IDE HILL 
163 
worse ? ’ Passing over the fact that a good deal depends on the 
kind of bird and the kind of cage, this is the old familiar argument 
that two wrongs make a right. Granting to the utmost the wrong 
of caging birds, how does this wrong diminish or palliate the 
wrong of killing birds for ‘ egret plumes,’ &c.? We may regret to 
see horses docked as they sometimes are ; does it mend matters 
to know that they also suffer from bearing-reins ? Reasoning 
of this kind is so exceedingly common that it is desirable 
occasionally to call attention to it." 
IDE HILL. 
N the beautiful stretch of country lying at the meeting- 
place of the three counties, Kent, Surrey and Sussex, 
and within thirty miles of London, rises the steep and 
wooded height of Ide Hill, giving from its top an 
unexpected wide outlook over the miles of open weald stretching 
away below. 
It was only a w'eek or two ago that we made our way to its 
top, climbing the steep sandy lanes leading up the hill, the high 
grass banks full of yellow tormentil, long spikes of agrimony, 
and here and there soft cloudy bunches of white bedstraw, with 
other gaily-coloured flowers. Passing through a gate we took a 
path still winding steeply upwards through a thick hazel-copse, 
which brought us out on the field crowning the top of the hill 
which a few weeks ago was a mass of glowing blue from the 
viper’s bugloss with which it is covered, and which could be 
seen as a blue patch on the hillside from a mile or two away. 
The long spikes were now in seed, with here and there a few 
blue flowers still left, and lower down, covering the rough 
furrows of the field, were spreading plants of the pretty little 
field-pansy. 
But the glory of the hill-top is the view which stretches 
away for miles to the south and west, a wide open stretch of 
wooded country bounded by the outlines of the hills of Kent, 
Sussex and Surrey. A few miles away to the south is the high 
wooded top of Saxonbury, leading to the ridge of Crowborough 
beacon, and the wide stretch of Ashdown Forest, while further 
to the west the view is bounded by more distant ranges of 
hills. 
It was indeed a lovely view as we looked out over it in 
the soft blue haze of the summer afternoon, and one longed 
to have it kept for ever for the enjoyment of the public, as 
a place where the dwellers in our great city might come and 
carry away with them something of the peace and beauty of the 
scene. 
An effort to acquire this piece of land is now being made by 
the National Trust. 
