Country Life
THE SWEET 0' THE YEAR.
The first day of official spring seldom produced quite so many spring events as met the senses of observers who left the Town on that day. The heat succeeded not only cold, but a fruitful soaking of the ground by melted snow, which is the best of all forms of watering. The "peck of March dust" on the top of this not only gave a perfect seed bed, but was accompanied by a speed of growth very rare in Britain. Crown Imperials—to give a particular example—grew four inches within the day. Flowers burst out so quickly as to startle you among plants that looked quite dead. In that most popular of spring garden plants, the wallflower, the little blossom on the top of a stem that was thought dead was more odd perhaps than beautiful ; but it at least acknowledged the rare warmth. On the twenty-first I watched rooks, thrushes, dunnocks and sparrows building with a rage for work only paralleled among hive bees. Though the exodus from London was large, London itself led the spring race. It was the warmest place in England ; and Kew Gardens, which I happened to visit on the eve of spring, was full of salient examples, among insects and birds as well as plants.
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