PREFACE. Vll 



thing more of the loveliness which has stirred the 

 entlmsiasm and excited the admiration of poets 

 and in a less degree of prosateurs. It is true, 

 as one writer feelingly exclaims, that 



* Not Spring or Summer's beauty hath such grace 

 As I have seen in one autumnal face,' 



and it is worth an effort to endeavour to catch 

 and stereotype, so to speak, some of the most pro- 

 minent of the exquisitely beautiful, but transient, 

 features of the season of Autumn. 



It is not, perhaps, generally known that tran- 

 sient as these features are in our woodlands for 

 ' the autumnal forest,' as Gilpin truly says, ' is an 

 instrument easily untuned ' by ' one frosty night 

 or parching blast ' yet, as far as the rich and 

 varied tints of autumnal leafage are concerned, 

 they can be retained to charm the eye in port- 

 folios : so that the poet's lament over the c latest 

 loveliest flowers' which Autumn wreaths 'in 

 many-coloured bowers,' 



* The rich luxuriance * * of every view, 

 The mild and modest tint, the splendid hue, 

 The temper'd harmony of various shades, 

 Alas! whose beauty blooms at once and fades/ 



need not find an echo in the soul of the reader 

 who will but take the trouble to seek for and 



