ON SURREY HILLS. 



coarse turf on both sides, along which grew hawk- 

 weed, vetches, thistles higher than myself, bryony, 

 both white and black, and trailing brambles. Great 

 clumps of rushes showe'd in all directions. Beyond 

 the hedges fields extended, broken by copse-growth 

 and woods. At certain seasons, when the weather 

 has been rough, these long stretches of road — some 

 portions of it under water — were almost as much as 

 one could put up with. 



I can assure those townsfolk who send forth a cry 

 that wild nature and scenery are becoming difficult 

 to find, that any amount of both still exists, within 

 a short railway ride from London. I could show 

 them localities where they might, without the least 

 trouble on their part, get lost in a perfect network 

 of byroads, unknown to the general public. Once 

 these were the regular beaten tracks leading from 

 one lonely hamlet to another. The turf covers 

 portions of them now ; but they are still easily distin- 

 guishable, and travellers on foot make use of them at 

 rare intervals. On either side of many of these, banks, 

 topped with remains of ancient thorn and plum trees, 

 mark their course; and such byroads are favourite 

 feeding-haunts and playing-grounds for the creatures. 



