92 A GARDEN OF PLEASURE 



ist of June, the sun shines down upon the 

 trees from his throne of cloudless blue, and 

 there is no shade ; it is all green sunshine 

 under the trees. The green, when many- 

 tinted summer is new, if not so brilliant as 

 autumnal gold and red, is yet sufficiently 

 various to satisfy the eye. The olive-green 

 of young oak, and poplar, and ash, 

 contrasts with the fresher greens of elm 

 and lime. I remember an old Somerset- 

 shire woman, who used to say, the woods 

 in June were like a piece of ( lady's em- 

 broidery work.' To-day the hedgerow 

 elms and lines of distant wood are lustrous. 

 No other word could give so well this 

 wonderful glow of June upon the leaves, 

 and only a poet could have found the 

 word ! * And then when the sun is down, 

 and the glowing trees are by contrast dim 

 and solemn, and the soft { tur-turring ' of 

 the turtle-doves in the thorn tree in the 

 field is hushed, I know that I shall find the 

 white Irises more shining in their polished 

 whiteness than during all the day, filling 



* ' Slides the bird o'er lustrous woodland, etc.' 

 Tennyson. 



