ON THE COAST OF ARRAN 121 



CHAPTEK XIII 



When summer's faltering hand 

 Yields her capricious sceptre to the grasp 

 Of noble autumn, days will intervene 

 Of an elysian softness which belongs 

 To other lands, not by our seasons claimed. 



F. W. FABEK. Sir Lancelot. 



CORBIE : Sunday, August 24. 



THIS is the most perfect day of the whole month. 

 The wind is in the south-east. The air is soft 

 and warm, yet clear. It is now, in the early 

 afternoon, high-tide high and full. The sea, 

 although not rough, is instinct with changeful 

 life and joyous motion. The islands and the far 

 shores are so distinct that we can make out the 

 crescent houses and the Cathedral spire on the 

 Greater Cumbrae, and even the turn and the 

 colour of Fairlie Glen on the mainland twenty 

 miles away. The water in the distance wears a 



