XIII Timeless Night 



IN fine weather early in July the luminousness of 

 the English atmosphere is at its height. Though 

 midsummer is past, there is still no perceptible 

 shortening of the evening twilight ; and the gathered 

 warmth of advancing summer fills the sky after 

 sunset with a clear and deeper glow. Light dwells 

 on the northern horizon all through the nights of 

 June ; but sometimes by the beginning of July it 

 mounts in the heavens with a luminous depth of 

 colour far excelling the cool midsummer gleam, and 

 shines till it is merged in sunrise. The whiteness 

 of the midsummer nights is most marked as we 

 travel northward, towards the confines of the un- 

 setting summer sun ; but when clear, dry weather 

 matures the glows of July their colour has a depth 

 and a self-dependence which make it more impres- 

 sive than the mere persistence of daylight and the 

 nearness of the sun in midsummer skies. 



Such nights are born of firm and radiant days, 

 with a tempered air devoid of dampness and the 

 harsh east wind. They carry on the glory of 

 one evening to another morning, and the season 

 has the grandeur of a natural festival. We realize 

 by the rarity with which such displays of brightness 

 occur in a long series of summers how exceptional 

 are some of the displays of our climate, and how 

 112 



