282 TREES IN NATURE, MYTH & ART 



confident, ready to return your greeting with 

 frank look and handshake ; the latter ready 

 to return your greeting only with downcast 

 eyes and humble curtsey. Perhaps then the 

 significance of this picture does not lie in ' the 

 contrast of the unpoetical girls with the deeply 

 pathetic landscape'." 



Few are the British trees that have not been 

 painted by Millais with affectionate delineation 

 of their individual features. He has often been 

 accused of seeking after popularity ; and his 

 best friends have found it difficult to defend 

 him from the charge. But his love of trees 

 and flowers, if nothing else, might well earn for 

 him the forgiveness of a multitude of sins ; for 

 it was natural, deep and, as we have seen, a 

 master-passion with him to the very end of his 

 days. How much do not many of us owe to 

 him for having helped us to know and love the 

 trees more intimately ! Often I go out in the 

 twilight to look at the tall poplars dark against 

 the luminous sky. ''Autumn Leaves" and 

 " The Vale of Rest " first sent me on this quest. 

 The distant fir-trees in ''Murthly Moss" often 

 come to mind when I see trees across a fore- 

 ground of heath. Can one ever see a beech- 



