326 THE FLORIST. 



without suggesting the most distant idea of the damp and the darkness 

 of night. 



" A rill much more gentle than any of the former runs from this 

 piece of water through a coppice of considerable length, dropping here 

 and there down a shallow fall, or winding about little pits, in which 

 some groups of small trees are growing. The path is conducted along 

 the bank to the foot of a hill, which it climbs in an awkward zig-zag ; 

 and on the top it enters a straight walk, over-arched with trees ; but 

 though the ascent and terrace command charming prospects, they are 

 both too artificial for the character of the Leasowes. The path, how- 

 ever, as soon as it is freed from this restraint, recovers its former 

 simplicity, and descends through several fields, from which are many 

 pretty views of the farm, distinguished by the varieties of the ground, 

 the different enclosures, the hedges, the hedge-rows, and the thickets, 

 which divide them ; or the clumps, the single trees, and now and then 

 a haystack, which sometimes break the lines of the boundaries, and 

 sometimes stand out in the midst of the pastures. 



" At the end of the descent an enchanting grove overspreads a small 

 valley, the abrupt sides of which form the banks of a lovely rivulet, 

 which winds along the bottom ; the stream rushes into the dell by a 

 very precipitate cascade, which is seen through openings in the trees, 

 glimmering at a distance among the shades which overhang it ; the 

 current, as it proceeds, drops down several falls, but between them it 

 is placid and smooth ; it is everywhere clear, and sometimes dappled 

 by gleams of light ; while the shadow of every single leaf is marked on 

 the water, and the verdure of the foliage above, of the moss, and the 

 grass, and the wild plants, on the brink, seems brightened in the 

 reflection ; various pretty clusters of open coppice wood are dispersed 

 about the banks ; stately forest trees rise in beautiful groups upon fine 

 swelling knolls above them ; and often one or two detached from the 

 rest, incline down the slopes, or slant across the stream. As the valley 

 descends, it grows more gloomy ; the rivulet is lost in a pool, which is 

 dull, encompassed and darkened by large trees ; and just before the 

 stream enters it, in the midst of a plantation of Yews, is a bridge of 

 one arch, built of a dusky coloured stone, and simple even to rudeness ; 

 but this gloom is not a black spot, ill-united with the rest ; it is only a 

 deeper cast of shade ; no part of the fence is lightsome; a solemnity 

 prevails over the whole, and it receives an additional dignity from an 

 inscription on a small obelisk, dedicating the grove to the genius of 

 Virgil. Near to this delightful spot is the first entrance into the 

 grounds, and thither the walk tends, along the side of a rill. 



" But it would be injustice to quit the Leasowes without mentioning 

 one or two circumstances, which, in following the course of the walk, 

 could not well be taken notice of. The art with which the divisions 

 between the fields are diversified is one of them ; even the hedges are 

 distinguished from each other ; a common quickset fence is in one 

 place the separation ; in another, it is a lofty hedge-row, thick from the 

 top to the bottom; in a third, it is a continued range of trees, with 

 all their stems clear, and the light appearing in the intervals between 

 their boughs and the bushes beneath them ; in others, these lines of 



