A SEASIDE LINKS 219 



lying flat on the sea, but climbing the sky to the source 

 of the reflection. Such common phenomena (in the true 

 sense of the word) as this, are as certain an addition to 

 the happiness of life, as in another sphere are Words 

 worth s &quot; little nameless unremembered acts.&quot; If you 

 had not climbed the hill, if you had stayed behind the 

 veil of the marram-covered dunes, you would have 

 missed a real and solid benefit that for the rest of your 

 time colours your affection for the scene. 



One of the curiosities of the links, on which you look 

 down, is expressed from here in a sort of broad blue 

 band containing the plain on the landside as the dunes 

 contain it on the seaside. It is composed of tall reeds 

 springing from a marsh, strangely associated with the 

 dry sand. This species of reed is always at its best in 

 September ; but it was strange to find in this edging of 

 the dunes by Cardigan Bay the replica of a picture of 

 September on the Huntingdonshire Ouse. Not only is 

 the broad ribbon of reed strangely similar ; but it is 

 appreciated by the same creatures. If you want a queer 

 experience in the observation of birds, thrust the nose of 

 your boat into the reed beds of the Ouse some autumn 

 evening before the swallows have left. Bands of swal 

 lows and bands of starlings converge on the beds in in 

 ordinate numbers, like the sparrows in the squares of 

 Lisbon or Barcelona. The passion to obtain a roosting 

 perch on the reeds is such that you and your boat, how 

 ever roughly handled or full of folk, will be utterly dis 

 regarded, and you may almost pluck the birds from the 

 reeds as you would pluck fruit from a tree. In this wild 

 garden the swallows, like Andrew Marvel s peaches, 

 &quot; into my hands themselves do reach.&quot; 



Now, one can understand the swallows collecting 

 before migration, but why should the starlings, most of 



