PREFACE. XXIX 



Chatterton poetically describes autumn as 



" Wyth hys goulde honde guylteynge the falleynge lefe." 



Many writers have touched upon the difference 

 in the colours of trees : 



" Nor less attractive is the woodland scene, 

 Diversified with trees of every growth, 

 Alike, yet various. Here the gray smooth trunks 

 Of ash, or lime, or beech, distinctly shine 

 Within the twilight of their distant shades ; 

 There, lost behind a rising ground, the wood 

 Seems sunk, and shortened to its topmost boughs. 

 No tree in all the grove but has its charms, 

 Though each its hue peculiar, paler sonic, 

 And of a wannish gray ; the willow such, 

 And poplar that with silver lines his leaf, 

 And ash, far-stretching his umbrageous arm ; 

 Of deeper green the elm ; and deeper still, 

 Lord of the woods, the long-surviving oak. 

 Some glossy leaved, and shining in the sun, 

 The maple, and the beech of oily nuts 

 Prolific, and the lime at dewy eve 

 Diffusing odours : nor unnoted pass 

 The sycamore, capricious in attire, 

 Now green, now tawny, and ere autumn yet 

 Have changed the woods, in scarlet honours bright." 



COWPER. 



Surely the poet takes some licence, in calling the 

 Poplar blue: 



" Below me trees unnumber'd rise, 

 Beautiful in various dyes : 



