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diff --git a/36167.txt b/36167.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9c4cb27 --- /dev/null +++ b/36167.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5808 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Mirror of the Months, by Peter George Patmore + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Mirror of the Months + +Author: Peter George Patmore + +Release Date: May 19, 2011 [EBook #36167] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MIRROR OF THE MONTHS *** + + + + +Produced by Chris Curnow, S.D., and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This book was +produced from scanned images of public domain material +from the Google Print project.) + + + + + + + + + + MIRROR + + OF + + THE MONTHS. + + + Delectando pariterque monendo. + + + LONDON: + + PRINTED FOR GEO. B. WHITTAKER, + AVE-MARIA-LANE. + + 1826. + + + + +CONTENTS. + + + Page + + PREFACE. v + JANUARY. 1 + FEBRUARY. 23 + MARCH. 43 + APRIL. 57 + MAY. 87 + JUNE. 111 + JULY. 145 + AUGUST. 169 + SEPTEMBER. 197 + OCTOBER. 215 + NOVEMBER. 237 + DECEMBER. 257 + + + + +PREFACE. + + +As the first few pages of this little volume will sufficiently explain +its purport, the reader would not have been troubled with any prefatory +remarks, but that, since its commencement, two existing works have been +pointed out to me, the plans of which are, in one respect, similar to +mine: I allude to the Natural History of the Year, by the late Dr. Aikin +and his Son; and The Months, by Mr. Leigh Hunt. + +I will not affect any obligations to these agreeable little works, (I +mean as a writer); because I feel none; and I mention them here, only to +add, that if, on perusing them, either, or both united, had seemed to +supersede what I proposed to myself in mine, I should immediately have +abandoned my intention of writing it. But the above-named works, in the +first place, relate to country matters exclusively. In the next place, +the first of them details those matters in the form of a dry calendar, +professedly made up from other calendars which previously existed, and +_not_ from actual observation; and the second merely throws gleams of +its writer's agreeable genius over such of those matters as are most +susceptible of that treatment: while both occupy no little portion of +their space by quotations, sufficiently appropriate no doubt, but from +poets whose works are in everybody's hands. + +THE MIRROR OF THE MONTHS, therefore, does not interfere with the +abovenamed works, nor do they with it. It is in substance, though +certainly not in form, a Calendar of the various events and appearances +connected with a Country and a London life, during each successive Month +of the Year. And it endeavours to impress upon the memory such of its +information as seems best worth retaining, by either placing it in a +_picturesque_ point of view, or by connecting it with some association, +often purely accidental, and not seldom extravagant perhaps, but not the +less likely to answer its end, if it succeed in changing mere dry +information into amusement. + +I may perhaps be allowed to add, in extenuation of the errors and +deficiencies of this little volume, that it has been written entirely +from the personal observations of one who uses no note-book but that +which Nature writes for him in the tablets of his memory; and that when +printed books have been turned to at all, it has only been with a view +to solve any doubt that he might feel, as to the exact period of any +particular event or appearance. + +It is also proper to mention, that the four first Months have appeared +in a periodical work. In fact, it was the favourable reception they met +with there which induced the careful re-writing of them, and the +appearance of the whole under their present form. + + + + +MIRROR OF THE MONTHS. + + + + +JANUARY. + + +Those "Cynthias of a minute," the Months, fleet past us so swiftly, that +though we never mistake them while they are present with us, yet the +moment any one of them is gone by, we begin to blend the recollection of +its features with those of the one which preceded it, or that which has +taken its place, and thus confuse them together till we know not "which +is which." And then, to mend the matter, when the whole of them have +danced their graceful round, hand in hand, before us, not being able to +think of either separately, we unite them all together in our +imagination, and call them the Past Year; as we gather flowers into a +bunch, and call them a bouquet. + +Now this should not be. Each one of the sweet sisterhood has features +sufficiently marked and distinct to entitle her to a place and a name; +and if we mistake these features, and attribute those of any one to any +other, it is because we look at them with a cold and uninterested, and +therefore an inobservant regard. The lover of Julie could trace fifty +minute particulars which were wanting in the portrait of his mistress; +though to any one else it would have appeared a likeness: for, to common +observers, "a likeness" means merely a something which is not so +absolutely _un_like but what it is capable of calling up the idea of the +original, to those who are intimately acquainted with it. + +Now, I have been for a long while past accustomed to feel towards the +common portraits of the Months, of which so many are extant, what St. +Preux did towards that of his mistress: all I could ever discover in +them was the particulars in which they were _not_ like. Still I had +never ventured to ask the favour of either of them to sit to me for her +picture; having seen that it was the very nature of them to be for ever +changing, and that, therefore, to attempt to _fix_ them, would be to +trace the outline of a sound, or give the colour of a perfume. + +At length, however, my unwearied attendance on them, in their yearly +passage past me, and the assiduous court that I have always paid to each +and all of their charms, has met with its reward: for there is this +especial difference between them and all other mistresses whatever, +that, so far from being jealous of each other, their sole ground of +complaint against their lovers is, that they do not pay equal devotion +to each in her turn; the blooming MAY and the blushing JUNE disdain the +vows of those votaries who have not previously wept at the feet of the +weeping APRIL, or sighed in unison with the sad breath of MARCH. And it +is the same with all the rest. They present a sweet emblem of the +_ideal_ of a happy and united human family; to each member of which the +best proof you can offer that you are worthy of _her_ love, is, that you +have gained that of her sisters; and to whom the best evidence you can +give of being able to love either worthily, is, that you love all. This, +I say, has been the kind of court that I have paid to the Months--loving +each in all, and all in each. And my reward (in addition to that of the +love itself--which is a "virtue," and therefore "its own reward") has +been that each has condescended to watch over and instruct me, while I +wrote down the particulars of her brief but immortal life--immortal, +because ever renewed, and bearing the seeds of its renewal within +itself. + +These instructions, however, were accompanied by certain conditions, +without complying with which I am not permitted to make the results +available to any one but myself. For my own private satisfaction I have +liberty to personify the objects of my admiration under any form I +please; but if I speak of them to others, they insist on being treated +merely as portions or periods of their beautiful parent the YEAR, as +_she_ is a portion of TIME, the great parent of all things; and that the +facts and events I may have to refer to, shall not be essentially +connected with _them_, but merely be considered as taking place during +the period of their sojourn on the earth respectively. + +I confess that this condition seems to savour a little of the +fastidious, not to say the affected. And, what is still more certain, it +cuts me off from a most fertile source of the poetical and the +picturesque. I will frankly add, however, that I am not without my +suspicions that this latter may have been the very reason why this +condition was imposed upon me; for I am by no means certain that, if I +had been left to myself, I should not have substituted cold abstractions +and unintelligible fictions (or what would have seemed such to others), +in the place of that simple _information_ which it is my chief object to +convey. + +Laying aside, then, if I can, all ornamental figures of speech, I shall +proceed to place before the reader, in plain prose, the principal events +which happen, in the two worlds of Nature and of Art, during the life +and reign of each month; beginning with the nominal beginning of the +dynasty, and continuing to present, on the birthday of each member of +it, a record of the beauties which she brings in her train, and the good +deeds which she either inspires or performs. + +Hail! then, hail to thee, JANUARY!--all hail! cold and wintry as thou +art, if it be but in virtue of thy first day. THE DAY, as the French +call it, par excellence; "Le jour de l'an." Come about me, all ye little +schoolboys, that have escaped from the unnatural thraldom of your +taskwork--come crowding about me, with your untamed hearts shouting in +your unmodulated voices, and your happy spirits dancing an untaught +measure in your eyes! Come, and help me to speak the praises of New +Year's Day!--_your_ day--one of the three which have, of late, become +yours almost exclusively, and which have bettered you, and been bettered +themselves, by the change. Christmas-day, which _was_; New-year's-day, +which _is_; and Twelfth-day, which _is to be_; let us compel them all +three into our presence--with a whisk of our imaginative wand convert +them into one, as the conjurer does his three glittering balls--and then +enjoy them all together,--with their dressings, and coachings, and +visitings, and greetings, and gifts, and "many happy returns"--with their +plum-puddings, and mince-pies, and twelfth cakes, and neguses--with their +forfeits, and fortune-tellings, and blind-man's-buffs, and snap-dragons, +and sittings up to supper--with their pantomimes, and panoramas, and new +penknives, and pastrycooks' shops--in short, with their endless round of +ever new nothings, the absence of a relish for which is but ill supplied, +in after life, by that feverish hungering and thirsting after excitement, +which usurp without filling its place. Oh! that I might enjoy those +nothings once again in fact, as I can in fancy! But I fear the wish is +worse than an idle one; for it not only may not be, but it ought not to +be. "We cannot have our cake and eat it too," as the vulgar somewhat +vulgarly, but not the less shrewdly, express it. And this is as it should +be; for if we could, it would neither be worth the eating nor the having. + +If the reader complains that this is not the sober style which I just +now promised to maintain, I cannot help it. Besides, it was my subject +that spoke then, not myself; and it spoke to those who are too happy to +be wise, and to whom, therefore, if it were to speak wisely, it might as +well not speak at all. Let them alone for awhile, and they will grow too +wise to be happy; and then they may be disposed and at leisure to listen +to reason. + +In sober sadness, then, if the reader so wills it, and after the +approved manner of modern moral discourses, the subject before us may be +regarded under three distinct points of view; namely, January in +London--January in the country--and January in general. And first, of +the first. + +Now--but before I proceed further, let me bespeak the reader's +indulgence at least, if not his favour, towards this everlasting +monosyllable, "Now," to which my betters have, from time to time, been +so much indebted, and on which I shall be compelled to place so much +dependence in this my present undertaking. It is the pass word, the +"open sesame," that must remove from before me all lets and impediments; +it is the charm that will alternately put to silence my imagination when +it may be disposed to infringe on the office of my memory, and awaken my +memory when it is inclined to sleep; in fact, it is a monosyllable of +infinite avail, and for which, on this as on many other occasions, no +substitute can be found in our own or any other language; and if I +approve, above all other proverbs, that which says, "There's nothing +like the time present," it is partly because "the time present" is but a +periphrasis for NOW! + +Now, then, the cloudy canopy of sea-coal smoke that hangs over London, +and crowns her queen of capitals, floats thick and threefold; for fires +and feastings are rife, and every body is either "out" or "at home," +every night. + +Now schoolboys don't know what to do with themselves till dinner-time; +for the good old days of frost and snow, and fairs on the Thames, and +furred gloves, and skaiting on the canals, and sliding on the kennels, +are gone by; and for any thing in the shape of winter one might as well +live in Italy at once! + +Now, on the evening of Twelfth-day, mischievous maid-servants pin +elderly people together at the windows of pastry-cooks' shops, thinking +them "weeds that have no business there." + +Now, if a frosty day or two does happen to pay us a flying visit, on its +way home to the North Pole, how the little boys make slides on the +pathways, for lack of ponds, and, it may be, trip up an occasional +housekeeper just as he steps out of his own door; who forthwith vows +vengeance, in the shape of ashes, on all the slides in his +neighbourhood; not, doubtless, out of vexation at his own mishap, and +revenge against the petty perpetrators of it, but purely to avert the +like from others! + +Now, Bond Street begins to be conscious of carriages; two or three +people are occasionally seen wandering through the Western Bazaar; and +the Soho Ditto is so thronged, that Mr. Trotter begins to think of +issuing another decree against the inroads of single gentlemen. + +Now, linen drapers begin to "sell off" their stock at "fifty per cent. +under prime cost," and continue so doing all the rest of the year; every +article of which will be found, on inspection, to be of "the last new +pattern," and to have been "only had in that morning!" + +Now, oranges are eaten in the dress-circle of the great theatres, and +inquiries are propounded there, whether "that gentleman in black" +(meaning Hamlet) "is Harlequin?" And laughs, and "La! Mammas!" resound +thence to the remotest corners of the house; and "the gods" make merry +during the play, in order that they may be at leisure to listen to the +pantomime; and Mr. Farley is consequently in his glory, and Mr. Grimaldi +is a great man; as, indeed, when is he not? + +Now, newspapers teem with twice-ten-times-told tales of haunted houses, +and great sea-snakes, and mermaids; and a murder is worth a Jew's eye to +them; for "the House does not meet for the despatch of business till +the fifth of February." And great and grievous are the lamentations that +are heard in the said newspapers, over the lateness of the London +season, and its detrimental effects on the interests of the metropolis; +but they forget to add--"erratum--for _metropolis_, read _newspapers_." + +Now, Moore's Almanack holds "sole sovereign sway and mastery" among the +readers of that class of literature; for there has not yet been time to +nullify any of its predictions; not even that which says, "we may expect +some frost and snow about this period." + +Finally, now periodical works put on their best attire; the old ones +expressing their determination to become new, and the new ones to become +old; and each makes a point of putting forth the first of some pleasant +series of essays (such as this, for example!), which cannot fail to fix +the most fugitive of readers, and make him her own for another twelve +months at least. + +Let us now repair to the country. "The country in January" has but a +dreary sound, to those who go into "the country" only that they may not +be seen "in town." But to those who seek the country for the same reason +that they seek London, namely, for the good that is to be found there, +the one has at least as many attractions as the other, at any given +period of the year. Let me add, however, that if there _is_ a particular +period when the country puts forth fewer of her attractions than at any +other, it is this; probably to try who are her real lovers, and who are +only false flatterers, and to treat them accordingly. And yet-- + +Now, the trees, denuded of their gay attire, spread forth their thousand +branches against the gray sky, and present as endless a variety of form +and feature for study and observation, as they did when dressed in all +the flaunting fashions of midsummer. Now, too, their voices are silent, +and their forms are motionless, even when the wind is among them; so +that the low plaintive piping of the robin-redbreast can be heard, and +his hiding-place detected by the sound of his slim feet alighting on the +fallen leaves. Or now, grown bolder as the skies become more inclement, +he flits before you from twig to twig silently, like a winged thought; +or like the brown and crimson leaf of a cherry-tree, blown about by the +wind; or perches himself by your side, and looks sidelong in your face, +pertly, and yet imploringly,--as much as to say, "though I do need your +aid just now, and would condescend to accept a crum from your hand, yet +I'm still your betters, for I'm still a bird." + +Now, one of the most beautiful sights on which the eye can open +occasionally presents itself: we saw the shades of evening fall upon a +waste expanse of brown earth, shorn hedge-rows, bare branches, and miry +roads, interspersed here and there with a patch of dull melancholy +green. But when we are awakened by the late dawning of the morning, and +think to look forth upon the same, what a bright pomp greets us! What a +white pageantry! It is as if the fleecy clouds that float about the sun +at midsummer had descended upon the earth, and clothed it in their +beauty! Every object we look upon is strange and yet familiar to +us--"another, yet the same!" And the whole affects us like a vision of +the night, which we are half conscious _is_ a vision: we know that it is +_there_, and yet we know not how long it may remain there, since a +motion may change it, or a breath melt it away. And what a mysterious +stillness reigns over all! A white silence! Even the "clouted shoon" of +the early peasant is not heard; and the robin, as he hops from twig to +twig with undecided wing, and shakes down a feathery shower as he goes, +hushes his low whistle in wonder at the unaccustomed scene! + +Now, the labour of the husbandman is, for once in the year, at a stand; +and he haunts the alehouse fire, or lolls listlessly over the half-door +of the village smithy, and watches the progress of the labour which he +unconsciously envies; tasting for once in his life (without knowing it) +the bitterness of that _ennui_ which he begrudges to his betters. + +Now, melancholy-looking men wander "by twos and threes" through +market-towns, with their faces as blue as the aprons that are twisted +round their waists; their ineffectual rakes resting on their shoulders, +and a withered cabbage hoisted upon a pole; and sing out their doleful +petition of "Pray remember the poor gardeners, who can get no work!" + +Now, the passengers outside the Cheltenham night-coach look wistfully at +the Witney blanket-mills as they pass, and meditate on the merits of a +warm bed. + +Now, people of fashion, who cannot think of coming to their homes in +town so early in the season, and will not think of remaining at their +homes in the country so late, seek out spots on the seashore which have +the merit of being neither town _nor_ country, and practise patience +there (as Timon of Athens did), en attendant the London winter, which is +ordered to commence about the first week in spring, and end at +midsummer! + +But we are forgetting the garden all this while; which must not be; for +Nature does not. Though the gardener can find little to do in it, _she_ +is ever at work there, and ever with a wise hand, and graceful as wise. +The wintry winds of December having shaken down the last lingering +leaves from the trees, the final labour of the gardener was employed in +making all trim and clean; in turning up the dark earth, to give it air; +pruning off the superfluous produce of summer; and gathering away the +worn-out attire that the perennial flowers leave behind them, when they +sink into the earth to seek their winter home, as Harlequin and +Columbine, in the pantomimes, sometimes slip down through a trapdoor, +and cheat their silly pursuers by leaving their vacant dresses standing +erect behind them. + +All being left trim and orderly for the coming on of the new year. Now +(to resume our friendly monosyllable) all the processes of nature for +the renewal of her favoured race, the flowers, may be more aptly +observed than at any other period. Still, therefore, however desolate a +scene the garden may present to the _general_ gaze, a particular +examination of it is full of interest, and interest that is not the less +valuable for its depending chiefly on the imagination. + +Now, the bloom-buds of the fruit trees, which the late leaves of autumn +had concealed from the view, stand confessed, upon the otherwise bare +branches, and, dressed in their patent wind-and-water-proof coats, brave +the utmost severity of the season,--their hard unpromising outsides, +compared with the forms of beauty which they contain, reminding us of +their friends the butterflies when in the chrysalis state. + +Now, the perennials, having slipped off their summer robes, and retired +to their subterranean sleeping-rooms, just permit the tops of their +naked heads to peep above the ground, to warn the labourer from +disturbing their annual repose. + +Now, the smooth-leaved and tender-stemmed Rose of China hangs its pale, +scentless, artificial-looking flowers upon the cheek of Winter; +reminding us of the last faint bloom upon the face of a fading beauty, +or the hectic of disease on that of a dying one; and a few +chrysanthemums still linger, the wreck of the past year,--their various +coloured stars looking like faded imitations of the gay, glaring +China-aster. + +Now, too,--first evidences of the revivifying principle of the new-born +year--for all that we have hitherto noticed are but lingering remnants +of the old--Now, the golden and blue crocuses peep up their pointed +coronals from amidst their guarding palisades of green and gray leaves, +that they may be ready to come forth at the call of the first February +sun that looks warmly upon them; and perchance one here and there, +bolder than the rest, has started fairly out of the earth already, and +half opened her trim form, pretending to have mistaken the true time; as +a forward school-miss will occasionally be seen coquetting with a smart +cornet, before she has been regularly produced,--as if she did not know +that there was "any harm in it." + +We are now to consider the pretensions of January in general. + +When the palm of merit is to be awarded among the Months, it is usual to +assign it to May by acclamation. But if the claim depends on the sum of +delight which each witnesses or brings with her, I doubt if January +should not bear the bell from her more blooming sister, if it were only +in virtue of her share in the aforenamed festivities of the Christmas +Holidays. And then, what a happy influence does she not exercise on all +the rest of the Year, by the family meetings she brings about, and by +the kindling and renewing of the social affections that grow out of, and +are chiefly dependent on these. And what sweet remembrances and +associations does she not scatter before her, through all the time to +come, by her gifts--the "new year's gifts!" _Christmas-boxes_ (as they +are called) are but sordid boons in comparison of these; they are mere +money paid for mere services rendered or expected; wages for work done +and performed; barterings of value for value; offerings of the pocket to +the pocket. But new year's gifts are offerings of the affections to the +affections--of the heart to the heart. The value of the first depends +purely on themselves; and the gratitude (such as it is) which they call +forth, is measured by the gross amount of that value. But the others owe +their value to the wishes and intentions of the giver; and the +gratitude _they_ call forth springs from the affections of the receiver. + +And then, who can see a New Year open upon him, without being better for +the prospect--without making sundry wise reflections (for _any_ +reflections on this subject _must_ be comparatively wise ones) on the +step he is about to take towards the goal of his being? Every first of +January that we arrive at, is an imaginary mile-stone on the turnpike +track of human life; at once a resting-place for thought and meditation, +and a starting point for fresh exertion in the performance of our +journey. The man who does not at least _propose to himself_ to be better +_this_ year than he was last, must be either very good or very bad +indeed! And only to _propose_ to be better, is something; if nothing +else it is an acknowledgment of our _need_ to be so,--which is the first +step towards amendment. But in fact, to propose to oneself to do well, +is in some sort to _do_ well, positively; for there is no such thing as +a stationary point in human endeavours; he who is not worse to-day than +he was yesterday, is better; and he who is not better, is worse. + +The very name of January, from Janus, two-faced, "looking before and +after," indicates the reflective propensities which she encourages, and +which when duly exercised cannot fail to lead to good. + +And then January is the youngest of the yearly brood, and therefore +_prima facie_ the best; for I protest most strenuously against the +comparative age which Chaucer (I think) has assigned to this month by +implication, when he compares an old husband and a young wife to +"January and June." These poets will sacrifice any thing to +alliteration, even abstract truth. I am sorry to say this of Chaucer, +whose poetry is more of "a true thing" than that of any other, always +excepting Mr. Crabbe's, which is too much of a true thing. And nobody +knew better than Chaucer the respective merits of the Months, and the +peculiar qualities and characteristics which appertain to each. But, I +repeat, alliteration is the Scylla and Charybdis united of all who +embark on the perilous ocean of poetry; and that Chaucer himself chose +occasionally to "listen to the voice of the charmer, charmed she never +so _un_wisely," the above example affords sufficient proof. I am afraid +poets themselves are too self-opiniated people to make it worth while +for me to warn _them_ on this point; but I hereby pray all prose +writers pertinaciously to avoid so pernicious a practice. This, however, +by the by. + +I need scarcely accumulate other arguments and examples to show that my +favourite January deserves to rank first among the Months in merit, as +she does in place. But lest doubters should still remain, I will add, +ask the makers-out of annual accounts whether any month can compare with +January, since then they may begin to _hope_ for a settlement, and may +even in some cases venture to _ask_ for it; which latter is a comfort +that has been denied them during all the rest of the year; besides its +being a remote step towards the said settlement. And on the other hand, +ask the contractors of annual accounts whether January is not the best +of all possible months, since then they may begin to _order_ afresh, +with the prospect of a whole year's impunity. The answers to these two +questions must of course decide the point, since the two classes of +persons to whom they are addressed include the whole adult(erated) +population of these commercial realms. + + + + +FEBRUARY. + + +Some one has said of the Scotch novels, that that is the best which we +happen to have perused last. It is thus that I estimate the relative +value and virtue of the Months. The one which happens to be present with +me is sure to be that one which I happen to like better than any of the +others. I lately insisted on the supremacy of January on various +accounts. Now I have a similar claim to put in in favour of the next in +succession. And it shall go hard but I will prove, to the entire +satisfaction of all whom it may concern, that each in her turn is, +beyond comparison, the "wisest, virtuousest, discreetest, best." Indeed +I doubt whether, on consideration, any one (but a Scotch philosopher) +will be inclined to dispute the truth of this, even as a logical +proposition, much less as a sentiment. The time present is the best of +all possible times, _because_ it is present--because it _is_--because +it is something; whereas all other times are nothing. The time present, +therefore, is essentially better than any other time, in the proportion +of something to nothing. I hope this be logic; or metaphysics at the +least. If the reader determines otherwise, "he may kill the next Percy +himself!" In the mean time (and _that_, by the by, is the best time next +to the present, in virtue of its skill in connecting together two +refractory periods)--in the mean time, let us search for another and a +better reason why every one of the Months is, in its turn, the best. The +cleverest Scotch philosopher that ever lived has said, in a memoir of +his own life, that a man had better be born with a disposition to look +on the bright side of things, than to an estate of ten thousand a year. +He might have gone further, and said that the disposition to which he +alludes is worth almost as much to a man as being compelled and able to +earn an honest livelihood by the sweat of his brow! Nay, he might almost +have asserted that, with such a disposition, a man may chance to be +happy even though he be born to an estate of _twenty_ thousand a year! +But I, not being (thank my stars!) a Scotch or any other philosopher, +will venture to go still farther, and say, that to be able to look at +things _as they are_, is best of all. To him who can do this, all is as +it should be--all things work together for good--whatever is, is right. +To him who can do this, the present time is all-sufficient, or rather it +is all in all; for if he cannot enjoy any other, it is because no other +is susceptible of being enjoyed, except through the medium of the +present. + +From the sublime to the ridiculous is but a step. Consequently, from the +ridiculous to the sublime must be about the same distance. In other +words, the transition from metaphysics to love is easy; as Mr. +Coleridge's writings can amply testify. Hail! then, February! month and +mother of Love! Not that love which requires the sun of midsummer to +foster it into life; and is so restless and fugitive that nothing can +hold it but bands made of bright eye-beams; and so dainty that it must +be fed on rose-leaves; and so proud and fantastical that bowers of +jasmine and honeysuckle are not good enough for it to dwell in, or the +green turf soft enough for its feet to press, but it must sit beneath +silken canopies, and tread on Turkey carpets, and breathe the breath of +pastiles; and so chilly that it must pass all its nights within a +gentle bosom, or it dies. Not _this_ love; but its infant cousin, that +starts into life on cold Saint Valentine's morning, and sits by the fire +rocking its own cradle, and listening all day long for the "sweet +thunder" of the twopenny postman's knock!--Hail! February! Virgin mother +of this love of all loves, which dies almost the day that it is born, +and yet leaves the odour of its sweetness upon the whole after life of +those who were not too wise to admit it for a moment to their embraces! + +The sage reader must not begrudge me these innocent little rhapsodies. +He must remember that all are not so wise and staid as he; and as in +January he permitted me to be, for a moment, a ranting schoolboy, so in +February he must not object to my reminding him that there are such +persons in the world as young ladies who have not yet finished their +education! He must not insist that, "because _he_ is virtuous, there +shall be no more cakes and ale." Besides, to be candid, I do not see +that it is quite fair to complain of us anonymous writers, even if we do +occasionally insinuate into our lucubrations a few lines that are +directed to our own exclusive satisfaction. In fact, the privilege of +writing nonsense now and then is the sweetest source of our emolument, +and one which, if our readers attempt to cut us off from altogether, +they may rest assured that we shall very soon _strike_, and demand +higher pay in other respects than those only true patrons of literature, +the booksellers, can afford to give; for if a man is always to write +sense and reason, he might as well turn _author_ at once,--which we +"gentlemen who write with ease" flatter ourselves that none of us are. I +put it to the candour of Mr. Whittaker himself, whether, if I would +consent to place my name in the corner of each of these portraits of the +Months (_so and so pinxit_, 1825), he would not willingly give me double +price for them, and reckon upon remunerating himself from the purchaser +in proportion? Then let him use his interest with the critics to allow +me but half a page of nonsense in each paper, and I consent to forego +all this profit. As for the fame, I am content to leave posterity in the +lurch, and live only till I die. + +Having now expended _my_ portion of this paper, I shall henceforth +willingly "keep bounds" till the next month; to which end, however, I +must be permitted to call in the aid of my able suggestive, Now. + +Now, the Christmas holidays are over, and all the snow in Russia could +not make the first Monday in this month look any other than _black_, in +the home-loving eyes of little schoolboys; and the streets of London are +once more evacuated of happy wondering faces, that look any way but +straight before them; and sobs are heard, and sorrowful faces seen to +issue from sundry postchaises that carry sixteen inside, exclusive of +cakes and boxes; and theatres are no longer conscious of unconscious +_eclats de rire_, but the whole audience is like Mr. Wordsworth's cloud, +"which moveth altogether, if it move at all." + +_En revanche_, now newspaper editors begin to think of disporting +themselves; for the great national school for "children of a larger +growth" is met in Saint Stephen's Chapel, "for the _despatch_ of +business" and of time; and consequently newspapers have become a +nonentity; and those writers who are "constant readers" find their +occupation gone. + +Now, the stones of Bond Street dance for joy, while they "prate of the +whereabout" of innumerable wheels; which latter are so happy to meet +again after a long absence, that they rush into each other's embraces, +"wheel within wheel," and there's no getting them asunder. + +Now, the Italian Opera is open, and the house is full; but if asked on +the subject, you may safely say that "nobody was there;" for the _flats_ +that you meet with in the pit evidently indicate that their wearers +appertain to certain counters and counting-houses in the city, or serve +those that do--having "received orders" for the Opera in the way of +their business. + +Now, a sudden thaw, after a week's frost, puts the pedestrians of +Cheapside into a pretty pickle. + +Now, the _trottoir_ of St. James's Street begins to know itself again; +the steps of Raggett's are proud of being pressed by right honourable +feet; and _the dandies' watch-tower_ is once more peopled with playful +peers, peering after beautiful frailties in furred pelisses. + +Now, on fine Sundays, the citizens and their wives begin to hie them to +Hyde Park, and having attained Wellington Walk, fancy that there is not +more than two pins to choose between them and their betters on the other +side the rail; while these latter, having come abroad to take the air +(of the insides of their carriages), and kill the time, and cure the +vapours, permit inquisitive equestrians to gaze at them through +plate-glass, and fancy, not without reason, that they look like flowers +seen through flowing water: Lady O----, for example, like an overblown +rose; Lady H----, like a painted-lady pea; the Countess of B----, like a +newly-opened apple-blossom; and her demure-looking little sister beside +her, like a _prim_-rose. + +Now, winter being only on the wane, and spring only on the approach, +Fashion, for once in the year, begins to feel herself in a state of +interregnum, and her ministers, the milliners and tailors, don't know +what to think. Mrs. Bean shakes her head like Lord Burleigh, and +declines to determine as to what may be the fate of future waists; and +Mr. Stultz is equally cautious of committing himself in the affair of +collars; and both agree in coming to the same conclusion with the +statesman in Tom Thumb, that, "as near as they can guess, they cannot +tell!" Now, therefore, the fashionable shops are shorn of their beams, +and none can show wares that are strictly in season, except the +stationer's. But _his_, which for all the rest of the year is dullest of +the dull, is now, for the first fourteen days, gayest of the gay; for +here the poetry of love, and the love of poetry, are displayed under all +possible and impossible forms and metaphors,--from little cupids +creeping out of cabbage-roses, to large overgrown hearts stuffed with +double-headed arrows, and uttering piteous complaints in verse, while +they fry in their own flames. And this brings us safe back to the point +from which we somewhat prematurely set out; for Now, on good Saint +Valentine's eve, all the rising generation of this metropolis, who feel +that they have reached the age of _in_discretion, think it full time for +them to fall in love, or be fallen in love with. Accordingly, infinite +are the crow-quills that move mincingly between embossed margins, + + "And those _rhyme_ now who never rhymed before, + And those who always rhymed now rhyme the more;" + +to the utter dismay of the newly-appointed twopenny postman the next +morning; who curses Saint Valentine almost as bitterly as does, in her +secret heart, yonder sulky sempstress, who has not been called upon for +a single twopence out of all the two hundred thousand[1] extra ones +that have been drawn from willing pockets, and dropped into canvas bags, +on this eventful day. She may take my word for it that the said +sulkiness, which has some show of reason in it to-day, is in the habit +of visiting her pretty face oftener than it is called for. If it were +not so, she would not have had cause for it now. + +[1] This was the number of letters that passed through the Twopenny +Post-Office on the 14th of February, 1821, in addition to the usual +daily average.--See the official returns. + +But good Bishop Valentine is a pluralist, and holds another see besides +that of London: + + "All the air is his diocese, + And all the chirping choristers + And other birds are his parishioners: + He marries every year + The lyrique lark, and the grave whispering dove; + The sparrow, that neglects his life for love; + The household bird with the red stomacher; + He makes the blackbird speed as soon + As doth the goldfinch or the halcyon." + +Let us be off to the country without more ado; for who can stay in +London in the face of such epithets as these, that seem to compel us, +with their sweet magic, to go in search of the sounds and sights that +they characterise? "The _lyric_ lark!" Why a modern poet might live for +a whole season on that one epithet! Nay, there be those that _have_ +lived on it for a longer time, perhaps without knowing that it did not +belong to them!--"The sparrow that _neglects his life for love_!" "The +_household_ bird, _with the red stomacher_!"--That a poet who could +write in this manner, for pages together, should be almost entirely +unknown to modern _readers_ (except to those of a late number of the +Retrospective Review), would be somewhat astonishing, if it were not for +the consideration that he is so well known to modern _writers_! It would +be doing both parties justice if some one would point out a few of the +_coincidences_ that occur between them. In the mean time, _we_ shall be +doing better in looking abroad for ourselves into that nature to which +_he_ looked, and seeing what she offers worthy of particular +observation, in the course of this last month of winter in the Country, +though it is the first in London. Not that we shall, as yet, find much +to attract our attention in regard to the movements of the above-named +"parishioners" of good Bishop Valentine; for though he gives them full +authority to marry now as soon as they please, Frost forbids the bans +for the present; and when there is no love going forward in the +feathered world, there is little or no singing. On the contrary, even +the pert sparrows still go moping and sulking about silently, or sit +with ruffled plumes and drooping wings, upon the bare branches, +watching all day long for their scanty dole of crums, and thinking of +nothing else. The "lyric lark," indeed, may already be heard; the thrush +and blackbird begin to practise their spring notes faintly; and the +yellow-hammer, the chaffinch, and the wren, utter a single stanza or so, +at long intervals: but all this can scarcely be called singing, but +rather talking of it; for + + "I shall not ask Jean Jacques Rousseau + If birds confabulate, or no;" + +but shall determine at once that they do; at least if any dependence can +be placed on eyes and ears. In short, the only bird that really _is_ a +bird this month, is he "with the red stomacher." And he, with his low +plaintive piping, his silent spirit-like motions, and sudden and +mysterious appearings and disappearings,--coming in an instant before us +no one can tell whence, and going as silently and as suddenly no one +knows whither,--and, above all, his sweet and pert, yet timid confidence +in man--all these, to those who are happy enough to have nothing better +to do than to watch them, almost make up for the absence of all his +blithe brethren. + +As for the general face of nature, we shall find _that_ in much the +same apparent state as we left it last month. And we must look into its +individual features very minutely, if we would discover any change even +in them. The trees are still utterly bare; the skies are cold and gray; +the paths and ways are, for the most part, dank and miry; and the air is +either damp and clinging, or bitter, eager, and shrewd. But then what +days of soft air and sunshine, and unbroken blue sky, do now and then +intervene, and transport us into the very heart of May, and make us look +about and wonder what is become of the green leaves and the flowers! + +Now, hard frosts, if they come at all, are followed by sudden thaws; and +now, therefore, if ever, the mysterious old song of our school days +stands a chance of being verified, which sings of + + "Three children sliding on the ice + All on a _summer's_ day!" + +Now, the labour of the husbandman recommences; and it is pleasant to +watch (from your library window) the plough-team moving almost +imperceptibly along, upon the distant upland that the bare trees have +disclosed to you. And now, by the way, if you are wise, you will get +acquainted with all the little spots that are thus, by the bareness of +the trees, laid open to you, in order that, when the summer comes, and +you cannot _look at_ them, you may be able to _see_ them still. + +But we must not neglect the garden; for though "Nature's journeymen," +the gardeners, are undergoing an ignoble leisure this month, it is not +so with Nature herself. She is as busy as ever, if not openly and +obviously, secretly, and in the hearts of her sweet subjects the +flowers; stirring them up to that rich rivalry of beauty which is to +greet the first footsteps of Spring, and teaching them to prepare +themselves for her advent, as young maidens prepare, months beforehand, +for the marriage festival of some dear friend. + +If the flowers think and feel (and he who dares to say that they do not +is either a fool or a philosopher--let him choose between the +imputations!)--if the flowers think and feel, what a commotion must be +working within their silent hearts, when the pinions of Winter begin to +grow, and indicate that he is at least meditating his flight! Then do +_they_, too, begin to meditate on May-day, and think on the delight with +which they shall once more breathe the fresh air, when they have leave +to escape from their subterranean prisons; for now, towards the latter +end of this month, they are all of them at least awake from their winter +slumbers, and most are busily working at their gay toilets, and weaving +their fantastic robes, and shaping their trim forms, and distilling +their rich essences, and, in short, getting ready in all things, that +they may be duly prepared to join the bright procession of beauty that +is to greet and glorify the annual coming on of their sovereign lady, +the Spring. It is true none of all this can be seen. But what a race +should we be, if we knew and cared to know of nothing, but what we can +see and prove! + + "Whose mind is but the mind of his own eyes, + He is a slave--the meanest you can meet." + +But there is much going on in the garden now that may be seen by "the +naked eye" of those who carefully look for it. The bloom-buds of the +shrubs and fruit-trees are obviously swelling; and the leaves of the +lilac are ready to burst forth at the first favourable call. The +laurestinus still braves the winds and the frosts, and blooms in blithe +defiance of them. So does the China rose, but meekly, and like a maiden +who _will_ not droop though her lover _be_ away; because she knows that +he is true to her, and will soon return. + +Now, too, the viable heralds of Spring approach, but do not appear; or +rather, they appear, but have not yet put on their gorgeous tabards or +surcoats of many colours. The tulips are but just showing themselves, +shrouded closely in their sheltering alcoves of dull green. The +hyacinths, too, have sent up their trim fences of green, and are just +peeping up from the midst of them in their green veils,--the cheek of +each flower-bud pressed and clustering against that of its fellow, like +a host of little heads peeping out from the porch of an ivy-bound +cottage, as the London coach passes. + +Now, too, those pretty orphans, the crocuses and snowdrops--those +foundlings, that belong neither to Winter nor Spring--show their modest +faces scarcely an inch above the dark earth, as if they were afraid to +rise from it, lest a stray March wind should whistle them away. + +Finally, now appear, towards the latter end of the month, those flowers +that actually belong to Spring--that do not either herald her approach, +or follow in her train, but are in fact a part of her, and prove that +she is virtually with us, though she chooses to remain incognita for a +time. The prettiest and most piquant of these in appearance are the +brilliant little Hepaticas, crowding up in sparkling companies from the +midst of their dark ivy-like leaves, and looking more like gems than +flowers. + +The next in brilliance are the Anemonies, as gay in their colours, and +more various, but not so profuse of their charms as their pretty +relation Hepatica, and more jealous of each other's beauty; as well they +may, for what flower can vie with them for exquisite delicacy of hue and +elegant fragility? + +The primroses, polyanthuses, and daisies that venture to show themselves +this month, we will not greet; not because we are not even more pleased +to see them than their gayer and more gaudy rivals; but the truth is, +that they have no real claim upon our attention till next month, as +their pale hues and weakly forms evidently indicate. + +In taking leave of the Country for this month, let me not forget to +mention that sure "prophet of delight and mirth," the Common Pilewort, +or Lesser Celandine; about which (and what more can I say to interest +the reader in its favour?) Mr. Wordsworth has written two whole poems. +Its little yellow stars may now be seen gemming the woodsides, when all +around is cold, comfortless, and dead. + +I have said that I designed to prove this to be the best of all possible +months. Is the reader still incredulous as to its surpassing merits? +Then be it known to him that I should insist on its supremacy, if it +were only in virtue of _one_ birthday which it includes: and one that +the reader would never guess, for the best of all reasons. It is _not_ +that of "the wisest of mankind," Lord Bacon, on the third; or of "the +starry Galileo," on the nineteenth; or of the "matchless master of high +sounds," Handel, on the twenty-fourth. True February does include all +these memorable days, and let it be valued accordingly. But it includes +another day, which is worth them all _to me_, since it gave to the +world, the narrow world of some half dozen loving hearts, one who is +wiser in her simplicity than the first of the abovenamed, since the +results of that wisdom are virtue and happiness; who is more far-darting +in her mental glance than the second, inasmuch as an instinctive +_sentiment_ of the truth is more infallible than the clearest +_perception_ of it; and whose every thought and look and motion are more +"softly sweet" and musical than all the "Lydian measures" of the third; +and, deprived of whom, those who have once been accustomed to live +within the light of her countenance would find all the wisdom of the +first to be foolishness, all the stars of the second dark, and all the +harmony of the third worse than discord. + +Gentlest of readers (for I had need have such), pardon me this one +rhapsody, and I promise to be as "sobersuited" as the editor of an +Encyclopedia, for this two months to come. Nothing, not even the +nightingale's song in the last week in April, shall move me from my +propriety. But I will candidly confess, that the effects of May-day +morning are more than I can venture to answer for. Even the +chimney-sweepers are allowed to disport themselves then; so that when +that arrives, there's no knowing what may happen. + + + + +MARCH. + + +If there be a Month the aspect of which is less amiable, and its manners +and habits less prepossessing, than those of all the rest (which I am +loath to admit), that month is March. The burning heats of midsummer +(when they shall come to us at the prophetic call of the Quarterly +Reviewers--which they never will) we shall find no difficulty in +bearing; and the frosts and snows of December and January are as +welcome, to those who know their value, as the flowers in May. Nay--the +so much vituperated fogs of November I by no means set my face against; +on the contrary, I have a kind of appetite for them, both corporeal and +mental; as I shall prove, and endeavour to justify in its due place. + +In fact, and by the by, November is a month that has not been fairly +dealt by; and, for my part, I think it should by no means have been +fixed upon as that which is _par excellence_ the month best adapted to +hang and drown oneself in;--seeing that, to a wise man, _that_ should +never be an affair of atmosphere. But if a month must be set apart for +such a proces, (on the same principle which determines that we are bound +to _begin_ our worldly concerns on a particular day--viz. Saturday--and +would therefore, by parity of reasoning, call upon us to end them with a +similar view to times and seasons), let that month be henceforth March; +for it has, at this present writing, no one characteristic by which to +designate it,--being neither Spring, Summer, Autumn, nor Winter, but +only March. + +But what I particularly object to in March is its winds. They say + + "March winds and April showers + Bring forth May flowers." + +But I doubt the fact. They may _call_ them forth, perhaps,--whistling +over the roofs of their subterraneous dwellings, to let them know that +Winter is past and gone. Or, in our disposition to "turn diseases to +commodities," let us regard them as the expectant damsel does the sound +of the mail coach horn that whisks through the village, as she lies in +bed at midnight, and tells her that _to-morrow_ she may look for a +letter from her absent swain. + +The only other express and specific reason why I object to March, is +that she drives hares mad; which is a great fault. But be all this as it +may, she is still fraught with merits; and let us proceed, without more +ado, to point out a few of them. And first of the country;--to which, by +the way, I have not hitherto allowed its due supremacy--for + + "God made the Country, but man made the Town." + +Now, then, even the winds of March, notwithstanding all that we have +insinuated in their disfavour, are far from being virtueless; for they +come careering over our fields, and roads, and pathways, and while they +dry up the damps that the thaws had let loose, and the previous frosts +had prevented from sinking into the earth, "pipe to the spirit ditties" +the words of which tell tales of the forthcoming flowers. And not only +so, but occasionally they are caught bearing away upon their rough +wings the mingled odours of violet and daffodil, both of which have +already ventured to + + "Come before the swallow dares, and take + The winds of March with beauty." + +The general face of nature has not much changed in appearance since we +left it in February; though its internal economy has made an important +step in advance. The sap is alive in the seemingly sleeping trunks that +every where surround us, and is beginning to mount slowly to its +destination; and the embryo blooms are almost visibly struggling towards +light and life, beneath their rough, unpromising outer coats--unpromising +to the idle, the unthinking, and the inobservant; but to the eye that +"can see Othello's visage in his mind," bright and beautiful, in virtue +of the brightness and the beauty that they cover, but not conceal. Now, +too, the dark earth becomes soft and tractable, and yields to the kindly +constraint that calls upon it to teem with new life,--crumbling to the +touch, that it may the better clasp in its fragrant bosom the rudiments +of that gay, but ephemeral creation which are born with the spring, only +"to run their race rejoicing" into the lap of summer, and there yield up +their sweet breath, a willing incense at the shrine of that nature the +spirit of which is endless constancy growing out of endless change. Must +I tell the reader this in plainer prose?--Now, then, is the time to sow +the seeds of most of the annual flowering plants; particularly of those +which we all know and love--such as Sweet Pea, the most feminine of +flowers, that must have a kind hand to tend its youth, and a supporting +arm to cling to in its maturity, or it grovels in the dust, and straggles +away into an unsightly weed; and Mignionette, with a name as sweet as its +breath,--that loves "within a gentle bosom to be laid," and makes haste +to die there, lest its white lodging should be changed; and Larkspur, +trim, gay, and bold, the gallant of the garden; and Lupines, blue, and +yellow, and rose coloured, with their winged flowers hovering above their +starry leaves; and a host of others, that we must try to characterise as +they come in turn before us. + +Now, too, we have some of the bulbous rooted flowers at their best, +particularly the pretty Crocuses, yellow, blue, striped, and white; +while others, the Narcissus, Hyacinths, and Tulips, are visibly +hastening towards their perfection. + +Those spring flowers, too, which ventured to show themselves last month +before they had well recovered from their winter trance, have now grown +bold in their renewed strength, and look the winds in the face +fearlessly. Perhaps the most poetical of these, because the most +pathetic in their pale and pining beauty, are the Primroses. Their bold +and bright-eyed relatives the Polyanthuses (no two alike) are also now +all on the look out for lovers, among the bees that the warm sunny +mornings already begin to call forth. + +These, with the still prevailing Hepaticas and Anemonies, the Daisies +that start up singly here and there, an early Wall-flower, the pretty +pink rods of the Mezereon, and (in the woods) the lovely Wind-flower, or +white Wood-anemone, constitute the principal wealth of this preparatory +month. + +Now, too, the tender green of spring first begins to peep forth from the +straggling branches of the hedge-row Elder, the trim Lilac, and the thin +threads of the stream enamoured Willow; the first to put on its spring +clothing, and the last to leave it off. And if we look into the kitchen +garden, there too we may chance to find those forest trees in miniature, +the Gooseberries and Currants, letting their leaves and blossoms (both +of a colour) look forth together, hand in hand, in search of the April +sun before it arrives, as the lark mounts upward to seek for it before +it has risen in the morning. It will be well if these early +adventurers-forth do not encounter a cutting easterly blast; or still +worse, a deceitful breeze, that tempts them to its embraces by its +milder breath, only to shower diseases upon them. But if they _will_ be +out on the watch for Spring before she calls them, they must be content +to take their chance. + +NOW, about the middle of the month, a strange commotion may be seen and +heard among the winged creatures, portending momentous matters. The lark +is high up in the cold air before day-light; and his chosen mistress is +listening to him down among the dank grass, with the dew still upon her +unshaken wing. The Robin, too, has left off, for a brief season, his low +plaintive piping, which it must be confessed was poured forth for his +own exclusive satisfaction, and, reckoning on his spruce looks and +sparkling eyes, issues his quick peremptory love-call, in a somewhat +ungallant and husband-like manner. + +The Sparrows, who have lately been sulking silently about from tree to +tree, with ruffled plumes and drooping wings, now spruce themselves up +till they do not look half their former size; and if it were not +pairing-time, one might fancy that there was more of war than of love in +their noisy squabblings. But the crouching forms, quivering wings, and +murmuring bills, of yonder pair that have quitted for a moment the +clamorous cabal, can indicate the movements of but _one_ passion. + +But we must leave the feathered tribe for the present: + + "Sacred be love from sight, whate'er it is." + +We shall have many opportunities of observing their pretty ways +hereafter. + +Now, also, the Ants (with whom we shall have a crow to pick by and by) +first begin to show themselves from their subterranean sleeping-rooms; +those winged abortions, the Bats, perplex the eyes of evening wanderers +by their seeming ubiquity; and the Owls hold scientific converse with +each other at half a mile distance. + +Lastly, now we meet with one of the prettiest, yet most pathetic sights +that the animal world presents; the early Lambs, dropped, in their +tottering and bleating helplessness, upon the cold skirts of winter, and +hiding their frail forms from the March winds, by crouching down on the +sheltered side of their dams. + +Now, quitting the country till next month, we find London all alive, +Lent and Lady-day notwithstanding; for the latter is but a day, after +all; and he must have a very countrified conscience who cannot satisfy +it as to the former, by doing penance once or twice at an Oratorio, and +hearing comic songs sung in a foreign tongue; or, if this does not do, +he may fast if he pleases, every Friday, by eating salt fish in addition +to the rest of his fare. + +Now, the citizens have pretty well left off their annual visitings, and +given the great ones leave to begin; so that there is no sleep to be had +in the neighbourhood of May-fair, for love or money, after one in the +morning. + +Now, the dress boxes of the winter houses can occasionally boast a +baronet's lady; this, however, being the extent of their attainments in +that way; for how can the great be expected to listen to Shakespear +under the same roof with their shop-keepers? There is, in fact, no +denying that the said great are marvellously at the mercy of the said +little, in the matter of amusement; and there is no saying whether the +latter will not, some day or other, make an inroad upon Almack's itself. +Now, however, in spite of the said inroads, the best boxes at the Opera +do begin to be worth exploring, since a beautiful Englishwoman of high +fashion is "a sight to set before a king." + +Now, the actors (all but the singing ones) in their secret hearts put up +periodical prayers for the annual agitation of the Catholic Question; +for without some stimulus of this kind, to correct the laxity of our +religious morals, there is no knowing how soon they may cease to give +thanks for three Sundays in the week during Lent. + +Now, (during the said pious period) occasionally an inadvertent +apprentice gets leave to go to "the play" on a Wednesday or Friday; and, +having taken his seat in the one shilling gallery, wonders during six +long hours what can have come to the players, that they do nothing but +sit in a row with their hands before them, in front of a pyramid of +fiddlers, and break silence now and then by singing a psalm; for a psalm +he is sure it must be, though he never heard it at church. + +Now, every other day, the four sides of the newspapers offer to the +wearied eye one unbroken ocean of _long-primer_; to the infinite +abridgement of the labour of Chapter Coffee House quidnuncs, who find +that they have only one sheet to get through instead of ten; and to the +entire discomfiture of the conscientious reader, who makes it a point of +duty to spell through all that he pays for, avowed advertisements +included; for in these latter there is some variety--of which no one can +accuse the parliamentary speeches. By the by, it would be but consistent +in the Times to bestow their ingenuous prefix of [_advertisement_] on a +few of the last named effusions. And if they were placed under the head +of "Want Places," nobody but the advertiser would see cause to complain +of the mistake. + +Now, Fashion is on the point of awaking from her periodical sleep, +attended by Mesdames Bean, Bell, and Pierrepoint on one side of her +couch, and Messieurs Myers, Stultz, and Davison on the other; each +individual of each party watching with apparent anxiety to catch the +first glance of her opening eye, in order to direct their several +movements accordingly; but each having previously determined on those +movements as definitively as if their legitimate monarch and directress +had nothing to do with matter; for, to say truth, notwithstanding her +boasted legitimacy, Fashion has but a very limited control, even in her +own court; the real government being an Oligarchy, the members of which +are each lords paramount in their own particular departments. Who, in +fact, shall dispute an epaulet of Miss Pierrepoint's? and when Mr. Myers +has achieved a collar, who shall call it in question? + +Now, Hyde Park is worth walking in at four o'clock of a fine week day, +though the trees are still bare; for there, as sure as the sunshine +comes, shall be seen sauntering beneath it three distinct classes of +fashionables; namely, first, the fair immaculates from the mansions +about May Fair, who loll listlessly in their elegant equipages, and +occasionally eye, with an air of infinite disdain, the second class, who +are peregrinating on the other side the bar,--the fair frailties from +the neighbourhood of the New Road; which latter, more magnanimous than +their betters, and less envious, are content, for their parts, to +appropriate the greater portion of the attentions of the third +class--the ineffables and exquisites from Long's, and Stevens's. Among +these last-named class something particular indeed must have happened if +you do not recognise that _arbiter elegantiarum_ of actresses, the +marquis of W----; that delighter in dennets and decaying beauties, the +honourable L---- S----; and that prince-pretty-man of rake-hells and +roues little George W----. + + + + +APRIL. + + +April is come! "proud--pied April!" and "hath put a spirit of youth in +every thing." Shall our portrait of her, then, alone lack that spirit? +Not if words can speak the feelings from which they spring. "Spring!" +See how the name comes uncalled-for; as if to hint that it should have +stood in the place of "April." But April _is_ spring--the only spring +month that we possess in this egregious climate of ours. Let us, then, +make the most of it. + +April is at once the most juvenile of the Months, and the most +feminine--never knowing her own mind for a day together. Fickle as a +fond maiden with her first lover;--coying it with the young Sun till he +withdraws his beams from her, and then weeping till she gets them back +again. High-fantastical as the seething wit of a poet, that sees a world +of beauty growing beneath his hand, and fancies that he has created it, +whereas it is it that has created him a poet; for it is Nature that +makes April, not April Nature. + +April is doubtless the sweetest month of all the year; partly because it +ushers in the May, and partly for its own sake, so far as any thing can +be valuable without reference to any thing else. It is, to May and June, +what "sweet fifteen," in the age of woman, is to passion-stricken +eighteen, and perfect two-and-twenty. It is, to the confirmed Summer, +what the previous hope of joy is to the full fruition; what the boyish +dream of love is to love itself. It is indeed the month of promises; and +what are twenty performances compared with one promise? When a promise +of delight is fulfilled, it is over and done with; but while it remains +a promise, it remains a hope: and what is all good, but the hope of +good? What is every _to-day_ of our life, but the hope (or the fear) of +to-morrow? April, then, is worth two Mays, because it tells tales of May +in every sigh that it breathes, and every tear that it lets fall. It is +the harbinger, the herald, the promise, the prophecy, the foretaste of +all the beauties that are to follow it--of all, and more--of all the +delights of Summer, and all the "pride, pomp, and circumstance of +glorious" Autumn. It is fraught with beauties itself that no other month +can bring before us, and + + "It bears a glass which shews us many more." + +As for April herself, her life is one sweet alternation of smiles and +sighs and tears, and tears and sighs and smiles, till it is consummated +at last in the open laughter of May. It is like--in short, it is like +nothing in the world but "an April day." And her charms--but really I +must cease to look upon the face of this fair month generally, lest, like +a painter in the presence of his mistress, I grow too enamoured to give a +correct resemblance. I must gaze upon her sweet beauties one by one, or I +shall never be able to think and treat of her in any other light than +that of _the Spring_; which is a mere abstraction,--delightful to think +of, but, like all other abstractions, not to be depicted or described. + +Before I proceed to do this, however, let me inform the reader that what +I have hitherto said of April, and have yet to say, is intended to +apply, not to this or that April in particular--not to April eighteen +hundred and twenty-four, or fourteen, or thirty-four--but to APRIL _par +excellence_; that is to say, what April ("not to speak it profanely") +_ought to be_. In short, I have no intention of being _personal_ in my +remarks; and if the April which I am describing should happen to differ, +in any essential particulars, from the one in whose presence I am +describing it, neither the month nor the reader must regard this as a +covert libel or satire. The truth is that, for what reason I know +not--whether to put to shame the predictions of the Quarterly Reviewers, +or to punish us Islanders for our manifold follies and iniquities, or +from any quarrel, as of old, between Oberon and Titania--but certain it +is that + + "The seasons alter: hoary headed frosts + Fall in the fresh lap of the crimson rose; + And on old Hyems' thin and icy crown + An odorous chaplet of sweet summer buds + Is, as in mockery, set: the Spring, the Summer, + The chilling Autumn, angry Winter, change + Their wonted liveries; and the amazed world, + By their increase, now knows not which is which." + +It is of April, then, as she is when Nature is in her happiest mood, +that I am now to speak; and we will take her in the prime of her life, +and our first place of rendezvous shall be the open fields. + +What a sweet flush of new green has started up to the face of this +meadow! And the new-born Daisies that stud it here and there, give it +the look of an emerald sky powdered with snowy stars. In making our way +to yonder hedgerow, which divides the meadow from the little copse that +lines one side of it, let us not take the shortest way, but keep +religiously to the little footpath; for the young grass is as yet too +tender to bear being trod upon; and the young lambs themselves, while +they go cropping its crisp points, let the sweet daisies alone, as if +they loved to look upon a sight as pretty and as innocent as themselves. + +I have been hitherto very chary of appealing to the poets in these +pleasant papers; because they are people that, if you give them an inch, +even in a span-long essay of this kind, always endeavour to lay hands on +the whole of it. They are like the young cuckoos, that if once they get +hatched within a nest, always contrive to oust the natural inhabitants. +But when the Daisy, "la douce Marguerite," is in question, how can I +refrain from pronouncing a blessing on the bard who has, by his sweet +praise of this "unassuming commonplace of nature," revived that general +love for it, which, until lately, was confined to the hearts of "the old +poets," and of those young poets of all times, the little children? But +I need not do this, for he has his reward already, in the fulfilment of +that prophecy with which he closes his address to his darling flower: + + "Thy long-lost praise thou shalt regain; + Dear shalt thou be to future men, + As in old time." + +Does the reader, now that I have brought before him, in company with +each other, "this child of the year," and the gentlest and most eloquent +of all her lovers, desire to hear a few more of the compliments that he +has paid to her, without the trouble of leaving the fields, and opening +a book? I can afford but a few; for beneath yonder hedgerow, and within +the twilight of the copse behind it, there are flocks of other sweet +flowers, waiting for their praise. + + "When soothed awhile by milder airs, + Thee Winter in the garland wears + That thinly shades his few gray hairs; + Spring cannot shun thee; + And Autumn, melancholy wight, + Doth in thy crimson head delight + When rains are on thee." + +[By the by, I cannot let pass this epithet, "melancholy," without +protesting most strenuously against the above application of it. Seldom, +indeed, is it that the poet before us falls into an error of this kind; +and it is _therefore_ that I point it out.] + + "In shoals and bands, a morrice train, + Thou greet'st the traveller in the lane. + + * * * * + + And oft alone in nooks remote + We meet thee, like a pleasant thought, + When such are wanted. + + Be violets, in their secret mews, + The flowers the wanton Zephyrs choose; + Proud be the Rose, with rains and dews + Her head impearling; + + * * * * + + _Thou_ art the poet's darling. + + If to a rock from rains he fly, + Or some bright day of April sky + Imprisoned by hot sunshine lie + Near the green holly, + And wearily at length should fare, + He need but look about, and there + Thou art, a friend at hand, to scare + His melancholy! + + If stately passions in me burn, + And one chance look to thee should turn, + I drink out of an humbler urn + A lowlier pleasure; + The homely sympathy, that heeds + The common life our nature breeds; + A wisdom fitted to the needs + Of hearts at leisure." + +And then do but see what "fantastic tricks" the poet's imagination +plays, when he comes to seek out _similies_ for his fair favourite: + + "A nun demure, of lowly port; + A sprightly maiden of love's court, + In thy simplicity the sport + Of all temptations; + A queen in crown of rubies drest; + A starveling in a scanty vest; + Are all, as seem to suit thee best, + Thy appellations. + + A little Cyclops, with one eye + Staring, to threaten or defy-- + That thought comes next--and instantly + The freak is over; + The shape will vanish--and behold! + A silver shield with boss of gold, + That spreads itself, some fairy bold + In fight to cover. + + I see thee glittering from afar,-- + And then thou art a pretty star; + Not quite so fair as many are + In heaven above thee! + Yet like a star, with glittering crest, + Self-poised in air thou seem'st to rest! + + * * * * + + Sweet flower! for by that name at last, + When all my reveries are past, + I call thee, and to that cleave fast; + Sweet silent creature! + That breath'st with me in sun and air, + Do thou, as thou art wont, repair + My heart with gladness, and a share + Of thy meek nature!" + +What poetry is here! It "dallies with the innocence" of the poet and of +the flower, till we know not which to love best. But we must turn at +once from the fascination of both, and not allow them again to seduce us +from our duty to the rest of those sweet "children of the year" that are +courting our attention. + +See, upon the sloping sides of this bank, beneath the hedgerow, what +companies of Primroses are dedicating their pale beauties to the +pleasant breeze that blows over them, and looking as faint withal as if +they had senses that could "ache" at the rich sweetness of the hidden +Violets that are growing here and there among them. + +The intermediate spots of the bank are now nearly covered from sight by +the various green weeds that sprout up every where--beginning to fill +the interstices between the lower stems of the Hazel, the Hawthorn, the +Sloe, the Eglantine, and the Woodbine, which unite their friendly arms +together above, to form the natural inclosure,--that prettiest feature +in our English scenery, or at least that which communicates a +picturesque beauty to all the rest. + +Of the above-named shrubs, the Hazel, you see, is scarcely as yet in +leaf; the scattered leaves of the Woodbine, of a dull purplish green, +are fully spread; the Sloe is in blossom, offering a pretty but +scentless imitation of the sweet hawthorn bloom that is to come next +month. This latter is now vigorously putting forth its crisp and +delicate filigree work of tender green, tipped with red; and the +Eglantine, or wild rose, is opening its green hands, as if to welcome +the sun. + +Entering the little copse which this inclosure separates from the +meadow, we shall find, on the ground, all the low and creeping plants +pushing forth their various shaped leaves--stars, fans, blades, fingers, +fringes, and a score of other fanciful forms; and some of them bearing +the prettiest flowers in the world. Conspicuous among these, in addition +to those of February and March, are the elegant little Wood-sorrel, with +its delicately pencilled cups; the pretty Wild Strawberry; the common +blue Hyacinth,--so delightful when it comes upon you in innumerable +flocks while you are thinking of nothing less; the gently-stooping +Harebell, the most fragile of all flowers, yet braving the angriest +winds of heaven, by bowing to the ground before them; and, lastly, that +strangest of flowers (if flower it be) called by the country folks +Cuckoo-pint, and by the children Lords and Ladies. + +Still passing on through this copse, we shall find all the young forest +trees, except the oaks, in a kind of half-dress, like so many village +maidens in their trim bodices, and with their hair in papers. Among +these are conspicuous the graceful Birch, hanging its head like a +half-shamefaced, half-affected damsel; the trim Beech, spruce as a +village gallant dressed for the fair; the rough-rinded Elm, grave and +sedate looking, even in its youth, and already bespeaking the future +"green-robed senator of mighty woods." These, with the white-stemmed +Ash, the Alder, the artificial-looking Hornbeam, and the as yet bare +Oak, make up this silent but happy company, who are to stand here on the +same spot all their lives, looking upward to the clouds and the stars, +and downward to the star-like flowers, till we and our posterity (who +pride ourselves on our superiority over them) are laid in that earth of +which _they_ alone are the true inheriters. + +But who ever heard of choosing a warm April morning to moralize in? Let +us wait till winter for that; and in the mean time pass out of this +pleasant little copse, and make our way windingly towards the village. + +In the little green lane that leads to it we meet with nothing very +different from what we have already noticed; unless it be an early Bee +booming past us, or hovering for a moment over the snowy flower of the +Lady-smock; or a village boy looking upward with hand-shaded brow after +the mounting Lark, while he holds in his other hand the tether of a +young heifer, that he has led forth to take her first taste of the +fresh-sprouting herbage. + +On reaching the Village Green, we cannot choose but pause before this +stately Chestnut-tree, the smooth stem of which rises from the earth +like a dark coloured marble column, seemingly placed there by art to +support the pyramidal fabric of beauty that surmounts it. It has just +put forth its first series of rich fan-like leaves, each family of which +is crowned by its splendid spiral flower; the whole, at this period of +the year, forming the grandest vegetable object that our kingdom +presents, and vying in rich beauty with any that Eastern woods can +boast. And if we could reach one of those flowers, to pluck it, we +should find that the most delicate fair ones of the Garden or the +Greenhouse do not surpass it in elaborate pencilling and richly varied +tints. It can be likened to nothing but its own portrait painted on +velvet. + +Farther on, across the Green, with this little raised footpath leading +to it, stands a row of young Lindens, separating in the middle to admit +a view of the Parsonage-house; for it can be no other. What a lovely +green is theirs! and what an exact shape in their bright circular +leaves, all alike, clustering and flapping over each other! And their +smooth pillar-like stems shoot out from the hard gravel pathway like +artificial shafts, without a ridge, a knot, or an inequality, till they +spread forth suddenly just above the reach of branch-plucking +schoolboys. + +The Honeysuckles, that wreathe the trellised door of the neat dwelling, +have already put forth their dull purple-tinged leaves, at distant +intervals, on the slim shoots; but the Jasmin, that spreads itself over +the circular-topped windows, is not yet sufficiently clothed to hide +the formality of its training. + +To the right, the fine old avenue of Elms, forming the Walk leading to +the low Church, are sprinkled all over with their spring attire; but not +enough to form the shade that they will a month hence. At present the +blue sky can every where be seen through them. + +We might wander on through the Village and its environs for a while +longer, pleasantly enough, without exhausting the objects of novelty and +interest that present themselves in this sweetest of months; but we must +get within more confined limits, or we shall not have space to glance at +half those which more exclusively belong to this time. + + * * * * * + +If the Garden, like the Year, is not now absolutely at its best, it is +perhaps better; inasmuch as a pleasant promise but half performed +partakes of the best parts of both promise and performance. Now, all is +neatness and finish, or ought to be; for the weeds have not yet began to +make head; the annual flower seeds are all sown; the divisions and +changes among the perennials, and the removings and plantings of the +shrubs, have all taken place. The Walks, too, have all been turned and +freshened, and the Turf has began to receive its regular rollings and +mowings. Among the bulbous-rooted perennials, all that were not in +flower during the last two months, are so now; in particular the +majestic Crown-imperial; the Tulip, beautiful as the panther, and as +proud,--standing aloof from its own leaves; the rich double Hyacinth, +clustering like the locks of Adam; and Narcissus, pale and +passion-stricken at the sense of its own sweetness. + +But what we are chiefly to look for now are the fibrous-rooted and +herbaceous Perennials. There is not one of these that has not awakened +from its winter dreams, and put on at least the half of its beauty. A +few of them venture to display all their attractions at this time, from +a wise fear of that dangerous rivalry which they must be content to +encounter if they were to wait for a month longer; for a pretty villager +might as well hope to gain hearts at Almack's, as a demure daisy of a +modest polyanthus think to secure its due share of attention in presence +of the glaring peonies, flaunting roses, and towering lilies of May and +midsummer. + +Now, too, those late planted Stocks and Wallflowers, that have had +strength to brave the cutting blasts of winter, feel the benefit of +their hardihood, and show it in the profusion of their blooms and the +richness of their colours. + +Finally, among flowers we have now the singular spotted Fritillary; +Heart's-ease, the "little western flower," that cannot be looked at or +thought of without feeling its name; and the Auricula, that richest in +its texture and colour of all the vegetable tribe, and as various as +rich. + +Among the Shrubs that form the inclosing belt of the flower-garden, the +Lilac is in full leaf, and loaded with its heavy bunches of bloom-buds; +the common Laurel, if it has reached its flowering age, is hanging out +its meek modest flowers, preparatory to putting forth its vigorous +summer shoots; and the Larch has on it hairy tufts of pink, stuck here +and there among its delicate threads of green. + +But the great charm of this month, both in the open country and the +garden, is undoubtedly the infinite _green_ which pervades it every +where, and which we had best gaze our fill at while we may, as it lasts +but a little while,--changing in a few weeks into an endless variety of +shades and tints, that are equivalent to as many different colours. It +is this, and the budding forth of every living member of the vegetable +world, after its long winter death, that in fact constitutes THE SPRING; +and the sight of which affects us in the manner it does, from various +causes--chiefly moral and associated ones; but one of which is +unquestionably physical: I mean the sight of so much tender green after +the eye has been condemned to look for months and months on the mere +negation of all colour, which prevails in winter in our climate. The eye +feels cheered, cherished, and regaled by this colour, as the tongue does +by a quick and pleasant taste, after having long palated nothing but +tasteless and insipid things. + +This is the principal charm of Spring, no doubt. But another, and one +that is scarcely second to this, is, the bright flush of Blossoms that +prevails over and almost hides every thing else in the Fruit-garden and +Orchard. What exquisite differences and distinctions and resemblances +there are between all the various blossoms of the fruit-trees; and no +less in their general effect than in their separate details! The +Almond-blossom, which comes first of all, and while the tree is quite +bare of leaves, is of a bright blush-rose colour; and when they are +fully blown, the tree, if it has been kept to a compact head instead of +being permitted to straggle, looks like one huge rose, magnified by some +fairy magic, to deck the bosom of some fair giantess. The various kinds +of Plum follow, the blossoms of which are snow-white, and as full and +clustering as those of the almond. The Peach and Nectarine, which are +now full blown, are unlike either of the above; and their sweet effect, +as if growing out of the hard bare wall, or the rough wooden paling, is +peculiarly pretty. They are of a deep blush colour, and of a delicate +bell shape, the lips, however, divided, and turning backward, to expose +the interior to the cherishing sun. + +But perhaps the bloom that is richest and most _promising_ in its +general appearance is that of the Cherry, clasping its white honours all +round the long straight branches, from heel to point, and not letting a +leaf or a bit of stem be seen, except the three or four leaves that come +as a green finish at the extremity of each branch. + +The other blossoms, of the Pears, and (loveliest of all) the Apples, do +not come in perfection till next month. + + * * * * * + +In thinking of the circumstances which happen this month in connexion +with the animal world, I scarcely know where to begin my observations, +so numerous are the subjects, and so limited the space they must be +despatched in. The Birds must have precedence, for they are now, for +once in their lives, as busy as the bees are always. They are getting +their houses built, and seeing to their household affairs, and +concluding their family arrangements, that when the summer and the +sunshine are fairly come, they may have nothing to do but teach their +children the last new modes of flying and singing, and be as happy +as--birds, for the rest of the year. Now, therefore, as in the last +month, they have but little time to sing to each other; and the Lark has +the morning sky all to himself. Not but we have other April melodies, +and one or two the _premices_ of which belong so peculiarly to this +month, that we must listen to them for a moment, whatever else is +awaiting us. And first let us hearken to the Cuckoo, shooting out its +soft and mellow, yet powerful voice, till it seems to fill the whole +concave of the heavens with its two mysterious notes, the most primitive +of musical melodies. Who can listen to those notes for the first time in +Spring, and not feel his school days come back to him? And not as he did +then + + "------------look a thousand ways + In bush, and tree, and sky?" + +But he will be likely to look in vain; for so shy are they, that lucky +(or rather _un_lucky, to my thinking) is he who has ever _seen_ a +cuckoo. I well remember that from the first moment I saw one flutter +heavily out of an old hawthorn bush, and flurr awkwardly away across the +meadow, as I was listening in rapt attention to its lonely voice, the +mystery of the sound was gone, and with it no small share of its beauty. + +If we happen to be wandering forth on a warm still evening during the +last week in this month, and passing near a roadside orchard, or +skirting a little copse in returning from our twilight ramble, or +sitting listlessly on a lawn near some thick plantation, waiting for +bedtime, we may chance to be startled from our meditations (of whatever +kind they may be) by a sound, issuing from among the distant leaves, +that scares away the silence in a moment, and seems to put to flight +even the darkness itself;--stirring the spirit, and quickening the +blood, as no other mere sound can, unless it be that of a trumpet +calling to battle. That is the Nightingale's voice. The cold spells of +winter, that had kept him so long tongue-tied, and frozen the deep +fountains of his heart, yield before the mild breath of Spring, and he +is voluble once more. It is as if the flood of song had been swelling +within his breast ever since it last ceased to flow; and was now gushing +forth uncontrollably, and as if he had no will to control it: for when +it does stop for a space, it is suddenly, as if for want of breath. In +our climate the nightingale seldom sings above six weeks; beginning +usually the last week in April. I mention this because many, who would +be delighted to hear him, do not think of going to listen for his song +till after it has ceased. I believe it is never to be heard after the +young are hatched. + +Now, too, the pretty, pert-looking Blackcap first appears, and pours +forth his tender and touching love-song, scarcely inferior, in a certain +plaintive inwardness, to the autumn song of the Robin. The mysterious +little Grasshopper Lark also runs whispering within the hedgerows; the +Redstart pipes prettily upon the apple trees; the golden-crowned Wren +chirps in the kitchen-garden, as she watches for the new sown seeds; and +lastly, the Thrush, who has hitherto given out but a desultory note at +intervals to let us know that he was not away, now haunts the same tree, +and frequently the same branch of it, day after day, and sings an +"English Melody" that even Mr. Moore himself could not write appropriate +words to. + +Though all the above-named are what are commonly called birds of +passage, yet from their not congregating together, and from their +particular habits (except of singing) being consequently but little +observed, we are accustomed to blend them among the general class of +English birds, and look upon them as if they belonged to us. But now +also first come among us (whether from a far off land, or from their +secret homes within our own, remains to this day undetermined) those +mysterious and interesting strangers that enliven all the air of Spring +and Summer with their foreign manners, and the infinite variety of whose +movements it is almost as pleasant to watch as it is to listen to the +modulations of their vocal brethren. I allude to the Swallow tribe, who +come usually in the following order, namely, first the Sand-Martin, the +least noticeable of the tribe, and not affecting the dwellings of man; +then the House or Chimney Swallow; then the House Martin; and lastly the +Swift. Those who can see shoot past them, like a thought, the first +swallow of the year, and yet continue pondering on their own affairs as +if nothing had happened, may be assured that "the seasons and their +change" were not made for them, and that, whatever they may fancy they +feel to the contrary, Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter are to them +mere words, indicating the periods when rents are payable and interest +becomes due. + +As the Swallow tribe do nothing, for the first fortnight after their +arrival, but disport themselves, we will leave them and the rest of the +feathered tribe for the present. We shall have sufficient opportunities +of observing all their pretty ways hereafter. + +I am afraid we must now quit the country altogether, _as_ the country; +not however without mentioning that now begins that most execrable of +all practices, Angling. Now Man, "lordly man," first begins to set his +wit to a simple fish; and having succeeded in attracting it to his +lure, watches it for a space floundering about in its crystal waters, in +the agonies of death; and when he is tired of this _sport_, drags it to +the green bank, among the grass, and moss, and wild-flowers, and stains +them all with its blood![2] The "gentle" reader may be sure that I would +willingly have refrained altogether from forcing upon his attention this +hateful subject, especially amid such scenes and objects as we have just +been contemplating: but I was afraid that my "silence" might have seemed +to "give consent" to the practice. + +[2] There is poetical authority for this expression, but I believe no +other: + + "And weltering dies the primrose with his blood." + + GRAHAM. + +We must now transport ourselves to the environs of London, and see what +this happy season is producing there; for to leave the very heart of the +country, and cast ourselves at once into the very heart of town, would +be likely to put us in a temper ill suited to the time. + +Now, on Palm Sunday, boys and girls (youths and maidens have got much +above so "childish" a practice) may be met early in the morning, in +blithe though breakfastless companies, sallying forth towards the +pretty outlets about Hampstead and Highgate on one side of the water, +and Clapham and Camberwell on the other (all of which they innocently +imagine to be "The Country"), there to sport away the pleasant hours +till dinner-time, and then return home, with joy in their hearts, +endless appetites in their stomachs, and bunches of the Sallow Willow +with its silken bloom-buds in their hands, as trophies of their travels. + +Now, at last, the Easter week is arrived, and the Poor have for once in +the year the best of it,--setting all things, but their own sovereign +will, at a wise defiance. The journeyman who works on Easter Monday +should lose his _caste_, and be sent to the Coventry of Mechanics, +wherever that may be. In fact, it cannot happen. On Easter Monday ranks +change places; Jobson is as good as Sir John; the "rude mechanical" is +"monarch of all he surveys" from the summit of Greenwich Hill, and when +he thinks fit to say "It is our royal pleasure to be drunk!" who shall +dispute the proposition? Not I, for one. When our English mechanics +accuse their betters of oppressing them, the said betters should reverse +the old appeal, and refer from Philip sober to Philip drunk; and then +nothing more could be said. But NOW, they _have_ no betters, even in +their own notion of the matter. And in the name of all that is +transitory, envy them not their brief supremacy! It will be over before +the end of the week, and they will be as eager to return to their labour +as they now are to escape from it; for the only thing that an +Englishman, whether high or low, cannot endure patiently for a week +together, is, unmingled amusement. At this time, however, he is +determined to try. Accordingly, on Easter Monday all the narrow lanes +and blind alleys of our metropolis pour forth their dingy denizens into +the suburban fields and villages, in search of the said amusement, which +is plentifully provided for them by another class, even less enviable +than the one on whose patronage they depend; for of all callings, the +most melancholy is that of Purveyor of Pleasure to the poor. + +During the Monday our determined holiday maker, as in duty bound, +contrives, by the aid of a little or not a little artificial stimulus, +to be happy in a tolerably exemplary manner. On the Tuesday, he +_fancies_ himself happy to-day, because he _felt_ himself so yesterday. +On the Wednesday he cannot tell what has come to him, but every ten +minutes he wishes himself at home, where he never goes but to sleep. On +Thursday he finds out the secret, that he is heartily sick of doing +nothing; but is ashamed to confess it; and then what is the use of going +to work before his money is spent? On Friday he swears that he is a fool +for throwing away the greatest part of his quarter's savings without +having any thing to show for it, and gets gloriously drunk with the rest +to prove his words; passing the pleasantest night of all the week in a +watch-house. And on Saturday, after thanking "his Worship" for his good +advice, of which he does not remember a word, he comes to the wise +determination, that, after all, there is nothing like working all day +long in silence, and at night spending his earnings and his breath in +beer and politics!--So much for the Easter week of a London holiday +maker. + +But there is a sport belonging to Easter Monday which is not confined to +the lower classes; and which fun forbid that I should pass over +silently. If the reader has not, during his boyhood, performed the +exploit of riding to the Turn-out of the Stag on Epping +Forest--following the hounds all day long at a respectful +distance--returning home in the evening with the loss of nothing but his +hat, his hunting whip, and his horse, not to mention a portion of his +nether person--and finishing the day by joining the Lady Mayoress's Ball +at the Mansion-House; if the reader has not done all this when a boy, I +will not tantalize him by expiating on the superiority of those who +have. And if he _has_ done it, I need not tell him that he has no cause +to envy his friend who escaped with a flesh wound from the fight of +Waterloo; for there is not a pin to choose between them. + + * * * * * + +I have little to tell the reader in regard to London exclusively, this +month; which is lucky, because I have left myself less than no space at +all to tell it in. I must mention, however, that now is heard in her +streets the prettiest of all the cries which are peculiar to +them--"Come, buy my Primroses!" and but for which the Londoners would +have no idea that Spring was at hand. + +Now, too, spoiled children make "fools" of their mammas and papas; which +is but fair, seeing that the said mammas and papas return the +compliment during all the rest of the year. Now, not even a sceptical +apprentice (for such there be now-a-days, thanks to the enlightening +effects of universal education) but is religiously persuaded of the +merits of _Good_ Friday, and the propriety of its being so called, since +it procures him two Sundays in the week instead of one. + +Finally,--now, Exhibitions of Paintings court the public gaze, and +obtain it, in every quarter; on the principle, I suppose, that the eye +has, at this season of the year, a natural hungering and thirsting after +the colours of the Spring leaves and flowers, and rather than not meet +with them at all, is content to find them on painted canvas! + + + + +MAY. + + +Spring is with us once more, pacing the earth in all the primal pomp of +her beauty, with flowers and soft airs and the song of birds every where +about her, and the blue sky and the bright clouds above. But there is +one thing wanting, to give that happy completeness to her advent, which +belonged to it in the elder times; and without which it is like a +beautiful melody without words, or a beautiful flower without scent, or +a beautiful face without a soul. The voice of Man is no longer heard, +hailing her approach as she hastens to bless him; and his choral +symphonies no longer meet and bless _her_ in return--bless her by +letting her behold and hear the happiness that she comes to create. The +soft songs of women are no longer blended with her breath as it whispers +among the new leaves; their slender feet no longer trace _her_ footsteps +in the fields and woods and wayside copses, or dance delighted measures +round the flowery offerings that she prompted their lovers to place +before them on the village green. Even the little children themselves, +that have an instinct for the Spring, and feel it to the very tips of +their fingers, are permitted to let May come upon them, without knowing +from whence the impulse of happiness that they feel proceeds, or whither +it tends. In short, + + "All the earth is gay; + Land and sea + Give themselves up to jollity, + And with the heart of May + Doth every beast keep holiday:" + +while man, man alone, lets the season come without glorying in it; and +when it goes he lets it go without regret; as if "all seasons and their +change" were alike to him; or rather, as if he were the lord of all +seasons, and they were to do homage and honour to him, instead of he to +them! How is this? Is it that we have "sold our birthright for a mess of +pottage?"--that we have bartered "our being's end and aim" for a purse +of gold? Alas! thus it is: + + "The world is too much with us; late and soon, + Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers: + Little we see in nature that is ours; + We have given our hearts away--a sordid boon!" + +And the consequence is, that, if we would know the true nature of those +hearts, and the manner in which they are adapted to receive and act upon +the impressions that come to them from external things, we must gain +what we seek at secondhand; we must look into the records that have been +copied from hearts that lived and beat ages ago; for in our own breasts +we shall find only a blurred and scribbled sheet, or at best but a blank +one. Even among our poets, the passions, characters, and events growing +out of an over-civilized state of society, have usurped the place of +those primary impulses and impressions in the susceptibility to receive +which the poetical temperament mainly consists; and instead of Nature +and her works being any longer the theme of our verse, these are only +brought in as occasional aids and ornaments, to show off, not _man_ as +he essentially is in all time, but _men_ as they accidentally are in the +nineteenth century. It is true that one of our poets, and he the +greatest, has nearly escaped the polluting influence of towns and +cities. But in doing so, he has been compelled to take such close +shelter within the citadel of his own heart, that his mental health has +somewhat suffered from a want of due airing and exercise. And this it is +which will, in a great measure, prevent his works from calling us back +to that vigorous and healthful condition which they otherwise might. No, +even Mr. Wordsworth himself has not been able, from the loopholes of his +retreat, to take that kind of glance at "man, nature, and society," +which will enable him so to adapt himself to our wants as to do more +than persuade us of their existence. To supply or set aside those wants +will demand even a greater than he: unless indeed (as I fear) we are +"hurt past all _poetry_," and must look for a cure to that Nature alone +which we have so long despised and outraged. But be this as it may, we +are still able to _feel_ what Nature is, though we have in a great +measure ceased to _know_ it; though we have chosen to neglect her +ordinances, and absent ourselves from her presence, we still retain some +instinctive reminiscences of her beauty and her power; and every now and +then the sordid walls of those mud hovels which we have built for +ourselves, and choose to dwell in, fall down before the magic touch of +our involuntary fancies, and give us glimpses into "that imperial +palace whence we came," and make us yearn to return thither, though it +be but in thought. + + "Then sing ye birds, sing, sing a joyous song! + And let the young lambs bound + As to the tabor's sound! + We _in thought_ will join your throng, + Ye that pipe and ye that play, + Ye that through your hearts to-day + Feel the gladness of the MAY!" + +Meet me, then, gentle reader, here on this Village Green, and forgetting +that there are such places as cities in the world, let us "do observance +to a morn of May:" we shall find it almost as pleasant an employment as +money-getting itself! From this spot we can observe specimens of many of +those objects which are now in their fullest beauty, and which we were +obliged to pass over at our last meeting. + +The stately Horse-chestnut is in still greater perfection than it was +last month--each of its pyramidal flowers looking like a "picture in +little" of the great American Aloe. The Limes, too, that shade the lower +windows of the Parsonage, and the Honeysuckles that make a little bower +of its trellised doorway, are now in full leaf. + +By the sunshine, which falls in bright patches on this broad walk +leading to the Church, we may observe that the Elms are not as yet in +full leaf; and casting our eyes upward, we shall see, through the +intervals between the thinly spread leaves, spots of blue sky looking +down upon us like a host of blue eyes. In the little Churchyard the +graves are all covered with a flush of new green, spotted here and there +with Daisies, which make even them look gay; the Ivy, which binds +together the stones of the old belfry, is every where putting forth its +young shoots; and the dark Yew itself, that shades the low porch, feels +the influence of the season, and is once more putting on a look of green +old age. + +Let us now pass over the little stile that divides this sadly sweet +inclosure from the adjacent paddock, and make our way into the open +fields beyond. But what is this rich perfume, that comes floating past +us as we go, borne on the warm breeze like incense? What but the sweet +breath of the Hawthorn, blended (for those who have organs delicate +enough to distinguish it) with that of the Violet, which grows about its +roots, and steams up its plaintive odours from a crowd of hidden +censers, till they reach the clouds of sweetness that are hanging above, +and both are borne away together on the wings of every wind that passes. +Those who are not accustomed to the _harmony of scents_, and cannot +detect two or three together when they are blended in this manner, are +exactly in the situation of those who are only susceptible of the +_melodies_ of music, and can hear nothing in _harmony_ but a _single +sound_. + +One of the loveliest objects in the vegetable kingdom is a fine-grown +Hawthorn tree, in the state in which we meet with it this month. But +they are scarcely ever to be found in the open country, being of such +extremely slow growth that they require particular advantages of soil, +protection from the depredations of cattle, &c. before they can be made +to reach the state of _a tree_. They are seldom to be met with in this +state except in parks and pleasure-grounds; and even then they require +to stand perfectly alone, or they do not gain that picturesque elegance +of form on which so much of their beauty depends. There are some, I +remember, both pink and white, in the deer-park of Maudlin College, +that are _a sight_ to look upon. The extreme beauty of this tree when in +blossom arises partly from the delightful mixture of the leaves and +blossoms together,--almost all the other trees that can properly be +called _flowering_ ones putting forth their blossoms before they have +acquired sufficient green leaves to contrast with and set them off. +There is another tree that we have not yet noticed, the Sycamore, the +effect of which, when it is suffered to grow singly, is extremely +elegant at this season. + +Now, too, and not till now, the Oak, the Walnut, and the Mulberry begin +to put forth their leaves, offering us, even till the commencement of +June, a seeming renewal or lengthening out of the Spring, when all the +rest of the vegetable world has put on the hues of Summer. The two first +of these, however, have during the first fortnight of their vegetation +the brown and golden hues of Autumn upon them. + +But we must be more brief in our search after the beauties of May, or we +shall not have space to name the half of them. Let us turn, then, +towards our home inclosures; glancing, as we pass, at a few more of +those sweet sights which belong to the fields exclusively. And first +let us feed our eyes with the brilliant green of yonder Wheat-field. The +stems, you see, have just attained height enough to wave gracefully in +the wind; which, as it passes over them, seems to convert the whole into +a beautiful lake of bright green undulating water. That Meadow which +adjoins it, glittering all over with yellow King-cups, is no less bright +and beautiful. It looks like the bed where Jupiter visited Danaee in a +shower of gold. How pretty, too, are these Cowslips, starting up close +beside our path, as if anxious to be seen, and yet hanging down their +modest heads, as if afraid to meet the gaze that they seem to court. + +We must delay for a moment beside this pretty Hedgerow, to observe a few +more of the various coloured weeds (so called by those manufacturers of +artificial flowers, the gardeners) which first put forth their blossoms +this month. Conspicuous is the Campion, rising from the bank, with its +single lake-coloured flowers scattered aloof from each other, upon their +long bare stems. Among the lower leaves of these, rising from the ditch +below, the Water-violet rears its elegant head, consisting of rosy +clusters ranged tier above tier, and lessening towards the top, till +they form a flowery pyramid. About the edges of the banks, low on the +ground, are scattered the Hyacinths in blue profusion, relieved here and +there by the white Cuckoo-flower, or Lady-smock, the plain, but +sweet-scented Woodruff, and the sunny Dandelion; while, close beneath +the overhanging hedgerow, the Cuckoo-pint stands motionless in its green +pavilion, and seems to keep watch, like a sentinel, over the flowery +tribe around. + +But see! yonder Butterfly, fluttering past us like a winged flower, +reminds us that now come forth that ephemeral race whose lives are +scarcely of longer date than those of the flowers on whose aroma they +feed. + +Now, shoot past us, like winged arrows, or hover near us like Fairies' +messengers come to bring us tidings of the Summer, those frail +creatures--green, and purple, and gold--borne on invisible gossamer +wings,--of which the flying dragons of fairy and of pantomime-land are +but clumsy imitations. Now, blithe companies of Gnats hum and hover up +and down in the warm air, like motes in a sunbeam. Now, the wayside +Cricket begins to chirrup forth its monotonous mirth; for ever harping +on one note, and never tiring or growing tired. Now, the great Humble +Bee goes booming along, startling the pleased ear as he passes; or +hurries suddenly out of the heart of some wayside flower, and leaves it +trembling at his departure, as if a thought of his distant home had +disturbed him in the midst of his blithe labours. Now, in the early +dusk, the heavy Cockchafer hums drowsily along, or flurs from out some +near lime-tree, and flings his mailed form (as if on purpose) into the +face of the startled passenger. Now, at night, the Glow-worm shows her +bright love-lamp to her distant mate, as he floats in the dim air above; +and, seeing it, he closes his thin wings about him, and drops down to +her side. + +Now, the most active and industrious of all the smaller birds, the +Swallow tribe, begin to devote themselves seriously to the business of +the season. They have hitherto, since their first appearance, been +sporting about in seeming idleness. But without this needful exercise +and relaxation they would not be fit to go through the henceforth +unceasing toils of the Summer; for they have two or three broods to +bring up before they retire, each of which, when hatched, requires the +incessant toil of the parents from light till dark, to provide them +food,--so dainty and delicate are they in the choice of it. Now, during +this month, they begin and complete their dwellings; the House-swallow +in the shafts of chimneys, thus providing their young at once with +warmth and safety; the confiding Martin in the windows, and under the +eaves, of our houses; and the Swift within the clefts of castles and +other high old buildings, where "the air is delicate." + +Finally, now many of the earlier builders are _sitting_, and some few +have hatched their broods. Let those who would contemplate, in +imagination, the most perfect state of tranquil happiness of which a +sentient being is susceptible, gaze (still in imagination, for actual +sight would break the spell for both parties) on the mother bird, +breasting her warm eggs beneath the shade of some retired covert, while +her vocal lover (made vocal by his love) sits on some near bough beside, +and pours into her listening heart the joy that _will_ not be contained +within his own. + +In the Garden we now find all the promises of April completed, and a +host of others springing up, to be fulfilled in their turn during the +rest of the season. But May, notwithstanding its reputation in this +particular, is not to be considered as, _par excellence_, the Month of +Flowers, at least in this climate, and in respect to those flowers which +have now become exclusively garden ones: though of _wild_ flowers, and +of blossoms which are afterwards to produce fruit, it is the month. Of +the annuals, for instance, which make so rich a show in common gardens, +(and it is of those alone that these unexotic pages profess to speak), +none flower in May; but all of them mix up their many-shaded greens, and +contrast their various shaped forms, with those that do. Among these +latter are, in addition to those of last month which still continue in +blow, the rich-scented Wall-flower; the flower of as many names as +colours, the prettiest of which is taken from that feeling which the +sight of it gives--Heart's-ease; Crown-imperial; Lily of the Valley, +most delicate of all the vegetable tribe, both in shape and odour,--its +bright little illumination-lamps looking out meekly from their pavilions +of emerald green; the towering, blue Monk's-hood; the pretty but +foreign-looking Fritillary, or Snake's-head, as it is more appropriately +called, from its shape and colours; and sometimes, when the season is +unfavourably favourable, the Rose herself. But her and her attractions +we must leave till they come upon us in showers, in her _own_ month of +June. + +Among the flowering shrubs we have now, also, many which demand their +Spring welcome. And first the Lilac; for it was scarcely in full bloom +last month; and it is its rich fulness that constitutes much of its +charm, though its scent is delightful. Now, too, the Guelder-rose flings +up its spheres of white light into the air, supported on their invisible +stems, and looking, as the wind blows them about, like the jugglers' +balls chasing each other as if in sport. The Mountain-ash, too, puts +forth its fans of white blossom, which the imagination converts, as soon +as they appear, into those rich bunches of scarlet berries that make the +winter months look gay; and which said "imagination" would do the same +by the Elder-bloom, which also now appears, but that its delicious +odour, when scented at a sufficient distance from its source, tells +tales of any thing but winter and elder-wine. Lastly, the Laburnum now +hangs forth its golden glories, and shows itself, for a few brief days, +the most graceful of all the inhabitants of the shrubbery. The blossoms +of the Laburnum, where they are seen from a little distance, and have +(from circumstances of soil, &c.) acquired their due dependent posture, +can scarcely be looked at steadily without a seeming _motion_ being +communicated to them, as if some invisible hand had detached them from +their stems, and they were in the act of falling to the earth in the +form of a yellow rain. + +In the orchard, the loveliest of all fruit-blossoms, the Apples, are now +in full perfection. These flowers are scarcely ever examined or praised +for their beauty; and yet they are formed of almost every other flower's +best. They are as fresh as the Rose, and more delicate; as innocent as +the Vale Lily, and more gay; as modest as the Daisy, and less prim. And +surely they are not the worse for being followed by a beautiful fruit; +any more than a beautiful bride is the worse for being a rich one. I +have been "cudgelling my brains" (which, to speak the truth, I am seldom +called upon to do) for a likeness to this lovely blossom; and I can +find none but that which I have used already. The Apple-blossom is like +nothing, in nature or in art, but the Countess of B----'s face; which is +itself not wholly in either, being a happy mixture of the best parts of +both--the sweet simplicity of the one, and the finished grace of the +other; and which--but I beseech her to take it away from before my +imagination at once, if she has any desire to see these pleasant papers +come to a conclusion; for if it should again open upon me from among the +flowers, like Cupid's from out the Rose, I cannot answer for the +consequences on the remainder of this history; for, though I am able to +find in the Apple-blossom no likeness to any thing but _her_ face, if +once I am put upon pointing out resemblances in _that_, it shall go hard +but I will prove it to be, in some particular or other, the prototype of +all beautiful things,--always excepting Sir Thomas's portrait of her; +which, however _she_ may be like _it_, is _not like her_. Her face is +like-- + + 'Tis like the morning when it breaks; + 'Tis like the evening when it takes + Reluctant leave of the low sun; + 'Tis like the moon, when day is done, + Rising above the level sea; + 'Tis like---- + +But hold!--if my readers, in consideration of the brief limits which +confine me, are not to be treated with other people's poetry, they +shall, at least, not be troubled with mine; to which end I must bid +adieu to the abovenamed face, once and for ever. + +We may now quit the garden for this month; though it would be ungrateful +to do so without condescending to take one glance at that portion of it +which is to supply our more substantial wants. Now, then, the +Kitchen-garden is in its best trim, its orderly inhabitants having all +put on their Spring liveries, and their sprightliest looks, but not +being yet sufficiently advanced in growth to call down that havoc which +will soon be at work among them. We must not venture into detail here; +though the real lover of the Garden (unless he affects the _genteel_) +would scarcely be angry with us if we did. But we may notice, in +passing, the first fruits of the year--Gooseberries and Currants; the +successive crops of Peas and Beans, "each under each," the earliest just +getting into bloom; green lines of Lettuces, so spruce and orderly, that +it seems a pity ever to break them; (ditto of Cabbages we of course +utterly exclude, seeing that such things were never heard of in the +polite purlieus of Piccadilly;) Melon and Cucumber frames, glittering in +the bright light, and half open, to admit the morning visits of the sun +and air. In short, a flower-garden itself is but half complete, if we +cannot step out of it at pleasure into the kitchen one, on the other +side of the green screen or the fruit-clothed wall that bounds it. + + * * * * * + +Must we, after all this pleasant expatiation among the natural delights +of May, repair to the metropolis, and see whether there is any thing +worthy of remark among the artificial ones? I suppose we must; for it is +mid-winter in London now, and the fashionable season is at its height. +But we must not be expected to look about us there in the best possible +humour, after having left the flowers and the sunshine behind us. We +will, at all events, contrive to reach London on May-day, that we may +not lose the only relic that is left us of the sports which were once as +natural to this period as the opening of the leaves or the springing of +the grass. I mean the gloomy merriment of Jack in the Green, and the sad +hilarity of the chimney-sweepers. This is, indeed, a melancholy affair, +contrasted with what that must have been of which it reminds us. The +effect of it, to the bystanders, is like that of a wobegone +ballad-singer chanting a merry stave. It is good as far as it goes, +nevertheless; inasmuch as it procures a holiday, such as it is, for +those who would not otherwise know the meaning of the phrase. The +wretched imps, whose mops and mowes produce the mock merriment in +question, are the _parias_ of their kind; outcasts from the society even +of their equals, the very charity-boys give themselves airs of patronage +in their presence; and the little beggar's brat, that leads his blind +father along the streets, would scorn to be seen playing at +chuck-farthing with them. But even they, on May-day, feel themselves +somebody; for the rout of ragged urchins, that turned up their noses at +them yesterday, will to-day dog their footsteps with admiring shouts, +and, such is the love of momentary distinction, would not disdain to own +an acquaintance with them. Nay, some of them are trying, even now, to +recollect whether it was not with that young gentleman, in the gilt +jacket and gauze trowsers, that they had the honour of playing at +marbles "on Wednesday last." There was not a man in the crowd, when +Jack Thurtell was hanged, that would not have been proud of a nod from +him on the scaffold. + +Now, on the first day, the hats of the Hammersmith coachmen grow +progressively heavy, and their heads light, with the "favours" they +receive from the barmaids of the fifteen public-houses at which they +regularly stop to refresh themselves between Kensington Gravel Pits and +Saint Paul's. + +Now, the winter being fairly set in, London is full of life; and +Bond-street seems an enviable spot in the eyes of coach-makers, and +cavalry officers on duty. + +Now, the innocent inhabitants of May-fair wonder what the people in the +street can mean by disturbing them at six in the morning, just as they +are getting to sleep, by crying, "come buy my nice bow-pots!" not having +any notion that there are natural flowers "in the midst of winter!" + +Now, the Benefits have began at the winter theatres, and consequently +all "genteel" persons have left off going there; seeing that the only +attraction offered on those occasions is a double portion of amusement: +as if any body went to the theatre for _that_! + +Now, the high fashionables, for once in the year, permit their horses' +hoofs to honour the stones of the Strand by striking fire out of them; +and, what is still more unaccountable, they permit plebeian shawls and +shoulders to come in contact with theirs, on the stairs of Somerset +House. And all to encourage the Arts! That their own portraits, by Sir +Thomas, are among the number of the works exhibited, cannot for a moment +be considered as the moving cause at such marvellous condescension. + +Now, too, flowing through the Strand in opposite directions towards the +same spot, may be seen, on fine days of the first fortnight, two streams +of white muslin, on which flowers are floating, and which form a +confluence at the gates of the Academy, and ascending the winding +staircase together (which streams are seldom in the habit of doing), +presently disperse themselves into a lake at the top of the building, +which glows with as many colours as that on the top of Mount Cenis. + +Now, too, still on the same spot, may be seen, peering half +shamefacedly in the purlieus of his own picture, some anxious young +artist, watching intently for those scraps of criticism which the +newspapers have as yet withheld from him (but which will doubtless +appear in _tomorrow's_ report); and believing, from the bottom of his +soul, that the young lady, aged twelve years, who has just fetched her +mamma to admire _his_ production, is the best judge in the room; which, +considering that he is a reasonable person, and nowise prejudiced, is +more than he can account for in one so young! + +Now, an occasional butterfly is seen fluttering away over the heads of +the pale pedestrians of Ludgate Hill, who wonder what it can portend. +Now, country cousins pay their triennial visits to the sights of London; +and having been happy enough to secure lodgings in a side street in the +Strand, have no doubt whatever that they are living at the west end of +the town. Accordingly, they perambulate Parliament-street with exemplary +perseverance, and then return to the country, to tell tales of the +fashionables they have seen. + +Finally, now the Parks really are the pleasantest imitations of the +country that can be met with away from it. That of Hyde is worth +walking in at five on a fine week-day, if it be only to see how the +footmen and the horses enjoy themselves; and still more so at four on a +fine Sunday, to see how the citizens do the same. The Green Park, in +virtue of the youths and maidens who meander about it in all directions +on the latter day, looks, at a distance, like a meadow strewn all over +with moving wild-flowers. And the great alley in Kensington Gardens, +when the fashionables please to patronise it, is as pretty to look down +upon, from the Pavilion at top, as one of Watteau's pictures. + + + + +JUNE. + + +Summer is come--come, but not to stay; at least, not at the commencement +of this month. And how should it, unless we expect that the seasons will +be kind enough to conform to the devices of man, and suffer themselves +to be called by what name and at what period _he_ pleases? He must die +and leave them a legacy (instead of they him) before there will be any +show of justice in this. Till then the beginning of June will continue +to be the latter end of May, by rights; as it was according to the _old +style_. And, among a thousand changes, in what one has the old style +been improved upon by the new? Assuredly not in that of substituting the +_utile_ for the _dulce_, in any eyes but those of almanack makers. Let +all lovers of Spring, therefore, be fully persuaded that, for the first +fortnight in June, they are living in May; and then, all the sweet +truths that I had to tell of the latter month, are equally applicable to +half the present. We shall thus be gaining instead of losing, after +all, by the impertinence of any breath, but that of Heaven, attempting +to force Spring into Summer, even in name alone. + +Spring, therefore, may now be considered as employed in completing her +toilet, and, for the first weeks of this month, putting on those last +finishing touches which an accomplished beauty never trusts to any hand +but her own. In the woods and groves also, she is still clothing some of +her noblest and proudest attendants with their new annual attire. The +oak until now has been nearly bare; and, of whatever age, has been +looking old all the Winter and Spring, on account of its crumpled +branches and wrinkled rind. Now, of whatever age, it looks young, in +virtue of its new green, lighter than all the rest of the grove. Now, +also, the stately Walnut (standing singly or in pairs in the fore-court +of ancient manor-houses; or in the home corner of the pretty park-like +paddock at the back of some modern Italian villa, whose white dome it +saw rise beneath it the other day, and mistakes for a mushroom), puts +forth its smooth leaves slowly, as "sage grave men" do their thoughts; +and which over-caution reconciles one to the beating it receives in the +autumn, as the best means of at once compassing its present fruit, and +making it bear more; as its said prototypes in animated nature are +obliged to have their brains cudgelled, before any good can be got from +them. + +Among the ornamental trees, the only one that is not as yet clothed in +all its beauty is, the most beautiful of all--the white Acacia. Its trim +taper leaves are but just spreading themselves forth to welcome the +coming summer sun; as those pretty female fingers which they resemble +are spread involuntarily at the approach of the accepted lover. + +The Mulberry, too, which in this country never sees itself unprovided +with a smooth-shaven carpet of green turf beneath it, on which to drop +(without injuring) its tender fruit, is only now rousing itself from its +late repose. Its appearance is at present as poverty-stricken, in +comparison with most of its well-dressed companions, as six weeks hence +it will be rich, full, and umbrageous. + +These are the chief appearances of the early part of this month which +appertain exclusively to the Spring. Let us now (however reluctantly) +take a final leave of that lovely and love-making season, and at once +step forward into the glowing presence of Summer--contenting ourselves, +however, to touch the hem of her rich garments, and not attempting to +look into her heart, till she lays that open to us herself next month: +for whatever school-boys calendar-makers may say to the contrary, +Midsummer never happens in England till July. + +The most appropriate spots in which first to watch the footsteps of +Summer are amid "the pomp of Groves, and garniture of Fields." There let +us seek her, then. + +To saunter, at mid June, beneath the shade of some old forest, situated +in the neighbourhood of a great town, so that paths are worn through it, +and you can make your way with ease in any direction, gives one the idea +of being transferred, by some strange magic, from the surface of the +earth to the bottom of the sea! (I say it gives _one_ this idea; for I +cannot answer for more, in matters of so arbitrary a nature as the +association of ideas). Over head, and round about, you hear the sighing, +the whispering, or the roaring (as the wind pleases) of a thousand +billows; and looking upward, you see the light of heaven transmitted +faintly, as if through a mass of green waters. Hither and thither, as +you move along, strange forms flit swiftly about you, which may, for any +thing you can see or hear to the contrary, be exclusive natives of the +new world in which your fancy chooses to find itself: they may be +_fishes_, if that pleases; for they are as mute as such, and glide +through the liquid element as swiftly. Now and then, indeed, one of +larger growth, and less lubricated movements, lumbers up from beside +your path, and cluttering noisily away to a little distance, may chance +to scare for a moment your sub-marine reverie. Your palate too may +perhaps here step in, and try to persuade you that the cause of +interruption was not a fish but a pheasant. But in fact, if your fancy +is one of those which are disposed to "listen to reason," it will not be +able to lead you into spots of the above kind without your gun in your +hand,--one report of which will put all fancies to flight in a moment, +as well as every thing else that has wings. To return, therefore, to our +walk,--what do all these strange objects look like, that stand silently +about us in the dim twilight, some spiring straight up, and tapering as +they ascend, till they lose themselves in the green waters above--some +shattered and splintered, leaning against each other for support, or +lying heavily on the floor on which we walk--some half buried in that +floor, as if they had lain dead there for ages, and become incorporate +with it; what do all these seem, but wrecks and fragments of some mighty +vessel, that has sunk down here from above, and lain weltering and +wasting away, till these are all that is left of it! Even the floor +itself on which we stand, and the vegetation it puts forth, are unlike +those of any other portion of the earth's surface, and may well recall, +by their strange appearance in the half light, the fancies that have +come upon us when we have read or dreamt of those gifted beings, who, +like Ladurlad in Kehama, could walk on the floor of the sea, without +waiting, as the visitors at Watering-places are obliged to do, for the +tide to go out. + +"But why," exclaims the reasonable reader, "detain us, at a time of year +like this, among fancies and associations, when facts and realities a +thousand times more lovely are waiting to be recorded?" He is right, and +I bow to the reproof; only I must escape at once from the old Forest +into which I had inadvertently wandered; for _there_ I shall not be able +to remain a moment fancy-free. + +Stepping forth, then, into the open fields, what a bright pageant of +Summer beauty is spread out before us! We are standing, you perceive, on +a little eminence, every point of which presents some particular +offering of the season, and from which we can also look abroad upon +those which require a more distant and general gaze. Everywhere about +our feet flocks of Wild-Flowers + + "Do paint the meadow with delight." + +We must not stay to pluck and particularize them; for most of them have +already had their greeting from us in the two preceding months; and +though they insist on repeating themselves during this, they must not +expect us to do the same, to the exclusion of others whose claims are +newer and not less noticeable. That we may duly attend to these latter, +let us pass along beside this flourishing Hedge-row, that skirts the +Wood from which we have just emerged. + +The first novelty of the Season that greets us here is perhaps the +sweetest, the freshest, and fairest of all, and the only one that could +supply an adequate substitute for the Hawthorn bloom which it has +superseded. Need the Eglantine be named? the "sweet-leaved Eglantine;" +the "rain-scented Eglantine;" Eglantine--to which the Sun himself pays +homage, by "counting his dewy rosary" on it every morning; +Eglantine--which Chaucer, and even Shakespeare--but hold--let me again +insist on the Poets not being permitted to set their feet even within +the porticos of these pleasant papers; for if once they do, good bye to +the control of the rightful owner! I did but invite Mr. Wordsworth in, +two months ago, as the reader may remember, just to say a few words in +favour of the Daisy, in pure gratitude for his having made it a sort of +sin to tread on one,--and lo! there was no getting him out again, till +he had poured forth two or three pages full of stanzas, touching that +one "wee, modest, crimson-tipped Flower!" Besides, what need have we for +the aid of Poets (I mean _the_ Poets, so called _par excellence_) when +in the actual presence of that Nature which made _them_ such, and can +make _us_ such too, if any thing can. In fact, whatsoever the Poets +themselves may insinuate to the contrary, to read poetry in the +presence of Nature is a kind of impiety: it is like reading the +commentators on Shakespeare, and skipping the text; for you cannot +attend to both; to say nothing of Nature's book being a _vade mecum_ +that can make "every man his own poet" for the time being; and there is, +after all, no poetry like that which we create for ourselves. Away, +then, with the Poets by profession--at least till the winter comes, and +we want them. + +Begging pardon of the Eglantine for having permitted any thing--even her +own likeness in the Poets' looking-glass--to turn our attention from her +real self,--look with what infinite grace she scatters her sweet +coronals here and there among her bending branches; or hangs them, +half-concealed, among the heavy blossoms of the Woodbine that lifts +itself so boldly above her, after having first clung to _her_ for +support; or permits them to peep out here and there close to the ground, +and almost hidden by the rank weeds below; or holds out a whole arch-way +of them, swaying backward and forward in the breeze, as if praying of +the passers hand to pluck them. Let who will praise the Hawthorn--now it +is no more! The Wild Rose is the Queen of Forest Flowers, if it be only +because she is as unlike a Queen as the absence of every thing courtly +can make her. + +The Woodbine deserves to be held next in favour during this month; +though more on account of its _intellectual_ than its personal beauty. +All the air is faint with its rich sweetness; and the delicate breath of +its lovely rival is lost in the luscious odours which it exhales. + +These are the only _scented_ Wild Flowers that we shall now meet with in +any profusion; for though the Violet may still be found by looking for, +its breath has lost much of its spring power. But if we are content with +mere beauty, this month is perhaps more profuse of it than any other, +even in that department of Nature which we are now examining--namely, +the Fields and Woods. The rich hedge-row from which we have just been +plucking the Eglantine and the Wild Honeysuckle is fringed all along its +borders, and festooned in every part, with gay clusters, some of which +appeared for the first time last month, and continue through this, and +with numerous others which now first come forth. Most conspicuous among +the latter are the brilliant Hound's tongue; the striped and variegated +Convolvulus; the Wild Scabious, pale and scentless sister of the rich +garden one; the Ox-eye, or Great White Daisy, looking, with its yellow +centre surrounded by white beams, like the miniature original of the Sun +on country sign-posts; the Mallow, that supplies the little children +with _cheeses_; and two or three of the almost animated Orchises, +particularly the Bee-Orchis,--which escapes being rifled of its sweets +by that general plunderer who gives his name to it, by always seeming to +be pre-occupied. + +Before quitting the little elevation on which we have commenced our +observations, we must take a brief general glance at the various masses +of objects that it brings within our view. The Woods and Groves, and the +single Forest Trees that rise here and there from out the bounding +Hedge-rows, are now in full foliage; all, however, presenting a somewhat +sombre, because monotonous, hue, wanting all the tender newness of the +Spring, and all the rich variety of the Autumn. And this is the more +observable, because the numerous plots of cultivated land, divided from +each other by the hedge-rows, and looking, at this distance, like beds +in a garden divided by box, are nearly all still invested with the same +green mantle; for the Wheat, the Oats, the Barley, and even the early +Rye, though now in full flower, have not yet become tinged with their +harvest hues. They are all alike green; and the only change that can be +seen in their appearance is that caused by the different lights into +which each is thrown, as the wind passes over them. The patches of +purple or of white Clover that intervene here and there, and are now in +flower, offer striking exceptions to the above, and at the same time +load the air with their sweetness. Nothing can be more rich and +beautiful in its effect on a distant prospect at this season, than a +great patch of purple Clover lying apparently motionless on a sunny +upland, encompassed by a whole sea of green Corn, waving and shifting +about it at every breath that blows. + +Before quitting this Wood-side, let us observe that the hitherto full +concert of the singing birds is now beginning to falter, and fall short. +We shall do well to make the most of it now; for in two or three weeks +it will almost entirely cease till the Autumn. I mean that it will cease +as a full concert; for we shall have single songsters all through the +Summer at intervals; and those some of the sweetest and best. The best +of all, indeed, the Nightingale, we have now lost. It is never to be +heard for more than two months in this country, and never at all after +the young are hatched, which happens about this time. So that the youths +and maidens who now go in pairs to the Wood-side, on warm nights, to +listen for its song (hoping they may _not_ hear it), are well content to +hear each other's voice instead. + +We have still, however, some of the finest of the second class of +songsters left; for the Nightingale, like Catalani, is a class by +itself. The mere chorus-singers of the Grove are also beginning to be +silent; so that the _jubilate_ that has been chanting for the last month +is now over. But the Stephenses, the Trees, the Patons, and the Poveys, +are still with us, under the forms of the Woodlark, the Skylark, the +Blackcap, and the Goldfinch. And the first-named of these, now that it +no longer fears the rivalry of the unrivalled, not seldom, on warm +nights, sings at intervals all night long, poised at one spot high up in +the soft moonlit air. + +We have still another pleasant little singer, the Field Cricket, whose +clear shrill voice the warm weather has now matured to its full +strength, and who must not be forgotten, though he has but one song to +offer us all his life long, and that one consisting but of one note; for +it is a note of joy, and _will_ not be heard without engendering its +like. You may hear him in wayside banks, where the Sun falls hot, +shrilling out his loud cry into the still air all day long, as he sits +at the mouth of his cell; and if you chance to be passing by the same +spot at midnight, you may hear it then too. + +We must now make our way towards home, noticing a few of the remaining +marks of mid-June as we pass along. Now, then, in covert Copses, or on +the skirts of dark Woods, the Foxglove rears its one splendid spire of +speckled flowers from the centre of its cone of dull, down-hanging +leaves.--Now, scarlet Poppies peer up here and there in bright companies +among the green shafts of the Corn, and scatter beauty over the mischief +they do.--Now, Bees and little boys banquet on the honey-laden flowers +of the white Hedge-nettle.--Now, the Brooms put forth their gold and +silver blossoms on hitherto barren Heaths, and change them into +beauteous gardens.--Now, whole fields of Peas send out their winged +blossoms, which look like flocks of purple and white butterflies +basking in the sun.--Now, too, the Bean, which has little or no +perceptible scent when gathered and smelt to singly, growing together in +fields breathes forth the most enchanting odour,--only to be come at, +however, by the wind, which bears and spreads it half over the adjacent +plains. + +Now, also, we meet with several new objects among the animated part of +the creation, a few only of which we must stay to notice.--Now, the +Grasshopper vaults merrily in the meadows, leaping over the tops of +their mountains (the molehills), and fancying himself a bird.--Now, the +great Dragon-flies shoot with their shining wings through the air, as if +bearing some fairy to its distant bower; or hover, apparently motion and +motiveless, as if they had forgotten their way, or were waiting to look +at some invisible direction-post. We had best not inquire too curiously +into their employment at those moments, lest we should find that they +are only stopping to take a bait, consisting of some beautiful invisible +that had just began to enjoy its age of half an hour.--Now, lastly, as +the Sun declines, may be seen, emerging from the surface of shallow +streams, and lying there for a while till its wings are dried for +flight, the (misnamed) _May_-fly. Escaping, after a protracted struggle +of half a minute, from its watery birth-place, it flutters restlessly, +up and down, up and down, over the same spot, during its whole era of a +summer evening; and at last dies, as the last dying streaks of day are +leaving the western horizon. And yet, who shall say that in that space +of time it has not undergone all the vicissitudes of a long and eventful +life? That it has not felt all the freshness of youth, all the vigour of +maturity, all the weakness and satiety of old age, and all the pangs of +death itself? In short, who shall satisfy us that any essential +difference exists between _its_ four hours and _our_ fourscore years? + +Before entering the home inclosure, we must pay due honour to the two +grand husbandry occupations of this month; the Hay-harvest, and the +Sheep-shearing. + +The Hay-harvest, besides filling the whole air with its sweetness, is +even more picturesque in the appearances it offers, as well as more +pleasant in the associations it calls forth, than _the_ Harvest in +Autumn. What a delightful succession of pictures it presents! First, the +Mowers, stooping over their scythes, and moving with measured paces +through the early morning mists, interrupted at intervals by the +freshening music of the whetstone. + +Then--blithe companies of both sexes, ranged in regular array, and +moving lengthwise and across the Meadow, each with the same action, and +the ridges rising or disappearing behind them as they go: + + "There are forty _moving_ like one."-- + +Then again, when the fragrant crop is nearly fit to be gathered in, and +lies piled up in dusky-coloured hillocks upon the yellow sward, while +here and there, beneath the shade of a "hedgerow elm," or braving the +open sunshine in the centre of the scene, sunburnt Groups are seated in +circles at their noonday meal, enjoying that ease which nothing but +labour can generate. + +And lastly, when Man and Nature, mutually assisting each other, have +completed the work of preparation, and the cart stands still to receive +its last forkfull; while the horse, almost hidden beneath his apparently +overwhelming load, lifts up his patient head sideways to pick a +mouthful; and all about stand the labourers, leaning listlessly on their +implements, and eyeing the completion of their work. + +What sweet pastoral pictures are here! The last, in particular, is +prettier to look upon than any thing else, not excepting one of +Wouvermann's imitations of it. + +Sheep-shearing, the other great rural labour of this delightful month, +if not so full of variety as the Hay-harvest, and so creative of matter +for those "in search of the picturesque" (though it is scarcely less +so), is still more lively, animated, and spirit-stirring; and it besides +retains something of the character of a Rural Holiday,--which rural +matters need, in this age and in this country, more than ever they did +since it became a civilized and happy one. The Sheep-shearings are the +only _stated_ periods of the year at which we hear of festivities, and +gatherings together of the lovers and practisers of English husbandry; +for even the Harvest-home itself is fast sinking into disuse, as a scene +of mirth and revelry, from the want of being duly encouraged and +partaken in by the great ones of the Earth; without whose countenance +and example it is questionable whether eating, drinking, and sleeping, +would not soon become vulgar practices, and be discontinued accordingly! +In a state of things like this, the Holkham and Woburn Sheep-shearings +do more honour to their promoters than all their wealth can purchase +and all their titles convey. But we are getting beyond our soundings: +honours, titles, and "states of things," are what we do not pretend to +meddle with, especially when the pretty sights and sounds preparatory to +and attendant on Sheep-shearing, as a mere rural employment, are waiting +to be noticed. + +Now, then, on the first really summer's day, the whole Flock being +collected on the higher bank of the pool formed at the abrupt winding of +the nameless mill-stream, at the point perhaps where the little wooden +bridge runs slantwise across it, and the attendants being stationed +waist-deep in the midwater, the Sheep are, after a silent but obstinate +struggle or two, plunged headlong, one by one, from the precipitous +bank; when, after a moment of confused splashing, their heavy fleeces +float them along, and their feet, moving by an instinctive art which +every creature but man possesses, guide them towards the opposite +shallows, that steam and glitter in the sunshine. Midway, however, they +are fain to submit to the rude grasp of the relentless washer; which +they undergo with as ill a grace as preparatory-schoolboys do the same +operation. Then, gaining the opposite shore heavily, they stand for a +moment till the weight of water leaves them, and, shaking their +streaming sides, go bleating away towards their fellows on the adjacent +green, wondering within themselves what has happened. + +The Shearing is no less lively and picturesque, and no less attended by +all the idlers of the Village as spectators. The Shearers, seated in +rows beside the crowded pens, with the seemingly inanimate load of +fleece in their laps, and bending intently over their work; the +occasional whetting and clapping of the shears; the neatly attired +housewives, waiting to receive the fleeces; the smoke from the +tar-kettle, ascending through the clear air; the shorn Sheep escaping, +one by one, from their temporary bondage, and trotting away towards +their distant brethren, bleating all the while for their Lambs, that do +not know them;--all this, with its ground of universal green, and +finished every where by its leafy distances, except where the village +spire intervenes, forms together a living picture, pleasanter to look +upon than words can speak, but still pleasanter to think of when _that_ +is the nearest approach you can make to it. + +We must now betake ourselves to the Garden, which I have perhaps kept +aloof from longer than I ought, from something like a fear that the +flush of beauty we shall meet there will go near to infringe upon that +perfect sobriety of style on which these papers so much pique +themselves, and which, I hope, has not hitherto been departed from! What +may happen now, however, is more than I shall venture to anticipate. If, +therefore, in passing across yonder smooth elastic Turf, now in its +fullest perfection, and making our way towards the Flower-plots that are +imbedded in it, my imagination should imbibe some of the occasionally +undue warmth of the season, and my fancy find itself "half in a blush of +clustering roses lost," and these should together engender a style as +flowery as the subject about which it is to concern itself, the reader +will be good enough to bear in mind, that even the Berecinian blood of +an Irish Barrister can scarcely be made to keep within due bounds, when +he has a beauty for his client! nay, that even _the_ Irish Barrister +_par excellence_ is sometimes misled into a metaphor, and inveigled into +an allitteration, when his theme happens to be more than ordinarily +inspiring! + +As the Wild Rose is the reigning belle of the Forest during this Month, +so _the_ Rose occupies a similar rank in the more courtly realm of the +Garden; and the latter is to her sweet relative of the Woods what the +centre of the court circle in town (whoever she may be) is to the +_Cynosure_ of a country village. Here, in these oval clumps, which she +has usurped entirely to herself, we find her greeting us under a host of +different forms at the same time, all of which are her own, all unlike +each other, and yet each and all more lovely than all the rest! I must +be content merely to call by name upon a few of the principal of these +"fair varieties," and allow their prototypes in the reader's imagination +to answer for themselves; for the Poets, those purloiners of all public +property that is worth possessing, have long precluded us plain prosers +from being epithetical in regard to Roses, without incurring the +imputation of borrowing that from _them_, which _they_ first borrowed +from their betters, the Roses themselves. + +What, then, can be more enchanting to look upon than this newly-opened +Rose of Provence, looking upward half shamefacedly from its fragile +stem, as if just awakened from a happy dream to a happier reality? It +is the loveliest Rose we have, and the sweetest--_except_ this by its +side, the Rose-unique, which looks like the image of the other cut in +marble--the statue of the Venus de' Medici beside the living beauty that +stood as its model. _This_, surely, _is_ the loveliest of all +Roses--_except_ the White Blush-Rose, that rises here in the centre of +the group, and looks like the marble image of the two former, just as +the enamoured gaze of its Pygmalion has warmed it into life. You see, +its delicate lips are just becoming tinged with the hues of vitality; +and it _breathes_ already, as all the air about it bears witness. +Undoubtedly _this_ is the loveliest of Roses--_except_ the Moss Rose +that hangs flauntingly beside it, seemingly the most careless, but in +reality the most coquettish of court beauties; apparently the sport of +every coxcomb Zephyr that passes, but in truth indifferent to all but +her own sweet self; and if more modest in her attire than all other of +her fair sisterhood, only adopting this particular mode because it makes +her look more pretty and piquant. Her "close-fit cap of green," the +fashion of which she never changes, has exactly that _becoming_ effect +on her face which a French _blonde_ trimming has on the face of an +English _londe_ beauty. But I must refrain from further details, +touching the attractions of the Rose family, or I shall inevitably lose +my credit with all of them, by discovering some reason why each, as it +comes before me, is without exception preferable to all the rest. And, +in fact, without wishing to be personal in regard to any, I must insist +that, philosophically speaking, that Rose which is nearest at hand _is_, +without exception, the best of Roses, in relation to the person affected +by it; and that even the gaudy Damask, and the intense velvet-leaved +Tuscan (each of which, in its own particular ear be it said, is +handsomer than any of the beforenamed), must yield in beauty to the +pretty little innocent blossoms of the Sweet-briar Rose itself, when +none but that is by. + +I am afraid the other Garden Flowers, that first appear in June, must go +without their fair proportion of praise, since they _will_ risk a +rivalry with the unrivalled. They must be content with a passing "now" +of recognition. Now, then, the flaring Peony throws up its splendid +globes of crimson and blush-colour from out its rich domelike pavilion +of dark leaves.--Now, the elegant yet exotic-looking family of the +Amaranths begin to put on their fantastical attire of fans, feathers, +and fringes. Those, however, which give name to the tribe, the truly +_Amaranthine_, or Everlasting ones, are not yet come; nor that other, +most elegant and pathetic of them all, which is known by the name of +Love-lies-bleeding. + +Now, the Ranunculus tribe begin to scatter about their many-coloured +balls of brilliant light. The Persian ones, when planted in beds, with +their infinite varieties of tint and penciling, and their hundred +leaves, lapped over each other with such inimitable art, eclipse all the +Tulips of the Spring, and would eclipse their Summer rivals the +Carnations too, but that the latter are as sweet as they are beautiful. + +Now, the delicate Balsams rejoice in the fresh air which is allowed to +blow upon them, and which, like too tender maidens, they have been +sighing for ever since they came into bloom, without knowing that one +rude breath of it would have blown them into the grave. + +Now, too, the Fuchsia, that most exquisitely formed of all our flowers, +native or exotic, is no longer confined, like an invalid, to a fixed +temperature, but is permitted to mix with its more hardy brethren in the +open air. + +Now, also, the whole tribe of Geraniums get leave of absence from their +winter barracks, and are allowed to keep guard on each side the +hall-door, in their gay regimentals of scarlet, crimson, and the rest, +ranged "each under each," according to their respective inches, and all +together making up as pretty a show as a crack regiment at a review. +What the passers in and out can mean by plucking part of a leaf as they +go, rubbing it between their fingers, and then throwing it away, is more +than they (the Geraniums) can divine. + +The other flowers, that present themselves for the first time in this +most fertile of all the months, must be dismissed with a very brief +glance at the commonest of them: which epithet, by the way, is always a +synonyme for the most beautiful, among flowers. Now, the favourite +family of the Pinks shoot up their hundred-leaved heads from out their +low ground-loving clump of frosty-looking leaves, and are in such haste +to scatter abroad their load of sweetness, that they break down the +polished sides of the pretty green vase in which they are set, and hang +about it like the tresses of a school-girl on the afternoon of +dancing-day. + +Now, Sweet-Williams lift up their bold but handsome faces, right against +the meridian Sun,--disdaining to shrink or bend beneath his most ardent +gaze: whence, no doubt, their claim to the name of William; for no +lady-flower would think of doing so! + +Now, the Columbine dances a _pas-seul_ to the music of the breeze; +"being her first appearance this season;" and she performs her part to +admiration, notwithstanding her Harlequin husband, Fritillary, has not +been heard of for this month past. + +Now, the yellow Globe-flower flings up its balls of gold into the air; +and the modest little Virginia Stock scatters its rubies, and sapphires, +and pearls, profusely upon the ground; and Lupines spread their wings +for flight, but cannot, for very fondness, escape from the handsome +leaves over which they seem hovering; and Mignonette begins to make good +its pretty name; and, finally, the princely Poppy, and the starry +Marigold, and the innocent little wild Pansy, and the pretty Pimpernel, +and the dear little blue Germander, _will_ spring up, unasked, all over +the Garden, and you cannot find in your heart to treat them as weeds. + +In the Fruit Garden, all is still for the most part promise: not, +however, the flowery and often fallacious promise of the Spring; but +that solid and satisfying assurance which one feels in the word of a +friend who never breaks it. So that, to the eye and palate of the +imagination, this month and the next are richer than those which follow +them; for now you can "_have_ your fruit and _eat_ it too;" which you +cannot do then. In short, now the fruit blossoms are all gone, and the +fruit is so fully _set_ that nothing can hurt it; and what is better +still, it is not yet stealable, either by boys, birds, or bees; so that +you are as sure of it as one can be of any thing the enjoyment of which +is not actually past. Enjoy it now, then, while you may; in order that, +when in the Autumn it _disappears_, on the eve of the very day you had +destined for the gathering of it (as every body's fruit does), _you_ +alone may feel that you can afford to lose it. Every heir who is worthy +to enjoy the estate that is left to him in reversion, _does_ enjoy it +whether it ever comes to him or not. + +On looking more closely at the Fruit, we shall find that the +Strawberries, which lately (like bold and beautiful children) held out +their blossoms into the open sunshine, that all the world might see +them, now, that their fruit is about to reach maturity, hide it +carefully beneath their low-lying leaves, as conscious virgins do their +maturing beauties;--that the Gooseberries and Currants have attained +their full growth, and the latter are turning ripe;--that the Wall-fruit +is just getting large enough to be seen among the leaves without looking +for;--that the Cherries are peeping out in white or "cherry-cheeked" +clusters all along their straight branches;--and that the other +standards, the Apples, Pears, and Plums, are more or less forward, +according to their kinds. + +For reasons before hinted at, and in deference to the delicacy of that +class of readers for whom these papers are in part propounded, I must, +however reluctantly, refrain from descending any lower in the scale of +vegetable life. It would ill become me to speak in praise of Green Peas +in presence of a Peeress--who could not possibly understand the +allusion! Think of mentioning Summer Cabbages within hearing of a +Countess, or French Beans to a Baronet's Lady! I could not do it. I +cannot even persuade myself to "mention _Herbs_ to ears polite!" If it +were not for this proper, and indeed necessary restriction, there would +be no end to the pleasant sights I might show the ordinary reader during +this month, in the Kitchen-garden. But it may not be. I know my duty, +and in pursuance of it must now at once "stay my hand, and change my +measure." + + * * * * * + +Behold us, then, in the heart of London. In the Country, when we left +it, Midsummer was just at hand. Here mid-Winter has just passed away! +and the Fashionable World finds itself in a condition of the most +melancholy intermediateness. It is now much too late to stay in Town, +and much too early to go into the Country. And what is worse, all +fashionable amusements are at an end in London, and have not yet +commenced elsewhere; on the express presumption that there is no one at +hand to partake of them in either case. There are two places of public +resort, however, which still boast the occasional countenance of people +of fashion; probably on account of their corresponding with the +intermediate character of the month--not being situated either in +London or the Country, but at equal distances from each. I mean +Kensington Gardens and Vauxhall. Now, in fact, during the first +fortnight, Kensington Gardens is a place not to be paralleled: for the +unfashionable portion of my readers are to know, that this delightful +spot, which has been utterly deserted during the last age (of seven +years), and could not be named during all that period without incurring +the odious imputation of having a taste for trees and turf, has now +suddenly started into vogue once more, and you may walk there even +during the "morning" part of a Sunday afternoon with perfect impunity, +always provided you pay a due deference to the decreed hours, and never +make your appearance there earlier than twenty minutes before five, or +later than half-past six; which is allowing you exactly two hours after +breakfast to dress for the Promenade, and an hour after you get home to +do the same for dinner: little enough, it must be confessed; but quite +as much as the unremitting labour of a life of idleness can afford! +Between the abovenamed hours, on the three first Sundays of this month, +and the two last of the preceding, you may (weather willing) gladden +your gaze with such a galaxy of Beauty and Fashion (I beg to be pardoned +for the repetition, for Fashion _is_ Beauty) as no other period or +place, Almack's itself not excepted, can boast: for there is no denying +that the fair rulers over this last-named rendezvous of the regular +troops of _bon ton_ are somewhat too _recherchee_ in their requirements. +The truth is, that though the said Rulers will not for a moment hesitate +to patronise the above proposition under its simple form, they entirely +object to that subtle interpretation of it which their sons and nephews +would introduce, and on which interpretation the sole essential +difference between the two assemblies depends. In fact, at Almack's +Fashion is Beauty; but at Kensington Gardens Beauty and Fashion are one. +At any rate, those who have not been present at the latter place during +the period above referred to, have not seen the finest sight (with one +exception) that England has to offer. + +Vauxhall Gardens, which open the first week in this month, are somewhat +different from the above, it must be confessed. But they are unique in +their way nevertheless. Seen in the darkness of noonday, as one passes +by them on the top of the Portsmouth coach, they cut a sorry figure +enough. But beneath the full meridian of midnight, what is like them, +except some parts of the Arabian Nights' Entertainments? Now, after the +first few nights, they begin to be in their glory, and are, on every +successive Gala, illuminated with "ten thousand _additional_ lamps," and +include all the particular attractions of every preceding Gala since the +beginning of time! + +Now, on fine evenings, the sunshine finds (or rather loses) its way into +the galleries of Summer Theatres at whole price, and wonders where it +has got to. Now, Boarding-school boys, in the purlieus of Paddington and +Mile End, employ the whole of the first week in writing home to their +distant friends in London a letter of not less than eight lines, +announcing that the "ensuing vacation will commence on the ---- +instant;" and occupy the remaining fortnight in trying to find out the +unknown numerals with which the blank has been filled up. + +Finally, now, during the first few days, you cannot walk the streets +without waiting, at every crossing, for the passage of whole regiments +of little boys in leather breeches, and little girls in white aprons, +going to church to practise their annual anthem singing, preparatory to +that particular Thursday in this month, which is known all over the +world of Charity Schools by the name of "walking-day;" when their little +voices, ten thousand strong, are to utter forth sounds that shall dwell +for ever in the hearts of their hearers. Those who have seen this sight, +of all the Charity Children within the Bills of Mortality assembled +beneath the dome of Saint Paul's, and heard the sounds of thanksgiving +and adoration which they utter there, have seen and heard what is +perhaps better calculated than any thing human ever was to convey to the +imagination a faint notion of what we expect to witness hereafter, when +the Hosts of Heaven shall utter, with _one voice_, hymns of adoration +before the footstool of the Most High. + + + + +JULY. + + +At last Summer _is_ come among us, and her whole world of wealth is +spread out before us in prodigal array. The Woods and Groves have +darkened and thickened into one impervious mass of sober uniform green, +and having for a while ceased to exercise the more active functions of +the Spring, are resting from their labours, in that state of "wise +passiveness" which _we_, in virtue of our so infinitely greater wisdom, +know so little how to enjoy. In Winter, the Trees may be supposed to +sleep in a state of insensible inactivity, and in Spring to be labouring +with the flood of new life that is pressing through their veins, and +forcing them to perform the offices attached to their existence. But in +Summer, having reached the middle term of their annual life, they pause +in their appointed course, and then, if ever, _taste_ the nourishment +they take in, and "enjoy the air they breathe." And he who, sitting in +Summer time beneath the shade of a spreading Plane-tree, can see its +brave branches fan the soft breeze as it passes, and hear its polished +leaves whisper and twitter to each other, like birds at love-making; and +yet can feel any thing like an assurance that it does _not_ enjoy its +existence, knows little of the tenure by which he holds his own, and +still less of that by which he clings to the hope of a future. I do not +ask him to make it an article of his _faith_ that the flowers feel; but +I do ask him, for his own sake, not to make it an article of his faith +that they _do not_. + +Like the Woods and Groves, the Hills and Plains have now put off the +bright green livery of Spring; but, unlike them, they have changed it +for one dyed in almost as many colours as a harlequin's coat. The Rye is +yellow, and almost ripe for the sickle. The Wheat and Barley are of a +dull green, from their swelling ears being alone visible, as they bow +before every breeze that blows over them. The Oats are whitening apace, +and quiver, each individual grain on its light stem, as they hang like +rain-drops in the air. Looked on separately, and at a distance, these +three now wear a somewhat dull and monotonous hue, when growing in great +spaces; but this makes them contrast the more effectually with the +many-coloured patches that every where intermix with them, in an +extensively open country; and it is in such a one that we should make +our _general_ observations, at this finest period of all our year. + +What can be more beautiful to look on, from an eminence, than a great +Plain, painted all over with the party-coloured honours of the early +portion of this month, when the all-pervading verdure of the Spring has +passed away, and before the scorching heats of Summer have had time to +prevail over the various tints and hues that have taken its place? The +principal share of the landscape will probably be occupied by the sober +hues of the above-named Corns. But these will be intersected, in all +directions, by patches of the brilliant emerald which now begins to +spring afresh on the late-mown meadows; by the golden yellow of the Rye, +in some cases cut, and standing in sheaves; by the rich dark green of +the Turnip-fields; and still more brilliantly, by sweeps, here and +there, of the bright yellow Charlock, the scarlet Corn-poppy, and the +blue Succory, which, like perverse beauties, scatter the stray gifts of +their charms in proportion as the soil cannot afford to support the +expenses attendant on them. + +Still keeping in the open Fields, let us come into a little closer +contact with some of the sights which they present this month. The high +Down on which we took our stand, to look out upon the above prospect, +has begun to feel the parching influence of the Sun, and is daily +growing browner and browner beneath its rays; but, to make up for this, +all the little Molehills that cover it are purple with the flowers of +the wild Thyme, which exhales its rich aromatic odour as you press it +with your feet; and among it the elegant blue Heath-bell is nodding its +half-dependent head from its almost invisible stem,--its perpetual +motion, at the slightest breath of air, giving it the look of a living +thing hovering on invisible wings just above the ground. Every here and +there, too, we meet with little patches of dark green Heaths, hung all +over with their clusters of exquisitely wrought filigree flowers, +endless in the variety of their forms, but all of the most curiously +delicate fabric, and all, in their minute beauty, unparalleled by the +proudest occupiers of the Parterre. This is the singular family of +Plants that, when cultivated in pots, and trained to form heads on +separate stems, give one the idea of the Forest Trees of a Lilliputian +people. Those who think there is nothing in Nature too insignificant for +notice, will not ask us to quit our present spot of observation (a high +turf-covered Down) without pointing out the innumerable little +thread-like spikes that now rise from out the level turf, with scarcely +perceptible seed-heads at top, and keep the otherwise dead flat +perpetually alive, by bending and twinkling beneath the Sun and breeze. + +Descending from our high observatory, let us take our way through one of +the pretty green Lanes that skirt or intersect the Plain we have been +looking down upon. Here we shall find the ground beneath our feet, the +Hedges that inclose us on either side, and the dry Banks and damp +Ditches beneath them, clothed in a beautiful variety of flowers that we +have not yet had an opportunity of noticing. In the Hedge-rows (which +are now grown into impervious walls of many-coloured and many-shaped +leaves, from the fine filigree-work of the White-thorn, to the large, +coarse, round leaves of the Hazel) we shall find the most remarkable of +these, winding up intricately among the crowded branches, and shooting +out their flowers here and there, among other leaves than their own, or +hanging themselves into festoons and fringes on the outside, by unseen +tendrils. Most conspicuous among the first of these is the great +Bind-weed, thrusting out its elegantly-formed snow-white flowers, but +carefully concealing its leaves and stem in the thick of the shrubs +which yield it support. Nearer to the ground, and more exposed, we shall +meet with a handsome relative of the above, the common red and white +wild Convolvolus; while all along the face of the Hedge, clinging to it +lightly, the various coloured Vetches, and the Enchanter's Night-shade, +hang their flowers into the open air; the first exquisitely fashioned, +with wings like the Pea, only smaller; and the other elaborate in its +construction, and even beautiful, with its rich purple petals turned +back to expose a centre of deep yellow; but still, with all its beauty, +not without a strange and sinister look, which at once points it out as +a poison-flower. It is this which afterwards turns to those bunches of +scarlet berries which hang so temptingly in Autumn, just within the +reach of little children, and which it requires all the eloquence of +their grandmothers to prevent them from tasting. In the midst of these, +and above them all, the Woodbine now hangs out its flowers more +profusely than ever, and rivals in sweetness all the other field scents +of this month. + +On the bank from which the Hedge-row rises, and on _this_ side of the +now nearly dry water-channel beneath, fringing the border of the green +path on which we are walking, a most rich variety of Field Flowers will +also now be found. We dare not stay to notice the half of them, because +their beauties, though even more exquisite than those hitherto +described, are of that unobtrusive nature that you must stoop to pick +them up, and must come to an actual commune with them, before they can +be even seen distinctly; which is more than our desultory and fugitive +gaze will permit,--the plan of our walk only allowing us to pay the +passing homage of a word to those objects that _will_ not be overlooked. +Many of the exquisite little Flowers, now alluded to generally, look, as +they lie among their low leaves, only like minute morsels of +many-coloured glass scattered upon the green ground--scarlet, and +sapphire, and rose, and purple, and white, and azure, and golden. But +pick them up, and bring them towards the eye, and you will find them +pencilled with a thousand dainty devices, and elaborated into the most +exquisite forms and fancies, fit to be strung into necklaces for fairy +Titania, or set in broaches and bracelets for the neatest-handed of her +nymphs. + +The little flowers of which I now speak,--with their minute blossoms, +scarcely bigger than pins' heads, scattered singly among their low-lying +leaves,--are the Veronicas, particularly that called the Wild Germander, +with its flowers coloured like no others, nor like any thing else, +except the Turquoise; the Scarlet Pimpernel; the Red Eyebright; and the +Bastard Pimpernel, the smallest of flowers. All these, however, and +their like, I must pass over (as the rest of the world does) without +noticing them particularly; but not without commending them to the +reader's best leisure, and begging him to give to each one of them more +of it than I have any hope he will bestow on me, or than he would bestow +half so well if he did. + +But there are many others that come into bloom this month, some of which +we cannot pass unnoticed if we would. We shall meet with most of them in +this green Lane, and beside the paths through the meadows and corn-fields +as we proceed homeward. Conspicuous among them are the Centaury, with its +elegant cluster of small, pink, star-like flowers; the Ladies' Bed-straw, +with its rich yellow tufts; the Meadow-sweet--sweetest of all the +sweeteners of the Meadows; the Wood Betony, lifting up its handsome head +of rose-coloured blossoms; and, still in full perfection, and towering up +from among the low groundlings that usually surround it, the stately +Fox-glove. + +Among the other plants that now become conspicuous, the Wild Teasal must +not be forgotten, if it be only on account of the use that one of the +Summer's prettiest denizens sometimes makes of it. The Wild Teasal +(which now puts on as much the appearance of a flower as its rugged +nature will let it) is that species of thistle which shoots up a strong +serrated stem, straight as an arrow, and beset on all sides by hard +sharp-pointed thorns, and bearing on its summit a hollow egg-shaped +head, also covered at all points with the same armour of threatening +thorns--as hard, as thickly set, and as sharp as a porcupine's quills. +Often within this fortress, impregnable to birds, bees, and even to +mischievous boys themselves, that beautiful Moth which flutters about so +gaily during the first weeks of Summer, on snow-white wings spotted all +over with black and yellow, takes up its final abode,--retiring thither +when weary of its desultory wanderings, and after having prepared for +the perpetuation of its ephemeral race, sleeping itself to death, to the +rocking lullaby of the breeze. + +Now, too, if we pass near some gently lapsing water, we may chance to +meet with the splendid flowers of the Great Water Lily, floating on the +surface of the stream like some fairy vessel at anchor, and making +visible, as it ripples by it, the elsewhere imperceptible current. +Nothing can be more elegant than each of the three different states +under which this flower now appears;--the first, while it lies unopened +among its undulating leaves, like the Halcyon's egg within its floating +nest; next, when its snowy petals are but half expanded, and you are +almost tempted to wonder what beautiful bird it is that has just taken +its flight from such a sweet birth-place; and lastly, when the whole +flower floats confessed, and spreading wide upon the water its pointed +petals, offers its whole heart to the enamoured sun. There is I know +not what of _awful_, in the beauty of this flower. It is, to all other +flowers, what Mrs. Siddons is to all other women. + +In the same water, congregating together towards the edge, and bowing +their black heads to the breeze, we shall now see those strange +anomalies in vegetation, the flowers, or fruit, or whatever else they +are to be called, of the Bullrush, the delight of village boys, when, +like their betters, they are disposed to "play at soldiers." And on the +bank, the handsome Iris hangs out its pale flag, as if to beg a truce of +the besieging sun. + +Before entering the Garden, to luxuriate among the flocks of Flowers +that are waiting for us there, let us notice a few of the miscellaneous +objects that present themselves this month in the open country. Now, +then, cattle wade into shallow pools of warm water, and stand half the +day there stock still, in exact imitation of Cuyp's pictures.--Now, +breechesless little boys become amphibious,--daring each other to dive +off banks a foot high, to the bottom of water two feet deep.--Now, +country gentlemen who wander through new-cut Rye-fields, or across sunny +meadows, are first startled from their reveries by the rushing sound of +many wings, and straightway lay gunpowder plots against the peace of +partridges, and have visions redolent of double-barrelled guns.--Now, +another class of children, of a smaller growth than the above, go +through one of their preparatory lessons in the pleasant and profitable +art of lying, by persuading Lady-birds to "fly away home" from the tops +of their extended fingers, on the forged information that "their house +is on fire, their children at home." + +Now, those most active and industrious of the feathered tribes, the +Swallows and House Martins, bring out their young broods into the +cherishing sunshine, and having taught them to provide for themselves, +they send them "about their business," of congregating on slate-roofed +houses and churches, and round the tops of belfry towers; while they +(the parents) proceed in their periodical duty of providing new flocks +of the same kind of "fugitive pieces," as regularly as the editors of a +Magazine. + +Now may be observed that singular phenomenon which (like all other +phenomena) puzzles all those observers who never take the trouble of +observing. Whole meadows, lanes, and commons, are covered, for days +together, with myriads of young Frogs, no bigger than horse-beans,-- +though there is no water in the immediate neighbourhood, where they are +likely to have been bred, and the ponds and places where they _are_ +likely to breed are entirely empty of them. "Where _can_ they have come +from in this case, but from the clouds?" say the before-named observers. +Accordingly, from the clouds they _do_ come, the opinion of all such +searching inquirers; and I am by no means sure they will be at all +obliged to me for telling them, that the water in which these animals +are born is not their natural element, and that, on quitting their +Tad-pole state, they choose the first warm shower to _migrate_ from +their birth-place, in search of that food and home which cannot be found +_there_. The circumstance of their almost always appearing for the first +time after a warm shower, no doubt encourages the searchers after +mystery in assigning them a miraculous origin. + +Now, the Bees (those patterns of all that is praiseworthy in domestic +and political economy) give practical lessons on the Principles of +Population, by expelling from the hive, _vi et armis_, all those +heretofore members of it who refuse to aid the commonweal by working +for their daily honey. When they need those services which none but the +Drones can perform, they let them live in idleness and feed luxuriously. +But as the good deeds of the latter are of that class which "in doing +pay themselves," those who benefit by them think that they owe the doers +no thanks, and therefore, when they no longer need them, send them +adrift, or if they will not go, sacrifice them without mercy or remorse. +And this--be it known to all whom it may concern (and those are not a +few)--this is the very essence of Natural Justice. + +Now, as they are wandering across the meadows thinking of nothing less, +gleams of white among the green grass greet the eyes of bird-nesting +boys, who all at once dart upon the welcome prize, and draw out from its +hiding-place piece-meal what was once a Mushroom; and forthwith +mushrooming becomes the order of the day.--Now, the lowermost branches +of the Lime-tree are "musical with Bees," who eagerly beset its almost +unseen blossoms--richer in sweets than the sweetest inhabitants of the +garden. + +Finally, now we occasionally have one of those sultry days which make +the house too hot to hold us, and force us to seek shelter in the open +air, which is hotter;--when the interior of the Blacksmith's shop looks +awful, and we expect the foaming porter pot to hiss, as the brawny +forger dips his fiery nose into it;--when the Birds sit open-mouthed +upon the bushes; and the Fishes fry in the shallow ponds; and the Sheep +and Cattle congregate together in the shade, and forget to eat;--when +pedestrians along dusty roads quarrel with their coats and waistcoats, +and cut sticks to carry them across their shoulders; and cottagers' +wives go about their work gown-less; and their daughters are anxious to +do the same, but that they have the fear of the Vicar before their +eyes;--when every thing seen beyond a piece of parched soil quivers +through the heated air; and when, finally, a snow-white Swan, floating +above its own image, upon a piece of clear cool water into which a +Weeping-Willow is dipping its green fingers, is a sight not to be turned +from suddenly. + +But we must no longer delay to glance at the Garden, which is now fuller +of beauty than ever: for nearly all the flowers of last month still +continue in perfection, and for one that has disappeared, half a dozen +have started forward to supply its place. + +Against the house, or overhanging the shaded arbour, among Shrubs, we +have the Jasmin, shooting out its stars of white light from among its +throng of slender leaves; and the white Clematis (well worthy of both +its other names, of Virgin's Bower, and Traveller's Joy) flinging its +wreaths of scented snow athwart the portico, and rivaling the Hawthorn +in sweetness; and the Syringa, sweeter still. Now, too, the large Lilies +lift up their lofty heads proudly, and do not seem to forget that they +once held the rank of Queens of the Garden;--the rich-scented white one +looking, in comparison with the red, what a handsome Countess does to a +handsome Cook-maid. + +Among the less aspiring we have now several whose beauty almost makes us +forget their want of sweetness. Conspicuous among these are the +Convolvulus, whose elegant trumpet-shaped cups open their blue eyes to +greet the sun, and, at his going down, close them never to open again; +and the Nasturtium, as gaudy in its scarlet and gold as an Officer of +the Guards on a levee day; and the fine-cut Indian Pink; and the +profuse Larkspur, all flower, shooting up its many-coloured cones here +and there at random, or ranging them in rich companies, that rival the +Tulip-beds of the Spring. + +In the Orchard and Fruit-Garden the hopes of the last month begin in +part to be realized, and in all to be confirmed. The elegant Currant, +red and white (the Grape of our northern latitudes), now hangs its +transparent bunches close about the parent stem, and looks through its +green embowering leaves most invitingly. But there you had best let it +hang as yet, till the Autumn has sweetened its wine with sunbeams: for +Autumn is your only honest wine-maker in this country; all others +sweeten with sugar-of-lead instead of sunshine.--The Gooseberry, too, +has gained its full growth, but had better be left where it is for +awhile, to mature its pleasant condiment. As for the Tarts into which it +is the custom to translate it during this and the last month,--they are +"pleasant but wrong."--Now, too, is in full perfection the most grateful +fruit that grows, and the most wholesome--the Strawberry. I grieve to be +obliged to make "odious comparisons" of this kind, between things that +are all alike healthful, where the partakers of them are living under +natural and healthful circumstances. But if Man _will_ live upon what +was not intended for him, he must be content to see what _was_ intended +for him lose its intended effect. The Strawberry is the only fruit in +which we may indulge to excess with impunity: accordingly I hereby give +all my readers (the young ones in particular) Mr. Abernethy's full +permission to commit a debauch of Strawberries once every week during +this month, always provided they can do it at the bed itself; for +otherwise they are taking an unfair advantage of nature, and must expect +that she will make reprisals on them.--Now, too, the Raspberry is +delicious, if gathered and eaten at its place of growth. There it is +fragrant and full of flavour, elsewhere flat and insipid. + +The other fruits of this month are Apricot, one or two of the early +Apples, and if the season is forward a few Cherries. But of these, the +two latter belong by rights to the next month; so till then we leave +them. And as for Apricots, they look handsome enough at a distance, +against the wall; but they offer so barefaced an imitation of the +outward appearance of Peaches and Nectarines, without possessing any one +of their intrinsic merits, that I have a particular contempt for them, +and beg the reader to dismiss them from his good graces accordingly. + + * * * * * + +Of London in July--"_London_ in _July_?"--surely there can be no such +place! It sounds like a kind of contradiction in terms. But, alas! there +_is_ such a place, as yonder thick cloud of dust, and the blare of the +horn that issues from it, too surely indicate. And what is worse, we +must, in pursuance of our self-imposed duty, proceed thither without +delay. We cannot, therefore, do better (or worse) than mount the coming +vehicle (the motto of which at this time of the year ought to be "per me +si va nella citta, dolente,") and, + + Half in a cloud of stifling road-dust lost, + +get there as soon as we can, that we may the sooner get away again. + +Of London in July, there is happily little to be said; but let that +little be said good humouredly; for London _is_ London, after all--ay, +even after having ridden fifty miles on the burning roof of the +Gloucester Heavy, to get at it. Now, then, London is entirely empty; so +much so that a person well practised in the art of walking its streets +might wager that he would make his way from St. Paul's to Charing Cross +(a distance of more than a mile) within forty minutes! + +Now, the _Winter_ Theatres having just closed, the Summer ones "make hay +_while the sun shines_." At that in the Hay-market Mr. Liston acts the +part of Atlas,--supporting every thing (the heat included) with +inimitable coolness; while, in virtue of his attractions, the Managers +can afford annually to put in execution their benevolent and patriotic +plan, of permitting the principal _Barn-staple_ actors to practise upon +the patience of a London Pit with impunity. + +At the English Opera-house the Managers, (Mr. Peake),--for fear the +public, amid the refreshing coolness of the Upper Boxes, should forget +that it is Summer time,--transfer the country into the confines of their +Saloon (having purchased it at and for half-price in Covent Garden +Market); and there, from six till eight, flowers of all hues look at +each other by lamp-light despondingly, and after that hour turn their +attention to the new accession of flowers, the Painted Ladies, which do +not till then begin blowing in this singular soil. In the mean time, on +the stage, Mr. Wrench (that easiest of actors with the hardest of names) +carries all before him, not excepting his arms and hands. I never see +Wrench, [who, by the bye, or by any other means that he can, ought by +all means to get rid of the roughening letter in his name, and call +himself Wench, Tench, Clench, Bench, or any other that may please him +and us better. Indeed I cannot in conscience urge him to adopt either of +the above, if he can possibly find another guiltless of that greatest of +all enormities in a name, the susceptibility of being punned upon; for +it is obvious that if he _should_ adopt either of the above, he must +not, on his first after appearance in the Green Room, hope to escape +from his punegyrical friend Mr. Peake, without being told, in the first +case, (Wench) that his place is not _there_ but in the _other_ Green +Room (the Saloon);--in the second, (Tench) that he need not have changed +his name, for that he was a sufficiently _odd fish_ before;--in the +third, (Clench) that he (Mr. P.) is greatly in want of a clever one for +the finale of his next farce, and begs to make use of _him_ on the +occasion;--and in the fourth, (Bench) that, belonging to a Royal +Company, he is neither more nor less than the _King's Bench_, and "as +such" must not be surprised if his theatrical friends fly to _him_ for +shelter and protection in their hour of need, in preference to his +name-sake over the water.--I beg the reader to remember, that the +punishment due to all these prospective puns belongs exclusively to Mr. +Peake; and on him let them be visited accordingly. Though I doubt not he +will intimate in extenuation, that they are quite _pun-ish-meant_ enough +in themselves.--But where was I?--oh]--I never see Wrench without +fearing that, some day or other, a gleam of common sense may by accident +miss its way to the brain of our winter managers, and they may bethink +them (for if one does, both will) of offering an engagement to this most +engaging of actors. But if they should, let me beseech him to turn (if +he has one) a deaf ear to their entreaties; for we had need have +something to look for at a Summer Theatre that cannot be had elsewhere. + +I am not qualified to descend any lower than the Major of the Minor +Theatres, in regard to what is doing there at this season; though it +appears that Mr. Ducrow is still satisfying those who were not satisfied +of it before, that Horsemanship is one of the Fine Arts; and though the +Bills of the Coburg append sixteen instead of six notes of admiration to +Mr. Nobody's name. Being somewhat fastidious in the affair of +phraseology, the only mode in which I can explain my remissness in +regard to the above particular is, that, whereas at this season of the +year _Steam conveys us_ to all other places,--from the theatres +frequented by throngs of "rude mechanicals" it most effectually keeps us +away. + +Now, on warm evenings after business hours, citizens of all ages grow +romantic; the single, wearing away their souls in sighing to the breezes +of Brixton Hill, and their soles in getting there; and the married, +sipping syllabub in the arbours of White Conduit House, or cooling +themselves with hot rolls and butter at the New River Head. + +Now, too, moved by the same spirit of Romance, young patricians, who +have not yet been persuaded to banish themselves to the beauty of their +paternal groves, fling themselves into funnies, and fatigue their +_ennui_ to death, by rowing up the river to Mrs. Grange's garden, to eat +a handful of strawberries in a cup-full of cream. + +Now, adventurous cockneys swim from the Sestos of the Strand stairs to +the Abydos of the coal-barge on the opposite shore, and believe that +they have been rivaling Lord Byron and Leander--not without wondering, +when they find themselves in safety, why the Lady for whom the latter +performed a similar feat is called the Hero of the story, instead of the +Heroine. + +Finally,--now pains-and-pleasure taking citizens hire cozey cottages for +six weeks certain in the Curtain Road, and ask their friends to come and +see them "in the country." + + + + +AUGUST. + + +The Year has now reached the parallel to that brief, but perhaps best +period of human life, when the promises of youth are either fulfilled or +forgotten, and the fears and forethoughts connected with decline have +not yet grown strong enough to make themselves felt; and consequently +when we have nothing to do but look around us, and be happy. It has, +indeed, like a man at forty, turned the corner of its existence; but, +like him, it may still fancy itself young, because it does not begin to +feel itself getting old. And perhaps there is no period like this, for +encouraging and bringing to perfection that habit of tranquil enjoyment, +in which all true happiness must mainly consist: with _pleasure_ it has, +indeed, little to do; but with _happiness_ it is every thing. + +August is that debateable ground of the year, which is situated exactly +upon the confines of Summer and Autumn; and it is difficult to say +which has the better claim to it. It is dressed in half the flowers of +the one, and half the fruits of the other; and it has a sky and a +temperature all its own, and which vie in beauty with those of the +Spring. May itself can offer nothing so sweet to the senses, so +enchanting to the imagination, and so soothing to the heart, as that +genial influence which arises from the sights, the sounds, and the +associations connected with an August evening in the Country, when the +occupations and pleasures of the day are done, and when all, even the +busiest, are fain to give way to that "wise passiveness," one hour of +which is rife with more real enjoyment than a whole season of revelry. +Those who will be wise (or foolish) enough to make comparisons between +the various kinds of pleasure of which the mind of man is capable, will +find that there is none (or but one) equal to that felt by a true lover +of Nature, when he looks forth upon her open face silently, at a season +like the present, and drinks in that still beauty which seems to emanate +from every thing he sees, till his whole senses are steeped in a sweet +forgetfulness, and he becomes unconscious of all but that _instinct of +good_ which is ever present with us, but which can so seldom make +itself felt amid that throng of thoughts which are ever busying and +besieging us, in our intercourse with the living world. The only other +feeling which equals this, in its intense quietude, and its satisfying +fulness, is one which is almost identical with it,--where the accepted +lover is gazing unobserved, and almost unconsciously, on the face of his +mistress, and tracing there sweet evidences of that mysterious union +which already exists between them. The great charm of Claude's pictures +consists in their power of generating, to a certain degree, the +description of feeling above alluded to; a feeling which no other +pictures produce in the slightest degree; and which even his produce +only enough of to either remind us of what we have experienced before, +or give us a foretaste of what Nature herself has in store for us. And I +only mention them here, in order that those who are accustomed to expend +themselves in admiration of the copies may be led to look at the +originals in the same spirit; when they will find, that the one is to +the other, what a thought is to a feeling, or what a beautiful mask is +to the beautiful living face from which it was modelled. Let the +professed enthusiasts to Claude look at Nature's pictures through the +same eyes, and with the same prepared feelings, as they look at his +(which few, if any of them have ever done), and they will find that they +have hitherto been content to _fancy_ what they now _feel_; and this +discovery will not derogate from the value of the said fancy, but will, +on the contrary, make it more effective by making it less vague. When +you hear people extravagant in their general praise of Claude's +Landscapes, you may shrewdly suspect that they have never experienced in +the presence of Nature herself those sensations which enabled Claude to +be what he was; and that, in admiring him, they have only been yielding +to involuntary yearnings after that Nature which they have hitherto +neglected to look upon. They have been worshipping the image, and +passing by the visible god. + +The whole face of Nature has undergone, since last month, an obvious +change; obvious to those who delight to observe all her changes and +operations, but not sufficiently striking to insist on being seen +generally by those who can read no characters but such as are written in +a _text_ hand. If the general _colours_ of all the various departments +of natural scenery are not changed, their _hues_ are; and if there is +not yet observable the infinite variety of Autumn, there is as little +the extreme monotony of Summer. In one department, however, there _is_ a +general change, that cannot well remain unobserved. The rich and +unvarying green of the Corn-fields has entirely and almost suddenly +changed, to a still richer and more conspicuous gold colour; more +conspicuous on account of the contrast it now offers to the lines, +patches, and masses of green with which it every where lies in contact, +in the form of intersecting Hedge-rows, intervening Meadows, and +bounding masses of Forest. These latter are changed too; but in _hue_ +alone, not in colour. They are all of them still green; but it is not +the fresh and tender green of the Spring, nor the full and satisfying, +though somewhat dull, green of the Summer; but many greens, that blend +all those belonging to the seasons just named, with others at once more +grave and more bright; and the charming variety and interchange of which +are peculiar to this delightful month, and are more beautiful in their +general effect than those of either of the preceding periods: just as a +truly beautiful woman is perhaps more beautiful at the period +immediately before that at which her charms begin to wane, than she +ever was before. Here, however, the comparison must end; for with the +year its incipient decay is the signal for it to put on more and more +beauties daily, till, when it reaches the period at which it is on the +point of sinking into the temporary death of Winter, it is more +beautiful in general appearance than ever. + +But we must not anticipate. We may linger upon one spot, or step aside +from our path, or return upon our steps; but we must not anticipate; for +those who would duly enjoy and appreciate the Present and the Past, must +wait for the Future till it comes to them. The Future and the Present +are jealous of each other; and those who attempt to enjoy both at the +same time, will not be graciously received by either. + +The general appearance of natural scenery is now much more varied in its +character than it has hitherto been. The Corn-fields are all redundant +with waving gold--gold of all hues--from the light yellow of the Oats +(those which still remain uncut), to the deep sunburnt glow of the red +Wheat. But the wide rich sweeps of these fields are now broken in upon, +here and there, by patches of the parched and withered looking Bean +crops; by occasional bits of newly ploughed land, where the Rye lately +stood; by the now darkening Turnips--dark, except where they are being +fed off by Sheep Flocks; and lastly by the still bright-green Meadows, +now studded every where with grazing cattle, the second crops of Grass +being already gathered in. + +The Woods, as well as the single Timber Trees that occasionally start up +with such fine effect from out the Hedge-rows, or in the midst of +Meadows and Corn-fields, we shall now find sprinkled with what at first +looks like gleams of scattered sunshine lying among the leaves, but +what, on examination, we shall find to be the new foliage that has been +put forth since Midsummer, and which yet retains all the brilliant green +of the Spring. The effect of this new green, lying in sweeps and patches +upon the old, though little observed in general, is one of the most +beautiful and characteristic appearances of this season. In many cases, +when the sight of it is caught near at hand, on the sides of thick +Plantations, the effect of it is perfectly deceptive, and you wonder for +a moment how it is, that while the sun is shining so brightly _every +where_, it should shine so much _more_ brightly on those particular +spots. + +We shall find those pretty wayside Shrubberies, the Hedge-rows, and the +Field-flower-borders that lie beneath and about them, less gay with new +green, and less fantastic with flowers, than they have lately been; but +they still vie with the Garden both in sweetness and in beauty. The new +flowers they put forth this month are but few. Among these are the +pretty little Meadow Scabious, with its small purple head standing away +from its leaves; the various Goosefoots, curious for their leaves, +feeling about like fingers for the fresh air; the Camomile, shooting up +its troops of little suns, with their yellow centres and white rays; and +a few more of lesser note. But, in addition to these, we have still many +which have already had their greeting from us, _or should have had_; but +really, when one comes every month, self-invited, to Nature's morning +levees, and meets there flocks of flowers, every one of which claims as +its single due a whole morning's attention, it must not be taken as +unkind or impolite by any of them, if, in endeavouring hastily to record +the company we met, for the benefit of those who were not there, we +should chance to forget some who may fancy themselves quite as worthy of +having their presence recorded, and their court dresses described, as +those who do figure in this Court Calendar of Nature. It is possible, +too, that we may have fallen into some slight errors in regard to the +places of residence of some of our fair flowery friends, and the +particular day on which they first chose to make their appearance at +Nature's court; for we are not among those reporters who take short-hand +notes, or any other, but such as write themselves in the tablet of our +memory. But if any lady _should_ feel herself aggrieved in either of the +above particulars, she has only to drop us a leaf to that effect, +stating, at the same time, her name and residence, and she may be +assured that we shall take the first opportunity of paying our personal +respects to her, and shall have little doubt of satisfying her that our +misconduct has arisen from any thing rather than a wilful neglect +towards her pretensions, or a want of taste in appreciating them. In the +mean time let us add, that, in addition to the new company which graces +this month's levee, the following are still punctual in their +attendance; namely, Woodbine, Woodruff, Meadow-sweet, and Wild Thyme; +(N. B. These ladies are still profuse in their use of perfumes); and, +among those who depend on their beauty alone, Eyebright, Pansie, the +lesser and greater Willow-herb, Daisy, two or three of the Orchises, +Hyacinth, several sisters of the Speedwell and Pimpernel families, and +the scentless Violet. + +Now, after the middle of the month, commences that great rural +employment to which all the hopes of the farmer's year have been +tending; but which, unhappily, the mere labourer has come to regard with +as much indifference as he does any of those which have successively led +to it. This latter is not as it should be. But as we cannot hope to +alter, let us not stay to lament over it. On the contrary, let us +rejoice that at least Nature remains uninjured--that _she_ shows more +beautiful than ever at harvest time, whether Man chooses to be more +happy then or not. It is true Harvest-home has changed its moral +character, in the exact proportion that the people among whom it takes +place have changed _theirs_, in becoming, from an agricultural, a +mechanical and manufacturing nation; and we may soon expect to see the +produce of the earth gathered in and laid by for use, almost without +the intervention of those for whose use it is provided, and in supplying +whose wants it is chiefly consumed: for the rich, so far from being +"able to live by bread alone," would scarcely feel the loss if it were +wholly to fail them. But Nature is not to be changed by the devices +which man employs to change and deteriorate himself. She has willed that +the scenes attendant on the gathering in of her gifts shall be as +fraught with beauty as ever. And accordingly, Harvest time is as +delightful to look on to _us_, who are mere spectators of it, as it was +in the Golden Age, when the gatherers and the rejoicers were one. Now, +therefore, as then, the Fields are all alive with figures and groups, +that seem, in the eye of the artist, to be made for pictures--pictures +that he can see but one fault in; (which fault, by the bye, constitutes +their only beauty in the eye of the farmer;) namely, that they will not +stand still a moment, for him to paint them. He must therefore be +content, as we are, to keep them as studies in the storehouse of his +memory. + +Here are a few of those studies, which he may practise upon till +doomsday, and will not then be able to produce half the effect from them +that will arise spontaneously on the imagination, at the mere mention +of the simplest words which can describe them:--The sunburnt Reapers, +entering the Field leisurely at early morning, with their reaphooks +resting on their right shoulders, and their beer-kegs swinging to their +left hands, while they pause for a while to look about them before they +begin their work.--The same, when they are scattered over the Field: +some stooping to the ground over the prostrate Corn, others lifting up +the heavy sheaves and supporting them against one another, while the +rest are plying their busy sickles, before which the brave crop seems to +retreat reluctantly, like a half-defeated army.--Again, the same +collected together into one group, and resting to refresh themselves, +while the lightening keg passes from one to another silently, and the +rude clasp-knife lifts the coarse meal to the ruddy lips.--Lastly, the +piled-up Wain, moving along heavily among the lessening sheaves, and +swaying from side to side as it moves; while a few, whose share of the +work is already done, lie about here and there in the shade, and watch +the near completion of it. + +I would fain have to describe the boisterous and happy revelries that +used to ensue upon these scenes, and should do still. And what if they +were attended by mirth a little over-riotous, or a few broken crowns? +Better so, than the troops of broken spirits that now linger amidst the +overflowing plenty of the last Harvest-field, and begin to think where +they shall wander in search of their next week's bread. + +But no more of this. Let us turn at once to a few of the other +occurrences that take place in the open Fields during this month. The +Singing Birds are, for the most part, so busy in educating and providing +for their young broods, that they have little time to practise their +professional duties; consequently this month is comparatively a silent +one in the Woods and Groves. There are some, however, whose happy hearts +will not let them be still. The most persevering of these is that poet +of the skies, the Lark. He still pours down a bright rain of melody +through the morning, the mid-day, and the evening skies, till the whole +air seems sparkling and alive with the light of his strains.--His +sweet-hearted relation, the Woodlark, also still warbles high up in the +warm evening air, and occasionally even at midnight--hovering at one +particular spot during each successive strain.--The Goldfinch, the +Yellowhammer, and the Green and Brown Linnet, those pretty flutterers +among the summer leaves,--as light hearted and restless as they,--still +keep whistling snatches of their old songs, between their quick +fairy-like flittings from bough to bough. As for the solitary Robin, his +delicate song may be heard all through the year, and is peculiarly +acceptable now in the neighbourhood of human dwellings--where no other +is heard, unless it be the common wren's. + +By the middle of this month we shall lose sight entirely of that most +airy, active, and indefatigable of all the winged people,--the +Swift--Shakespeare's "temple-haunting Martlet." Unlike the rest of its +tribe, it breeds but once in the season; and its young having now +acquired much of their astonishing power of wing, young and old all +hurry away together--no one can tell whither. The sudden departure of +the above singular species of the Swallow tribe, at this very moment, +when every thing seems to conform together for their delight,--when the +winds (which they shun) are hushed--and the Summer (in which they +rejoice) is at its best--and the air (in which they feed) is laden with +dainties for them--and all the troubles and anxieties attendant on the +coming of their young broods are at an end, and they are wise enough not +to think of having more;--that, at the very moment when all these +favourable circumstances are combining together to make them happy, they +should suddenly, and without any assignable cause whatever, disappear, +and go no one knows whither, is one of those facts, the explanation of +which has hitherto baffled all our inquiring philosophizers, and will +continue to do so while the said inquirers continue to judge of all +things by analogies invented by their own boasted _reason_: as if reason +were given us to explain instinct! and as if a being which passes its +whole life on the wing--(for sleep is not a part of life, and the Swift, +during its waking hours, never sets foot on tree or ground--almost +realizing that fabled bird which has wings but no feet) were not likely +to be gifted with any senses but such as _we_ can trace the operations +of! The truth is, all that we can make of this mysterious departure is, +to accept it as an omen--the earliest, the most certain, and yet the +least attended to, because it happens in the midst of smiling +contradictions to it--that the departure of Summer herself is nigh at +hand. + +It is not good to cull out the sad points of reflection which present +themselves, in the various subjects which come before us, in +contemplating the operations of Nature. But as little is it good, +studiously to avoid those points. Perhaps the only wise course is, to +let them suggest what they will, of sadness or of joy; and then, so to +receive and apply those suggestions, that even the sad ones themselves +may be made subservient to good. To me, this early departure, in the +very heart of our summer, of the most bird-like of all the birds that +visit us only for a season, always comes at first like an omen of evil, +that I cannot doubt, and yet will not believe. It might as well be told +me, that the being who sits beside me now, in all the pomp of health, +and all the lustre of loveliness, will leave me to-morrow, and go--like +the bird--I know not whither. And yet, if such a prediction _were_ made +to me, what should I do in regard to it, but (as one ought in the case +of the omen of departing summer) to _believe_ that it is true, and yet +_feel_ that it is false; and, acting upon the joint impulse thus +created, enjoy the blessing tenfold, while it remains mine, and leave +the lamentations for its loss till I can no longer feel the delight that +flows from its presence? + +But, enough of philosophy--even of that which is intended to cure us of +philosophizing. Let us get into the air and the sunshine again; which +can bid us be happy in spite of all philosophy, and _will_ be obeyed +even by philosophers themselves,--who have long since found that they +have no resource left against those enemies to their art, but to fly +their presence, and shut themselves up in schools and studies. + +The Swift, whose strange flight has for a moment led us astray from our +course, is the only one of its tribe that has yet made any preparations +towards departure: though the young broods of House-swallows and +House-martins are evidently _thinking_ of it, and congregating together +in great flocks, about the tops of old towers and belfries, to talk the +matter over, and wonder with one another what will happen to them in +their projected travels--if they _do_ travel. Their parents, however, +who are to lead them, are still employed in increasing their company, +and have just now brought out their second broods into the open air. + +Now, on warm still evenings, we may sometimes see the whole air about us +speckled with another class of emigrants, who are not usually regarded +as such; namely, the flying Ants, whom their own offspring, or their +inclinations (for it is uncertain which), have expelled from their +birth-place, to found new colonies, and find new habitations, where they +can. It is a ticklish task to make people more knowing than they wish to +be, and one which, even if I were qualified for the office, I should be +very shy of undertaking. But when a race of comparatively foolish and +improvident little creatures have for ages enjoyed the credit of being +proverbial patterns of wisdom, prudence, and forethought, I cannot +refuse to assist in dispelling the delusion. Be it known, then, to the +elderly namesakes of the above, that when they bid their little nephews +and nieces "go to the Ant, and consider its ways," they can scarcely +offer them advice less likely to end, if followed, in teaching them to +"be wise:" for, in fact, one of those "ways" is, to sleep ("sluggards" +as they are!) all the winter through; another is, never to lay up a +single morsel of store even for a day, much less for a whole year, as +has been reported of them; and a third is, to do what they are in fact +doing at this very moment--namely, to come out in myriads from their +homes, and fill the air with that food (themselves) which serves to +fatten the _really_ wise, prudent, and industrious Swallows and Martins, +who are skimming through the air delightedly in search of it. It is +true, the Ants are active enough in providing for their immediate wants, +and artful enough in overcoming any obstacles to their immediate +pleasures. But all this, and more, the _other_ Aunts, who hold them up +as patterns, will find their little pupils sufficiently expert in, +without any assistance. + +Now, we may observe that pretty pair of rural pictures (not, however, +_peculiar_ to this month); first, when the numerous Flock is driven to +fold, as the day declines,--its scattered members converging towards a +point as they enter the narrow opening of their nightly enclosure, which +they gradually fill and settle into, as a shallow stream runs into a bed +that has been prepared for it, and there settles into a still pool.--And +again, in the early morning, when the slender barrier that confines them +is removed, they crowd and hurry out at it,--gently intercepting each +other; and as they get free, pour forth their white fleeces over the +open field, as a lake that has broken its bank pours its waters over the +adjoining land: in each case, the bells and meek voices of the patient +people making music as they move, and the Shepherd standing carelessly +by (leaning on his crook, even as shepherds did in Arcady itself!) and +leaving the care of all to his half-reasoning dog. + +As I have again got my pencil in hand, instead of my pen, let me not +forget to sketch a copy of that other pretty picture, at once so still +and yet so lively, which may be had this month for the price of looking +at, and than which Paul Potter himself could not have presented us with +a sweeter: and indeed, but that he was a mere imitator of Nature, one +might almost swear it to be his, not hers.--Fore-ground: on one side, a +little shallow pond, with two or three pollard willows stooping over it; +and on the other a low bank, before which stand as many more pollard +willows, with round trim heads set formally on their straight +pillar-like stems: between all these, the sunshine lying in bright +streaks on the green ground, and made distinguishable by the straight +shadows thrown by the thick stems of the trees. Middle distance: a moist +meadow, level as a line, and on it half a dozen cattle; three lying at +their ease, and "chewing the cud of sweet" (not "bitter") herbage--two +cropping the same--and one lifting up its grave matronly face, and +lowing out into the side distance; while, about the legs of all of them, +a little flock of Wagtails are glancing in and out merrily, picking up +their delicate meal of invisible insects; and upon the very back of one +of the ruminators, a pert Magpie has perched himself. Of the extreme +distance, half is occupied by dim-seen willows, of the same stunted +growth with those in front; and the rest shows indistinctly, and half +hidden by trees, a little village,--its church spire pointing its silent +finger straight upward, as if bidding us look at a sky scarcely less +calm and sweet than the scene which it canopies.--How says the +connoisseur? Is this a picture of Paul Potter's, or of Nature? But no +matter,--for they are almost the same. There is only just enough +difference between them to make us feel (as the possessor of twin +children does) that we are blessed with _two_ instead of _one_. + +In the Plantation and Flower-garden we must hardly expect to find much +of novelty, after the profusion of last month. And in fact there are +very few flowers the first appearance of which can be said to be +absolutely _peculiar_ to this month; most of those hitherto unnamed +choosing to be the medium of a pleasant interchange between the two +months, according as seasons, and circumstances of soil and planting, +may dispose them. It must be admitted, however (though I am very loth, +even by implication, to dissever this month from absolute summer), that +many of the flowers which do come forward now are _autumn_ ones. +Conspicuous among those which first appear in this month, is the stately +Holyoak; a plant whose pretensions are not so generally admitted as they +ought to be, probably on account of its having, by some strange +accident, lost its character for _gentility_. Has this (in the present +day) dire misfortune happened to it, because it condescends to flower in +as much splendour and variety when leaning beside low cottage porches, +or spiring over broken and lichen-grown palings, as it does in the +gardens of the great? I hope not; for then those who contemn it must do +the same by the vaunted Rose, and the rich Carnation; for where do +_they_ blow better than in the daisy-bordered flower-beds of the poor? +The only plausible plea which I can discover, for the reasonableness of +banishing from our choice parterres this most magnificent of all their +inhabitants, is, that its aspiring and oriental splendour may put to +shame the less conspicuous beauties of Flora's court. I hope the latter +have not, through envy, been entering into a conspiracy to fix an ill +name upon the Holyoak, and thus stir up in the hearts of their admirers +a dislike to it, that nothing else is so likely to produce: for, give +even a flower "an ill name," and you may as well treat it like a dog at +once. In fact, I do not think that any thing short of calling it +_ungenteel_ could have displaced the Holyoak from that universal favour +with us which it always acquires during our youth, in virtue of its +being the only flower that we can distinguish in "garden scenes" on the +stage. + +As the Holyoak is at present a less _petted_ flower than any other, +perhaps the Passion-flower (which blows this month) is, of all those +which bear the open air, the most so; and, I must say, with quite as +little reason. In fact, its virtue lies in its name; which it owes, +however, to its fantastical construction suggesting certain religious +associations, and not to any romantic or sentimental ones; which latter, +when connected with it, have grown out of its name, and not its name +out of them. If, however, it has little that is beautiful and +flower-like about it, it has something bizarre and recherchee, which is +well worth examining. But we examine it as we would a watch or a +compass, and not a flower; which is its great fault. It is to other +flowers, what a Blue-stocking is to other women. + +Among the other flowers that appear now, the most conspicuous, and most +beautiful, is that one of the Campanulas which shoots up from its +cluster of low leaves one or more tall straight spires, clustered around +from heel to point with brilliant sky-blue stars, crowding as closely to +each other as those in the milky way,--till they look like one +continuous rod of blue, or like the sky-blue ribbons on the mane of a +Lord Mayor's coach-horse. These are the flowers that you see in pots, +trained into a fan-like shape, till they cover, with their brilliant +galaxy of stars, the whole window of the snug parlour where sits at her +work the wife of the village apothecary. Of course I speak of a not less +distance from town than a long day's journey: any nearer than that, all +flowers but exotics have long since been banished from parlour windows, +as highly ungenteel. + +There are a few other very noticeable flowers, which begin to show +themselves to us late in this month; but as they by rights rank among +the autumn ones, and as I am not willing to admit that we have as yet +arrived even on the confines of that season, I must consider that they +have chosen to come before their time, and treat them accordingly. + +In the Shrubbery, too, we shall find little of novelty. We will, +therefore, at once pass through it, and reach the Orchard and Fruit +Garden; merely observing as we go, that the Elder is beginning to cast a +tinge of autumnal purple on its profuse berries; that those of the +Rowan, or Mountain Ash, are on the point of putting on their scarlet +liveries, which they are to wear all the winter; and that the Purple +Clematis is heavy with its handsome flowers. + +Perhaps the Fruit-Garden is never in a more favourable state for +observation than at present; for most of its produce is sufficiently +advanced to have put on all its beauty, while but little of it is in a +state to disturb: so that there it hangs in the sight of its satisfied +owner--at once a promise, and a fulfilment, without the attendant ills +of either. + +The inferior fruit, indeed (so at least it is reckoned with us, though +in the East Indies a plate of Currants is sometimes placed in the centre +of the table, as a Pine-apple is here, and holds exactly the same +relative value in respect to the rest of the dessert), the Currants and +Gooseberries are now in perfection, and those epicures from the nursery, +who alone condescend to eat them in their natural state, may now be +turned loose among them with impunity. A few of the Apples, too, are now +asking to be plucked; namely, the pretty little, tender, and pale-faced +Jeannotin (vulgarice _Gennettin_); the rude-shaped, but firm, sweet, and +rosy-cheeked Codling; and the cool, crisp, and refreshing +Nonsuch,--eating, when at its best, like a glass of Apple-ice; and with +a shape and make which entitles it to be called the very Apollo of +Apples. + +The Cherries, too, have most of them acquired their "cherry-cheeks," and +are looking down temptation + + "Unto the white upturned wond'ring eyes + Of _school-boys_, that fall back to gaze on them," + +as they hang over the garden-wall, next to the road. + +As to the other fruits, they look almost as handsome and inviting as +ever they will. But we must be content to let them "enjoy the air they +breathe" for a month or so longer, if we expect them to do the same by +us. + + * * * * * + +Of London what shall we say, at this only one of its seasons when it has +nothing to say for itself? when even the most immoveable of its citizens +become migratory for at least a month, and permit their wives and +daughters to play the parts of mermaids on the shores of Margate, while +they themselves pore over the evening papers all the morning, and over +the morning ones all the evening?--when 'Change Alley makes a transfer +of half its (live) stock every Saturday to the Steine at Brighton, to be +returnable by Snow's coaches on Monday morning?--nay, when even the +lawyers' clerks themselves begin to grow romantic, and, neglecting their +accustomed evening haunts at the Cock in Fleet-street, Offley's, and the +Cider Cellar, permit themselves to be steamed down from Billingsgate to +Broadstairs, where they meditate moonlight sonnets to their absent +Seraphinas (not without an eye to half-a-guinea each in the magazines), +beginning with "Oh, come unto these yellow sands!" + +What _can_ be said of the Town at a time like this? The truth is, I am +not disposed to quarrel with London (any more than I am with my "bread +and butter," and for a similar reason) at any season; so that the less I +say or think of it now the better. Suffice it, that London in August is +a species of nonentity, to all but those amateur architects who "go +partnerships" in candle-lit grottos at the corners of courts. But, _en +revanche_, it is to them a month that, like May to the chimney-sweepers, +"only comes once a year." + + + + +SEPTEMBER. + + +I am sorry to mention it, but the truth must be told, even in a matter +of age. The Year, then, is on the wane. It is "declining into the vale" +of months. It has reached "a certain age." Its _bloom_ (that +indescribable something which surpasses and supersedes all mere beauty) +is fled, and with it all its pretensions to be regarded as an object of +passionate admiration. + +A truce, then, to our treatment of the Months as mistresses. But let us +henceforth look upon them as the next best thing, as dear and devoted +friends: for + + "Turn wheresoe'er we may, + By night or day, + The things which we have seen we now can see no more." + +'Tis true that still + + "The Rainbow comes and goes, + + * * * + + The moon doth with delight + Look round her when the heavens are bare; + Waters on a starry night + Are beautiful and fair; + The sunshine is a glorious birth;-- + But yet we know, where'er we go, + That there hath passed away a glory from the Earth." + +Let me be permitted to make use of a few more words from the same poem; +for by no others can I hope so well to kindle in the reader, that +feeling with which I would fain have him possessed, on the advent of +this still delightful season of the year, if it be but received and +enjoyed in the spirit in which it comes to us. + +"What," then---- + + "What though the radiance which was once so bright + Be now for ever taken from our sight-- + Though nothing can bring back the hour + Of splendour in the grass, of glory in the flower; + We will grieve not--rather find + Strength in what remains behind; + In the primal sympathy + Which, having been, must ever be; + + * * * * + + In the faith that looks through death; + In thoughts that bring the philosophic mind." + +I cannot choose but continue this strain a little longer; and I suppose +my readers will be the last persons to complain of my doing so; it is +the poet alone who will have cause to object to his meanings throughout, +and in one or two instances his words, being diverted from their +original purpose, but I hope not degraded in their application, nor +disenchanted of their power. + + "And oh! ye Fountains, Meadows, Hills, and Groves, + Think not of any severing of our loves! + Yet in my heart of hearts I feel your might. + + * * * * + + The innocent brightness of a new-born day + Is lovely yet; + The clouds that gather round the setting sun + Do take a sober colouring from an eye + That watches o'er the Year's mortality. + + * * * * + + Thanks to the human heart by which we live; + Thanks to its tenderness, its joys and fears; + To me the meanest flower that blows can give + Thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears." + +Reader, this is said by the greatest poet of our age, and one of the +deepest, wisest, and most virtuous of her philosophic sages. And it is +said by him even in the sense in which it is here applied, _now that it +has been once so applied_: for much of his words have this in common +with those of Shakspeare, that you may turn them to an almost equally +apt and good account in many different ways, besides those in which they +were at first directed. Let them be received, then, in the spirit in +which they are here uttered, and we shall be able and entitled to +continue our task, of following the year through its vicissitudes, and +still (as we began it) "pursue our course to the end, rejoicing." + +The youth of the year is gone, then. Even the vigour and lustihood of +its maturity are quick passing away. It has reached the summit of the +hill, and is not only looking, but descending, into the valley below. +But, unlike that into which the life of man declines, _this_ is not a +vale of tears; still less does it, like that, lead to that inevitable +bourne, the Kingdom of the Grave. For though it may be called (I hope +without the semblance of profanation) "The Valley of the _Shadow_ of +Death," yet of Death itself it knows nothing. No--the year steps onward +towards its temporary decay, if not so rejoicingly, even more +majestically and gracefully, than it does towards its revivification. +And if September is not so bright with promise and so buoyant with hope +as May, it is even more embued with that spirit of serene repose, in +which the only true, because the only continuous enjoyment consists. +Spring "never _is_, but always _to be_ blest;" but September is the +month of consummations--the fulfiller of all promises--the fruition of +all hopes--the era of all completeness. Let us then turn at once to gaze +on, and partake in, its manifold beauties and blessings, not let them +pass us by, with the empty salutation of mere praise; for the only +panegyric that is acceptable to Nature is that just appreciation of her +gifts which consists in the full enjoyment of them. + +Supposing ourselves, as usual, in the middle of the month, we shall find +the seed Harvests quite completed, and even the ground on which they +stood appearing under an entirely new aspect,--the Plough having opened, +or being now in the act of opening, its fragrant breast, and exposing it +for a while to the genial influence of the sun and air, before it is +again called upon to perform its never-failing functions. + +There are other Harvests, however, which are still to be gathered in; in +particular, that most elegant and picturesque of all with which this +country is acquainted, and which may also be considered as _peculiar_ to +this country, upon any thing like a great scale: I mean the Hop Harvest. +In the few counties in which this plant is cultivated, we are now +presented with the nearest semblance we can boast, of the Vintages of +Italy and Spain. + +The Apple Harvest, too, of the Cider counties takes place this month; +and though I must not represent it as very fertile in the elegant and +picturesque, let me not neglect to do justice to its produce, as the +only one deserving the name of British Wine; all other so-called liquors +being, the reader may rest assured, worse than poisons, in the exact +proportion that specious hypocrites are worse than open, bold-faced +villains. + +I hope the good housewives of my country (the only country in the world +which produces the breed) need not be told, that, in thus placarding the +impostor above-named, I have not the slightest thought of hurting the +high reputation of her immaculate "home-made," which she so generously +brings out from the bottom division of her shining beaufet, and presses +(somewhat importunately) on every morning comer. She shall never have to +ask me twice to taste even a second glass of it, always provided she +calls it by its true and trustworthy name of "home-made"--to which, in +_my_ vocabulary, Montepulciano itself must yield the pas. But if, bitten +perhaps by some London Bagman, she happen to have contracted an +affection for fine phrases, and chooses to call her cordial by the +style and title of "_British wine_"--away with it, for me! I would not +touch it, + + "Though 'twere a draught for Juno when she banquets." + +In fact, she might as well call it _Cape_ at once! + +The truth is, I once, to oblige an elderly lady at Hackney, _did_ taste +two glasses of "British wine" at a sitting; and my stomach has had a +load (of sugar of lead) upon its conscience ever since. + +It must be confessed, that the general face of the country has undergone +a very material change for the worse since we left it last month; and +none of its individual features, with the exception of the Woods and +Groves, have improved in their appearance. The Fields are for the most +part bare, and either black and arid with the remains of the Harvest +that has been gathered from them, or at best but newly furrowed by the +plough. The ever green Meadows are indeed still beautiful, and the more +so for the Cattle that now stud them almost every where; the second +crops of grass being long since off. The Hedge-rows, too, have lost much +of their sweet tapestry of flowers, and even their late many-tinted +greens are sobered down into one dull monotonous hue. And the berries +and other wild fruits that the latter part of the season produces, do +not vary this hue,--having none of them as yet assumed the colours of +their maturity. It is true the Woodbine again flings up, here and there, +its bunches of pale flowers, after having ceased to do so for many +weeks. But they have no longer the rich luxuriance of their Spring +bloom, nor even the delicious scent which belonged to them when the +vigour of youth was upon them. They are the pale and feeble offspring of +the declining life of their parent. + +It follows, from this general absence of wild flowers, that we are now +no longer greeted, on our morning or evening wanderings, by those +exquisite odours that float about upon the wings of every Summer wind, +and come upon the captivated sense like strains of unseen music. + +Even the Summer birds, both songsters and others, begin to leave +us--urged thereto by a prophetic instinct, that will not be disobeyed: +for if they were to consult their _feelings_ merely, there is no season +at which the temperature of our climate is more delightfully adapted to +their pleasures and their wants. + +But let it not be supposed that we have nothing to compensate for all +these losses. The Woods and Groves, those grandest and most striking +among the general features of the country, are now, towards the end of +the month, beginning to put on their richest looks. The Firs are +gradually darkening towards their winter blackness; the Oaks, Limes, +Poplars, and Horse-chestnuts, still retain their darkest summer green; +the Elms and Beeches are changing to that bright yellow which produces, +at a distance, the effect of patches of sunshine; and the Sycamores are +beginning, here and there, to assume a brilliant warmth of hue almost +amounting to scarlet. The distant effect, therefore, of a great company +of all these seen together, and intermingled with each other, is finer +than it has hitherto been, though not equal in beauty and variety to +what it will be about the same time next month. + +But we have some other pretty sights belonging to the open country, +which must not be passed over; and one which the whole year, in point of +time, and the whole world, in point of place, can scarcely parallel. The +Sunsets of September in this country are perhaps unrivalled, for their +infinite variety, and their indescribable beauty. Those of more southern +countries may perhaps match, or even surpass them, for a certain glowing +and unbroken intensity. But for gorgeous variety of form and colour, +exquisite delicacy of tint and pencilling, and a certain placid +sweetness and tenderness of general effect, which frequently arises out +of a union of the two latter, there is nothing to be seen like what we +can show in England at this season of the year. If a painter, who was +capable of doing it to the utmost perfection, were to dare depict on +canvas one out of twenty of the Sunsets that we frequently have during +this month, he would be laughed at for his pains. And the reason is, +that people judge of pictures by pictures. They compare Hobbima with +Ruysdael, and Ruysdael with Wynants, and Wynants with Wouvermans, and +Wouvermans with Potter, and Potter with Cuyp; and then they think the +affair can proceed no farther. And the chances are, that if you were to +show one of the sunsets in question to a thorough-paced connoisseur in +this department of Fine Art, he would reply, that it was very +beautiful, to be sure, but that he must beg to doubt whether it was +_natural_, for he had never seen one like it in any of the old masters! + +Another singular sight belonging to this period, is the occasional +showers of gossamer that fall from the upper regions of the air, and +cover every thing like a veil of woven silver. You may see them +descending through the sunshine, and glittering and flickering in it, +like rays of another kind of light. Or if you are in time to observe +them before the Sun has dried the dew from off them in the early +morning, they look like robes of fairy tissue-work, gemmed with +innumerable jewels. + +Now, too, Thistle-down, and the beautiful winged seeds of the Dandelion, +float along through the calm air upon their voyages of discovery, as if +instinct with life. + +Now, among the Birds, we have something like a renewal of the Spring +melodies. In particular, the Thrush and Blackbird, who have been silent +for several weeks, recommence their songs,--bidding good bye to the +Summer, in the same subdued tone in which they hailed her approach. + +Finally, in connexion with the open country, now Wood-owls hoot louder +than ever; and the Lambs bleat shrilly from the hill-side to their +neglectful dams; and the thresher's Flail is heard from the unseen barn; +and the plough-boy's whistle comes through the silent air from the +distant upland; and Snakes leave their last year's skins in the +brakes--literally creeping out at their own mouths; and Acorns drop in +showers from the oaks, at every wind that blows; and Hazel-nuts ask to +be plucked, so invitingly do they look forth from their green dwellings; +and, lastly, the evenings close in too quickly upon the walks to which +their serene beauty invites us, and the mornings get chilly, misty, and +damp. + +Thanks to the art of the cultivator, we shall find the Garden almost as +gay with flowers as it was last month; for many of those of last month +still remain; and a few, and those among the most gorgeous that blow, +have only just opened. The chief of these latter is the China-aster; the +superb _Reine Marguerite_, whose endless variety of stars shoot up in +rich clusters, and glow like so many lighted catherine-wheels. The great +climbing Convolvulus also hangs out its beautiful cups among its smooth +and clustering leaves; and the rich aromatic Scabious lifts up its +glowing purple flowers on their lithe stems; and the profuse Dahlia, +that beautiful novelty, which was till so lately almost unknown to us, +scatters about its rich double and single blooms, some of them so +intense in colour that they seem to _glow_ as you look upon them. And +lastly, now the pendulous Amaranth hangs its gentle head despondingly, +and tells its tender tale almost as pathetically as the poem to which it +gives a name[3]. + +[3] "O'Connor's Child; or the Flower of Love lies Bleeding." + +Among the flowering Shrubs, too, we have now some of the most beautiful +at their best. In particular, the Althea Frutex, and the Arbutus, or +Strawberry-tree. + +As for the Fruit Garden, _that_ is one scene of tempting profusion. +Against the wall, the Grapes have put on that transparent look which +indicates their complete ripeness, and have dressed their cheeks in that +delicate bloom which enables them to bear away the bell of beauty from +all their rivals.--The Peaches and Nectarines have become fragrant, and +the whole wall where they hang is "musical with bees."--Along the +Espaliers, the rosy-cheeked Apples look out from among their leaves, +like laughing children peeping at each other through screens of foliage; +and the young standards bend their straggling boughs to the earth with +the weight of their produce. + + * * * * * + +Quitting the Country, we shall find London but ill qualified to +compensate us for the losses we have sustained there; and if there be +any reason in betaking oneself to places at the seaside, that are +neither London nor the Country, now is the time to do it--as the +citizens of London, and the liberties thereof, know full well. +Accordingly, now the mansions in Finsbury and Devonshire Squares on the +East, and Queen and Russell on the West, are changed for mouse-traps +(miscalled marine villas); and the tradesman who does not send his wife +and family to wash themselves in sea-water cannot be doing well in the +world. Now, therefore, the Brighton boarding-houses bask in the sunshine +of city favour, always provided their drawing-rooms look upon the sea; +and if you pass them on a warm afternoon about five o'clock, you may see +their dining-room windows wide open, and their inmates acting a +picturesque passage in one of Mr. Wordsworth's pastorals: + + "There are forty feeding like one." + +But if the citizens (because they cannot help it) permit their wives and +daughters to be in their glory, _out_ of London at this period, they +permit their apprentices, for the same reason, to be so _in_ it: for now +arrives that Saturnalia of nondescript noise and nonconformity, Bartlemy +Fair;--when that Prince of peace-officers, the Lord Mayor, changes his +sword of state into a sixpenny trumpet, and becomes the Lord of Misrule +and the patron of pickpockets; and Lady Holland's name leads an +unlettered mob instead of a lettered one; when Mr. Richardson maintains, +during three whole days and a half, a managerial supremacy that must be +not a little enviable even in the eyes of Mr. Elliston himself; and Mr. +Gyngell holds, during the same period, a scarcely less distinguished +station as the Apollo of servant-maids; when "the incomparable (not to +say _eternal_) _young_ Master Saunders" rides on horseback to the +admiration of all beholders, in the person of his eldest son; and when +all the giants in the land, and the dwarfs too, make a general muster, +and each proves to be, according to the most correct measurement, at +least a foot taller or shorter than any other in the fair, and, in fact, +the only one worth seeing,--"all the rest being impostors!" In short, +when every booth in the fair combines in itself the attractions of all +the rest, and so perplexes with its irresistible merit the rapt +imagination of the half-holiday schoolboys who have got but sixpence to +spend upon the whole, that they eye the outsides of each in a state of +pleasing despair, till their leave of absence is expired twice over, and +then return home filled with visions of giants and gingerbread-nuts, and +dream all night long of what they have _not_ seen. + +_Au reste_, London must needs be but a sorry place in September, when +even its substantial shopkeepers are ashamed to be seen in it, and when +a careful porter may, if he pleases, carry a load on his head from Saint +Paul's to the Mansion House, without damaging the heads of more than +half a dozen pedestrians. + +As for the West End at this period, it looks like a model of itself, +seen through a magnifying glass--every thing is so sad, silent, and +empty of life. The vacant windows look blank at each other across the +way; the doors and their knockers are no more at variance; the porters +sleep away the heavy hours in their easy chairs, leaving the rings to be +answered from the area; and if you want to cross the street, you look +both ways first, for fear of being run over--thinking, from the absolute +stillness, that the stones of the pavement have been put to silence by +the art-magic of Mr. Macadam. + +But notwithstanding all this, the Winter Theatres, having permitted +their Summer rivals to play to empty benches for nearly three months, +now put in their claim to share this pleasing privilege, lest it should +be supposed that they too cannot afford to lose a hundred pounds a night +as well as their inferiors. Accordingly, every body can have orders now +(except those who ask for them); and the pit is the only place for those +who are above sitting on the same bench with their boot-maker. + +Let us not forget to add, that there is _one_ part of London which is +never out of season, and is never more _in_ season than now. Covent +Garden Market is still the Garden of Gardens; and as there is not a +month in all the year in which it does not contrive to belie something +or other that has been said in the foregoing pages, as to the +particular season of certain flowers, fruits, &c. so now it offers the +flowers and the fruits of every season united. How it becomes possessed +of all these, I shall not pretend to say: but thus much I am bound to +add by way of information,--that those ladies and gentlemen who have +country houses in the neighbourhood of Clapham Common or Camberwell +Grove, may now have the pleasure of eating the best fruit out of their +own Gardens--provided they choose to pay the price of it in Covent +Garden Market! + + + + +OCTOBER. + + +They tell us, in regard to this voyage of ours, called Human Life, that + + "Hope travels through, nor leaves us till we die." + +But they might have gone still farther, and shown us that Hope is not +only our companion on the journey, but at once the vehicle which bears +us along, the food which supports us as we go, and the goal to which all +our travels tend, not merely in the great voyage of discovery itself, +but in all the little outlets and byeways which break in upon and +diversify it. + +Even in regard to the objects of external nature, Hope is the great +principle on which we take any thing like a continuous moral interest in +the contemplation of them; and if we never cease to feel that interest +during all the different periods of the year, it is because hope is no +sooner lost in fruition, than, like the Phoenix, it revives again, and +keeps fluttering on before us, like the beautiful Green Bird before the +lover, in the fairy tale; leading us--no matter where, so that it do +not leave us to plod on by ourselves, through a world that, however +beautiful _with_ it, were without it an overpeopled wilderness. + +The month that we have just left behind us was indeed one made up, for +the most part, of consummations; the promises of the year being almost +forgotten in the fulness of their performance, and the season standing +still to enjoy itself, and to let its admirers satiate themselves upon +the rich completeness of its charms. It is now gone; and October is +come; and Hope is come with it; and the general impulse that we feel is, +to _look forward_ again, as we have done from the beginning of the year. + +It must be confessed, however, that the hopes of _this_ month, in +particular, are not unblended with that sentiment of melancholy--gentle +and genial, but still melancholy--which results from the constant +presence of decay. The year has reached its grand climacteric, and is +fast falling "into the sere, the yellow leaf." Every day a flower drops +from out the wreath that binds its brow--not to be renewed. Every hour +the Sun looks more and more askance upon it, and the winds, those Summer +flatterers, come to it less fawningly. Every breath shakes down showers +of its leafy attire, leaving it gradually barer and barer, for the +blasts of winter to blow through it. Every morning and evening takes +away from it a portion of that light which gives beauty to its life, and +chills it more and more into that torpor which at length constitutes its +temporary death. And yet October is beautiful still, no less "for what +it gives than what it takes away;" and even for what it gives during the +very act of taking away. + +Let us begin our observations with an example of the latter. The whole +year cannot produce a sight fraught with more rich and harmonious beauty +than that which the Woods and Groves present during this month, +notwithstanding, or rather in consequence of, the daily decay of their +summer attire; and at no other season can any given spot of landscape be +seen to much advantage as a mere picture. This, therefore, is, above all +others, the month for the artist to ply his delightful task, of fixing +the fugitive beauties of the scene; which, however, he must do quickly, +for they fade away, day by day, as he looks upon them. + +And yet, if it were represented faithfully, an extensive plantation of +Forest Trees now presents a variety of colours and of tints that would +scarcely be considered as _natural_ in a picture, any more than many of +the Sunsets of September would. Among those trees which retain their +green hues, the Fir tribe are the principal; and these, spiring up among +the deciduous ones, now differ from them no less in colour than they do +in form. The Alders, too, and the Poplars, Limes, and Horse-chestnuts, +are still green,--the hues of their leaves not undergoing much change as +long as they remain on the branches. Most of the other Forest Trees have +put on each its peculiar livery; the Planes and Sycamores presenting +every variety of tinge, from bright yellow to brilliant red; the Elms +being, for the most part, of a rich sunny umber, varying according to +the age of the tree and the circumstances of its soil, &c.; the Beeches +having deepened into a warm glowing brown, which the young ones will +retain all the winter, and till the new spring leaves push the present +ones off; the Oaks varying from a dull dusky green to a deep russet, +according to their ages; and the Spanish Chestnuts, with their noble +embowering heads, glowing like clouds of gold. + +As for the Hedge-rows this month, they still retain all their effect as +part of a general and distant view; and when looked at more closely, +though they have lost nearly all their flowers, the various fruits that +are spread out upon them for the winter food of the birds, make them +little less gay than they were in Spring and Summer. The most +conspicuous of these are the red hips of the Wild Rose; the dark purple +bunches of the luxuriant Blackberry; the brilliant scarlet and green +berries of the Nightshade; the wintry-looking fruit of the Hawthorn; the +blue Sloes, covered with their soft tempting-looking bloom; the dull +bunches of the Woodbine; and the sparkling Holly-berries. + +We may also still, by seeking for them, find a few flowers scattered +about beneath the Hedge-rows, and the dry Banks that skirt the Woods, +and even in the Woods themselves, peeping up meekly from among the +crowds of newly fallen leaves. The prettiest of these is the Primrose, +which now blows a second time. But two or three of the Persicaria tribe +are still in flower, and also some of the Goosefoots. And even the +elegant and fragile Heathbell, or Harebell, has not yet quite +disappeared; while some of the ground flowers that have passed away have +left in their place strange evidences of their late presence; in +particular, the singular flower (if it can be called one) of the Arums, +or Lords and Ladies, has changed into an upright bunch, or long cluster, +of red berries, starting up from out the ground on a single stiff stem, +and looking almost like the flower of a Hyacinth. + +The open Fields during this month, though they are bereaved of much of +their actual beauty and variety, present sights that are as agreeable to +the eye, and even more stirring to the imagination, than those which +have passed away. The Husbandman is now ploughing up the arable land, +and putting into it the seeds that are to produce the next year's crops; +and there are not, among rural occupations, two more pleasant to look +upon than these: the latter, in particular, is one that, while it gives +perfect satisfaction to the eye as a mere picture, awakens and fills the +imagination with the prospective views which it opens. + +Another very lively rural sight, on account of the many hands that it +employs at the same time, men, women, and children, is the general +Potato gathering of this month. + +Among the miscellaneous events of October, one of the most striking and +curious is the interchange which seems to take place between our +country, and the more northern as well as the more southern ones in +regard to the Birds. The Swallow tribe now all quit us; the Swift +disappeared wholly, more than a month ago; and now the House Swallow, +House Martin, and Bank or Sand Martin, after congregating for awhile in +vast flocks about the banks of rivers and other waters, are seen no more +as general frequenters of the air. And if one or two _are_ seen during +the warm days that sometimes occur for the next two or three weeks, they +are to be looked upon as strangers and wanderers; and the sight of them, +which has hitherto been so pleasant, becomes altogether different in its +effect: it gives one a feeling of desolateness, such as we experience on +meeting a poor shivering Lascar in our winter streets. + +In exchange for this tribe of truly Summer visitors, we have now great +flocks of the Fieldfares and Redwings come back to us; and also Wood +Pigeons, Snipes, Woodcocks, and several of the numerous tribe of +Water-fowl. + +Now, occasionally, we may observe the singular effects of a mist, coming +gradually on, and wrapping in its dusky cloak a whole landscape that +was, the moment before, clear and bright as in a Spring morning. The +vapour rises visibly (from the face of a distant river perhaps) like +steam from a boiling caldron; and climbing up into the blue air as it +advances, rolls wreath over wreath till it reaches the spot on which you +are standing; and then, seeming to hurry past you, its edges, which have +hitherto been distinctly defined, become no longer visible, and the +whole scene of beauty, which a few moments before surrounded you, is as +it were wrapt from your sight like an unreal vision of the air, and you +seem (and in fact _are_) transferred into the bosom of a cloud. + +Drawing towards the home scene, we find the Orchard by no means devoid +of interest this month. The Apples are among the last to shed their +leaves; so that they retain them yet; and in some cases of late fruit, +they retain that too,--looking as bright and tempting as ever it did. +The Cherry-trees, too, are more beautiful at this time than ever they +have been since their brief period of blossoming, on account of the +brilliant scarlet which their leaves assume,--varying, however, from +that colour all the way through the warm ones, up to the bright yellow. +There are also two species of the Plum, the Purple and the White Damson, +which have only now reached their maturity. + +The Elders, that frequently skirt the Orchard, or form part of its +bounding hedge, are also now loaded with their broad outspread bunches +of purple and white berries, and instantly call up (to those who are +lucky enough to possess such an association at all) that ideal of old +English snugness and comfort, the farm-house chimney corner, on a cold +winter's Saturday night; with the jug of hot Elder-wine on the red brick +hearth; the embers crackling and blazing; the toasted bread, and the +long-stemmed glasses on the two-flapped oak table; and the happy ruddy +faces of the young ones around, looking expectantly towards the comely +and portly dame for their weekly _treat_. + +The gentle (query _genteel_) reader will be good enough to remember that +I am now speaking of old times; that is to say, twenty years ago; and +will not suppose me ignorant enough to imagine that _they_ can possibly +know what I mean either by "_Elder-wine_," or a "_chimney corner_." But +though the merits of mulled claret, an ottoman, and a hearth-rug, shall +never be called in question by me, I must be excused for remembering +that there _was_ a time when I knew no better than the above, and that I +have not grown wise enough to cease sighing for the return of that time +ever since it has passed away. Accordingly, though I would on no account +be supposed to permit Elder-wine to pass my actual palate, I could not +resist the above occasion of tasting it once more in imagination; and I +must say, that the flavour of it is quite as agreeable as it was before +claret became a common-place. + +Now is the time for performing another of those praiseworthy operations +which modern refinement has driven almost out of fashion. I mean the +brewing of Beer that is to be called, _par excellence_, "October," some +ten or fifteen years hence, when it is worth drinking. Country folks +brew as usual, it is true; because the drink which is sent them down by +the London dealers is what they cannot comprehend: but it has become a +regular monthly work; bearing, however, about the same relation to those +of the good old times which have passed away, as the innumerable +"twopenny trash" of the present day do to the good old "Gentleman's +Magazine" that they have almost superseded. Brewing, nowadays, (thanks +to Mr. Cobbet's Cottage Economy) is an affair of a tea-kettle, a +washing-tub, and a currant-wine cask; and "October," now, will scarcely +keep till November. + +Now, the Hives are despoiled of their honey; and by one of those sad +necessities attendant on artificial life, the hitherto happy and +industrious collectors of it are rewarded with death for their pains. + +It is not till this month that we usually experience the Equinoxial +Gales, those fatal visitations which may now be looked upon as the +immediate heralds of the coming on of Winter; as in the Spring they were +the sure signs of its having passed away. Bitter-sweet is it, now, to +lie awake at night, and listen wilfully (as if we would not let them +escape us) to the fierce howlings of the winds, each accession of which +gives new vividness to the vision of some tall ship, illumined by every +flash of lightning--illumined, but not rendered _visible_--for there are +no eyes within a hundred leagues to look upon it; and crowded with human +beings--(not "souls" only, as the sea-phrase is, for then it were +pastime--but _bodies_) every one of which sees, in imagination, its own +grave a thousand fathom deep beneath the dark waters that roar around, +and feels itself there beforehand. + +Returning to the home enclosures, we shall find them far from destitute +of attraction; and indeed if they have been properly attended to, with a +view to that almost unceasing succession of which the various objects of +cultivation admit, we shall scarcely as yet perceive any of the ravages +which the mere approach of Winter has already made among their +uncultivated kindred. + +In the Flower Garden, if much of the beauty of Summer has now passed +away, its place has been supplied by that which affords one of the +pleasantest employments of the lover of gardening; for those who do not +grow and collect their own seeds know but half the pleasures of that +most delightful of all merely physical occupations. The principal flower +seeds come to perfection this month, and are now to be gathered and +laid by, before they scatter themselves abroad at random. + +Now, too, is the time for employing another and an equally fertile and +interesting mode of propagation; that by means of offsets, suckers, +cuttings, partings, &c. Now, in short, most of the fibrous-rooted +perennial plants (regardless of Mr. Malthus's principles of population) +put forth more offspring than the ground which they occupy can support; +and unless the Government under which they live were to provide them +with due means of colonization, they would presently over-run and +destroy each other, until the whole kingdom, which now belongs to them +jointly, became the exclusive property and possession of some one +powerful but worthless family among them: as we see on lands that are +left to themselves, and suffered to lie waste: whatever variety of +plants may spring up spontaneously upon them during the first season or +two, at the end of three or four years all is one unbroken expanse of +rank unproductive grass. + +It may be a childish pleasure, perhaps, but it is a very unequivocal and +a very innocent one, to bid the perennial plants "increase and +multiply," and to see how aptly and willingly they obey the mandate. +Making plants by this means is a pleasant substitute for making money, +to those who have none of the latter to begin with. Indeed I question +whether a dozen money-bags, made out of one, ever yet afforded the maker +half the real satisfaction that a dozen Daisies have done, multiplied in +a similar manner. Not that I can pretend to judge by experience of the +comparative merits of these multiplication tables; and I am liberal +enough to be willing to give the former a fair trial, on the very first +opportunity that offers itself. + +But though most of the Garden plants are now busily employed in +disseminating themselves by seeds and offsets, many of them are still +wearing their merely ornamental attire, and looking about them for +admiration as if they were made for nothing else. If the arrangements of +the borders have been attended to with a properly prospective eye, they +still present us with several of the Amaranths, and particularly the +everlasting ones; with some of the finest Dahlias; the great climbing +Convolvolus; French and African Marigolds, which have now increased to +almost the size of flowering shrubs; Scabious; China-Asters; Golden-rod; +the interminable Stocks; and, running about among them all, and +flowering almost as profusely and as prettily as ever, sweet-breathing +Mignonette. + +Among the Shrubs, too, there are still some whose flowers continue to +look the coming Winter in the face. In particular, the Arbutus is in all +its beauty,--hanging forth, like the Orange, its flowers, fruit, and +leaves, all at once. The Ivy, too, is covered with its unassuming +blossoms, which are as rich in honey as they are poor in show, and are +rifled of their sweets by the all-wooing bees, with even more avidity +than the fantastical Passion-flower, or the flaunting Rose. + +It is a little singular that the most gorgeous show which the Garden +presents during the whole year should occur at this late period of the +season, and without the intervention of flowers. I allude to the +splendid foliage of the Great Virginian Creeper, which may now be seen +hanging out its scarlet banners against some high battlement, or +wreathing them into gay and graceful tapestry about the mouldering +walls of some old watch-tower, or, still more appropriately, fringing +and festooning the embayed windows of some secluded building, sacred to +the silence of study and contemplation. If I remember rightly, some +beautiful examples of it, under the latter character, may be seen in two +or three of the inner quadrangles both of Oxford and Cambridge. + +Finally, now, that at once wildest and tamest of birds, most social and +most solitary, the Robin, first begins to place its trust in man; +flitting about the feet of the Gardener, as he turns up the freshened +earth, and taking its food almost from the spade as it moves in his +hand; or standing at a little distance from him among the fallen leaves, +and singing plaintively, as if practising beforehand the dirge of the +departing year. + + * * * * * + +October is to London what April is to the Country; it is the Spring of +the London Summer, when the hopes of the shopkeeper begin to bud forth, +and he lays aside the insupportable labour of having nothing to do, for +the delightful leisure of preparing to be in a perpetual bustle. During +the last month or two he has been strenuously endeavouring to persuade +himself that the Steyne at Brighton is as healthy as Bond-street; the +_pave_ of Pall Mall no more picturesque than the Pantiles of Tunbridge +Wells; and winning a prize at one-card-loo at Margate as piquant a +process as serving a customer to the same amount of profit. But now that +the time is returned when "business" must again be attended to, he +discards with contempt all such mischievous heresies, and re-embraces +the only orthodox faith of a London shopkeeper--that London and his shop +are the true "beauteous and sublime" of human life. In fact, "now is the +winter of his discontent" (that is to say, what other people call +Summer) "made glorious Summer" by the near approach of Winter; and all +the wit he is master of is put in requisition, to devise the means of +proving that every thing he has offered to "his friends the public," up +to this particular period, has become worse than obsolete. Accordingly, +now are those poets of the shopkeepers, the investors of patterns, +"perplexed in the extreme;" since, unless they can produce a something +which shall necessarily supersede all their previous productions, their +occupation's gone. + +It is the same with all other caterers for the public taste; even the +literary ones. Mr. Elliston, "ever anxious to contribute to the +amusement of his liberal patrons, the public," is already busied in +sowing the seeds of a New Tragedy, two Operatic Romances, three Grand +Romantic Melodrames, and half a dozen Farces, in the fertile soil of +those _poets_ whom he employs in each of these departments respectively; +while each of the London publishers is projecting a new "periodical," to +appear on the first of January next; that which he started on the first +of _last_ January having, of course, died of old age ere this! + +As to the external appearance of London this month, the East End of it +shows symptoms of reviving animation, after the two months' trance which +the absence of its citizens had cast over it; and Cheapside, though it +cannot boast of being absolutely impassable, is sufficiently crowded to +create hopes in its inhabitants that it soon will be. + +But the West End is as melancholy as the want of that which ever makes +it otherwise can render it: for the fashionables, though it is more than +a month since they retired from the fatiguing activity of a London +Winter in July, to the still more fatiguing repose of an October Summer +in the Country, pertinaciously refuse themselves permission to return to +the lesser evil of the two, till they have partaken of the greater to +such a degree of repletion as to make them fancy, when the former is on +the point of being restored to them, that it is none at all; thus making +each re-act upon the other, until, to their enfeebled and diseased +imaginations, "nothing is but what is not;" and being in London, they +sigh for the Country; and in the Country, for London. + +But has London no one positive merit in October, then? Yes; one it has, +which half redeems all its delinquencies. In October, Fires have fairly +gained possession of their places, and even greet us on coming down to +breakfast in the morning. Of all the discomforts of that most +comfortless period of the London year which is neither winter nor +summer, the most unequivocal is that of its being too cold to be without +a fire, and not cold enough to have one. At a season of this kind, to +enter an English sitting-room, the very ideal of snugness and comfort in +all other respects, but with a great gaping hiatus in one side of it, +which makes it look like a pleasant face deprived of its best feature, +is not to be thought of without feeling chilly. And as to filling up the +deficiency by a set of polished fire-irons, standing sentry beside a +pile of dead coals imprisoned behind a row of glittering bars,--this, +instead of mending the matter, makes it worse; inasmuch as it is better +to look into an empty coffin, than to see the dead face of a friend in +it. At the season in question, especially in the evening, one feels in a +perpetual perplexity, whether to go out or stay at home; sit down or +walk about; read, write, cast accounts, or call for the candle and go to +bed. But let the fire be lighted, and all uncertainty is at an end, and +we (or even _one_) may do any or all of these with equal satisfaction. +In short, light but the fire, and you bring the Winter in at once; and +what are twenty Summers, with all their sunshine (when they are gone), +to one Winter, with its indoor sunshine of a sea-coal fire? + +Henceforth, then, be Winter my theme; and if I do not grow warm in its +praise, it shall not be for want of inditing that praise beside as +pleasant a fire as nubbly Wall's Ends, a register-stove (not a +Cobbett's-Register one, I am sorry to say[4]), and a slim-pointed poker, +can produce. + +[4] I modestly propose, that the stoves lately introduced by Mr. +Cobbett, and recommended in his Register, be henceforth known by no +other than the above style and title:--Cobbett's-Register Stoves. And if +they are, it shall never be said that, anonymous as I am, I have lived +or written in vain; for the next best thing to _having_ a name, is the +being able to _give_ one, even to a fire-place. Let me add, for fear of +being taxed with that meanest of all our mental propensities, the habit +of joking at the expense of justice, that I offer the proposed name as +any thing but a "nick" one. In fact, nothing but that change of climate +which the Quarterly Reviewers have promised us can prevent Mr. Cobbett's +stoves from one day or other gaining him almost as sure a passport to +immortality, as any other of his works. + + + + +NOVEMBER. + + +Of the twin maxims, which bid us to "Welcome the coming, speed the going +guest," the latter is better appreciated than practised. The over +refinements of modern life make people afraid of giving in to it, who +yet feel it to be an excellent one. The truth is, that when a guest, of +no matter how agreeable a presence, or how attractive an air, has made +up his mind to go, the sooner he goes the better. Let him go at once, +therefore. Do not press him to stay, or detain him at the door, but +"speed" him on his way. It is best for both parties, if they like each +other. When, indeed, an unpleasant intruder is about to depart, there is +a kind of satisfaction in detaining him a little. We dally with the +prospective pleasure of having him gone, till we forget that he is +present. But when those we love are leaving us, the best way is, to +wink, and part at once; for to be "going" is even worse than to be +"gone." + +Thus let it be, then, with that delightful annual guest, the Summer +(under the agreeable alias of Autumn), in whose presence we have lately +been luxuriating. We might perhaps, by a little gentle violence, prevail +upon her to stay with us for a brief space longer; or might at least +prevail upon ourselves to believe that she is not quite gone. But we +shall do better by speeding her on her way to other climes, and +welcoming "the coming guest," gray-haired Winter. So be it, then. + +The last storm of Autumn, or the first of Winter, call it which you +will, has strewed the bosom of the all-receiving earth with the few +leaves that were still clinging, though dead, to the already sapless +branches; and now all stand bare at once,--spreading out their +innumerable ramifications against the cold, gray sky, as if sketched +there for a study, by the pencil of your only successful +drawing-mistress--Nature. Of all the numerous changes that are +perpetually taking place in the general appearance of rural scenery +during the year, there is none so striking as this which is attendant on +the falling of the leaves; and there is none in which the unpleasing +effects so greatly predominate over the pleasing ones. To say truth, a +Grove, denuded of its late gorgeous attire, and instead of bowing +majestically before the winds, standing erect and motionless while they +are blowing through it, is "a sorry sight," and one upon which we will +not dwell. But even this sad consequence of the coming on of Winter, sad +in most of its mere visible effects, is not entirely without redeeming +accompaniments; for in most cases it lays open to our view objects that +we are glad to see again, if it be but in virtue of their association +with past years; and in many cases it opens vistas into sweet distances +that we had almost forgotten, and brings into view objects that we may +have been sighing for the sight of all the Summer long. Suppose, for +example, that the summer view from the windows of a favourite +sleeping-room is bounded by a screen of shrubs, shelving upward from the +turf, and terminating in a little copse of Limes, Beeches, and +Sycamores--the prettiest boundary that can greet the morning glance, +when the shutters are opened, and the Sun slants gaily in at them, as if +glad to be again admitted. How pleasant is it,--when, as now, the winds +of Winter have stripped the branches that thus bound our view in,--to +spy beyond them, as if through net-work, the sky-pointing spire of the +distant village church, rising from behind the old Yew-tree that darkens +its portal; and the trim parsonage beside it, its ivy-grown windows +glittering perhaps in the early sun! Oh--none, but those who _will_ see +the good that is in everything, know how very few evils there are +without some of it attendant on them. + +But though the least pleasant sight connected with the coming on of +Winter in this month is, to see the leaves, that have so gladdened the +groves all the Summer long, falling everywhere around us, withered and +dead,--that sight is accompanied by another which is too often +overlooked. Though most of the leaves fall in Winter, and the stems and +branches which they beautified stand bare, many of them remain all the +year round, and look brighter and fresher now than they did in Spring, +in virtue of the contrasts that are everywhere about them. Indeed the +cultivation of Evergreens has become so general with us of late years, +that the home enclosures about our country dwellings, from the proudest +down to even the poorest, are seldom to be seen without a plentiful +supply, which we now, in this month, first begin to observe, and +acknowledge the value of. It must be a poor plot of garden-ground indeed +that does not now boast its clumps of Winter-blowing Laurestinus; its +trim Holly-bushes, bright with their scarlet berries; or its tall Spruce +Firs, shooting up their pyramid of feathery branches beside the low, +ivy-grown porch. + +Of this last-named profuse ornamenter of whatever is permitted to afford +it support (the Ivy), we now too everywhere perceive the beautifully +picturesque effects: though there is one effect of it, also perceived +about this time, which I cannot persuade myself to be reconciled to: I +mean where the trunk of a tall tree is bound about with Ivy almost to +its top, which during the Summer has scarcely been distinguished as a +separate growth, but which now, when the other leaves are fallen, and +the outspread branches stand bare, offers to the eye, not a contrast, +but a contradiction. + +But let us not dwell on any thing in disfavour of Ivy,--which is one of +the prime boasts of the village scenery of our island, and which, even +at this season of the year, offers pictures to the eye that cannot be +paralleled elsewhere. Perhaps as a single object of sight, there is +nothing which gives so much innocent pleasure to so many persons, as an +English Village Church, when the Ivy has held undisputed possession of +it for many years, and has hung its fantastic banners all about it. +There is a charm about an object of this kind, which it is as difficult +to resist as to explain the secret of. _We_ will attempt neither; but +instead, continue our desultory observations. + +Now, as the branches become bare, another sight presents itself, which, +trifling as it is, fixes the attention of all who see it, and causes a +sensation equally difficult with the above satisfactorily to explain. I +mean the Birds' nests that are seen here and there in the now +transparent hedges, bushes, and copses. It is not difficult to conceive +why this sight should make the heart of the schoolboy leap with an +imaginative joy, as it brings before his eyes visions of five blue eggs +lying sweetly beside each other, on a bed of moss and feathers; or as +many gaping bills lifting themselves from out what seems one callow +body. But we are, unhappily, not all schoolboys; and it is to be hoped +not many of us ever _have been_ bird-nesting ones. And yet we all look +upon this sight with a momentary interest, that few other so indifferent +objects are capable of exciting. The wise may condescend to explain this +interest, if they please, or if they can. But if they do, it will be for +their own satisfaction, not ours, who are content to be pleased, without +insisting on penetrating into the cause of our pleasure. + +Now, the felling of Wood for the winter store commences; and, in a mild +still day, the measured strokes of the Woodman's axe, heard far away in +the thick Forest, bring with their sound an associated feeling, similar +to that produced by a wreath of smoke rising from out the same scene: +they tell us a tale of + + "Uncertain dwellers in the pathless Woods." + +The "busy flail," too, which is now in full employment, fills the air +about the homestead with a pleasant sound, and invites the passer by to +look in at the great open doors of the Barn, and see the Wheatstack +reaching to the roof on either hand; the little pyramid of bright Grain +behind the Threshers; the scattered ears between them, leaping and +rustling beneath their fast-falling strokes; and the flail itself flying +harmless round the Labourers' heads, though seeming to threaten danger +at every turn; while, outside, the flock of "barn-door" Poultry ply +their ceaseless search for food, among the knee-deep straw; and the +Cattle, all their summer frolics forgotten, stand ruminating beside the +half-empty Hay-rack, or lean with inquiring faces over the gate that +looks down into the Village, or away towards the distant Pastures. + +Of the Birds that have hitherto made merry even at the approach of +Winter, now all are silent; all save that one who now earns his title of +"the Household Bird," by haunting the thresholds and window-cills, and +casting sidelong glances indoors, as if to reconnoitre the positions of +all within, before the pinching frosts force him to lay aside his fears, +and flit in and out silently, like a winged spirit. All are now silent +except him; but _he_, as he sits on the pointed palings beside the +doorway, or on the topmost twig of the little Black Thorn that has been +left growing in the otherwise closely-clipt Hedge, pipes plaintive +ditties with a low _inward_ voice,--like that of a love-tainted maiden, +as she sits apart from her companions, and sings soft melodies to +herself, almost without knowing it. + +Some of the other small Birds that winter with us, but have hitherto +kept aloof from our dwellings, now approach them, and mope about among +the House-sparrows, on the bare branches, wondering what has become of +all the leaves, and not knowing one tree from another. Of these the +chief are, the Hedge-sparrow, the Blue Titmouse, and the Linnet. These +also, together with the Goldfinch, Thrush, Blackbird, &c. may still be +seen rifling the hip and haw grown hedges of their scanty fruit. Almost +all, however, even of those Singing-birds that do not migrate, except +the Redbreast, Wren, Hedge-sparrow, and Titmouse, disappear shortly +after the commencement of this month, and go no one knows whither. But +the pert House-sparrow keeps possession of the Garden and Court-yard all +the Winter; and the different species of Wagtails may be seen busily +haunting the clear cold Spring-heads, and wading into the unfrozen water +in search of their delicate food, consisting of insects in the _aurelia_ +state. + +Now, the Farmer finishes all his out-of-door work before the frosts set +in, and lays by his implements till the awakening of Spring calls him to +his hand-labour again. + +Now, the Sheep, all their other more natural food failing, begin to be +penned on patches of the Turnip-field, where they first devour the green +tops joyfully, and then gradually hollow out the juicy root,--holding it +firm with their feet, till nothing is left but the dry brown husk. + +Now, the Herds stand all day long hanging their disconsolate heads +beside the leafless Hedges, and waiting as anxiously, but as patiently +too, to be called home to the hay-fed Stall, as they do in Summer to be +driven afield. + +Now, (for they will not be overlooked or forgotten, do what we will to +dwell on other things), now come the true disagreeables of a Winter in +the Country; and perhaps at no other time are they so determinate in +making themselves felt, or is it so difficult to escape from them. And +yet what are they after all, (_i. e._ after they are over) but wholesome +bitters thrown occasionally into the cup of life, to keep the appetite +in health, and give a true tone to those powers of enjoyment, upon which +the luxuries of Summer would pall, if they were not frequently to pass +away in fact, and exist only in fancy? We may talk as much as we will +about the perpetual blue skies of Southern Italy, and enjoy them, if we +please, in imagination. And we may even _wish_ for them here, without +any great harm, provided we are content to do without them. But no +Englishman, who was at once a lover of external Nature, and an attentive +observer of her effects on his own heart and mind, ever, by absolute +choice, determined to live away from his own variable climate, even +_before_ he had tried that of other countries, still less after. Even if +there were nothing else to keep him at home, he would never consent to +part with the perpetual _green_ of his native Fields, in exchange for +that perpetual _blue_ with which it cannot coexist: and this, if for no +other reason, because green is naturally a more grateful colour to the +eye than blue. But, in fact, to those who have the means of enjoying all +that England has the means of offering for enjoyment, its climate is the +best in the world; and it is even that which, upon the whole, gives rise +to the greatest number of beautiful natural appearances. We boast, not +without reason, of our unrivalled skill in gardening, and our taste in +taking advantage of the natural beauties of picturesque scenery. But we +claim too much credit for ourselves, and give too little to our climate, +for the creation of this taste. If we had lived under Italian or French +skies, our Gardens and Pleasure-grounds would have been Italian or +French. Where can the Sunsets and Sunrisings of England be equalled in +various beauty? But that beauty depends, in a great measure, on her +mists, clouds, and exhalations. The countries of clear skies and +unbroken sunshine scarcely know what a Rainbow is: and yet what pageant +of the earth, the air, or the water, is like it? In short, the climate +of England, like her people, is the best in the world; and what is more, +the latter are the best precisely _because_ the former is. And that this +can be said with perfect sincerity, in the heart of the country during +the heart of November, is a proof, not to be gainsaid, that the joint +proposition is true. + +Perhaps I may now safely return to my duty, of depicting the several +unamiable aspects which the face of November is apt to assume; and +which, in my lover-like disposition to "see Helen's beauty in a brow of +Egypt," I had serious thoughts of either passing over altogether, or +denying the existence of outright! + +Now, then (there is no denying it), cold rains do come deluging down, +till the drenched ground, the dripping trees, the pouring eaves, and the +torn ragged-skirted clouds, seemingly dragged downward slantwise by the +threads of dusky rain that descend from them, are all mingled together +in one blind confusion; while the few Cattle that are left in the open +Pastures, forgetful of their till now interminable business of feeding, +turn their backs upon the besieging storm, and hanging down their heads +till their noses almost touch the ground, stand out in the middle of the +Fields motionless, like dead images. + +Now, too, a single rain-storm, like the above, breaks up all the paths +and ways at once, and makes home no longer "home" to those who are not +obliged to leave it; while, _en revanche_, it becomes doubly endeared to +those who are. What sight, for instance, is so pleasant to the wearied +Woodman, who has been out all day long in the drenching rains of this +month, as his own distant cottage window, seen through the thickening +dusk, lighted up by the blazing faggot that is to greet his sure return +at the accustomed minute? What, I say, is so pleasant a sight as this, +except the window of the village alehouse, similarly seen, and offering +a similar greeting, to him who has _no_ home? + +The name of home warns us that we are too long delaying our approach to +its environs, even though they have little to offer us different from +the comparative desolation that prevails elsewhere. + +In short, the Fruits of the Orchard are all gathered in, and all but the +keeping ones are gone; and the Flowers of the Garden are gradually +growing thinner and thinner, and the places where they lately stood are +forgotten. + +Still, however, of the former we have the Winter store, laid by in +fragrant heaps in the low-roofed loft over the Granary; and of the +latter we have yet left some that scatter their till now neglected +beauties up and down the half-deserted Parterre, and gain that +admiration by their rarity, which in the presence of their more fleeting +rivals they were fain to do without; and even a few that have not +ventured to show their faces to the hot sun of Summer, but are bold +enough to bare them before the chilling winds of Winter. Of these the +most various and conspicuous are the Chrysanthemums, shooting out their +sharp rays of different lengths, like stars--purple, and pink, and +white, and yellow, and blue; but all pale, faint, and scentless, and +looking more like artificial flowers than real ones. + +Some of the rich Dahlias, too, still remain, unless the killing frosts +have come; and the Geraniums, that have been turned out of their winter +homes into the open earth, still keep flowering profusely. But a single +night's frost makes sad havoc among both these bright ornaments of the +Autumn Flower-garden; and what is to-day a rich cluster of green leaves, +interspersed with gay groups of flowers, may to-morrow become, by an +invisible agency, an unsightly heap of corruption. + + * * * * * + +London is so perfect an antithesis to the Country in all things, that +whatever is good for the one is bad for the other. Accordingly, as the +Country half forgets itself this month, so London just begins to know +itself again. Not that I would insinuate any thing so injurious to the +reputation of the high fashionables, as that they have as yet began to +entertain the remotest thought of throwing themselves into the arms of +one another, merely because they have become wearied of themselves. On +the contrary, persons of fashion are perpetual martyrs to the +selfdenying principles on which they act, of doing every thing for or +with a reference to other people. Every body knows, that if there _is_ +a month of the year in which the Country puts forth less claims than +usual to the undivided love of her admirers, it is November. But people +of fashion never yet pretended either to love or admire any thing--even +themselves;--any thing but that abstraction of abstractions from which +they take their title. Accordingly, to them the Country is as much the +Country in November as ever it was, simply because London is not yet +London. In short, to be in London, is to be _in the world_; and to be in +the Country, or any where else but in London, is to be _out of the +world_; and therefore, to say that one is "in the Country," when it is +not decorous to be in London, is a mere _facon de parler_, exactly +equivalent to that of "not at home," when one does not choose to be +seen; so that there is no difficulty whatever in being "in town" all the +year round, and yet "out of town," exactly when it is proper and +becoming to be so. + +But if the world of fashion belongs exclusively to London, luckily +London does not belong exclusively to the world of fashion; and if that +has not yet began to enlighten London with its presence, all the other +worlds have. Accordingly, now its streets revive from their late +suspended animation, and are alive with anxious faces, and musical with +the mingled sounds of many wheels. + +Now, the Shops begin to shine out with their new Winter wares; though as +yet the chief profits of their owners depend on disposing of the "Summer +stock" at fifty per cent. under prime cost. + +Now, the Theatres, admonished by their no longer empty benches, try +which shall be the first to break through that hollow truce on the +strength of which they have hitherto been acting only on alternate +nights. + +Now, during the first week, the citizens see visions and dream dreams, +the burthens of which are Barons of Beef; and the first eight days are +passed in a state of pleasing perplexity, touching their chance of a +ticket for the Lord Mayor's Dinner on the ninth. + +Now, all the little boys give thanks in their secret hearts to Guy Faux, +for having attempted to burn "the Parliament" with "Gunpowder, treason, +and plot," since the said attempt gives them occasion to burn every +thing they can lay their hands on,--their own fingers included: a +bonfire being, in the eyes of an English schoolboy, the true "beauteous +and sublime of human life." + +Finally,--now the atmosphere of London begins to thicken overhead, and +assume its _natural_ appearance--preparatory to its becoming, about +Christmas time, that "palpable obscure" which is one of its proudest +boasts; and which, among its other merits, may reckon that of engendering +those far-famed Fogs of which everybody has heard, but to which no one +has ever done justice. A London Fog in November is a thing for which I +have a sort of natural affection;--to say nothing of an acquired one, the +result of a Hackney-coach adventure, in which the fair part of the fare +threw herself into my arms for protection, amidst the pleasing horrors of +an overthrow.--As an affair of mere breath, there is something tangible +in a London Fog. In the evanescent air of Italy, a man might as well not +breathe at all, for any thing he knows of the matter. But in a well-mixed +Metropolitan Fog there is something substantial, and satisfying. You can +feel what you breathe, and see it too. It is like breathing water,--as we +may fancy the fishes to do. And then the taste of it, when dashed with a +due seasoning of sea-coal smoke, is far from insipid. It is also meat +and drink at the same time; something between egg-flip and omelette +soufflee, but much more digestible than either. Not that I would +recommend it medicinally,--especially to persons of queasy stomachs, +delicate nerves, and afflicted with bile. But for persons of a good +robust habit of body, and not dainty withal--(which such, by the by, +never are)--there is nothing better in its way. And it wraps you all +round like a cloak, too--a patent water-proof one, which no rain ever +penetrated. + +No--I maintain that a real London Fog is a thing not to be sneezed +at--if you can help it. + +_Mem._ As many spurious imitations of the above are abroad,--such as +Scotch Mists, and the like--which are no less deleterious than +disagreeable,--please to ask for the "True London Particular," as +manufactured by Thames, Coal-gas, Smoke, Steam, and Co. No others are +genuine. + + + + +DECEMBER. + + +My pleasant task approaches to its pleasant close; for it is pleasant to +approach the close of _any_ task--even a pleasant one. The beautiful +Spring is almost forgotten in the anticipation of that which is to come. +The bright Summer is no more thought of, than is the glow of the morning +sunshine at night-fall. The rich Autumn only just lingers on the memory, +as the last red rays of its evenings do when they have but just quitted +the eye. And Winter is once more closing his cloud-canopy over all +things, and breathing forth that sleep-compelling breath which is to +wrap all in a temporary oblivion, no less essential to their healthful +existence than is the active vitality which it for a while supersedes. + +Of the mere external appearances and operations of Nature I shall have +comparatively little to say in connexion with this month, because many +of the former have been anticipated in January, while the latter is for +the most part a negation throughout the whole realms of animate as well +as inanimate nature. + +The Meadows are still green--almost as green as in the Spring, with the +late-sprouted grass that the last rains have called up, since it has +been fed off, and the Cattle called home to enjoy their winter fodder. +The Corn-fields, too, are bright with their delicate sprinkling of young +autumn-sown Wheat; the ground about the Hedge-rows, and in the young +Copses, is still pleasant to look upon, from the sobered green of the +hardy Primrose and Violet, whose clumps of unfading leaves brave the +utmost rigour of the season; and every here and there a bush of Holly +darts up its pyramid of shining leaves and brilliant berries, from +amidst the late wild and wandering, but now faded and forlorn company of +Woodbines and Eglantines, which have all the rest of the year been +exulting over and almost hiding it, with their quick-growing branches +and flaunting flowers. The Evergreens, too, that assist in forming the +home enclosures, have altogether lost that sombre hue which they have +until lately worn--sombre in comparison with the bright freshness of +Spring and the splendid variety of Autumn; and now, that not a leaf is +left around them, they look as gay by the contrast as they lately looked +grave. + +Now, the high-piled Turnip cart is seen labouring along the narrow +lanes, or stands ready with its white load in the open field, waiting to +be borne to the expectant Cattle that are safely stalled and sheltered +for the season; while, for the few that are still permitted to remain at +the mercy of the inclement skies, and to make their unwholesome bed upon +the drenched earth, the moveable Hay-rack is daily filled with its +fragrant store, and the open shed but poorly supplies the place of the +warm and well-roofed stalls of the Straw-yard. + +Now, too, some of the younger members of the herd (for the old ones know +by experience that it is not worth the trouble), seeing the tempting +green of the next field through the leafless Hedge-rows, break their way +through, and find the fare as bitter and as scanty as that which they +have left. + +Now, the Hazels throw out their husky blossoms from their bare +branches,--looking, as they hang straight down, like a dark rain +arrested in its descent; and the Furze flings out its bright yellow +flowers upon the otherwise bare common, like little gleams of sunshine; +and the Moles ply their mischievous night-work in the dry meadows; and +the green Plover "whistles o'er the lea;" and the Snipes haunt the +marshy grounds; and the Wag-tails twinkle about near the spring-heads; +and the Larks get together in companies, and talk to each other, instead +of singing to themselves; and the Thrush occasionally puts forth a +plaintive note, as if half afraid of the sound of his own voice; and the +Hedge-sparrow and Titmouse try to sing; and the Robin does sing still, +even more delightfully than he has done during all the rest of the year, +because it now seems as if he sang for us rather than for himself--or +rather _to_ us, for it is still for his supper that he sings, and +therefore for himself. + +There is no place so desolate as the Orchard this month; for none of the +fruit-trees have any beauty _as trees_, at their best; and now, they +have not a leaf left to cover their unsightly nakedness. + +Not so with the Kitchen Garden; _that_, if it has been duly attended to, +is full of interest this month,--especially by comparison with the +scenes of decay and barrenness by which it is surrounded. The Fruit +Trees on the walls are all nailed out with the most scrupulous +regularity; and by them, as much as by any thing else, may you now judge +of the skill and assiduity of your gardener. Indeed this is of all +others the month in which _his_ merits are put to the test, and in which +they often seem to vie with those of Nature herself. Anybody may have a +handsome garden from May to September; but only those who deserve one +can have it from September to May. Now, then, the walls are all covered +with their wide-spread fruit fans; the Celery beds stretch out their +unbroken lines of fresh-looking green; the late-planted Lettuces look +trim and erect upon the sheltered borders where they are to stand the +Winter, and be ready, not to open, but to shut up their young hearts at +the first warm breath of Spring; the green strings of autumn-sown Peas +scarcely lift their tender downward-turning stems above the dark soil; +the hardy Endives spread out their now full-grown heads of fantastically +curled leaves, or stand tied up from the sun and air, doing the penance +necessary to acquire for them that agreeable state of unhealthiness +without which (like modern fine ladies who contrive to blanch +themselves in a similar manner, and by similar means) our squeamish +appetites could not relish them; the Cauliflower, Brocoli, and Kale +plants, maintain their unbroken ranks; and, finally, even the Cabbages +themselves (Mr. Brummel being self-banished to Boulogne, and therefore +not within hearing, I may venture to say it), even the young Cabbages +themselves contrive to look genteel, in virtue of their as yet heartless +state; which is, in fact, the secret of all gentility, whether in a +Cabbage or a Countess. + +As to the Flower-garden this month, it looks a picture either of +pleasantness or of poverty, according to the degree of care and skill +which has been bestowed upon it; for though Nature wills that we shall +enjoy her beauties during a certain period of the year, whether we use +any efforts towards the obtaining them or not, yet she lays it down as a +general principle, in regard to her gifts, that to seek them, is at once +to deserve, to have, and to enjoy them; and that without such seeking, +we shall only have just enough to make us sigh after more. Accordingly, +her sun shines with equal warmth upon the Gardens of the just and the +unjust; and her rains fertilise the Fields of all alike. In short, as it +is with the loveliest of her works, Woman, her favours are to be +obtained by assiduous seeking alone; her love is the reward, not of +riches, nor beauty, nor power, nor even of virtue, but of love alone. No +man ever gave a woman his entire love, and sought hers in return, that +he did not, to a certain extent, obtain it; and no man ever paid similar +court to Nature, and came away empty handed. + +But we are wandering from the Garden; which should not be, even at this +least attractive of all its seasons; for though the honours which it +offers to the close of the year cannot vie with those which it scatters +so profusely about the footsteps of the Spring, we shall find them full +of interest and beauty, where we find them at all. + +Now, then, if the frosts have not set in, the Garden contains, or ought +to contain, a numerous variety of the Chinese Chrysanthemums, which +resemble and take the place of the more glaring, but less delicately +constructed China-asters. The most beautiful of these is the Snow-white, +looking, with its radii of different lengths, like a lighted +catherine-wheel. To have these in any perfection, however, their growth +must have been a little retarded by art; for their natural time of +blowing is during the last month. But it must be remembered, that the +Winter Garden is an affair of Art assisted by Nature, rather than of +Nature assisted by Art. So that I doubt, after all, whether I shall not +be overstepping the path I had marked out for myself, in describing what +a Winter Garden _may be_. As this is what I would, above all things, +avoid, let me at once refrain from pointing out any thing but what +_must_ be found in my prototype, Nature, under ordinary circumstances; +for I would rather omit from my portraits much of what their originals +do contain, than introduce into them any thing that they do not. And, +even with this restriction, we shall find the Garden replete with +pleasant objects. + +The Annuals, even the latest blowing, have all been rooted up, and their +straggling stems cleared away; all, except perhaps a few lingering +Marigolds, and some clumps of Mignonette, that will go on blowing till +the frost cuts them off. The Geraniums that were turned into the open +ground in the Autumn, to fill up the vacancies left by the falling off +of the early annuals, are still in flower, always provided there has not +yet been a night's sharp frost: if there has, they have all withered +beneath its (to them) baleful influence, as if by magic. The same may +be said of the Dahlias, with this difference,--that the destruction of +their luxuriant upper and visible growth is but the renewal of the +vigorous vitality that lies hid for a season in their self-generating +roots. + +Now, the Monthly, or China Rose, begins to be again appreciated. It has +been flowering all the Summer long for its own peculiar satisfaction, +and almost unnoticed amidst the flush of fresher looking beauty that +surrounded it. But now, its pale blossoms, with their faint perfume, are +the favourites of the Garden; and a whole company of them, wreathing +about a low trellised porch, make a momentary Summer in the most wintry +of scenes. + +Finally, now, every here and there, start up those stray gifts which +have "no business" to be seen at this season, but which, like fragments +of blue sky scattered among black overhanging clouds, remind us of the +beautiful whole to which they belong. I mean the little precocious +Primroses, Snowdrops, &c. that sometimes during this month find, or +rather lose, their way from their Winter homes, where they ought now to +be hiding, and peep up with their pale faces, as if in search of that +Spring which they will now never see. + + * * * * * + +If there is no denying that the Country is at its worst during this much +abused month, it must be conceded, in return, that London is at its +best: for at what other time is it so difficult and disagreeable to get +along the streets? and when are they so perfumed with the peculiar odour +of their own mud, and is their atmosphere so rich in the various "choice +compounds" with which it always abounds? + +But even these are far from being the prime merits of the Metropolis, at +this season of its best Saturnalia. The little boys from school have +again taken undisputed possession of all its pleasant places; and the +loud laughter of unchecked joy once more explodes on spots from whence, +with these exceptions, it has long since been exploded. In short, +Christmas, which has been "coming" all the year (like a waiter at an +inn), is at last actually come; and "merry England" is, for a little +while, no longer a phrase of mockery and scorn. + +The truth is, we English have fewer faults than any other people on +earth; and even among those which we have, our worst enemies will not +impute to us an idle and insane levity of deportment. We still for the +most part, as we did five hundred years ago, _nous amusons tristement, +selon l'usage de notre pays_. We do our pleasures, as we do our duties, +with grave faces and solemn airs, and disport ourselves in a manner +becoming our notions of the dignity of human nature. We feel at the +theatre as if it were a church, and consequently at church as if it were +a theatre. Our processions to a rout move at the same rate as those to a +funeral, and there are, in proportion, as many sincere mourners at the +former as the latter. We dance on the same principle as that on which +our soldiers do the manual exercise; and there is as much (and as +little) of impulse in the one as the other. And we fight on the same +principle as we dance; namely, because circumstances require it of us. + +All this is true of us under ordinary circumstances. But the arrival of +Christmas-time is _not_ an ordinary circumstance; and therefore _now_ it +is none of it true. We are merry-makers once more, and feel that we can +now afford to play the fool for a week, since we have so religiously +persisted in playing the philosopher during all the rest of the year. Be +it expressly understood, however, by all those "surrounding nations" who +may happen to meet with this candid confession of our weakness in the +above particular, that we permit ourselves to fall into it in favour of +our children alone. They (poor things!) being as yet at so pitiable a +distance from "years of discretion," cannot be supposed to have achieved +the enviable discovery, that happiness is a thing utterly beneath the +attention of a reasoning and reasonable being. Accordingly, they know no +medium between happiness and misery; and when they are not enjoying the +one, they are suffering the other. + +But that English parents, generally speaking, love their children better +than themselves, is another national merit which I must claim for them. +The consequence of this is natural and necessary, and brings us safely +round to the point from which we started: an English father and mother, +rather than their offspring should not be happy at Christmas-time, will +consent to be happy at that time themselves! It does not last long; and +surely a week or so spent in a state of foolish felicity may hope to be +expiated by a whole year of unimpeachable indifference! This, then, is +the secret of the Christmas holiday-making, among the "better sort" of +English families,--as they are pleased somewhat invidiously to call +themselves. + +Now, then (to resume our details), "the raven down" of metropolitan +darkness is "smoothed" every midnight "till it smiles," by that pleasant +relic of past times, "the waits;" which wake us with their low wild +music mingling with the ceaseless sealike sound of the streets; or +(still better) lull us to sleep with the same; or (best of all) make us +dream of music all night long, without waking us at all. + +Now, too, the Bellman plies his more profitable but less pleasant +parallel with the above; nightly urging his "masters and mistresses" to +the practice of every virtue under heaven, and in his own mind +prospectively including them all in the pious act of adding an extra +sixpence to his accustomed stipend. + +Now, during the first week, the Theatres having begun to prepare "the +Grand Christmas Pantomime, which has been in active preparation all the +Summer," the Carpenter for the time being, among other ingenious changes +which he contemplates, looks forward with the most lively satisfaction +to that which is to metamorphose _him_ (in the play-bills at least) into +a "machinist;" while, pending the said preparations, even the "Stars" of +the Company are "shorn of their beams" (at least in making their transit +through that part of their hemisphere which is included behind the +scenes), and all things give way before the march of that monstrous +medley of "inexplicable dumb show and noise," which is to delight the +Galleries and Dress-circle, and horrify the more _genteel_ portion of +the audience, for the next nine weeks. + +Finally, now occur, just before Christmas, those exhibitions which are +peculiar to England in the nineteenth century; I mean the Prize-Cattle +Shows. "Extremes meet;" and accordingly, one of the most unequivocal +evidences we have to offer, of the surpassing refinement of the age in +which we live, consists in these displays of the most surpassing +grossness. The alleged _beauty_ of these unhappy victims of their own +appetites acting with a view to ours, consists in their being unable to +perform a single function of their nature, or enjoy a single moment of +their lives; and the value of the meat that they make is in exact +proportion to the degree in which it is _un_fit to be eaten. + +To describe the joys and jollifications attendant on Christmas, is what +my confined limits would counsel me not to attempt, even if they were +describable matters. But, in fact, there is nothing which affords such +truly "lenten entertainment" as a feast at secondhand: the Barmecide's +dishes were fattening by comparison with it. In conclusion, therefore, +let me say that I shall think it very hard, if the gentle readers of +these pen and ink sketches of the Months have not been persuaded, during +the perusal of each, that I have fulfilled my promise made at the +commencement, of proving each, in its turn, to be better than all the +rest. At any rate, if they are not so persuaded, they must, to be +consistent, henceforth abandon all pretended _admiration_,--which is an +affair of impulse, not of judgment,--and must proceed to _compute_ the +value of every thing that comes before them, according to its +comparative value in regard to some other thing. In short, they must at +once adopt Horace's hateful worldly-minded maxim of "nil admirari" &c. +as rendered still more hateful and worldly-minded by Bolingbroke and +Pope's version of it; and must "make up their minds," as the mechanical +phrase is, that not merely "not to _wonder_," (which is what Horace +meant, if he meant any thing) but + + "Not to _admire_, is all the art _they_ know, + To make men happy, and to keep them so." + +But, in truth, as it is only for the satisfaction of living friends and +lovers that people sit for their portraits; not to gratify the spleen of +cavilling critics, nor even to convey their effigies to a posterity that +will not care a penny about them; so it is only to please the friends +and lovers of Nature, that I have painted the merely natural portion of +these "pictures in little" of the Months. + +As to the artificial portions,--being of no use to any one else, the +posterity of a twelve-month hence is welcome to them, as records of the +manners of the day, caught, not "_living_ as they _rise_," but dying as +they fall: for in the gardens of Fashion and Folly there are happily no +perennials; and though the plants which grow there for the most part +belong to that species which have winged seeds, and therefore disperse +themselves to wheresoever the winds of heaven blow, the same provision +causes them to escape from the spot where they sprang up, and make way +for those which the chances and changes of the season may have deposited +there. Thus each plant in turn has its day; and each parterre has an +annual opportunity of priding itself upon an exhibition of specimens, +which last year it would have laughed at, and which next year it will +despise. And "thus runs the world (of Fashion) away." + +But not so with the world of Nature. Here, all as surely returns as it +passes away; and whatever is true in these papers in regard to that, +will be true of it while time shall last. Wishing my readers, therefore, +"many happy returns of the _present_ season" (meaning whichever it may +happen to be during which they are favouring these light leaves with a +perusal), let me conclude by counselling such of them (if any there be) +as have hitherto failed to appreciate and enjoy the good that is every +where scattered about them, not to waste themselves away in vain regrets +over what cannot be recalled, but hasten to atone to that Nature which +they have neglected, by making the Future repay them for the Past, until +their reckoning of happiness is even. Of this they may be assured, that +it is rarely if ever too late to do so, and that the human mind never +parts with the power of righting itself, so long as "the human heart by +which we live" is not wilfully closed against the counsel which comes to +it from all external things. + + +FINIS. + + +LONDON: + +PRINTED BY THOMAS DAVISON, WHITEFRIARS. + + + + +BOOKS + +PUBLISHED BY + +GEO. B. WHITTAKER, LONDON. + + + PANDURANG HARI; or, Memoirs of a Hindoo. 3 vols. price 24s. + + OUR VILLAGE; Sketches of Rural Character and Scenery. By MARY RUSSEL + MITFORD, Author of "Julian," a Tragedy. Second Edition. Post 8vo. + 7s. 6d. boards. + +"This is an engaging volume, full of feeling, spirit, and vivacity; and +the descriptions of rural scenery and rural life are vivid and +glowing."--_New Monthly Mag._ + +"These 'Sketches,' we are of opinion, will, ere long, be extremely +popular; for they are highly-finished ones, and evince infinite taste, +judgment, and feeling. They are somewhat in the manner of _Geoffrey +Crayon_; but, to our liking, are far more interesting."--_Examiner._ + + ALICE ALLAN; The COUNTRY TOWN, &c. By ALEXANDER WILSON. Post 8vo. 8s. + 6d. boards. + + BRITISH GALLERIES of ART; being a Series of descriptive and critical + notices of the principal Works of Art, in Painting and Sculpture, + now existing in England; arranged under the Heads of the different + public and private Galleries in which they are to be found. + +This Work comprises the following Galleries:--The National (late the +Angerstein) Gallery--The Royal Gallery at Windsor Castle--the Royal +Gallery at Hampton Court--The Gallery at Cleveland House--Lord +Egremont's Gallery at Petworth--The late Fonthill Gallery--The Titian +Gallery at Blenheim--The Gallery at Knowle Park--The Dulwich +Gallery--Mr. Matthews's Theatrical Gallery. + + In post 8vo. price 8s. 6d. boards. + + +_Books published by Geo. B. Whittaker, London._ + + BEAUTIES of the DULWICH PICTURE GALLEY. In 12mo. price 3s. boards. + +"A very useful and interesting little work has just appeared, entitled, +'_Beauties of the Dulwich Picture Gallery_.' The object of the book is +to increase the pleasure of the visitor to Dulwich, by pointing out the +characteristic excellencies of most of the celebrated works of art which +adorn the Gallery. The work before us will be found a pleasant companion +to the Gallery, since it is so well calculated to shorten the road to +its beauties. The Author has selected a number of the principal +pictures, and has so classed them in his pages as to render his remarks, +which are very sensibly put, highly pleasing and instructive to the +general observer."--_Courier._ + + SCENES and THOUGHTS. Post 8vo. 7s. 6d. boards. + +"The _Scenes_ in this volume are highly descriptive, and the _Thoughts_ +are sensible and correct. The Author, throughout, displays a most +amiable feeling, and is an eloquent advocate in the cause of morality. +The articles are on well-selected subjects, and are altogether of a +domestic nature."--_Literary Chron._ + + HIGH-WAYS and BY-WAYS; or, Tales of the Road Side, picked up in the + French Provinces, by a WALKING GENTLEMAN. Fourth Edition. In 2 + vols. post 8vo. price 14s. boards. + +"There is a great deal of vivacity and humour, as well as pathos, in +these Stories; and they are told with a power of national +character-painting, that could have only resulted from long residence in +France, and from habits of social intimacy with the unsophisticated and +country-part of the French community, with whom the English traveller +seldom gives himself the trouble of getting acquainted."--_New Monthly +Mag._ + + The LUCUBRATIONS of HUMPHREY RAVELIN, Esq. late Major in the * * * + Regiment of Infantry. 2d Edition. Post 8vo. 8s. boards. + +"The author's remarks exhibit the frankness, acuteness, ease, and +good-feeling, which we are proud to think, and pleased to say, so often +belong to the character of the experienced British officer; while they +are so well conveyed, and, in fact, with such particular correctness, +that not only few military men have the opportunity of forming and +maturing so good a style, but many of the practised writers must _fall +into the rear_ in competition with _Major Ravelin_, who must _stand +muster_ with Geoffry Crayon."--_Monthly Rev._ + + + + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +Transcriber's Note: + + +Minor punctuation errors have been corrected without note. Irregular +hyphenation and archaic or unusual spellings have also been left as in +the original. + +In the plain-text versions of this book, _italics markup_ is not used +for the abbreviations s. and d., although they were italicised in the +original. + +The Table of Contents was added by the transcriber. + +The following correction was made to the text: + +p. 264: thier to their (their straggling stems) + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Mirror of the Months, by Peter George Patmore + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MIRROR OF THE MONTHS *** + +***** This file should be named 36167.txt or 36167.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/6/1/6/36167/ + +Produced by Chris Curnow, S.D., and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This book was +produced from scanned images of public domain material +from the Google Print project.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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