NATURE IN ENGLAND 3 



day does come, it is worth the price paid for it. 

 The soul and sentiment of all fair weather is in it; 

 it is the flowering of the meteorological influences, 

 the rose on this thorn of rain and mist. These fair 

 days, I was told, may be quite confidently looked 

 for in May ; we were so fortunate as to experience 

 a series of them, and the day we entered port was 

 such a one as you would select from a hundred. 



The traveler is in a mood to be pleased after 

 clearing the Atlantic gulf; the eye in its exuberance 

 is full of caresses and flattery, and the deck of a 

 steamer is a rare vantage-ground on any occasion 

 of sight- seeing ; it affords just the isolation and 

 elevation needed. Yet fully discounting these fa- 

 vorable conditions, the fact remains that Scotch sun- 

 shine is bewitching, and that the scenery of the 

 Clyde is unequaled by any other approach to Eu- 

 rope. It is Europe, abridged and assorted and 

 passed before you in the space of a few hours, — the 

 highlands and lochs and castle-crowned crags on 

 the one hand; and the lowlands, with their parks 

 and farms, their manor halls and matchless verdure, 

 on the other. The eye is conservative, and loves a 

 look of permanence and order, of peace and content- 

 ment; and these Scotch shores, with their stone 

 houses, compact masonry, clean fields, grazing herds, 

 ivied walls, massive foliage, perfect roads, verdant 

 mountains, etc., fill all the conditions. We pause 

 an hour in front of Greenock, and then, on the 

 crest of the tide, make our way slowly upward. 

 The landscape closes around us. We can almost 



