AN AUTUMN FISHING 163 



the wall is spread with golden lichen 

 between the tufts of herb-robert and 

 dwarf saxifrage. Each cranny has its 

 diverse tiny fern. At the wall's coping is 

 a massed fringe of valerian, the colour of 

 crushed raspberries and cream, where all 

 day long gaudy red-admirals bask and 

 flutter in company with humming hawk- 

 moths and blue- winged dragon-flies. 



If you take the little path between the 

 cherry-trees you'll come upon a clear cool 

 spring. Its waters are always flowing, yet 

 so smoothly as not to disturb its most 

 minute reflections. You get a headless 

 stone figure of St. Herbot in his niche, 

 reversed in duplicate. Each single moss 

 that twines the over-spreading arch is \ 



mirrored exactly m the depths below. I 



You would not know that these depths \ 



moved but for the sparkle at the pool's 

 brim, where the spring slips down to join 

 the watercress. Further you'll meet the 

 hum of bees in misty blue of lavender, and 

 then the cur^ flushed and very hot in the 

 potato-patch. 



Surely " // fatit cultiver S07i jar din " 

 would be here a fittmg introduction. Best 



