Mid Sussex Times Tuesday October 22 1935

ASHENGROUND WOOD: HAYWARDS HEATH

Oh! Perfect glade; removed from traffic’s hum,

From toil and strife and cries that do disturb

Sweet meditation, and the loftier thought,

Thou art to tired heart, retreat superb

Portal to solitude – and feathery life,

Fair in the noon day, fairer still at eve,

Thy myriad boughs a canopy of green,

Of interchanging shades that nature weaves.

O haunt of fairy life, methinks thy trail

– a bridle path – leads on to Eden fair!

Some restful haven steeped in full sweeter peace

Than cities with their turmoil, stress and care.

What architect – with what degree – could plan

Those graceful boughs that interlace thy dome?

What sculptor, artist, builder, could conceive

The charm and peacefulness of Nature’s home?

RUPERT W. BELL

https://nantwichmuseum.org.uk/rupert-bell/