50 IDLEHURST : 



the contrast of Alice's paintbox, to be sure, but of 

 Turner's too. As I looked over all these down on 

 the village, where the lowing beasts and shouts of 

 men, the noise of sheep and dogs made an inter- 

 mittent murmuring hubbub, I found myself pro- 

 pounding a sort of sum in Rule of Three, unanswered, 

 as my sums are wont to be ; the terms being Arning- 

 ton Fair, and the Bank Crossing, and the quiet of 

 this plot of garden within its inviolable walls. 



Towards evening I walked out by the field path 

 to Blackhatch, facing the setting sun, a level blaze 

 of light between the tree stems in the shaws. I 

 turned back soon after the light began to go and 

 the scents of the earth to rise in the cool-settling 

 dusk. There are hours which bring out all natural 

 odours in their strength, as there are seasons which 

 strike out the fullest colour of every surface ; and 

 this evening was charged with odour to the full. 

 I often think that we greatly neglect the sense of 

 smell ; treat it as nugatory, if not as something a 

 little vicious by association, without making Aristotle's 

 distinction between amateurs of roses and of pomades. 

 There is a great amount of pleasure, none the less, 

 for those who use their noses as they should use 

 their eyes, with strenuous discrimination the dilet- 

 tanti of smells. There is a pleasure to be gained 



