'TEMPEST' 



moments. I know nothing in all the varied lights 

 of Nature to equal those vivid contrasts and trans- 

 forming effects which often just precede the summer 

 storm. We cannot see the sun shining, yet the light LIGHTS BEFORE 



is strong and flowers and trees stand out in clear-cut THUNDER STORM 



brilliance. Whiter than snow, the ' Whitsun bosses ' 

 seem to hold their shower of falling snow r -balls, the 

 glaucous boughs of cedar and cupressus flash in 

 brilliant silver-blue, metallic burnished lights, steely 

 and grey, it is as if Nature now mixed her colours 

 with the medium of polished metals, so lustrous are 

 they, and the very elms are silver-coated against the 

 frowning background of clouds ; greens of every 

 shade have become livid, the brilliance of all colours 

 is intensified, while the distant hills have receded 

 miles, yet they look higher. A flash ! the rushing 

 gust of wind, and now the booming bursts, and seems 

 to crack the very roof of heaven, as answering echoes 

 roll away. HOW T can the immense heads of rhodo- 

 dendron, that wondrous ' Pink Pearl,' almost too 

 heavy to hold up its own magnificence, or the oriental 

 poppy petal, which seems to have such a frail hold 

 on life, withstand the deluge ? The all-too-short 



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