THE FURZE IN ITS GLORY 301 



minnows. Here the rude, untamable plant has its 

 wildest and most striking appearance, now in the form 

 of a huge mound where several bushes are closely 

 interwoven, and now growing separately like ancient 

 dwarf trees, mixed with brown heath and grey masses 

 of granite. Here, too, you may come upon a clump 

 of dwarf blackthorn bushes thickly covered with their 

 luminous crystalline white little roses, never looking 

 so wonderful in their immaculate whiteness as when 

 thus seen contrasted with the rough black and flame- 

 colour of the furze. 



Better still, you can here see the yellow and orange 

 flame of the furze against the blue of the sea a mar- 

 vellously beautiful effect. I was reminded of a similar 

 effect observed in a furzy place among the South 

 Wiltshire downs a year before. It was one of those 

 days when there are big dark masses of cloud in 

 a clear sky and when the cloud shadows falling on 

 distant woods and hills give them a deep indigo blue. 

 The furze was in full bloom and had a new and 

 strange glory in my eyes when seen against this deep 

 blue of the distant landscape. 



Yellow and blue yellow and blue ! A lady on 

 the other side of the globe wrote complaining that 

 these two colours in association had got on her nerves 

 on account of something I had said in some book. 

 That was the fault of the writing. In nature they 

 never get on our nerves : they surprise us, because 

 the sight is not an everyday one, and in some cases 

 where they occupy a large field they intoxicate the 

 mind with their unparalleled loveliness. It has ever 



