hill in the
sunshine, upon a valley full of mist, but I have never seen it before
from comparatively low ground, as on this occasion.

My summers at Aldington were nearly always too busy to allow me to
take a holiday, except for a very few days, but when the urgent work
of the year was over, the harvest completed, and the hops and the
fruit picked, we always had a clear month away from home, about the
middle of October to the middle of November; and, as we found the
autumn much less advanced in the south than in the midlands, we often
spent the time on the south coast or in the Isle of Wight, and we were
nearly always favoured by fine weather. On one of these occasions,
when we were exploring the whole island on bicycles, I never once
found it necessary to carry a waterproof cape, though in the course of
this visit we rode over 600 miles.

[Illustration: NOTE. THE CHANGING COURSE OF STREAMS.]

CHAPTER XXI.

BIRDS: PEACOCKS--A WHITE PHEASANT--ROOKS' ARITHMETIC.

"Hail to thee, blithe spirit!
Bird thou never wert,
That from heaven or near it,
Pourest thy full heart."
--SHELLEY: _To a Skylark_.

We read of the peacocks which Solomon's navy of Tarshish brought once
in three years with other rare and precious commodities to contribute
to the splendour of his court; and doubtless their magnificence added
a distinct feature even where so much that was beautiful was to be
seen; but, to show itself off to the best advantage, one cannot
imagine a better place for a peacock than a grey old English home,
round whose mellow stone walls time is lingering lovingly. The touch
of brilliant life beside the appeal of the venerable past adds
perfection to the picture. I have always had an immense admiration for
peacocks, and soon after I came to Aldington I bought a pair. The cock
we named Gabriel Junks, after the famous bird in one of Scrutator's
books; he was a grand presence, and loved to display the huge fan of
his gorgeously-eyed tail, quivering his rattling quills in all the
glory of its greens and blues, and cinnamon-coloured wing feathers, on
the little piece of lawn under the chestnut trees in front of the
Manor.

He learned to come to the window every morning at breakfast-time for a
piece of bread-and-butter, and if the window was closed he would rap
impatiently upon it with his beak. He roosted in the orchard just
across the road on the trunk of an an