208 NATURE NEAR LONDON. 



the trees of a wood. It is bordered with the cool 

 green of brake fern, from which a rabbit lias como 

 forth to feed, and a pheasant strolls along with a mind, 

 perhaps, to the barley yonder. Or a fox-glove lifts 

 its purple spire; or woodbine crowns the bushes. 

 The sickle has gone over, and the poppies which grew 

 so thick a while ago in the corn no longer glow like 

 a scarlet cloak thrown on the ground. But red spots 

 in waste places and by the ways are where they have 

 escaped the steel. 



A wood-pigeon keeps pace with the train — his 

 vigorous pinions can race against an engine, but 

 cannot elude the hawk. He stops presently among 

 the trees. How pleasant it is from the height of the 

 embankment to look down upon the tops of the oaks ! 

 The stubbles stretch away, crossed with bands of 

 green roots where the partridges are hiding. Among 

 flags and weeds the moorhens feed fearlessly as we 

 roll over the stream : then comes a cutting, and more 

 heath and hawkweed, harebell, and bramble bushes 

 red with unripe berries. 



Flowers grow high up the sides of the quarries ; 

 flowers cling to the dry, crumbling chalk of the cliff- 

 like cutting ; flowers bloom on the verge above, against 

 the line of the sky, and over the dark arch of the 

 tunnel. This, it is true, is summer ; but it is the 

 same in spring. Before a dandelion has shown in 

 the meadow, the banks of the railway are yellow 

 with coltsfoot. After a time the gorse flowers every- 

 where along them ; but the golden broom overtops all, 

 perfect thickets of broom glowing in the sunlight. 



Presently the copses are azure with bluebells, among 



