IRature Botes: 
tEbe Selbome Society’s ^llbaGasine 
No. 30. 
JUNE, 1892. 
VOL. III. 
WIMBLEDON COMMON. 
BREEZY common standing high above the surrounding 
country ; the whole horizon girded with other heights 
and woodlands which fade into a soft grey, or dimly 
purple shade. A soft wind is blowing, the sun shining 
brightly, and both have still sufficient charm of novelty to make 
them a pleasurable sensation. Since the autumn all Nature has 
been more or less in a state of hibernation, and even man himself, 
though he may not like the bear retire to a hollow tree, or to a 
church tower, like the bats, to sleep away the cold, shares in a 
trait which is common to the whole animal creation. The 
strong delicious air and the revivifying sun awaken and quicken 
into active being the whole animal and vegetable world. “ Hope 
springs eternal in the human breast ” as soon as the days begin 
to lengthen ; and that man is to be pitied to whom the first 
primrose or snowdrop brings no sanguine views of the purpose 
of life. 
Ear and wide, above and beneath, great patches of yellow 
gorse are bursting into bloom, scenting the air for a mile around 
with breath as sweet as hone)-. These patches of gorse crop 
up here and there, trailing off into une.xpected places — now 
topping the crest of a hill, a yellow mass of flame against the 
sky, and appearing on the lower ground as burnished gold 
against the dark shadow of the wood. But its effectiveness as 
a whole is not diminished by this discursive habit ; its splendour 
as a mass of burnished magnificence is complete. 
We scorn the beaten tracks and strike off through gorse and 
bracken : the latter is deliberately unwinding each hairy frond 
beneath the shelter of the dark green arches. The dogs are 
keenly alive to the enjoyment, the scent of rabbits is around, 
and they dash through the bushes in eager expectation of 
coming to close quarters. All Nature seems to be stretching 
