NATURE NEAR LONDON 



to roost, and before finally retiring they " ching- 

 ching " to each other. 



Then, almost immediately after the sun has gone 

 down, looking to the south-west the sky seen above 

 the trees (which hide the yellow sunset) becomes a 

 delicate violet. Soon a speck of light gleams faintly 

 through it the merest speck. The first appear- 

 ance of a star is very beautiful ; the actual moment 

 of first contact as it were of the ray with the eye 

 is always a surprise, however often you may have 

 enjoyed it, and notwithstanding that you are aware 

 it will happen. Where there was only the indefi- 

 nite violet before, the most intense gaze into which 

 could discover nothing, suddenly, as if at that mo- 

 ment born, the point of light arrives. 



So glorious is the night that not all London, 

 with its glare and smoke, can smother the sky ; in 

 the midst of the gas, and the roar and the driv- 

 ing crowd, look up from the pavement, and there, 

 straight above, are the calm stars. I never forget 

 them, not even in the restless Strand ; they face 

 one coming down the hill of the Haymarket; in 

 Trafalgar Square, looking towards the high dark 

 structure of the House at Westminster, the clear 

 bright steel silver of the planet Jupiter shines un- 

 wearied, without sparkle or flicker. 



Apart from the grand atmospheric changes caused 

 by a storm wave from the Atlantic, or an anti- 



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