144 AUTUMNAL LEAVES. 



"We look from this height down upon the sea of 

 green, from the heathery slope on whose crest we 

 stand, where the Bracken spreads out its graceful 

 fronds, and the prickly spines of Gorse sparkle in 

 the moonlight down, down to the leafy hollows 

 below, where the dark shadows of night creep 

 under the trees whose heads are steeped in silvery 

 lustre. "We cannot help thinking that the birds 

 might have wished to keep awake to enjoy the 

 exceptional beauty of this night ; and earlier in 

 the year nightingales in chorus would, at the same 

 place, have made the woods ring with their sweet 

 music. But as we look no sound breaks the 

 pervading stillness, and nothing moves but the 

 tiny forms of the flitting night-moths. 



Surely in this age of hard work, when tired 

 bodies and overwrought brains need, more than 

 they ever did before, the relaxation which nothing 

 can afford so perfectly as a quiet country ramble, 

 we should prize as a treasure beyond price 

 for our own present enjoyment and as a precious 

 inheritance for posterity the solitude and beauty 

 of our woods. 



