Bare trees show their clean anatomy: Country diary 100 years ago

Originally published in the Manchester Guardian on 14 December 1916

Passing through the Severn Tunnel one got a strange contrast in weather. On the Welsh side mist, clinging, cold, dreary; on the English side hoar frost over the grass, a blue sky and hot sun overhead. The trees are bare now and showing their clean anatomy. Never are they more lovely than when one can see every finest twig outlined with characteristic gesture against the sky. Elms especially show to advantage when bare; where they have to be lopped for safety it is indeed a sore sight, for their habit of ending in a fine spreading plume is so individual and so beautiful. Along the banks of a canal the rows of pollard willows make quaint reflections in the still water. Farther on, by the river, the beech woods are grey, with scarcely a shade of brown from the tightly packed scrolls of buds. But the chestnut tips are thick and sticky, and it will be worthwhile cutting a few branches to put into water. Sprays of birch also may be treated in the same way, and it is a great joy to watch them unfold.