278 SEPTEMBER. 



pered gloom, their silence, the wild cries that flit 

 ever and anon through them, the leaves which 

 already rustle to the tread, all is full of a thoughtful 

 pleasantness. And then those breaks ; those open- 

 ings, those sudden emergings from shadow and 

 silence to light and liberty ; those unexpected 

 comings out to the skirts of the forest, or to some 

 wild and heathy tract in the very depth of the 

 woodlands ! How pleasant is the thought of it ! I 

 feel the fresh-blowing breeze of autumn, I scent the 

 fresh odour of the turf which never was cultivated, 

 I feel its elasticity beneath my tread, and rejoice as 

 I behold on its lonely bosom a few loiterers which 

 remain of all summer's flowery tribes ; a solitary 

 honeysuckle on some young birch; a few hare- 

 bells, bright and blue as summer skies. The rich 

 crimson flush of forest ground, 



Where myriad heath-flowers congregated bloom, 



is fast fading away : the fern is assuming its russet 

 hue; docks lift their ruddy and full-seeded heads; 

 thistles stand covered with down, like a foam, ready 

 at the lightest breeze to float away to a thousand 

 places ; and the grass of Parnassus crowns the silent 

 waste with its pure and classic beauty. And who 

 that has lived or sojourned any part of his youth in 

 the country has not some delicious remembrances 

 connected with Nutting? For me, those dim and 

 vast woods, whither our good schoolmaster con- 

 ducted his jolly troop of boys once in the season 



