JULY. 



225 



to the sun. It is one of Nature's festivities, 

 endeared by a thousand pleasant memories 

 and habits of the olden days, and not a soul 

 can resist it. 



There is a sound of tinkling teams and wag- 

 gons rolling along lanes and fields the whole 

 country over, ay, even at midnight, till at 

 length, the fragrant ricks rise in the farm-yard, 

 and the pale smooth-shaven fields are left in 

 solitary beauty. 



They who know little about the country may 

 deem the strong penchant of our poets, and of 

 myself, for rural pleasures, mere romance and 

 poetic illusion ; but if poetic beauty alone were 

 concerned, I must still admire harvest-time in 

 the country. The whole land is then an 

 Arcadia full of simple, healthful, and rejoicing 

 spirits. Overgrown towns and manufactories 

 may have changed, for the worse, the spirit 

 and feelings of their population ; in them " evil 

 communications may have corrupted good 

 manners;" but in the country at large, there 

 never was a more simple-minded, healthful- 

 hearted and happy race of people than our 

 British peasantry. They have cast off, it is 

 true, many of their ancestors' games and 

 Q 



