ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.] 
Mature Motes : 
Ube Selborne Society’s flT)aga3tne. 
No. 195. MARCH, 1906. Vol. XVII. 
A NORTH COUNTRY WOOD IN WINTER. 
S EEN from a distance the woods present a uniform hue 
of brown, varied here and there by the dark green of 
the Holly, Pine or Yew. The whole appears dull and 
dreary, but by penetrating into these woods one finds 
a new world around one. Here silence reigns. Occasionally the 
wind makes a pine-bough moan, or a bird twitters; but every- 
thing has a very peaceful appearance. But Nature is not 
slumbering, as the lover of it will find, in whatsoever direction 
he may turn. Here a young Ash is festooned with the beautiful 
fruit of “ Traveller’s Joy,” or, as it is called in the country, “ Old 
Man’s Beard.” There a stunted Hawthorn is decked with its 
ruddy haws. The graceful little Spleenwort, nestling amongst 
the limestone rocks, is now at its best, while the Hartstongue and 
the silvery Cup-moss are sure to attract the notice of the passer- 
by. The gaudy hips on the wild Roses add greatly to the land 
scape, and the fruit of the Guelder-rose and Wayfaring-tree still 
hang limply from the bare branches. 
Half-a-dozen or more Long-tailed Tits are busy in yonder 
Spruce fir; a Jay silently glides along the glade in the valley 
below, and a cock Pheasant flies out of the bracken close to the 
path. A little further on a glossy Blackbird dashes screaming 
from a Holly. 
In the valley below the wood-cutter has been at work, clearing 
away the undergrowth of Hazels, and preparing to make them 
into bobbins and hoops for barrels. Only the large forest tree 
(Oaks chiefly) are left standing. After the woods have been thu 
cut down, it is almost impossible to recognise the spot. A 
present the ground is covered with stacks of wood ; but these are 
soon cleared off, and before long the place will be covered with 
its Spring carpet of Hyacinths, Sorrel, Primroses, Anemones 
and Violets. Within a few years the Hazels will have grown up 
again, and will be cut down once more in fourteen years time. 
