MOORLAND IDYLLS. 



this spring in England with a fierceness and 

 commonness I have never seen equalled. 

 Every year, of course, especially about 

 Eastertide, when furze and heather are 

 normally at their driest, owing to the winter 

 sleep, heath fires are frequent enough in 

 times of drought on all sandy moorlands ; 

 but, as a rule, they cease altogether for the 

 year when the gorse begins to burgeon and 

 the heath to send up its long green summer 

 shoots. As the sap mounts in the plants, and 

 the spiky leaves grow green, the amount 

 of moisture in stem and branches suffices 

 to preserve the commons and moors from 

 the danger of burning. This summer, how- 

 ever, the dead dry gorse-bushes catch a 

 spark like tinder ; and in the district where 

 I live, among pines and heather, we have 

 been nightly surrounded for many weeks 

 by constant heath fires. Sometimes, perhaps, 

 they are kindled of malice prepense, or out 

 of pure boyish mischief; more often, how- 

 ever, I fancy they are due to mere human 

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