CHAPTER IV. 



A Midland Village : Gakden and Meadow. 



TT is a curious fact that, when I return from Switzerland, I 

 am at first unable to discover anything in our English 

 midlands but a dead level of fertile plain. The eye has ac- 

 customed itself in the course of two or three weeks to expect 

 an overshadowing horizon of rock and snow, and when that 

 is removed, it fails to perceive the lesser differences of height. 

 This fact is an excellent illustration of the abnormal condition 

 of things in the Alps, aflFecting the life both of the plants and 

 animals which inhabit them ; and it also shows us how very 

 slight are the differences of elevation in most parts of our 

 own island. In ordinary weather, the temperature does not 

 greatly differ in an EngHsh valley and on an English ridge 

 of hill, and the question whether their fauna and flora vary, 

 is one rather of soil than of temperature. StUl, there are 

 manifest differences to be observed as we proceed from river- 

 valleys to rising wooded ground, and from this again to a 

 bare hill-side ; and it may be interesting, after our walk in 

 the Alps, to note the bird-life of an English rural district 

 which is provided with all three, recalling dimly and per- 

 haps fancifully the three regions of the Alpine world. 



