JULY 173 



asks Tennyson. There are other Nature pleasures besides 

 birds and flowers to be found in scenes beyond the garden : 

 in the clouds and shadows and distant July trees. AJice 

 Meynell says in one of her exquisite essays : " The daylight 

 trees of July are signs of common beauty, common freshness, 

 and a mystery familiar and abiding as night and day. . . . 

 One has the leisure of July for perceiving all the differences 

 of the green of leaves. It is no longer a difference in de- 

 grees of maturity, for all the trees have darkened to their 

 final tone, and stand in their differences of character and not 

 of mere date. Almost all the green is grave not sad and 

 not dull. It has a darkened and a daily colour, in majestic 

 but not obvious harmony with dark grey skies." And again 

 of the shadows she says : " Shadows within doors are yet only 

 messages from that world of shadows which is the landscape 

 of sunshine. . . . The trees show you a shadow for every 

 leaf, and the poplars are sprinkled upon the shining sky with 

 little shadows that look translucent. The liveliness of every 

 shadow is that some light is reflected into it ; shade and shine 

 have been entangled as though by some wild wind through 

 their million molecules." Pleasures everywhere, as wonderful 

 as in Swinburne's lordly " July Carol " : 



" Hail ! proud July, whose fervent mouth 

 Bids even be morn and north be south, 

 By grace and gospel of thy word, 

 Whence all the splendour of the sea 

 Lies breathless with delight in thee." 



