SUMMER 3 



foxes slink very secretly to their earths. The high tide 

 hangs at the full or close to the full for a long time, as some- 

 times the real tide will. All the change you note is that the 

 elms are blacker and heavier and more massive than ever. 

 The distinctive shapes and patterns of the hedgerow bottom 

 are rather more hopelessly buried than ever by grasses and 

 kexes and nettles. The bronze and reddish colours that 



'THE ELMS ARE BLACKER' 



bided for a long while on oak and walnut and rose are lost in 

 a monotone of green which may compare with the sea 

 ' too full for sound or foam ' when the air is still. The 

 true midsummer, the hours of the high tide, come in July. 

 The very dog-roses, which lit the hedgerows in the splendour 

 of flaming June, are themselves subdued to the colour that 

 is now puissant and prevailing. A green case hides the 

 seeds and swells in the place of the white and pink petals. 

 A like subdual has come over the chestnut blossoms, which 

 stood up almost comically like candelabra to carry on the 



