NATURE NEAR LONDON y&L 



as if of solid crystal, till shattered on the stones, 

 where the air caught up and played with the sound 

 of the bubbles as they broke. 



Beyond the green slope of corn, a thin, soft 

 vapour hung on the distant woods, and hid the 

 hills. The pale young leaves of the aspen rustled 

 faintly, not yet with their full sound ; the sprays 

 of the horse-chestnut, drooping with the late frosts, 

 could not yet keep out the sunshine with their 

 broad green. A white spot on the footpath yonder 

 was where the bloom had fallen from a blackthorn 

 bush. 



The note of the tree-pipit came from over the 

 corn there were some detached oaks away in the 

 midst of the field, and the birds were doubtless fly- 

 ing continually up and down between the wheat 

 and the branches. A willow-wren sang plaintively 

 in the plantation behind, and once a cuckoo called 

 at a distance. How beautiful is the sunshine ! 

 The very dust of the road at my feet seemed to 

 glow with whiteness, to be lit up by it, and to be- 

 come another thing. This spot henceforward was 

 a place of pilgrimage. 



Looking that morning over the parapet of the 

 bridge, down stream, there was a dead branch at 

 the mouth of the arch ; it had caught and got fixed 

 while it floated along. A quantity of aquatic weeds 

 coming down the stream had drifted against the 

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