The Ash Copse 105 



CHAPTER XII. 



THE ASH COPSE — THE NIGHTINGALE — CLOUD OF STARLINGS — HEDGE- 

 HOGS — HERON'S MEAD— MOORHENS — AMONG THE REEDS. 



A GAP in the hedge by Hazel Corner leads through a fringe 

 of hawthorn bushes into the ash copse. There is a gate at 

 a little distance ; but somehow it is always more pleasant 

 to follow the bye-way of the gap, where two steps, one 

 down into the ditch, or rather on to the heap of sand 

 thrown out from a rabbit bury, and one up on the 

 mound, carry you from the meadow — out of cultivation — 

 into the pathless wood. The green sprays momentarily 

 pushed aside close immediately behind, shutting out the 

 vision, and with it the thought of civilisation. These 

 boughs are the gates of another world. Under trees and 

 leaves — it is so, too, sometimes even in an avenue — where 

 the direct rays of the sun do not penetrate, there is ever 

 a subdued light ; it is not shadow, but a Light toned with 

 green. 



In spring the ground here is hidden by a verdant 

 growth, out of which presently the anemone lifts its chaste 

 flower. Then the wild hyacinths hang their blue bells so 

 thickly that, glancing between the poles, it is hazy with 

 colour ; and in the evening, if the level beams of the red 

 sun can reach them, here and there a streak of imperial 

 purple plays upon the azure. Woodbine coils round the 

 tall straight poles, and wild hops, whose bloom emits a 



