230 NATURE IN DOWNLAND 



of the great tree in little, with a more varied and 

 tender colour, more light and shade, a richer beauty. 

 This is the specific character: then there is the 

 very piquant individual character, which is an added 

 distinction; for two thorns are not like two oaks, or 

 beeches, or elms. Many forest trees are best seen 

 in masses ; for instance, the elm in its summer fohage 

 and the beech in its autumn colour. The hawthorn, 

 like the holly and, in a less degree, some other trees, 

 is best seen growing by itself; and the most perfect 

 thorn wood is that where there is ample room for 

 a person to walk freely about in it and see every 

 tree, or a large proportion of the trees, all round. 

 That is the character of the wood I am describing, 

 and its beauty is greatly enhanced by the character 

 of the open sunlit ground it grows on — a soft elastic 

 turf, like that of the sheep-walks, but more closely 

 eaten down by the innumerable rabbits that have 

 their home in the wood ; its harmonious greens and 

 browns touched or mixed with the brighter colours 

 of lichen and moss, rust-red and orange and tender 

 grey and emerald green. 



Here, better than in most places, the infinite 

 variety of the thorn may be admired, especially in 

 its colour, from August onward to October, when 

 the many-tinted leaves are finally shed. It is a 

 familiar fact that the drier and poorer the soil on 

 which a tree grows the more beautiful will be the 

 dying colours of the foliage ; and these thorns on 



