THE FAERY YEAR 



and brightness for some of the woods, when oaks 

 and Spanish chestnuts are the chief trees, and the 

 undergrowth is brake fern, have an almost fairy- 

 like lightness about them towards the close of 

 October. It is the least substantial pageantry. 

 The heavy foliage of summer has been thinned, and 

 the leaves that remain on the trees are yellow or 

 pale brown. 



The deep green of darkened oaks and great 

 notched leaves of chestnut has given place to a 

 colour which, like pallid brake fern among the pines, 

 has almost the appearance of sunlight. So, on a day 

 in October grey, from dawn till dusk, the Spanish 

 chestnut and oak woods, to one who walks through 

 them, really appear to be lit brilliantly. There is 

 such a wood on the Buckinghamshire sand-hills. A 

 fortnight ago the scene inside this wood was one of 

 strange conjured beauty on an afternoon quite grey 

 and sombre in the roads and open fields. The 

 brake fern had not taken on its full brown of 

 autumn, which is about the most sober of the 

 distinctive colours of the season, and the trees were 

 turning so fast that many had no more than a faint 

 stain of green. The mountain ashes were pure 

 yellow, the horse-chestnuts too ; the Spanish chest- 

 nuts were far more yellow than brown, and so as yet 

 were most of the oaks and maples. There were 

 none of the red or high roseate hues of spindlewood, 

 cornel, sycamore, or wild cherry tree, or the flames 

 of the beech. The result was a yellow wood 

 yellow on the twig, yellow sprent with light brown 

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