Just look
at this holly-leafed baby vine, with every point cut like a prickle,
yet much too tender and good to prick me. It follows every motion of
my hand; it crisps its little veinings up whenever I come near it; and
it feels in every fibre that I am looking at it.'"
Blackmore was much more than a writer of fiction; I think he had a
deeper insight into the spirit of Nature and country character than
perhaps any writer of modern times; he combined the accuracy of the
scholar with the practical knowledge of the farmer and gardener; the
logic of the philosopher with the fancy and expression of the poet. I
regard the appreciation of his _Lorna Doone_--a book in which one can
smell the violets--as the test of a real country lover; I mean a
country lover who, besides the gift of acute observation, has the
deeper gift of imaginative perception. If only the book could have
been illustrated by the pencil of Randolph Caldecott, such a union of
sympathy between author and artist would have produced a work
unparalleled in rural literature.
Like all insects the aphis has its special insect enemies, among which
the lady-bird ("lady-cow" in Worcestershire) is the most important. It
lays its eggs in clusters on the hop-leaf, and in a few days the larvae
(called "niggers") are hatched, aggressive-looking creatures with
insatiable appetites.
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