26 APRIL 1930, Page 15

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THE SWEET 0' THE YEAR.

Easter fell perhaps a week, but little more, before the English countryside was at its best. Spring is late ; but even in late years April, not May, may claim the " sweet o' the year," when tiny leaves half reveal and half conceal ; when the first migrants cry and are seen ; and the black- thorns are as white as the anemones on the floor of the woods, A good many holidaymakers saw their first swallow, but a few. birds (as a Wareham correspondent records) were here as early as April 6th. They appeared on the south coast of France in the first week of March ; and that month more or less accurately expresses the difference of clime. Our South and South-West Coast (which is much nearer the French dates) must be excepted.