Grey Rock and Thyme 175 



with even grey, and the raindrops gleam mistily 

 upon all the blades of the sward, only the tips 

 of the unfolded buds gleam faintly yellow along 

 the slope of the hill ; or here and there a beaten 

 petal of yesterday clings, a wet film, among the 

 grass roots, and forms an object of curious but 

 ultimately unprofitable inquiry to the little red 

 wandering ants. 



Such still and canopied mornings are nature's 

 summer Sabbaths, bringing a rest that is pleasant 

 to all her creatures after a week overwrought with 

 the sleepless incitation of the sun. Even the red 

 ants move with a more leisurely gait among the grey 

 hills of water on the grass blades, and investigate 

 the nature, origin, and practical utility of the cling- 

 ing rock-rose petal with antennae plied more idly 

 than is their wont. But when the August morning 

 opens hotly through the sheltering mist, the lower 

 slopes of the grey-scarred hills, where the wind shears 

 the sward less closely, is often one long garden of 

 these delicate heads of gold. The exactness with 

 which they cling to their dry, calcareous soil is often 

 seen very strikingly on the borders of the limestone 

 tracts. One slope of a little grassy valley may be 

 formed by a limestone hill, and the other, perhaps, 

 by the sandstone which commonly overlies it. 

 Then on one side of the little stream that often 

 breaks out at the foot of the dry, limestone mass, the 

 turf may be gay with rock-roses, while on the other 

 bank the only flowers in the grass are eyebright, 

 or blue scabious, or a few faithful daisies. The rock- 

 rose is also to be found in sharp, gravelly places, 



