pection proved to be partly rotten.

"Forth into the fields I went,
And Nature's living motion lent
The pulse of hope to discontent.

"I wonder'd at the bounteous hours,
The slow result of winter showers:
You scarce could see the grass for flowers.

"I wonder'd, while I paced along:
The woods were fill'd so full with song,
There seemed no room for sense of wrong."

Such is Tennyson's description of a spring day in the fields and
woods, and nothing more beautiful could be written. And so it was with
joy that my men and carter boys with waggons and teams started early
on the spring mornings to bring home the newly purchased hop-poles
from the distant woods. These poles are sold by auction in stacks
where they are cut, and the buyer has to cart them home. Usually,
after a successful hop year they were in great demand; prices would
rise in proportion, and the early seller did well, but when the later
sales came sometimes, the demand being satisfied, there would be a
heavy fall in values, and as a cunning buyer expressed it, "The poles
lasted longer than the money."

The dainty catkins of the hazel are the first sign of awakening life
in the woods; they are well out by the end of January or early in
February, and as they ripen, clouds of pollen are disseminated by the
wind. Tennyson speaks of "Native hazels tassel-hung." The female
bloom, which is the immediate precursor of the nut itself, is a pretty
little pink star, which can be found on the same branch as the catkin
but is much less conspicuous; and both are a very welcome sight, as
almost the earliest hint of spring. The hazel bloom is shortly
followed by the green leaves of the woodbine, which climbs so
exultingly to the tops of the highest trees and breathes its fragrance
on a summer evening. In the New Forest the green hellebore is early
and noticeable from its peculiar green blossoms, but I have not seen
it in Worcestershire.

My men and teams were generally off to the hills, Blockley, Broadway,
Winchcombe, Farmcote, and suchlike out-of-the-way places, when the wet
"rides" in the woods were drying up. The boys especially revelled in
the flowers--primroses and wild hyacinths--and came home with huge
bunches; they enjoyed the novelty of the woods and the wild
hill-country, which is such a contrast to the flat and highly
cultivated Vale.

When unloaded at home the poles have to be trimmed, cut to the proper
l