5.
species according to the characteristic form
it presented in its skyward spread. Large
blobs of snow were settled among the spiky
clusters of dark-varnished Holly. Last
summer's Bracken was more finely etched, at
times forming ladders ten feet high where a
tree had lent it support to an unnatural
height, until the fronds were mingled with
the downmost twigs. Each brittle hydra-
spike of Water Dropwort held its own neat
pearl of snow. Hornbeam boles were often
entirely visible, their greens and purples
set off against the white backdrop, but
others carried a basal sheath of snow on
one side gradually thinning upwards into a
sea-spray scatter. If one knew the direction
of the wind that had sent the snow there, it
might be possible to orientate oneself in this
forest whose identity had so suddenly been
obliterated. But, I reflected, the spindrift
was to be seen from many angles, and the
cover had been laid down during a gentle and
windless night. The extent and direction
varied only with the degree to which the
trunk leaned out of vertical.
It was time to measure the outward walk
in terms of return before nightfall. A
glimpse of rising ground ahead might reason-
ably be expected to herald the climb up to
High Beach. In seconds I had reached a
forest verge and before me lay Clue No. 1 as
to my whereabouts, a goodly solid granite
mass bearing the words "Metropolitain
Drinking Fountain and Cattle Trough Associa-
tion". Lifting up mine eyes unto the hill
opposite, Clue No. 2 pointed to heaven, the
spire of St. John's, Buckhurst Hill, three
doors away from home. The orientation
problem had solved itself.