INTRODUCTION. 



I I 



one of his ancestors was hiding among its rocks when Cromwell came, and he 

 would not transfer his allegiance. 



It was soft grey weather in early May, and as we rode along to one of these 

 valleys, the air was so full of the scent of the furze that we seemed to bathe in per- 

 fume. Crossing the hill-side, on our right was its steep rough slope, before us the wide 

 country, a broken foreground of woods, and granite tors above them, and one chain 

 of hills rising after another, until the farthest range was lost in the grey sky ; and 

 at the foot of the hill the mountain stream came out from under the oaks, and little 

 rivulets dashed and sprang away to meet it, and all together went their way among 

 the rocks and hills to the distant sea. We went down the cart-track to the water- 

 side : here were deep pools, amber, and brown, and purple ; and there were falls 

 over the rocks, and boulders lying about on the ground, as if a giant had been 

 rolling them till he was tired, and had left them there for the moss to grow on 

 them ; and in a cleft in the rugged bark of one of the oaks a seed of woodsorrel had 

 sprung, and the leaves and flowers, that a touch could bruise, lay in the roughness 

 and brownness. Across the stream was a space of ground contested by the furze and 

 the coppice, the furze-bushes all masses of gold, and through the furze-bushes and 

 the hazel we came into the coppice itself. It was not yet full-foliaged, but here 

 and there broad bits of green hung on the hazel boughs, — the banners of the 

 triumphant spring. We left our horses in the open ground to enjoy themselves, 

 and followed the coppice path, which led us to the remains of an old fort, supposed 

 formerly to have been a defence for cattle, now only a huge mound overgrown 

 with moss and brushwood. Here came the midday sun, and up among th^ moss 

 and the brushwood, to meet him, rose the very loveliest host of flowers that ever 

 he called forth. Whortleberry, millions of pink waxen bells, and the honey-drops 

 like jewels as they caught the sun ; woodsorrel among the moss ; the earliest 

 wild hyacinths hanging their bashful heads, as a child looks at you from among its 

 curls ; primroses not caring where they grew, so they could grow and bring their 

 quiet beauty and their scent to the spring-time's happiness ; and countless blossoms 

 besides, more than can be told. And from the summit of the fort we looked over 

 into a deep hollow in the wood ; its banks rose around, and the hollow was, as it 

 were, a reflection of the sky, for it was absolutely blue with hyacinth, and the blue 

 was starred over with the wood anemone. There were thickets of underwood ; 

 honeysuckle, bramble, and dog-rose, and a wonderful emerald lacework was cast 



