NOVEMBER 127 



very dismal. Many houses demolished, and people 

 killed. . . the damage to my own dwelling, 

 farms and outhouses, is almost tragical, not to be 

 paralleled with anything happening in our age. I 

 am not able to describe it, but submit to the pleas- 

 ure of Almighty God." 



One finds so much generalized description, so 

 much non-English element, and so little exact dat- 

 ing in Thomson's Seasons, that the Autumn can- 

 not be compared fairly with our September, Octo- 

 ber, and November data. But the season as de- 

 scribed by the Scotchman includes the familiar 

 items of harvest, nut-gathering, hunting, meteoric 

 showers, migrating birds, and fading woods 



Of every hue from wan, declining green 



To sooty dark. 



It is also the season of ripened pears and apples, 

 of cider-making, of 



The breath of orchard, big with bending fruit. 

 Thomson's description of a snowstorm is reserved 

 for Winter, and the chief weather phenomena al- 

 lotted to Autumn are ^^dnds, heavy rains, and fogs. 

 For The Cotter's Saturday Night, Burns chooses 

 a November evening, but makes no mention of 

 snow^ 



November chill blaws loud wi' angry sough; 



The short 'ning winter-day is near a close; 

 The miry beasts retreating frae the pleugh ; 

 The black 'ning trains o' craws to their repose. 



