NIGHTINGALE ROAD 



pearance of the open arable field over which I was 

 looking changed as it approached. 



In front of the wall of mist the sunshine lit the 

 field up brightly, behind the ground was dull, and 

 yet not in shadow. It came so slowly that its 

 movement could be easily watched. When it 

 went over me there was a perceptible coolness and 

 a faint smell of damp smoke, and immediately the 

 road, which had been white under the sunshine, 

 took a dim, yellowish hue. The sun was not 

 shut out nor even obscured, but the rays had to 

 pass through a thicker medium. This haze was 

 not thick enough to be called fog, nor was it the 

 summer haze that in the country adds to the 

 beauty of distant hills and woods. 



It was clearly the atmosphere not the fog 

 but simply the atmosphere of London brought out 

 over the fields by a change in the wind, and pre- 

 vented from diffusing itself by conditions of which 

 nothing seems known. For at ordinary times the 

 atmosphere of London diffuses itself in aerial space 

 and is lost, but on this hot July day it came bodily 

 and undiluted out into the cornfields. From its 

 appearance I should say it would travel many 

 miles in the same condition. In November fog 

 seems seasonable : in hot" and dry July this phe- 

 nomenon was striking. 



Along the road flocks of sheep continue to 

 59 



