134 SKETCHES OF RURAL AFFAIRS. 



Haymaking is as healthful as it is delightful. The 

 heat is not oppressive ; the smell of the new-mown grass 

 and flowers is refreshing to the labourers, and the soft 

 greensward is pleasant to their feet. 



" The grateful sweetness of the new-mown hay, 

 Breathing refreshment, fans the toiling swain." 



Their labour also is not so excessive but that they can 

 indulge in merriment. Wherever you see a group of hay- 

 makers, you may also hear the merry laugh go round ; 

 especially when they rest beneath some spreading oak 

 to take their noon-day meal, or when in the midst of their 

 work they pause for a moment, to quaff the welcome 

 draught of ale. 



The mower is abroad at early dawn, and before the 

 day has closed he has made wide havoc among the 

 herbs and flowers of the field. At each sweep of his 

 scythe hundreds of blossoms are laid low, and thousands 

 of springing blades are cut down in their youthful 

 prime. There lie the cardamine, the buttercup, the 

 cowslip, and many a flower besides, half buried in the 

 dewy grass that forms the principal portion of the swathe. 

 And among the grasses themselves there are blossoms of 

 great beauty and variety. When you come to examine 

 them as they lie thus heaped together, or when you 

 gather them in their freshness from the unmown por- 

 tion of the meadow, you find a greater difference than 

 might be expected in plants which are so much alike in 

 the earlier stages of their growth. There is the Sweet- 

 scented Vernal Grass, which forms part of the herbage iu 

 almost every situation. This grass, more than any other, 

 gives the delightful scent to new-mown hay, and though 

 it does not thrive weU alone, it combines with other 

 grasses to advantage. This is one of the early flower- 

 ing grasses, blossoming in April or May, and ripening 

 its seed early in June. It is a beautiful and wise pro- 

 vision respecting these early grasses, that they continue 

 to increase in nutriment up to the time of the seed 



