The bucolic noble savage – alive in my head?

Wenlock Edge, Shropshire The thrush’s gaze was defiant, proud – but I wondered if I read into it what I wanted to see

The thrush held its prize in its beak, a worm plucked from the hedge, like a dog with a stick in its mouth. To me its gaze was defiant, ferocious and proud, but then I wondered if I was just reading into it what I wanted to see.

I had spent the day talking to writers wandering in Rectory Wood, in Church Stretton. The wood contains remnants of plantings influenced by Capability Brown, and relics of grottos and vistas of the Picturesque garden movement.