6 APRIL 1951, Page 17

COUNTRY LIFE

PRIMAVERA gill lacks the Botticelli touch, and refuses to step out boldly, with a kindly goddess to encourage her. But one by one her messengers arrive, birds and flowers as shy as herself. This week I have seen the wheatear and heard the chiffchall. I have stood watching a half-torpid humble-bee, his velvet still ruffled by sleep, fumbling at the heart of a water-lily tulip. And the golden carp in my pool have begun their aquatics, flashing fin and lacy tail, and making greedy mouths with little gasping sounds at the surface of the water.