278 WAYFARING NOTIONS 



bury. Stone, hard and lasting, is cheap in the 

 district, and the bricks a credit to the country. 

 Houses crop up somehow, increase and multiply, 

 with plenty of space allowed ; the more building 

 is done, so much the greater range is devoted to 

 golf links, than which none more sporting. 

 Golfers may come, and houses be built for them, 

 also other good judges, visitors who recognise 

 advantages when they see them. The country 

 behind the denes is unaffected, and not to say for 

 a moment spoilt. The wild birds of the littoral 

 seem to care no more than the mosses and stone 

 crop, the sedge and the short turf, bonds and 

 weights to nail the sand where it settles after 

 working up from the sea. Listening to them 

 made half a whole holiday, to the birds I mean — 

 the sheldrakes and the sandpipers, the gulls and 

 the brent-geese, the ordinary wild ducks, and 

 the curlews, apparently sentinels on duty for the 

 whole army of what shall we call it, millions, well, 

 tens of thousands. Larks do not, I believe, go 

 out to sea for the purposes of singing com- 

 petitions. Still, the Burnham larks, by name 

 legion, were hard at it, at any rate within earshot, 

 when I was half a mile from the shore-line trying 

 to catch the shell-ducks napping so as to mark 

 their bright-coloured trimmings. Many took 

 flight and settled before my eyes, ideal embodi- 

 ments of fancy flying dragons ''sketched" by 

 myriads of sandpipers playing follow my leader, 

 after the manner of their kind, to an accompani- 

 ment of sharp shivery whisperings as the flock's 

 wings cut the air. 



If you go walking at Burnham, please under- 

 stand need for choosing between occupations and 

 sticking to one. Golf on the most sporting course 



