154 WOOD AND GARDEN 



or its massive sturdiness on a bare hillside, one cannot 

 say, but a Holly in early winter, even without berries, 

 is always a cheering sight. John Evelyn is eloquent 

 in his praise of this grand evergreen, and lays special 

 emphasis on this quality of cheerfulness. 



Near my home is a little wild valley, whose plant- 

 ing, wholly done by Nature, I have all my life regarded 

 with the most reverent admiration. 



The arable fields of an upland farm give place to 

 hazel copses as the ground rises. Through one of 

 these a deep narrow lane, cool and dusky in summer 

 from its high steep banks and over-arching foliage, 

 leads by a rather sudden turn into the lower end of 

 the little valley. Its grassy bottom is only a few yards 

 wide, and its sides rise steeply right and left. Look- 

 ing upward through groups of wild bushes and small 

 trees, one sees thickly-wooded ground on the higher 

 levels. The soil is of the very poorest ; ridges of pure 

 yellow sand are at the mouths of the many rabbit- 

 burrows. The grass is of the short fine kinds of the 

 heathy uplands. Bracken grows low, only from one 

 to two feet high, giving evidence of the poverty of 

 the soil, and yet it seems able to grow in perfect, 

 beauty clumps of Juniper and Thorn and Holly, and 

 Scotch Fir on the higher ground. 



On the steeply-rising banks are large groups of 

 Juniper, some tall, some spreading, some laced and 

 wreathed about with tangles of Honeysuckle, now in 

 brown winter dress, and there are a few bushes of 



