23 FEBRUARY 1951, Page 20

COUNTRY LIFE

THE face of nature is as constantly expressive as the human countenance. Sometimes, between our rich moments of attention to one or other item in the out-of-door world, we pause and contemplate the whole, to realise that, except in particularly arid places, every acre of the countryside is in process of change, almost from day to day, working through a seasonal rhythm and additional phases caused by accident— the hand of man, storm, pest or invader. When a copse is cut, for example, the difference -In, the landscape is immediately noticed. But there is more than that, for the balance of plant and animal life has been changed, and instantly new chains of events are formed, whose effect upon the locality is unforeseen.