44 NATURE NEAR LONDON. 



verge of London, and the little children who dance 

 along the green sward by the road here, if they chance 

 to touch a nettle, at once search for a dock leaf to lay 

 on it and assuage the smart. Country children, and 

 indeed older folk, call the foliage of the knotted fig- 

 wort cutfinger leaves, as they are believed to assist 

 the cure of a cut or sore. 



Easpberry suckers shoot up in one part of the 

 copse; the fruit is doubtless eaten by the birds. 

 Troops of them come here, travelling along the great 

 hedge by the wayside, and all seem to prefer the out- 

 side trees and bushes to the interior of the copse. 

 This great hedge is as wide as a country double 

 mound, though it has but one ditch ; the thick haw- 

 thorn, blackthorn, elder, and bramble — the oaks, 

 elms, ashes, and firs form, in fact, almost a cover 

 of themselves. 



In the early spring, when the east wind rushes with 

 bitter energy across the plains, this immense hedge, 

 as far as it extends, shelters the wayfarer, the road 

 being on the southern side, so that he can enjoy such 

 gleams of sunshine as appear. In summer the place 

 is, of course for the same reason, extremely warm, 

 unless the breeze chances to come up strong from the 

 west, when it sweeps over the open corn fields fresh 

 and sweet. Stoats and weasels are common on the 

 mound, or crossing the road to the corn ; they seem 

 more numerous in autumn, and I fear leveret and 

 partridge are thinned by them. 



Mice abound ; in spring they are sometimes up in 

 the blackthorn bushes, perhaps for the young buds. 

 In summer they may often be heard rushing along 



