216 Orchard Aisles 



typical of the English country than the chequered 

 sunshine of an old orchard in May, where the apple- 

 blossom falls through the shadows on the young 

 spring grass, and the wagtails run beneath the 

 bellies of the feeding cows. In retrospect abroad, 

 such a scene is the heart of England. 



As the year mounts from May to midsummer, the 

 orchards lose for a time their exceptional beauty. 

 The last stained petals fall, and the silvered cup 

 of the chaffinch's nest loses shape and freshness, 

 as the young birds flutter abroad among the boughs 

 where the ovaries of the blossom are swelling into 

 minute green apples, or falling in blight and wind. 

 Summer riots in all the hayfields, until they too 

 fall ; and the latest hay is hardly carried before 

 the purpose of harvest begins to glow in the ripening 

 corn. But when August merges into September, 

 the orchard becomes once more the centre of the 

 season's life. The full-grown fruit begins to globe 

 the branches, though it may still be as green as the 

 leaf; and day by day, if the season is plentiful 

 and kindly, the many colours of ripeness begin to 

 gleam in contrast among the boughs, and on the 

 grass beneath in the sunlight and shadow of the 

 aisles. Pale yellow or golden or apple-green, 

 streaked scarlet or deep crimson or purple-blue, 

 the apples deepen in colour as September lengthens, 

 and the morning grass grows spangled with dew- 

 hung gossamer-shreds. There is hardly an end to 

 the different kinds of apple which can be counted 

 in some of the older cider-orchards of the west ; 

 for many of the old trees bear but fitfully, and it 



