INTRODUCTION. 19 



tapestries of the hills ; to them, slow-pencilled, iris-dyed, 

 the tender framing of their endless imagery. Sharing 

 the stillness of the unimpassioned rock, they share also 

 its endurance; and while the winds of departing spring 

 scatter the white hawthorn blossoms like drifted snow, 

 and summer duns in the parched meadow the drooping 

 of its cowslip-gold, far above among the mountains, the 

 silver lichen-spots rest, starlike on the stone, and the 

 gathering orange-stain upon the edge of yonder western 

 peak reflects the sunsets of a thousand years." 



