270 OCTOBER. 



as in spring. Fine clear days occasionally come 

 out, affording in the perfect repose of the land- 

 scape, the blueness of the waters, and the 

 strong shadows cast by the trees upon the 

 sunny ground, the highest pictorial beauty, but 

 they are speedily past, and rains and mist wrap 

 the face of the earth in gloom. Yet the glooms 

 and obscurity of Autumnal fogs, however dreary 

 to the common eye, are not unwelcome to the 

 lover of Nature. They give an air of wildness 

 to the most ordinary scenery ; but to mountains, 

 to forests, to solitary sea-coasts they add a 

 sombre sublimity that at once sooths and ex- 

 cites the imagination ; and even when not plea- 

 sant themselves, they minister to our pleasures 

 by turning the heart to our bright firesides, to 

 the warmth and perpetual summer of home. 



Orchards are now finally cleared of fruit, and 

 gardens have lost the chief of their attractions ; 

 farmers are busy ploughing, and getting in 

 their wheat. Swallows generally disappear this 

 month. 



Woods. — The glory of this month, however, 

 is the gorgeous splendour of wood-scenery. 

 Woods have in all ages vividly impressed the 

 human mind ; they possess a majesty and sub- 

 limity which strike and charm the eye. Their 

 silence and obscurity affect the imagination 

 with a meditative awe. They soothe the spirit 





