APPLE-TEEE. 143 



eminence in Herefordshire or Devonshire, and look, from 

 either the one or the other, over the apple orchards of both 

 counties. Prom Malvern, especially, which rises to an 

 elevation of one thousand feet above the vale country, the 

 boundless and richly diversified prospect comprises, in its 

 nearer landscape, on one side, the pear-trees of "Worcester- 

 shire ; on the other, the apple-trees of Herefordshire. 



"One boundless blush, one wide empurpled shower, 

 Of mingled blossoms." 



This beauteous show is succeeded, from the end of July 

 till October, by the gradual ripening of different kinds of 

 apples, for the dessert, or kitchen use, or cider-making, most 

 of which improve after being gathered, and some will even 

 keep good till the next apple-harvest. 



Poets have described the joyous season of haymaking, 

 and the reaper's pleasant toil, when he cuts down the ripe 

 brown ears, and his wife and children bind the sheaths 

 together ; but what more suggestive of poetic inspiration 

 than the gathering of apples in autumn, when delicious 



