The Heron 19; 



it does not appear so much : the part visible on first 

 glancing over the gateway can hardly exceed an acre. 

 The rest is formed of nooks — deep indentations, so to say 

 — not more than six or eight yards wide at the entrance, 

 and running up to a point. Of these there are four or five 

 — recesses in the massive walls of green. 



These corners are caused by the mound following the 

 curiously winding course of a brook which flows just 

 without on the left side ; and without, on the right side, 

 runs a second brook, whose direction is much straighter 

 and current slower. These two meet at the top of the 

 mead, and then, forming a junction, make a deep, swift 

 stream, flowing beside a series of water meadows — broad, 

 level, and open, like a plain — which are irrigated from it. 

 The mounds in the angle where the brooks join enclose a 

 large space planted with osiers, and inside the hedges all 

 round the mead there is a wide, deep ditch, always full of 

 slowly moving water : so that the field is really surrounded 

 by a double moat ; and in one corner, in addition, there is 

 a pond hidden by maple thickets from within, and intended 

 for the use of cattle in the adjoining field. The nearest 

 house is several meadows distant, and no footpath passes 

 near, so that the spot is peculiarly quiet. These mounds, 

 hedges, osier-bed, and brooks, occupy an area nearly or 

 quite equal to the space where cattle can feed. 



Upon the fir tree a heron perches frequently in the 

 daytime, because from that great elevation he can com- 

 mand an extensive view, and feels secure against attack. 

 Whenever he visits the water meadows, sailing thither 

 from the shallow lake (one of whose creeks approaches the 

 ash copse), he almost always rests here before descending 

 to the field to take a good look round. The heron is a 

 most suspicious bird : when he alights in the water 



o 



