THE FAERY YEAR 



flashing black and white which peewits spread out 

 on their travels. 



If there is a touch of winter about these sunsets 

 of September, in whose glow the rooks float and 

 spire, how much more a few hours later, when the 

 air is calm and clear, heavy dew beading the grass 

 tips, the stars glittering ! Jupiter, coming out of the 

 east soon after dark, is once again in the ascendant, 

 high in the sky before midnight, to form, with the 

 companionable little Pleiades and yellow Aldebaran, 

 a most beautiful bow. These night worlds have 

 been cast, several times during the past week, on a 

 blue, an idea of whose depth and lustre no words 

 really convey : firmament-blue this, perhaps, gives 

 as good an idea of its depth as any word can. 



A few majestic nights of this sky scenery, and 

 then the filmy veil of September drops for a while, 

 and the walker through moist wood or field, 

 especially if fresh from train or city, is very con- 

 scious of the strong autumnal smell of the earth. 

 There is no fancy about this aroma ; at times it is as 

 strong and distinct as that of the height of May in 

 the hazel coppice. 



Peasant Aristocracy 



No account of the old English county families is 



complete which tells us nothing of the people in 



hamlet and village who have been settled in the same 



thatched cottage for generations. To hear some of 



228 



