THE LAKE BY THE SEA 



HE place nestles within a wide crescent of 

 gentle hills that tend towards the sea, and 

 shine at this season with ripening corn and 

 bright red earth, with fresh green of root 

 crops, and gentle bloom of summer forests that mark 

 the undulations of the land. Near the western point 

 of this semicircle the Start's white lighthouse stands, 

 and eastward tall cliffs arise, from which the whole 

 subtending scene is visible, and miles of glittering 

 mere may be perceived in one glance of the eye. 

 Here spreads a lake, so near the sea that the waves 

 make their music to the tarn, and great reeds that 

 fringe it return messages on the land breeze. Beaches 

 of bright shingle, shining sands, and miles of flowers 

 lie between the silver fresh water and the blue salt. 

 Soft grey enfolds the scene on this day of Summer, 

 and beneath a bright sky, wherein the light is diffused 

 in an equable and pearly haze just slashed and fretted 

 with blue like a fair sea-shell, this ley of reeds and 

 lilies, together with its banks of verdure, the sands 

 around, and the sea beyond, weave such a robe of 



106 



