JUNE. 169 



melting strawberries; and gooseberries and currants 

 assuming tints of ripeness, are extremely grateful. 

 Grasses are now in flower; and when the larger 

 species are collected and disposed tastefully, as I 

 have seen them by ladies, in vases, polished horns, 

 and over pier-glasses, they retain their freshness 

 through the year, and form, with their elegantly 

 pensile panicles, bearded spikes, and silken plumes, 

 exceedingly grateful ornaments. 



Hay-harvest has commenced, and, in some south- 

 ern counties, if the weather be favourable, is com- 

 pleted ; but next month may be considered as the 

 general season of hay-making. 



SUMMER FLOODS. Floods in the summer months 

 are not unfrequent ; and when they spread into the 

 mowing-grass, do immense damage, filling it with 

 sand, and covering it with an adhesive slime that 

 no future showers will wash off. Sometimes they 

 come in the midst of hay-harvest; and then may be 

 seen haycocks standing in the midst of the water, 

 or floating down the flooded valleys in vast quanti- 

 ties here people intercepting it with boats, or pull- 

 ing it out with rakes and hooks ; there plucking it 

 away from the arches of bridges, which it would 

 soon choke and cause to blow up. After the sub- 

 siding of the waters, hedges and copses may be seen 

 loaded with it, a melancholy monument of incalcu- 

 lable damage. Yet rivers never look so well as 

 when they are swelled bankfull in summer. They 

 have a noble and abundant aspect, and rush on 

 their way magnificently amid views in the pride of 

 15 



