130 TREES IN NATURE, MYTH & ART 



and mine make no pretence to be of the best. 

 What I have written cannot call up to the 

 reader such vivid recollections as those that 

 have led me to make a record of them in 

 words. But the words will serve their purpose 

 if, though little more than an enumeration of 

 the elements that make up many a beautiful, 

 yet not uncommon scene, they set upon the 

 watch for such scenes some among the 

 readers of these pages who have not hitherto 

 looked for them. Travelling once with a 

 clergyman who said that he got but little en- 

 joyment from landscape painting, I asked him 

 if the changing colour and light of the land- 

 scape through which we were passing gave 

 him no pleasure ; if contrast of brown earth, 

 red tiles, green trees, white cloud, blue sky, 

 and so forth, never sent through him a thrill 

 of emotion. He said that they moved him 

 not at all. Should the reader be in like case 

 he is missing possible enjoyment that nature is 

 always offering freely to his sight. This must 

 be my excuse for trying to describe in words 

 some of the scenes that have given me pleasure. 

 When winter is most wintery, when there 

 is snow or hoar-frost, then there is beauty 



