6o ON SURREY HILLS. 



cultivates. The wild rabbit of the waste lands is 

 nothing more or less than " pinwire varmint," as the 

 rustics say ; and only fit as food for the fox and bad- 

 ger, the different members of the weasel family, and 

 the birds of prey. One and all are most heartily 

 welcome to have him. The so-called wild' rabbits of 

 a more toothsome sort, that are supplied to the mar- 

 kets, have in most cases some of the domesticated 

 rabbit's blood in their veins, which, with good food, 

 accounts for their greater size and superior edible 

 qualities. It is a common sight to see tame rabbits — 

 black, white, grey, and sandy — dotting about a war- 

 ren. The progeny from the tame and the wild ones 

 are the animals of the markets and the poulterers. 

 In the days I write of, the pinwire dotters were the 

 pest of the farmers. 



The hills about Holmbury are well wooded : oak, 

 ash, fir, mountain-ash, the quicken of the woodmen, 

 are there. The undergrowth is in keeping with the 

 forest-trees ; junipers, heath, bramble, dogwood, and 

 alder, with the bracken and whortleberry plants that 

 cover the ground thickly mile after mile, give rare 

 cover and food to all wild creatures. The children, 

 too, pick vast quantities of "whorts," as tliey call 



