NATURE IN ENGLASfc 23 



their rough or slanting sides like moist flakes. In 

 the little valleys and chasms it appears to lie deepest. 

 Only the peaks and broken rocky crests of the high- 

 est Scotch and Cumberland mountains are bare. 

 Adown their treeless sides the moist, fresh greenness 

 fairly drips. Grass, grass, grass, and evermore grass. 

 Is there another country under the sun so becush- 

 ioned, becarpeted, and becurtained with grass ? Even 

 the woods are full of grass, and I have seen them 

 mowing in a forest. Grass grows upon the rocks, 

 upon the walls, on the tops of the old castles, on the 

 roofs of the houses, and in winter the hay seed some- 

 times sprouts upon the backs of the sheep. Turf 

 used as capping to a stone fence thrives and blooms 

 as if upon the ground. There seems to be a deposit 

 from the atmosphere, a slow but steady accumula- 

 tion of a black, peaty mould upon all exposed sur* 

 faces, that by and by supports some of the lower 

 or cryptogamous forms of vegetation. These decay 

 and add to the soil, till thus in time grass and other 

 plants will grow. The walls of the old castles and 

 cathedrals support a variety of plant life. On Roch- 

 ester Castle I saw two or three species of large wild 

 flowers growing one hundred feet from the ground 

 and tempting the tourist to perilous Teachings and 

 climbings to get them. The very stones seem to 

 sprcvst. My companion made a sketch of a striking 

 group of red and white flowers blooming far up on 

 one of the buttresses of Rochester Cathedral. The 

 soil will climb to any height. Indeed, there seems 



