RAVEN TARN 151 



first chapter, as having, within my own know- 

 ledge, been the home, for nearly half a century, of a 

 pair of long-eared owls. It is the outpost, as it 

 were, of that large expanse, of wild moorland and 

 woodland brightened, in springtime, by brakes of 

 gorse and broom and hawthorn, and intersected by 

 quaking bogs, fragrant with bog myrtle, and, in 

 autumn, often rich in colour with sun-dew, and 

 asphodel, and the flowering rush, and the dark blue 

 bog gentian which begins with Knighton or with 

 Yellowham Wood, and stretches away, with few 

 intermissions, by Wareham, Poole, and Christ- 

 church, through the New Forest, and so right on 

 to Woking or Bagshot. The nearer part of this 

 wild country, it may interest many to know, is that 

 which has been made famous by the genius of Mr 

 Thomas Hardy, under the name of Egdon Heath. 



The tree was the biggest in the wood, looking 

 out upon the Heath ; and, a few yards below it, was 

 a " silent pool," half overgrown with grass and 

 rushes, to which we gave thereafter the name of 

 Raven Tarn. 



" The coot was swimming in the reedy pond, 

 Beside the water-hen so soon affrighted ; 

 And in the weedy moat the heron, fond 

 Of solitude, alighted. 



