A SUMMER-CLAD HEATH 177 



pattern of silver-bright heath -galium, yellow tor- 

 mentil, and tangle of the coral-pink lesser dodder ; 

 while in springtime, before the heath awakened, little 

 milk-worts peeped about here under the ling, and pale 

 violets rose singly in sheltered corners, and dog-violets 

 shone in friendly clusters. Through the heather, like 

 a haze, brushing the mellow warmth of mingled tints 

 with light, rise dead grasses that make a play of bright- 

 ness over the heath, where the wind bends them and 

 the sunshine touches their polished stems ; while the 

 huge masses of the tors also answer the sun, and for 

 his warmth return a display of Nature's heraldries, 

 pricked out upon the planes of the granite in ochre 

 and chrome, in silver, ebony, and orange emblazon- 

 ments, where the lichen folk spread their quick, har- 

 monious hues. 



And upon these foundations of balanced light and 

 contrasted shadow the eye may dwell not vainly, for 

 the vision was planned at primal chaos ; the shape 

 and fashion of it were hid in the wombs of volcanoes, 

 under the icecaps of old — those glacial avalanches, 

 harder than the granite itself — that played their part 

 and left the mark of their terrific passing for ever. 

 Time drew the picture spread here; countless sun- 

 rises and sunsets went to paint these splendours and 

 tone these misty hills; wind and rain, hail and storm, 

 mingled the colours ; the chisel of the lightning 

 fashioned in one stroke of fire many among the 

 granite towers and turrets of the land. 



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