82 AUTUMNAL LEAVES. 



are yellow Hawkweeds in flower, whilst heather 

 blossoms empurple the greensward here and 

 there. The common soon widens out, and we 

 speedily come in sight, as we follow our path, of 

 the embrowned and empurpled surface of the 

 forest as it rolls away westwards, towards Ring- 

 wood. Away to our right is an upland meadow 

 bordered by trees, and at its foot a row of little 

 cottages, their white walls, their blue and red 

 tiles and thatch, and the curls of blue smoke 

 which are rising slowly into the air, standing 

 out in relief against the rising ground of the 

 meadow. 



We start late in the afternoon, and the sun in 

 the west is already declining behind wreathed 

 banks of cloud. But we hasten our steps, and 

 soon get away from the turf of the common, and 

 from the enclosures of meadow, homestead, and 

 cottage, passing into a region of forest where the 

 ground is no longer green but embrowned by 

 faded leaves and faded Heather-bells, and em- 

 purpled here and there by the now blossoming 

 moorland plant. We reach the crest of an up- 

 land from which we can see all around us the 



