OCTOBER 



The day becomes more solemn and serene 



When noon is ended : there is a harmony 



In autumn, a lustre in its sky, 



Which through the summer is not heard and seen, 



As if it could not be, as if it had not been.' 



SHELLEY, Hymn to Intellectual Beauty. 



THE COUNTRY CALENDAR 



IN October, the ' battle month ' of the red deer, we take a last leave 

 of summer. The mark of the weather is the coming of frost in the 

 morning and evening, and the heavy morning mists. Such frosts 

 will often fell every leaf of chestnut and ash within the day. It is 

 seldom that either of these heavy-leaved trees keep more than a few 

 leaves beyond the end of the month. The same frosts kill or send 

 into hiding the last of the insects. But the middle of the day, 

 especially about the date of St. Luke's Summer, is often warm and 

 soft. Towards the end of the month easterly winds are apt to 

 return. A few flowers remain the miniature gorse, the meadow 

 crocus, corn wound-wort, horehound, wood sage, wild mint, and ivy. 

 As the flowers disappear the fungi multiply. Search is now made 

 for truffles in the beech-woods. There is a rhyme quoted in Mr. 

 Steward's Nature-study Notebook : 



' A good October, and a good blast 

 To blow the hog acorn and mast.' 



It is a popular saying ' Much rain in October, much wind in 

 December.' 



October \st. The close season for pheasants, which are the last of 

 the young birds to reach maturity, comes to an end, and shooting is 

 legal. 



G 



