn't scan : 



