142 AUTUMNAL LEAVES. 



light more brilliant in its effects than is that which 

 falls upon the great Hampshire woodland. As 

 the round, fiery orb slowly declines, flooding the 

 western sky and the western landscape with its 

 parting beams, its slanting rays, bringing the hill- 

 side into the brightness of its waning glory, 

 deepens the purple of the Heather blossoms, 

 flashes from the twisted leaves of Holly, burnishes 

 into gold the flowering Gorse, and heightens the 

 fiery glow of the withering Bracken ; whilst Oak 

 and Beech around lend a dozen tints of autumnal 

 leafage to multiply the pervading hues. And 

 then the clouds catch the dying splendour of the 

 sun, and seem, too, as if they were reflecting the 

 glowing colours of the autumnal forest, for the 

 masses of vapour which at mid-day were of spot- 

 less white are now flushed with crimson and 

 delicately empurpled. Lower and lower in the 

 west sinks the great golden disc, heightening the 

 beauty of the western landscape, but deepening 

 the shadows which creep over from the eastern 

 horizon, until at length the glory of the day has 

 quite departed, and the streaks of fiery red which 

 for awhile have hovered in the western sky melt 

 into darkness. 



