A HAMPSHIRE TROUT STREAM 127 



of the Isle of Man fills the horizon towards the 

 south ; opposite, in the west, the long, lean finger of 

 the Mull of Galloway, southmost point of Scotland, 

 lies along the sea; and, farther off and to the 

 south, Ireland may be made out, if not elsewhere, 

 at least in Slieve Donard, highest of the mountains 

 of Mourne. But the clouds are heaped heaviest 

 over that land. 



XLIII 



How often one is tempted to echo Horace Wai- 

 pole's purposely peevish snarl about 



English weather. ' Every year,' he wrote shire Trout 



Stream 

 to Mason, 'we give ourselves airs of being 



disappointed, though it is so very seldom we have 

 any fine weather. I believe, if we did not read 

 Virgil at school, we should never have invented 

 names for the seasons.' 



Of all the myriad poets of spring, none has ever 

 given its character in these islands so faithfully as 

 Arthur Clough in the lines beginning 



' Put forth thy leaf, thou lofty plane.' 



One should make a point of reading them every 

 year on May Day, so as to understand and enjoy 



