THE NEW YEAR WIND 311 



remarkable, has stretches of the most fertile black soil in 

 England, on which you can see the rows of spring corn 

 run as regular as the ruled lines on foolscap. It has stretches 

 of marsh, where the reeds rustle in the winds and the snipe 

 bleat as in the days when Hereward, the last of the Saxons, 

 kept his remnant safe on the Isle of Ely. It has a great 

 wood, where only certain rare butterflies are to be found. It 

 has deep clay wolds which are the paradise of the fox- 

 hunter. 



In 'this England' where all things differ, where even 

 parts of a county, as in South Devon, have their peculiar 

 breeds of stocks, nevertheless one great and distinct division 

 may be made. ' East is east and west is west.' The whole 

 of the west coast differs profoundly in every respect from 

 the whole of the east. It differs in its plants and in its 

 animal life hardly less than in its visible features. For the 

 cause we look to the wind. It may almost be said that 

 England has only two divisions, east and west, and only 

 two winds, east and west. South winds are but a part of 

 the west wind, and north winds of the east. We all know 

 the west wind as it affects our feelings and as it builds our 

 sky scenery. At its coming the barometer falls. The more 

 wildly it blows the lower falls the glass. But at its worst, 

 even when it comes with snow in its embrace, it confesses 

 to a certain softness and a certain waywardness. It usually 

 brightens the sky as soon as ever the clouds have emptied 



themselves. 



1 Day of the cloud in fleets : O day 

 Of wedded white and blue,' 



could only have been addressed to a day when the wind 

 was westerly. Its most characteristic painting is a flock of 

 clouds like great sheep of the plains. They are white and 

 woolly. They turn a silver lining to the light, and there is 



