We look from this height down upon the sea of green, from the heathery slope on whose crest we stand, where the Bracken spreads out its graceful fronds, and the prickly spines of Gorse sparkle in the moonlight-down, down to the leafy hollows below, where the dark shadows of night creep under the trees whose heads are steeped in silvery lustre. We cannot help thinking that the birds might have wished to keep awake to enjoy the exceptional beauty of this night; and earlier in the year nightingales in chorus would, at the same place, have made the woods ring with their sweet music. But as we look no sound breaks the pervading stillness, and nothing moves but the tiny forms of the flitting night-moths. Surely in this age of hard work, when tired bodies and overwrought brains need, more than they ever did before, the relaxation which nothing can afford so perfectly as a quiet country ramble, we should prize as a treasure beyond pricefor our own present enjoyment and as a precious inheritance for posterity-the solitude and beauty of our woods. 8. A RETROSPECT. TWO SENTINEL TREES IN MARK ASH. OMING down from our hill side stand point it is curiously interesting and in structive to reflect that the Heather and Bracken upon which we tread now clothe what was once covered by the sea. In stead of the vast expanse of wood, upon which we have just looked, stretching away from near the southern border of Hampshire to this its highest ground, a sea of waters rolled inwards from the deeps beyond, and, many miles to the north, dashed against cliffs which are now the chalk hills of inland Wiltshire. Then the sun shone with equal splendour on the waste of waters and with equal brilliancy and beauty the moon rose over the horizon of the sea. Where the Hawk now hangs motionless above green hollow and wooded valley, over ferny glade and heathery moor, watching keenly for its prey, the seagull screamed over the restless bosom of the deep. Where now roll away, dressed in leafage dyed with autumnal beauty, wood and copse and hedge, giving life and enjoyment to myriads of their inhabitants-inhabitants of the sun-loving worldupon which we ourselves delight to live and move -creatures of the sea moved in the great watery world which was to them a home of joy. No Holly then, as now, grew to sparkle in the night under the moonbeams upon the wild steep we are descending; but even in the blackest night, when clouds blotted out the faintest ray of light from the stars, the marvellous phosphorescence of the sea shone more luminously than the brightest leaf dancing under the noonday sun in the forest of |