I 8 IDLEHURST: 



has further influence than discomfort. All the old 

 people agree in calling our present seasons degenerate ; 

 they can remember the times when the grapes ripened 

 handsomely on almost every house in the village, 

 when there was a functionary who attended on the 

 pruning and care of the vines in the commune, 

 receiving a proportion of the crop as his pay. There 

 are few years now when the school-children would 

 care to set their teeth in the clusters. The summers 

 have changed for the worse ; and perhaps such 

 influences as this smoke-cloud and all it is the sign 

 of, draining and drying of the land, vanishing of 

 woods and brushwood, replacing of the naturally 

 filtering and radiating turf and foliage by square 

 mileage of slate roof and chimney pots, may be 

 enough to account for the change. We know the 

 specific differences of atmosphere produced over 

 small areas of country down, river-valley, fen ; 

 London, from Woolwich to Kew, from Highgate 

 to Streatham, a stupendous volcano with a million 

 fumaroles, is sufficient to defile the Home Counties 

 at least; and the Black Country will account for 

 much of the rest. 



The alteration of the seasons lies, I think, not so 

 much in differences of temperature which could be 

 shown in tables of averages, as in the prevalence' of 



