180 BIRDS AND MAN 



the sunshine of heaven and the verdure of that 

 beautiful valley. The Axe finishes its course 

 fifteen miles away, for 'tis a short river, but they 

 are pleasant miles in one of the fairest vales in 

 the west of England, rich in cattle and in corn. 

 And at the point where it flows into the Severn 

 Sea stands Brean Down, a huge isolated hill, the 

 last of the Mendip range on that side. It has a 

 singular appearance : it might be likened in its 

 form to a hippopotamus standing on the flat 

 margin of an African lake, its breast and mouth 

 touching the water, and all its body belly-deep in 

 the mud ; it is, in fact, a hill or a promontory 

 united to the mainland by a strip of low flat land 

 — a huge oblong saddle-backed hill projected into 

 the sea towards Wales. Down at its foot, at the 

 point where it touches the mainland, close to the 

 mouth of the Axe, there is a farmhouse, and the 

 farmer is the tenant of the entire hill, and uses it 

 as a sheep-walk. The sheep and rabbits and 

 birds are the only inhabitants. I remember a 

 deUghtful experience I had one cold windy but 

 very bright spring morning near the farmhouse. 

 There is there, at a spot where one is able to 

 ascend the steep hill, a long strip of rock that 



