24 IDLEHURST : 



miles from the high fir-clump behind my garden. 

 Such a harbourage for shy things, bird, beast, and 

 herb, would be a delight for the physiologists ; to it 

 all quaint obsolescent natures would make their way ; 

 among them, perhaps, that almost extinct species, 

 the innate rustic, eternally expecting until the stream 

 of progress shall have run down. 



So I meditated, walking off ill humours in wet 

 lanes ; turning my back at last on the smoky wind 

 and drizzling rain as a rift of dun light in the west 

 presented sunset, and consoling myself with the 

 thought of early shutters and candles, and the well- 

 burned slippers, and Horace Horace or Elia over 

 the oak-log fire. 



2nd. Waking before daylight I heard the church 

 clock chime clear, and turned over with pleasant, 

 sleepy apprehension that the wind was back in the 

 south again. The morning broke as though no 

 smoke had ever come our way, and all the forenoon 

 was of rememberable beauty. All the true good 

 weather comes out of the south : rainy on the eastern 

 side, windy on the westerly, and pure halcyon days 

 from the meridian. I idled in the garden at small 

 businesses of tying and nailing, leaving severer works 

 for a darker day. The crocuses spread themselves 

 wide to the sun, lines and mounds of yellow fire ; but 



