THROUGH THE YEAR 115 



books " and " colour books " on the ground that 

 the pictures in them are painted or reproduced in 

 colours too high or glaring. Too glaring they may 

 be ; I doubt whether they are often too vivid and 

 rich. Our homely scenes of harvest how they 

 burn with a wonderful intensity of colour ! Save 

 for the absence from it of burnish or glitter, the 

 oatfield scene in England is a blazon of splendid 

 colour. 



The oat stubbles and the peaked shocks are straw 

 gold or yellow or brown I hardly know which of 

 the three is the best description of the richest hue 

 of the kind I can imagine. The greens of harvest 

 landscape as a whole are darkened, subdued greens 

 verging here and there near the ground almost on 

 blackness, but where they turn to blue and purple 

 at two miles' distance, and so continue in varying 

 shades to the twentieth mile, and to the ethereal 

 horizon, they are richer even than the oatfield. 

 The richness of this colour scene, whether in sun- 

 shine or shade, is its chief feature ; and, after that, 

 the perfect blend or harmony of its hues. This 

 second feature of harvest scenery in English lands- 

 capes at the start of autumn delights and astonishes 

 us anew season after season. 



Not a colour is out of context. One colour blends 

 into or emerges from the next at just the point it 

 should. A flaw seems impossible, taking the lands- 

 cape as a whole, though half the scene has been 

 arranged and mixed by the hands of men and 

 without the least regard for colour or form I mean 



