SIGNALS OF SPRING 67 



again to give London its water supply and unite in un 

 regarded confluence with the Thames. 



3- 



Almost the best welcome to spring in our language 

 and therefore in any language or land is Coventry 

 Patmore s Saint Valentine s Day, for so it often happens 

 that lesser poets in Mr. Jorrocks s phrase &quot; fill up the 

 chinks &quot; left by the bards sublime. And the ode which 

 he called &quot; Winter &quot; is as fine .a greeting to the same 

 season. This ode is very exactly in tune with the best- 

 known natural history diaries, though the diarists predate 

 their hopes of spring yet more whole-heartedly than the 

 poets. They record the first signs of spring in November 

 in the singing of the thrush, the budding of the honey 

 suckle, the renewed activity of the worms. On the other 

 hand, one of the most thorough of the older books that 

 take us round the year, The Country Month by Month, 

 begins, like the Roman year, with March. But Coventry 

 Patmore has hit the English hour more nicely than any 

 one : 



O, Baby Spring, 



That flutterest sudden neath the breast of Earth 

 A month before the birth. 



The lines may be compared with those of Francis 

 Thompson in The Dead Cardinal. We have still, then, a 

 month to wait before the arrival of proper spring ; but 

 what a catalogue-r-and a catalogue raisonne of spring 

 pictures any countryman can this year give; and the 

 town, with its warmth and shelter, may anticipate the 

 country. If the ill-logic is pardonable, we may say that 

 some things are always premature : the primrose always 

 flowers in December, the thrush and robin always sing 



