CH. I.] A SECOND SUMMER. 151 



ornament did not appear. Had they been allowed 

 to continue their operations they would have been 

 soon undeceived by the setting in of a hard frost 

 accompanied by heavy snow, and reduced, in 

 spite of their warm situations, to the state of 

 Cowper's birds: 



" Back into their nests they paddled, 

 Themselves were chilled, their eggs were addled." 



The extraordinary freshness of the foliage, &c. at 

 that period was however quite sufficient to mis- 

 lead any simple-minded bird. For instance, within 

 a day or two of the same time I found, in a some- 

 what exposed situation, a blackberry-bush, having 

 at once upon it flowers in full bloom, and green, 

 ripening, and ripe fruit, quite reminding one of 

 Homer's description of the vines in Alcinous' 

 garden, Od. H. 117 126. Whilst we were thus 

 enjoying a second summer in England, the weather 

 was, in the south of France, Italy, Portugal, Malta, 

 and the East, unusually severe. From a friend, 

 who had gone to Pau to escape the rigours of the 

 English winter, I received, while the Jackdaws 

 were thus building in our chimnies, and the black- 

 berries still in full autumnal vigour, a letter ex- 

 pressing his regret that he had not taken his 

 skates with him ; and again, about the third week 



