21 JANUARY 1928, Page 14

Does any countryman remember to have seen the scenery of

Britain so altered by weather in a short time ? Whole lines of trees vanished in the gale ; and the floods that followed have turned land into lake and marsh. The Thames has drawn most attention ; but, other valleys are in like case. A great part of the valley of the Lea is a lagoon ; and the effects will last for a good many years. One of the strangest events in botanical observation is the rapidity of the growth of rush and even reed on flooded land. I know one pool, remote from any stream, that still produces a crop of bulrush resulting from a now forgotten flood time.

W. BEACH Tnomes.

[Sir William Beach Thomas is travelling abroad for a month, and his weekly article will be suspended until his return.— ED. Spectator.]