THROUGH THE YEAR 161 



much colour that is cast on the great expanse of sky 

 which comes under the glow of the sun now clear of 

 cloud refuse it is a suffusion of gold or yellow light. 

 Yet neither gold nor yellow is a satisfying word for 

 this sky effect. The thing is far too elusive to be 

 captured by language. It is simple to describe in 

 words the split light ray when it is presented in the 

 strong and definite and divided colours of the 

 rainbow, or on the sheeny back and sides of a swan 

 seen through field glasses. But the lustres and 

 delicate suffusions of sunlight about and above 

 these sea horizons in autumn and winter are of 

 another class. They are ether eal ; even more so, I 

 think, than the faint washes and afterglows of a 

 red sunset. 



ON THE LINNETS' COMMON 



The later or winter phase of autumn often begins 

 with a series of distinctive evenings. Year after 

 year comes the same kind of sunset and evening at 

 this season. In some years it begins earlier per- 

 haps by the middle of October but, on the whole, 

 November seems to be the month when the second 

 phase of autumn is suddenly seen and felt. 



By five o'clock, nearer dark than dusk, heaths 

 and wastes are sheeted by the winding, rolling 

 stratus, or earth cloud, and there is a molten sunset 

 against which the stripped trees on the low horizon 

 show finely. The sky to the south and west is 

 quickly washed over with deep purple and copper 

 hues, whilst above these is a sphere of sulphur 



