192 CONCLUSION. 



not to be perceived during any other quarter of the 

 year. Although the weather is generally finer than 

 in the previous months, and the new and beauteous 

 livery with which nature is still in the act of 

 adorning herself, seems to impart not only to the 

 vegetable, but also to the animal creation a freshness 

 and splendour, which one might suppose would 

 awaken different ideas and feelings in the bosom of 

 man. As we ride along the sunny side of some 

 lengthened and impenetrable wood, listening to the 

 monotonous and gloomy sound of the voice of the 

 whipper-in, or the opening note of some distant 

 hound challenging upon the drag of a disturbed fox ; 

 every vision which rises up before us, and every object 

 upon which we allow the eye to dwell, seems to 

 remind us that May is not the season of the year 

 for fox-hunting. The shrill bleeting of the helpless 

 lambs, as they start from the bank-side on which 

 they were basking, warns us of the danger of their 

 situation; the high notes of the thrush, and the 

 lengthened song of the blackbird, seem to mock us 

 as we cheer the well known find; even the modest 

 primrose, and the powerful scent of the violet, lend 

 their assistance to baffle our attempts to pursue our 

 unseasonable amusement ; and remind us by their 

 looks, if their voices are mute, that this must be 

 recorded in our journal, as the last day of the season. 

 Even the honest farmer, as we pass his homestead, or 

 the newly repaired gap, over which he peers with an 

 indignant scowl, greets us with a very different expres- 

 sion, both ofcountenance and voice, to what he did at 

 Christmas ; and instead of the accustomed smile, and 



