INTRODUCTION. 



7 



valley. Nestled among* the stones is the wood-sorrel, fresh, three-parted leaves, 

 delicate, pearl-white, semi-transparent bells with lilac pencillings ; how the moss- 

 feathers have laid themselves aronnd the leaves, and how soft a bed, even in that 

 stony place, has been made for the exquisite nursling ! Under the hedge the 

 ground fairly shines with the golden saxifrage, and above, the air is musky with 

 the scent of the green adoxa, and there are primroses everywhere ; one springs at 

 the mossy root of the tree, blossoms clustering among the crumpled foliage, 

 another root looks down from the dark cleft of the rock, and another goes back to 

 light the hollow where the green dog's mercury comes about her ; and the golden 

 saxifrage makes the ground look as if angels had trodden it in the night and left 

 their shining foot-prints ; and the primroses are like their robes laid down. There 

 is a thicket in which dead brambles and sprouting ones and arum leaves are all 

 tossed together. And climb that steep path, and go among the rocks and on into 

 the coppice, and you will find it full of wood-anemones. Every day some fresh 

 leaf springs, some new flower opens, until, by the beginning of May, hyacinths 

 curl over the ground like blue smoke, and wild strawberry blossoms fall like little 

 snow-flakes, and purple orchises are sullenly handsome among their spotted leaves, 

 and the tall sedges wave ; and on the uplands rolls a golden sea of furze, and 

 beyond those golden billows is the deep blue line of England's girdle. Later yet, 

 and the marshes by the stream have the " gold sovereign " blossoms of the water 

 ranunculus, and the white-fringed bog-bean ; and the dragon-flies come out in 

 their green armour, and the sun's rays will have curled and crisped the moss, and 

 made it all amber and brown ; and later yet, we shall lose sight of it. But we 

 shall come into the valley still ; for there will be tangles of honeysuckle, and 

 dog*-rose, and purple vetch, when the hawthorn is gone ; and the foxgloves will 

 stand like sentinels on the rocks, and among the spongy bog-moss will be the 

 pink pimpernel and ivy-leaved campanula, and crimson-haired sundew all pearly, 

 and golden asphodel ; and we may stand among the meadow-sweet that is almost 

 breast-high, and look all round upon its foam, and to do this, and breathe its 

 scent, and hear the chiming of the brook the while, is one of earth's joys. Yet 

 again in autumn the ferns will be there, with their malachite vases set with brown 

 tessellated work, and stately tossings of osmunda, and ribbons of harts'-tongue, 

 and minced spleenworts trailing from the rocks. And when the ferns are 

 dying, and the leaves are falling from the trees, we may see the green gleams 



