Holly and Hawks London as a rus in urbe has
been very much in evidence. There is the much discussed holly hedge along Piccadilly, which is to rival the famous hedge of John Evelyn. It should do well. Holly, though a little difficult to transplant, is singularly accommodating and hardy. It is one of the few things which flourishes under shade and dripping boughs. It likes being cut, and never looks so well as when a hoar frost stretches little silver ropes from prickle to prickle and gives the whole a picoted edge. My one objection to the. plant is that the berryless males are wont to out-number the berried females ; but that might be an advantage in London, where winter berries might prove irresistible. London hawks, as well as holly, have produced needless wonder. Hawks like towns. They are, for example, a quite regular feature of the scene round about Cologne Cathedral, and are only less fond of St. Paul's than of that tall spire. Sparrow-hawks as well as kestrels have been seen of late both in West and East London. There is, of course, plenty of expert evidence that the population of metropolitan birds steadily grows, from black redstarts to hawks and owls. Yet London can hardly rival Cheltenham, where only the other day a distinct scratching was heard at the window of a house in the middle of the town, and the lunchers looked up to see " the laughing, mad, light-blue eyes of an unmistakable fox."
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