A narrow lane crosses it on a low bank or causeway but just raised above
the level of the floods. It is bordered on either side by thick hawthorn
hedges, and these again are further rendered more impassable by the
rankest growth of hemlocks, 'gicks,' nettles, hedge-parsley, and similar
coarse plants. In these the nettle-creeper (white-throat) hides her
nest, and they have so encroached that the footpath is almost
threatened. This lane leads from the Upper Woods across the marshy level
to the cornfields, being a branch from that down which Luke the
contractor carried his rabbits.
Now a hare coming from the uplands beyond the woods, or from the woods,
and desirous of visiting the cornfields of the level grounds below,
found it difficult to pass the water. For besides the marsh itself, the
mere, and the brook, another slow, stagnant stream, quite choked with
sedges and flags, uncut for years, ran into it, or rather joined it, and
before doing so meandered along the very foot of the hill-side over
which the woods grew. To a hare or a rabbit, therefore, there was but
one path or exit without taking to the water in this direction for
nearly a mile, and that was across this narrow raised causeway. The
pheasants frequently used it, as if preferring to walk than to fly.
Partridges came too, to seat themselves in the dry dust--a thing they do
daily in warm weather.
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