Poplars and Firs. 67 
CHAPTER IV. 
THE VILLAGE—THE WASHPOOL—VILLAGE INDUSTRIES—-THE 
BELFRY—JACKDAWS—VILLAGE CHRONICLES. 
A SHORT distance below the cottagers’ ‘ dipping- 
place’ just mentioned, the same stream, leaving the 
deep groove or gully, widens suddenly into a large 
clear pool, shaded by two tall fir trees and an equally 
tall poplar. The tops of these trees are nearly level 
with the plain above the verdant valley in which the 
stream flows, and, being side by side, the difference in 
the manner of their growth is strongly contrasted. 
The branches of the fir gracefully depend, as if 
weighted downwards by the burden of the heavy deep 
green fringe they carry—a fringe tipped with bullion 
in the spring, for the young shoots are of ‘so light a 
green as to shade into a pale yellow. The branches 
of the poplar, on the contrary, point upwards—grow- 
ing nearly vertically ; so that the outline of the tree 
resembles the tip of an immensely exaggerated artist’s 
brush. This formation is ill adapted for nest-building, 
as it affords little or no surface to build on, and so the 
poplar is but seldom used by birds. 
The pool beneath is approached by a broad track 
F2 
