( 127 ) 



THE RIVER. 



THERE is a slight but perceptible colour in the 

 atmosphere of summer. It is not visible close at 

 hand, nor always where the light falls strongest, and 

 if looked at too long it sometimes fades away. But 

 over gorse and heath, in the warm hollows of wheat- 

 fields, and round about the rising ground there is 

 something more than air alone. It is not mist, nor 

 the hazy vapour of autumn, nor the blue tints that 

 come over distant hills and woods. 



As there is a bloom upon the peach and grape, so 

 this is the bloom of summer. The air is ripe and 

 rich, full of the emanations, the perfume, from corn 

 and flower and leafy tree. In strictness the term will 

 not, of course, be accurate, yet by what other word 

 can this appearance in the atmosphere be described 

 but as a bloom ? Upon a still and sunlit summer 

 afternoon it may be seen over the osier-covered islets 

 in the Thames immediately above Teddington Lock. 



It hovers over the level cornfields that stretch 

 towards Eichmond, and along the ridge of the wooded 

 hills that bound them. The bank by the towing-path 

 is steep and shadowless, being bare of trees or hedge ; 

 but the grass is pleasant to rest on, and heat is 

 always more supportable near flowing water. In 



