Abbotsbury is an old unspoilt village, not on but near the sea, divided
from it by half a mile of meadowland where all sorts of meadow and water
plants flourish, and where there are extensive reed and osier beds,
the roosting-place in autumn and winter of innumerable starlings. I
am always delighted to come on one of these places where starlings
congregate, to watch them coming in at day's decline and listen to their
marvellous hubbub, and finally to see their aerial evolutions when they
rise and break up in great bodies and play at clouds in the sky. When
the people of the place, the squire and keepers and others who have an
interest in the reeds and osiers, fall to abusing them on account of the
damage they do, I put my fingers in my ears. But at Abbotsbury I did not
do so, but listened with keen pleasure to the curses they vented and the
story they told. This was that when the owner of Abbotsbury came down
for the October shooting and found the starlings more numerous than
ever, he put himself into a fine passion and reproached his keepers and
other servants for not having got rid of the birds as he had desired
them to do. Some of them ventured to say that it was easier said than
done, whereupon the great man swore that he would do it himself without
assistance from any one, and getting out a big duck-gun he proceeded
to load it with the smallest shot and went down to the reed bed and
concealed himself among the bushes at a suitable distance. The birds
were pouring in, and when it was growing dark and they had settled down
for the night he fired his big piece into the thick of the crowd, and by
and by when the birds after wheeling about for a minute or two settled
down again in the same place he fired again. Then he went home, and
early next morning men and boys went into the reeds and gathered
a bushel or so of dead starlings. But the birds returned in their
thousands that evening, and his heart being still hot against them he
went out a second time to slaughter them wholesale with his big gun.
Then when he had blazed into the crowd once more, and the dead and
wounded fell like rain into the water below, the revulsion came and he
was mad with himself for having done such a thing, and on his return to
the house, or palace, he angrily told his people to "let the starlings
alone" for the future--never to molest them again!
I thought it one of the loveliest stories I had ever heard; there is no
hardness comparable to that of the sportsman, yet here was one, a very
monarch among them, who turned sick at his own barbarity and repented.
Beyond the flowery wet meadows, favored by starlings and a
breeding-place of swans, is the famous Chesil Bank, one of the seven
wonders of Britain. And thanks to this great bank, a screen between sea
and land extending about fourteen miles eastward from Portland, this
part of the coast must remain inviolate from the speculative builder of
seaside holiday resorts or towns of lodging-houses.
Every one has heard of the Fleet in connection with the famous swannery
of Abbotsbury, the largest in the land. I had heard so much about the
swannery that it had but little interest for me. The only thing about
it which specially attracted my attention was seeing a swan rise up and
after passing over my head as I stood on the bank fly straight out over
the sea. I watched him until he had diminished to a small white spot
above the horizon, and then still flying he faded from sight. Do these
swans that fly away over the sea, and others which appear in small
flocks or pairs at Poole Harbour and at other places on the coast,
ever return to the Fleet? Probably some do, but, I fancy some of these
explorers must settle down in waters far from home, to return no more.
The village itself, looked upon from this same elevation, is very
attractive. Life seems quieter, more peaceful there out of sight of the
ocean's turbulence, out of hearing of its "accents disconsolate." The
cottages are seen ranged in a double line along the narrow crooked
street, like a procession of cows with a few laggards scattered behind
the main body. One is impressed by its ancient character. The cottages
are old, stone-built and thatched; older still is the church with
its grey square tower, and all about are scattered the memorials of
antiquity--the chantry on the hill, standing conspicuous alone, apart,
above the world; the vast old abbey barn, and, rough thick stone walls,
ivy-draped and crowned with beautiful valerian, and other fragments that
were once parts of a great religious house.
Looking back at the great round hill from the village it is impossible
not to notice the intense red colour of the road that winds over its
green slope. One sometimes sees on a hillside a ploughed field of
red earth which at a distance might easily be taken for a field of
blossoming trifolium. Viewed nearer the crimson of the clover and red of
the earth are very dissimilar; distance appears to intensify the red of
the soil and to soften that of the flower until they are very nearly
of the same hue. The road at Abbotsbury was near and looked to me more
intensely red than any ordinary red earth, and the sight was strangely
pleasing. These two complementary colours, red and green, delight us
most when seen thus--a little red to a good deal of green, and the more
luminous the red and vivid the green the better they please us. We see
this in flowers--in the red geranium, for example--where there is no
brown soil below, but green of turf or herbage. I sometimes think the
red campions and ragged-robins are our most beautiful wild flowers when
the sun shines level on the meadow and they are like crimson flowers
among the tall translucent grasses. I remember the joy it was in boyhood
in early spring when the flowers were beginning to bloom, when in our
gallops over the level grass pampas we came upon a patch of scarlet
verbenas. The first sight of the intense blooms scattered all about the
turf would make us wild with delight, and throwing ourselves from our
ponies we would go down among the flowers to feast on the sight.
Green is universal, but the red earth which looks so pleasing amid the
green is distributed very partially, and it may be the redness of
the soil and the cliffs in Devon have given that county a more vivid
personality, so to speak, than most others. Think of Kent with its white
cliffs, chalk downs, and dull-coloured clays in this connection!
The humble subterraneous mole proves himself on occasions a good
colourist when he finds a soil of the proper hue to burrow in, and the
hillocks he throws up from numberless irregular splashes of bright
red colour on a green sward. The wild animals that strike us as most
beautiful, when seen against a green background, are those which bear
the reddest fur--fox, squirrel, and red deer. One day, in a meadow a
few miles from Abbotsbury, I came upon a herd of about fifty milch cows
scattered over a considerable space of ground, some lying down, others
standing ruminating, and still others moving about and cropping the long
flowery grasses. All were of that fine rich red colour frequently seen
in Dorset and Devon cattle, which is brighter than the reds of other red
animals in this country, wild and domestic, with the sole exception of
a rare variety of the collie dog. The Irish setter and red chouchou come
near it. So beautiful did these red cows look in the meadow that I stood
still for half an hour feasting my eyes on the sight.
No less was the pleasure I experienced when I caught sight of that road
winding over the hill above the village. On going to it I found that it
had looked as red as rust simply because it was rust-earth made rich
and beautiful in colour with iron, its red hue variegated with veins and
streaks of deep purple or violet. I was told that there were hundreds of
acres of this earth all round the place--earth so rich in iron that many
a man's mouth had watered at the sight of it; also that every effort had
been made to induce the owner of Abbotsbury to allow this rich mine to
be worked. But, wonderful to relate, he had not been persuaded.
A hard fragment of the red stuff, measuring a couple of inches across
and weighing about three ounces avoirdupois, rust-red in colour with
purple streaks and yellow mottlings, is now lying before me. The
mineralogist would tell me that its commercial value is naught, or
something infinitesimal; which is doubtless true enough, as tens of
thousands of tons of the same material lie close to the surface under
the green turf and golden blossoming furze at the spot where I picked up
my specimen. The lapidary would not look at it; nevertheless, it is the
only article of jewellery I possess, and I value it accordingly. And
I intend to keep this native ruby by me for as long as the lords of
Abbotsbury continue in their present mind. The time may come when I
shall be obliged to throw it away. That any millionaire should hesitate
for a moment to blast and blacken any part of the earth's surface,
howsoever green and refreshing to the heart it may be, when by so doing
he might add to his income, seems like a fable, or a tale of fairyland.
It is as if one had accidentally discovered the existence of a little
fantastic realm, a survival from a remote past, almost at one's doors;
a small independent province, untouched by progress, asking to be
conquered and its antediluvian constitution taken from it.
From the summit of that commanding hill, over which the red path winds,
a noble view presents itself of the Chesil Bank, or of about ten miles
of it, running straight as any Roman road, to end beneath the rugged
stupendous cliffs of Portland. The ocean itself, and not conquering
Rome, raised this artificial-looking wall or rampart to stay its own
proud waves. Formed of polished stones and pebbles, about two hundred
yards in width, flat-topped, with steeply sloping sides, at this
distance it has the appearance of a narrow yellow road or causeway
between the open sea on one hand and the waters of the Fleet, a narrow
lake ten miles long, on the other.
When the mackerel visit the coast, and come near enough to be taken in
a draw-net, every villager who owns a share (usually a tenth) in a
fishing-boat throws down his spade or whatever implement he happens to
have in his hand at the moment, and hurries away to the beach to take
his share in the fascinating task. At four o'clock one morning a youth,
who had been down to the sea to watch, came running into the village
uttering loud cries which were like excited yells--a sound to rouse the
deepest sleeper. The mackerel had come! For the rest of the day there
was a pretty kind of straggling procession of those who went and came
between the beach and the village--men in blue cotton shirts,
blue jerseys, blue jackets, and women in grey gowns and big white
sun-bonnets. During the latter part of the day the proceedings were
peculiarly interesting to me, a looker-on with no share in any one of
the boats, owing to the catches being composed chiefly of jelly-fish.
Some sympathy was felt for the toilers who strained their muscles again
and again only to be mocked in the end; still, a draught of jelly-fish
was more to my taste than one of mackerel. The great weight of a catch
of this kind when the net was full was almost too much for the ten or
twelve men engaged in drawing it up; then (to the sound of deep curses
from those of the men who were not religious) the net would be opened
and the great crystalline hemispheres, hyaline blue and delicate
salmon-pink in colour, would slide back into the water. Such rare and
exquisite colours have these great glassy flowers of ocean that to see
them was a feast; and every time a net was hauled up my prayer--which I
was careful not to repeat aloud--was, Heaven send another big draught of
jelly-fish!
The sun, sinking over the hills towards Swyre and Bridport, turned
crimson before it touched the horizon. The sky became luminous; the
yellow Chesil Bank, stretching long leagues away, and the hills behind
it, changed their colours to violet. The rough sea near the beach
glittered like gold; the deep green water, flecked with foam, was
mingled with fire; the one boat that remained on it, tossing up and down
near the beach, was like a boat of ebony in a glittering fiery sea. A
dozen men were drawing up the last net; but when they gathered round to
see what they had taken--mackerel or jelly-fish--I cared no longer to
look with them. That sudden, wonderful glory which had fallen on the
earth and sea had smitten me as well and changed me; and I was like some
needy homeless tramp who has found a shilling piece, and, even while
he is gloating over it, all at once sees a great treasure before
him--glittering gold in heaps, and all rarest sparkling gems, more than
he can gather up.
But it is a poor simile. No treasures in gold and gems, though heaped
waist-high all about, could produce in the greediest man, hungry for
earthly pleasures, a delight, a rapture, equal to mine. For this joy was
of another and higher order and very rare, and was a sense of lightness
and freedom from all trammels as if the body had become air, essence,
energy, or soul, and of union with all visible nature, one with sea and
land and the entire vast overarching sky.
We read of certain saints who were subject to experiences of this kind
that they were "snatched up" into some supramundane region, and that
they stated on their return to earth that it was not lawful for them
to speak of the things they had witnessed. The humble naturalist and
nature-worshipper can only witness the world glorified--transfigured;
what he finds is the important thing. I fancy the mystics would have
been nearer the mark if they had said that their experiences during
their period of exaltation could not be reported, or that it would be
idle to report them, since their questioners lived on the ground
and would be quite incapable on account of the mind's limitations of
conceiving a state above it and outside of its own experience.
The glory passed and with it the exaltation: the earth and sea turned
grey; the last boat was drawn up on the slope and the men departed
slowly: only one remained, a rough-looking youth, about fifteen years
old. Some important matter which he was revolving in his mind had
detained him alone on the darkening beach. He sat down, then stood up
and gazed at the rolling wave after wave to roar and hiss on the shingle
at his feet; then he moved restlessly about, crunching pebbles beneath
his thick boots; finally, making up his mind, he took off his coat,
threw it down, and rolled up his shirt-sleeves, with the resolute air
of a man about to engage in a fight with an adversary nearly as big as
himself. Stepping back a little space, he made a rush at the sea, not
to cast himself in it, but only, as it turned out, with the object
of catching some water in the hollow of his hands from the top of an
incoming wave. He only succeeded in getting his legs wet, and in hastily
retreating he fell on his back. Nothing daunted, he got up and renewed
the assault, and when he succeeded in catching water in his hands
he dashed it on and vigorously rubbed it over his dirty face. After
repeating the operation about a dozen times, receiving meanwhile several
falls and wettings, he appeared satisfied, put on his coat and marched
away homewards with a composed air.