TRE SNOWBROE 
25 
CHAPTER XL 
Snowdrop — Snows of Winter — Ancient Name of Snow- 
drop — Snowdrop consecrated to the Virgin Mary — 
Snowflake — Guernsey Lily — Narcissus — Baffodil — ■ 
FoeVs Narcissus, 
I love snow, and all the forms 
Of the radiant frost; 
I love winds, and waves, and storms, 
Every thing almost 
That is Nature’s, and may be 
Untainted by man’s misery. 
— Shelley. 
We are apt during the latter months of autumn to look 
back with regret upon the summer which has left us, and 
to regard the coming winter as a period when the gay 
scenes of nature shall have departed, and when the face 
of earth will be sad and gloomy. It is perhaps the deso- 
late and cheerless appearance of natural objects — of fields 
and gardens — during November, which thus casts a cloud 
over our anticipations of winter; for when that season 
has fairly commenced, we find it in some of its aspects 
“beautiful exceedingly.” 
To say nothing of the charms of the domestic circle, 
of books read by the fireside to cheerful auditors, of the 
meeting of friends around one hearth, and all the social 
pleasures which Time, with his many innovations, has 
yet spared to the English Christmas home, the scene ex- 
hibited by earth itself is often of the most magnificent 
character. The dazzling snow lying smoothly over a long 
line of hills and valleys beneath them, or drifted here 
and there into high mounds, is a sight of great beauty. 
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