44 AUTUMNAL LEAVES. 



of our ivy-clad cottages such an exceeding wealth 

 of quiet and surpassing loveliness that, for a 

 moment, we are constrained to pause in wonder- 

 ing admiration. 



Oaks, where we stand, growing from either 

 bank, fling their branches across from side to 

 side, and meet and interlace midway. But at 

 one spot there is an opening in the leafy shroud, 

 and through the ' vignette ' thus woven by the 

 natural and untrained garlands of oak foliage we 

 see the blue sky, and though it is but a patch of 

 uniform colour and we cannot now see as we 

 could at night the contrasting beauty of the 

 stars c the golden nails,' as a pretty fancy loves 

 to consider them, of the floor of heaven the 

 sunny blue serves to throw out in strong relief 

 the autumnal colouring of the oak leaves. 



From looking up at the sky and at the leafy 

 canopy stretching immediately over us let us 

 turn to look at our lane. Its roadway, margined 

 on either side by broad and bright-green bands 

 of grass the verdant turf now level, now sloping, 

 and now undulating winds and turns in serpen- 

 tine fashion as it gently ascends through bands oi 



