274 FIELD AND HEDGEROW. 



the days go over noiselessly and without effort, like 

 white summer clouds. Ridges each side rise high and 

 heroically steep — it would be proper to set out and climb 

 them, but not to-day, not now : some time presently. 

 To the left massive Will's Neck stands out in black 

 shadow defined and distinct, like a fragment of night in 

 the bright light of the day. The wild red deer lie there, 

 but the mountain is afar ; a sigh is all I can give to it, 

 for the Somerset sun is warm and the lotus sweet. 

 Yonder, if the misty heat moves on, the dim line of 

 Dunkery winds along the sky, not unlike the curved back 

 of a crouching hare. The weight of the mountains is too 

 great — what is the use of attempting to move ? It is 

 enough to look at them. The day goes over like a white 

 cloud ; as the sun declines it is pleasant to go into the 

 orchard — the vineyard of Somerset, and then perhaps 

 westward may be seen a light in the sky by the horizon 

 as if thrown up from an immense mirror under. The 

 mirror is the Severn sea, itself invisible at this depth, 

 but casting a white glow up against the vapour in the 

 air. By it you may recognise the nearness of the sea. 

 The thumb-nail ridges of the Quantocks begin to grow 

 harder, they carry the eye along on soft curves like those 

 of the South Downs in Sussex, but suddenly end in a 

 flourish and point as if cut out with the thumb-nail. 

 Draw your thumb-nail firmly along soft wood, and it will, 

 by its natural slip, form such a curve. Blackbird and 

 thrush commence to sing as the heavy heat decreases ; 

 the bloom on the apple trees is loose now, and the black- 

 bird as he springs from the bough shakes down flakes of 

 blossom. 



Towards even a wind moves among the lengthening 

 .shadows, and my footsteps involuntarily seek the glen, 

 where a streamlet trickles down over red flat stones which 



