iscourse, and I gave
variations of it as often as four times in an afternoon at places 10
miles apart. In this way one saw a good deal of the Wiltshire scenery
in the late winter season. It was a never-failing source of wonder and
pleasure to me to see the ivy covered banks, the ivy clad trees and
the rhododendrons and holly trees in green leaf in the middle of the
winter. In the garden at the back of the famous old Elizabethan house
in Potterne--a perfect example of the old Tudor timbered style of
architecture--cowslips and pansies were in full blossom, and I was
told the wild violets were in flower in the woods. The trim, well kept
gardens, hedges and fields of the country side and village were a
continual delight to a native of Canada where everything in comparison
looks so unfinished and in need of trimming. The winter wheat was as
green as the new grass of spring time, and many of the meadows also
were fairly green. Some shrubs, and in particular an unknown
yellow-flowered, leafless vine, were in blossom. I heard afterwards
that it was the Jasmine.

During those January days when the sun shone fitfully, some wonderful
atmospheric effects were to be seen at times on the plains. For the
painter who wanted atmosphere and light and vivid contrasts, that was
the place to be, for never did I see elsewhere such wonderful pastel
effects; never such vivid-colored banks of spray and fog.

The little straw-thatched farm houses with their small paned windows
frequently filled with flowers in bloom, nestling in gardens and
shrubberies and orchards, had a more or less comfortable and homey
look during the day time; but at dusk when the light was failing and
the lamp light shone through the windows, these farm houses took on a
wonderfully attractive and romantic appearance. It made you feel like
going to the door and asking for a glass of new milk or a cup of
cider; and you had visions of blazing fires in the great fireplace,
and brass utensils, hanging from the walls; comfy ingle nooks, old
beam ceilings and ancient oak furniture; hams suspended from the
kitchen ceilings, and old blue willow pattern plates on the walls.
That nothing can give a house such a homelike appearance as a thatched
roof and leaded panes, I am perfectly convinced.

To a Canadian the bird-life of the plain was marvellous. There were
birds by the tens of thousands. You would see crows settling on a
spring wheat field on the open plain by hundreds; you wo