88 WAYFARING NOTIONS 



good enough to want to give me a chance, put me 

 somewhere up on the South Down range. 



Never mind about Switzerland or foreign 

 health resorts ; do not listen to talk about bleak- 

 ness and south-westerly gales : take me up on 

 the ridges and find me a roof somehow. And in 

 summer never mind about the roof, good Dr 

 DoJivns taken a few hours per day will put you 

 straight if anything or anybody can. Pine 

 woods ? I know plenty about pine woods, and 

 like them much at home and abroad. Beautiful 

 it is to be among the firs when the sun draws 

 the '' medicinal gum " aroma from their spines and 

 bark, mostly from the fallen spines, as I believe, 

 and the old cones, also the trunk's scales, crackle 

 in the heat. Grand it is to be on the edge of a 

 coppice with foliage of sorts distilling delicate 

 scent, notably the tender leaves of the oak's 

 second shoots, the hazel, and the briars. What 

 more can the tired man need in an ordinary way 

 than to look over a bridge or from a terrace on to 

 tree-tops shot up from far down valleys with a 

 ripple of running or falling water singing gentle 

 accompaniment in time to their sway and rustle ? 



Not for a moment do I underrate the charms 

 of fat meads and crystal streams where the lusty 

 trout lie ; the moorhens, built galleon fashion, 

 perk along mincingly ; the dabchicks worry them- 

 selves needlessly into diving out of sight ; the 

 water rats imagine vain things in danger ; the 

 swallows skim the surface ; and the poor human 

 can see many strange sights if so be he has only 

 sense enough to keep quiet for a spell so that 

 things get settled down, and he is regarded as a 

 fixture like a pollard willow or an osier stump. 

 Lanes ? Did anybody ever hear me say a word 



