* FROM A MIDDLESEX GARDEN 



full of thoughts and suggestions the heartsease, the drift- 

 wood, and the flocks of leaves are for the dawn of the 

 year. 



Now may be studied the many graceful outlines of the 

 naked trees hidden to us at other times of the year, each tree 

 differing in symmetry ; the giant oak whose great arms stretch 

 out perfectly straight around it ; side by side to it the " Lady 

 of the Woods " stands : a striking contrast to the arms of 

 the Forest King are its thread-like falling branches. Yet how 

 more than solitary are those corners of the woodland which 

 we, even in summer, thought the very ideal of solitude, 

 where by the stream the bright-hued kingfisher flew along its 

 course, flashing like a jewel amid the luxuriant growth of the 

 scenery of the moist banks. But even now there is here a 

 certain picturesqueness which in summer must be looked for 

 in vain ; it is the beauty of the winter sunset, when the 

 golden and crimson flame in the western sky is seen from 

 behind the bars of a giant cage, which bars are the tapering 

 trunks of trees. 



