And Long Weeks - Months - Went By In My
Wanderings, Mostly In Open Downland Country, Too Often Under
Gloomy Skies, Chilled
By cold winds and wetted by cold rains.
Then, having accomplished my purpose and discovered
incidentally that the call had
Mocked me again, as on so many
previous occasions, I returned once more to the old familiar
green place.
Crossing the common, I found that where it had been dry in
spring one might now sink to his knees in the bog; also that
the snipe which had vanished for a season were back at the old
spot where they used to breed. It was a bitter day near the
end of an unpleasant summer, with the wind back in the old
hateful north-east quarter; but the sun shone, the sky was
blue, and the flying clouds were of a dazzling whiteness.
Shivering, I remembered the south wall, and went there, since
to escape from the wind and bask like some half-frozen serpent
or lizard in the heat was the highest good one could look for
in such weather. To see anything new in wild life was not to
be hoped for.
That old grey, crumbling wall of ancient Calleva, crowned with
big oak and ash and thorn and holly, and draped with green
bramble and trailing ivy and creepers - how good a shelter it
is on a cold, rough day! Moving softly, so as not to disturb
any creature, I yet disturbed a ring snake lying close to the
wall, into which it quickly vanished; and then from their old
place among the stones a pair of blue stock-doves rushed out
with clatter of wings.
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