22 FEBRUARY 1952, Page 13

Promise of Spring

So much bedding has been wheeled out from the standing-in herd that the midden towers at the back of the shippon. On a bank at the bottom of the field snowdrops are showing. One could tell, even with- out the bright light that shows up the trees on the hill, that winter is ageing and spring will be soon, for in the Dutch barn the straw is diminishing. There is a forest of rotten stalks where the sheep went through the rape and kail, and clamps have been raided. At night the vixen yelps, and we are on the slow gradient that goes to mid- summer, with primroses following snowdrops, and wood anemones and bluebells to come.