Title: Mirror of the Months
Author: Patmore, Peter George
Language: English
As this book started as an ASCII text book there are no pictures available.


*** Start of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "Mirror of the Months" ***


produced from scanned images of public domain material


  MIRROR

  OF

  THE MONTHS.


  Delectando pariterque monendo.


  LONDON:

  PRINTED FOR GEO. B. WHITTAKER,
  AVE-MARIA-LANE.

  1826.



CONTENTS.


                  Page

  PREFACE.           v
  JANUARY.           1
  FEBRUARY.         23
  MARCH.            43
  APRIL.            57
  MAY.              87
  JUNE.            111
  JULY.            145
  AUGUST.          169
  SEPTEMBER.       197
  OCTOBER.         215
  NOVEMBER.        237
  DECEMBER.        257



PREFACE.


As the first few pages of this little volume will sufficiently explain
its purport, the reader would not have been troubled with any prefatory
remarks, but that, since its commencement, two existing works have been
pointed out to me, the plans of which are, in one respect, similar to
mine: I allude to the Natural History of the Year, by the late Dr. Aikin
and his Son; and The Months, by Mr. Leigh Hunt.

I will not affect any obligations to these agreeable little works, (I
mean as a writer); because I feel none; and I mention them here, only to
add, that if, on perusing them, either, or both united, had seemed to
supersede what I proposed to myself in mine, I should immediately have
abandoned my intention of writing it. But the above-named works, in the
first place, relate to country matters exclusively. In the next place,
the first of them details those matters in the form of a dry calendar,
professedly made up from other calendars which previously existed, and
_not_ from actual observation; and the second merely throws gleams of
its writer’s agreeable genius over such of those matters as are most
susceptible of that treatment: while both occupy no little portion of
their space by quotations, sufficiently appropriate no doubt, but from
poets whose works are in everybody’s hands.

THE MIRROR OF THE MONTHS, therefore, does not interfere with the
abovenamed works, nor do they with it. It is in substance, though
certainly not in form, a Calendar of the various events and appearances
connected with a Country and a London life, during each successive Month
of the Year. And it endeavours to impress upon the memory such of its
information as seems best worth retaining, by either placing it in a
_picturesque_ point of view, or by connecting it with some association,
often purely accidental, and not seldom extravagant perhaps, but not the
less likely to answer its end, if it succeed in changing mere dry
information into amusement.

I may perhaps be allowed to add, in extenuation of the errors and
deficiencies of this little volume, that it has been written entirely
from the personal observations of one who uses no note-book but that
which Nature writes for him in the tablets of his memory; and that when
printed books have been turned to at all, it has only been with a view
to solve any doubt that he might feel, as to the exact period of any
particular event or appearance.

It is also proper to mention, that the four first Months have appeared
in a periodical work. In fact, it was the favourable reception they met
with there which induced the careful re-writing of them, and the
appearance of the whole under their present form.



MIRROR OF THE MONTHS.



JANUARY.


Those “Cynthias of a minute,” the Months, fleet past us so swiftly, that
though we never mistake them while they are present with us, yet the
moment any one of them is gone by, we begin to blend the recollection of
its features with those of the one which preceded it, or that which has
taken its place, and thus confuse them together till we know not “which
is which.” And then, to mend the matter, when the whole of them have
danced their graceful round, hand in hand, before us, not being able to
think of either separately, we unite them all together in our
imagination, and call them the Past Year; as we gather flowers into a
bunch, and call them a bouquet.

Now this should not be. Each one of the sweet sisterhood has features
sufficiently marked and distinct to entitle her to a place and a name;
and if we mistake these features, and attribute those of any one to any
other, it is because we look at them with a cold and uninterested, and
therefore an inobservant regard. The lover of Julie could trace fifty
minute particulars which were wanting in the portrait of his mistress;
though to any one else it would have appeared a likeness: for, to common
observers, “a likeness” means merely a something which is not so
absolutely _un_like but what it is capable of calling up the idea of the
original, to those who are intimately acquainted with it.

Now, I have been for a long while past accustomed to feel towards the
common portraits of the Months, of which so many are extant, what St.
Preux did towards that of his mistress: all I could ever discover in
them was the particulars in which they were _not_ like. Still I had
never ventured to ask the favour of either of them to sit to me for her
picture; having seen that it was the very nature of them to be for ever
changing, and that, therefore, to attempt to _fix_ them, would be to
trace the outline of a sound, or give the colour of a perfume.

At length, however, my unwearied attendance on them, in their yearly
passage past me, and the assiduous court that I have always paid to each
and all of their charms, has met with its reward: for there is this
especial difference between them and all other mistresses whatever,
that, so far from being jealous of each other, their sole ground of
complaint against their lovers is, that they do not pay equal devotion
to each in her turn; the blooming MAY and the blushing JUNE disdain the
vows of those votaries who have not previously wept at the feet of the
weeping APRIL, or sighed in unison with the sad breath of MARCH. And it
is the same with all the rest. They present a sweet emblem of the
_ideal_ of a happy and united human family; to each member of which the
best proof you can offer that you are worthy of _her_ love, is, that you
have gained that of her sisters; and to whom the best evidence you can
give of being able to love either worthily, is, that you love all. This,
I say, has been the kind of court that I have paid to the Months--loving
each in all, and all in each. And my reward (in addition to that of the
love itself--which is a “virtue,” and therefore “its own reward”) has
been that each has condescended to watch over and instruct me, while I
wrote down the particulars of her brief but immortal life--immortal,
because ever renewed, and bearing the seeds of its renewal within
itself.

These instructions, however, were accompanied by certain conditions,
without complying with which I am not permitted to make the results
available to any one but myself. For my own private satisfaction I have
liberty to personify the objects of my admiration under any form I
please; but if I speak of them to others, they insist on being treated
merely as portions or periods of their beautiful parent the YEAR, as
_she_ is a portion of TIME, the great parent of all things; and that the
facts and events I may have to refer to, shall not be essentially
connected with _them_, but merely be considered as taking place during
the period of their sojourn on the earth respectively.

I confess that this condition seems to savour a little of the
fastidious, not to say the affected. And, what is still more certain, it
cuts me off from a most fertile source of the poetical and the
picturesque. I will frankly add, however, that I am not without my
suspicions that this latter may have been the very reason why this
condition was imposed upon me; for I am by no means certain that, if I
had been left to myself, I should not have substituted cold abstractions
and unintelligible fictions (or what would have seemed such to others),
in the place of that simple _information_ which it is my chief object to
convey.

Laying aside, then, if I can, all ornamental figures of speech, I shall
proceed to place before the reader, in plain prose, the principal events
which happen, in the two worlds of Nature and of Art, during the life
and reign of each month; beginning with the nominal beginning of the
dynasty, and continuing to present, on the birthday of each member of
it, a record of the beauties which she brings in her train, and the good
deeds which she either inspires or performs.

Hail! then, hail to thee, JANUARY!--all hail! cold and wintry as thou
art, if it be but in virtue of thy first day. THE DAY, as the French
call it, par excellence; “Le jour de l’an.” Come about me, all ye little
schoolboys, that have escaped from the unnatural thraldom of your
taskwork--come crowding about me, with your untamed hearts shouting in
your unmodulated voices, and your happy spirits dancing an untaught
measure in your eyes! Come, and help me to speak the praises of New
Year’s Day!--_your_ day--one of the three which have, of late, become
yours almost exclusively, and which have bettered you, and been bettered
themselves, by the change. Christmas-day, which _was_; New-year’s-day,
which _is_; and Twelfth-day, which _is to be_; let us compel them all
three into our presence--with a whisk of our imaginative wand convert
them into one, as the conjurer does his three glittering balls--and then
enjoy them all together,--with their dressings, and coachings, and
visitings, and greetings, and gifts, and “many happy returns”--with their
plum-puddings, and mince-pies, and twelfth cakes, and neguses--with their
forfeits, and fortune-tellings, and blind-man’s-buffs, and snap-dragons,
and sittings up to supper--with their pantomimes, and panoramas, and new
penknives, and pastrycooks’ shops--in short, with their endless round of
ever new nothings, the absence of a relish for which is but ill supplied,
in after life, by that feverish hungering and thirsting after excitement,
which usurp without filling its place. Oh! that I might enjoy those
nothings once again in fact, as I can in fancy! But I fear the wish is
worse than an idle one; for it not only may not be, but it ought not to
be. “We cannot have our cake and eat it too,” as the vulgar somewhat
vulgarly, but not the less shrewdly, express it. And this is as it should
be; for if we could, it would neither be worth the eating nor the having.

If the reader complains that this is not the sober style which I just
now promised to maintain, I cannot help it. Besides, it was my subject
that spoke then, not myself; and it spoke to those who are too happy to
be wise, and to whom, therefore, if it were to speak wisely, it might as
well not speak at all. Let them alone for awhile, and they will grow too
wise to be happy; and then they may be disposed and at leisure to listen
to reason.

In sober sadness, then, if the reader so wills it, and after the
approved manner of modern moral discourses, the subject before us may be
regarded under three distinct points of view; namely, January in
London--January in the country--and January in general. And first, of
the first.

Now--but before I proceed further, let me bespeak the reader’s
indulgence at least, if not his favour, towards this everlasting
monosyllable, “Now,” to which my betters have, from time to time, been
so much indebted, and on which I shall be compelled to place so much
dependence in this my present undertaking. It is the pass word, the
“open sesame,” that must remove from before me all lets and impediments;
it is the charm that will alternately put to silence my imagination when
it may be disposed to infringe on the office of my memory, and awaken my
memory when it is inclined to sleep; in fact, it is a monosyllable of
infinite avail, and for which, on this as on many other occasions, no
substitute can be found in our own or any other language; and if I
approve, above all other proverbs, that which says, “There’s nothing
like the time present,” it is partly because “the time present” is but a
periphrasis for NOW!

Now, then, the cloudy canopy of sea-coal smoke that hangs over London,
and crowns her queen of capitals, floats thick and threefold; for fires
and feastings are rife, and every body is either “out” or “at home,”
every night.

Now schoolboys don’t know what to do with themselves till dinner-time;
for the good old days of frost and snow, and fairs on the Thames, and
furred gloves, and skaiting on the canals, and sliding on the kennels,
are gone by; and for any thing in the shape of winter one might as well
live in Italy at once!

Now, on the evening of Twelfth-day, mischievous maid-servants pin
elderly people together at the windows of pastry-cooks’ shops, thinking
them “weeds that have no business there.”

Now, if a frosty day or two does happen to pay us a flying visit, on its
way home to the North Pole, how the little boys make slides on the
pathways, for lack of ponds, and, it may be, trip up an occasional
housekeeper just as he steps out of his own door; who forthwith vows
vengeance, in the shape of ashes, on all the slides in his
neighbourhood; not, doubtless, out of vexation at his own mishap, and
revenge against the petty perpetrators of it, but purely to avert the
like from others!

Now, Bond Street begins to be conscious of carriages; two or three
people are occasionally seen wandering through the Western Bazaar; and
the Soho Ditto is so thronged, that Mr. Trotter begins to think of
issuing another decree against the inroads of single gentlemen.

Now, linen drapers begin to “sell off” their stock at “fifty per cent.
under prime cost,” and continue so doing all the rest of the year; every
article of which will be found, on inspection, to be of “the last new
pattern,” and to have been “only had in that morning!”

Now, oranges are eaten in the dress-circle of the great theatres, and
inquiries are propounded there, whether “that gentleman in black”
(meaning Hamlet) “is Harlequin?” And laughs, and “La! Mammas!” resound
thence to the remotest corners of the house; and “the gods” make merry
during the play, in order that they may be at leisure to listen to the
pantomime; and Mr. Farley is consequently in his glory, and Mr. Grimaldi
is a great man; as, indeed, when is he not?

Now, newspapers teem with twice-ten-times-told tales of haunted houses,
and great sea-snakes, and mermaids; and a murder is worth a Jew’s eye to
them; for “the House does not meet for the despatch of business till
the fifth of February.” And great and grievous are the lamentations that
are heard in the said newspapers, over the lateness of the London
season, and its detrimental effects on the interests of the metropolis;
but they forget to add--“erratum--for _metropolis_, read _newspapers_.”

Now, Moore’s Almanack holds “sole sovereign sway and mastery” among the
readers of that class of literature; for there has not yet been time to
nullify any of its predictions; not even that which says, “we may expect
some frost and snow about this period.”

Finally, now periodical works put on their best attire; the old ones
expressing their determination to become new, and the new ones to become
old; and each makes a point of putting forth the first of some pleasant
series of essays (such as this, for example!), which cannot fail to fix
the most fugitive of readers, and make him her own for another twelve
months at least.

Let us now repair to the country. “The country in January” has but a
dreary sound, to those who go into “the country” only that they may not
be seen “in town.” But to those who seek the country for the same reason
that they seek London, namely, for the good that is to be found there,
the one has at least as many attractions as the other, at any given
period of the year. Let me add, however, that if there _is_ a particular
period when the country puts forth fewer of her attractions than at any
other, it is this; probably to try who are her real lovers, and who are
only false flatterers, and to treat them accordingly. And yet--

Now, the trees, denuded of their gay attire, spread forth their thousand
branches against the gray sky, and present as endless a variety of form
and feature for study and observation, as they did when dressed in all
the flaunting fashions of midsummer. Now, too, their voices are silent,
and their forms are motionless, even when the wind is among them; so
that the low plaintive piping of the robin-redbreast can be heard, and
his hiding-place detected by the sound of his slim feet alighting on the
fallen leaves. Or now, grown bolder as the skies become more inclement,
he flits before you from twig to twig silently, like a winged thought;
or like the brown and crimson leaf of a cherry-tree, blown about by the
wind; or perches himself by your side, and looks sidelong in your face,
pertly, and yet imploringly,--as much as to say, “though I do need your
aid just now, and would condescend to accept a crum from your hand, yet
I’m still your betters, for I’m still a bird.”

Now, one of the most beautiful sights on which the eye can open
occasionally presents itself: we saw the shades of evening fall upon a
waste expanse of brown earth, shorn hedge-rows, bare branches, and miry
roads, interspersed here and there with a patch of dull melancholy
green. But when we are awakened by the late dawning of the morning, and
think to look forth upon the same, what a bright pomp greets us! What a
white pageantry! It is as if the fleecy clouds that float about the sun
at midsummer had descended upon the earth, and clothed it in their
beauty! Every object we look upon is strange and yet familiar to
us--“another, yet the same!” And the whole affects us like a vision of
the night, which we are half conscious _is_ a vision: we know that it is
_there_, and yet we know not how long it may remain there, since a
motion may change it, or a breath melt it away. And what a mysterious
stillness reigns over all! A white silence! Even the “clouted shoon” of
the early peasant is not heard; and the robin, as he hops from twig to
twig with undecided wing, and shakes down a feathery shower as he goes,
hushes his low whistle in wonder at the unaccustomed scene!

Now, the labour of the husbandman is, for once in the year, at a stand;
and he haunts the alehouse fire, or lolls listlessly over the half-door
of the village smithy, and watches the progress of the labour which he
unconsciously envies; tasting for once in his life (without knowing it)
the bitterness of that _ennui_ which he begrudges to his betters.

Now, melancholy-looking men wander “by twos and threes” through
market-towns, with their faces as blue as the aprons that are twisted
round their waists; their ineffectual rakes resting on their shoulders,
and a withered cabbage hoisted upon a pole; and sing out their doleful
petition of “Pray remember the poor gardeners, who can get no work!”

Now, the passengers outside the Cheltenham night-coach look wistfully at
the Witney blanket-mills as they pass, and meditate on the merits of a
warm bed.

Now, people of fashion, who cannot think of coming to their homes in
town so early in the season, and will not think of remaining at their
homes in the country so late, seek out spots on the seashore which have
the merit of being neither town _nor_ country, and practise patience
there (as Timon of Athens did), en attendant the London winter, which is
ordered to commence about the first week in spring, and end at
midsummer!

But we are forgetting the garden all this while; which must not be; for
Nature does not. Though the gardener can find little to do in it, _she_
is ever at work there, and ever with a wise hand, and graceful as wise.
The wintry winds of December having shaken down the last lingering
leaves from the trees, the final labour of the gardener was employed in
making all trim and clean; in turning up the dark earth, to give it air;
pruning off the superfluous produce of summer; and gathering away the
worn-out attire that the perennial flowers leave behind them, when they
sink into the earth to seek their winter home, as Harlequin and
Columbine, in the pantomimes, sometimes slip down through a trapdoor,
and cheat their silly pursuers by leaving their vacant dresses standing
erect behind them.

All being left trim and orderly for the coming on of the new year. Now
(to resume our friendly monosyllable) all the processes of nature for
the renewal of her favoured race, the flowers, may be more aptly
observed than at any other period. Still, therefore, however desolate a
scene the garden may present to the _general_ gaze, a particular
examination of it is full of interest, and interest that is not the less
valuable for its depending chiefly on the imagination.

Now, the bloom-buds of the fruit trees, which the late leaves of autumn
had concealed from the view, stand confessed, upon the otherwise bare
branches, and, dressed in their patent wind-and-water-proof coats, brave
the utmost severity of the season,--their hard unpromising outsides,
compared with the forms of beauty which they contain, reminding us of
their friends the butterflies when in the chrysalis state.

Now, the perennials, having slipped off their summer robes, and retired
to their subterranean sleeping-rooms, just permit the tops of their
naked heads to peep above the ground, to warn the labourer from
disturbing their annual repose.

Now, the smooth-leaved and tender-stemmed Rose of China hangs its pale,
scentless, artificial-looking flowers upon the cheek of Winter;
reminding us of the last faint bloom upon the face of a fading beauty,
or the hectic of disease on that of a dying one; and a few
chrysanthemums still linger, the wreck of the past year,--their various
coloured stars looking like faded imitations of the gay, glaring
China-aster.

Now, too,--first evidences of the revivifying principle of the new-born
year--for all that we have hitherto noticed are but lingering remnants
of the old--Now, the golden and blue crocuses peep up their pointed
coronals from amidst their guarding palisades of green and gray leaves,
that they may be ready to come forth at the call of the first February
sun that looks warmly upon them; and perchance one here and there,
bolder than the rest, has started fairly out of the earth already, and
half opened her trim form, pretending to have mistaken the true time; as
a forward school-miss will occasionally be seen coquetting with a smart
cornet, before she has been regularly produced,--as if she did not know
that there was “any harm in it.”

We are now to consider the pretensions of January in general.

When the palm of merit is to be awarded among the Months, it is usual to
assign it to May by acclamation. But if the claim depends on the sum of
delight which each witnesses or brings with her, I doubt if January
should not bear the bell from her more blooming sister, if it were only
in virtue of her share in the aforenamed festivities of the Christmas
Holidays. And then, what a happy influence does she not exercise on all
the rest of the Year, by the family meetings she brings about, and by
the kindling and renewing of the social affections that grow out of, and
are chiefly dependent on these. And what sweet remembrances and
associations does she not scatter before her, through all the time to
come, by her gifts--the “new year’s gifts!” _Christmas-boxes_ (as they
are called) are but sordid boons in comparison of these; they are mere
money paid for mere services rendered or expected; wages for work done
and performed; barterings of value for value; offerings of the pocket to
the pocket. But new year’s gifts are offerings of the affections to the
affections--of the heart to the heart. The value of the first depends
purely on themselves; and the gratitude (such as it is) which they call
forth, is measured by the gross amount of that value. But the others owe
their value to the wishes and intentions of the giver; and the
gratitude _they_ call forth springs from the affections of the receiver.

And then, who can see a New Year open upon him, without being better for
the prospect--without making sundry wise reflections (for _any_
reflections on this subject _must_ be comparatively wise ones) on the
step he is about to take towards the goal of his being? Every first of
January that we arrive at, is an imaginary mile-stone on the turnpike
track of human life; at once a resting-place for thought and meditation,
and a starting point for fresh exertion in the performance of our
journey. The man who does not at least _propose to himself_ to be better
_this_ year than he was last, must be either very good or very bad
indeed! And only to _propose_ to be better, is something; if nothing
else it is an acknowledgment of our _need_ to be so,--which is the first
step towards amendment. But in fact, to propose to oneself to do well,
is in some sort to _do_ well, positively; for there is no such thing as
a stationary point in human endeavours; he who is not worse to-day than
he was yesterday, is better; and he who is not better, is worse.

The very name of January, from Janus, two-faced, “looking before and
after,” indicates the reflective propensities which she encourages, and
which when duly exercised cannot fail to lead to good.

And then January is the youngest of the yearly brood, and therefore
_prima facie_ the best; for I protest most strenuously against the
comparative age which Chaucer (I think) has assigned to this month by
implication, when he compares an old husband and a young wife to
“January and June.” These poets will sacrifice any thing to
alliteration, even abstract truth. I am sorry to say this of Chaucer,
whose poetry is more of “a true thing” than that of any other, always
excepting Mr. Crabbe’s, which is too much of a true thing. And nobody
knew better than Chaucer the respective merits of the Months, and the
peculiar qualities and characteristics which appertain to each. But, I
repeat, alliteration is the Scylla and Charybdis united of all who
embark on the perilous ocean of poetry; and that Chaucer himself chose
occasionally to “listen to the voice of the charmer, charmed she never
so _un_wisely,” the above example affords sufficient proof. I am afraid
poets themselves are too self-opiniated people to make it worth while
for me to warn _them_ on this point; but I hereby pray all prose
writers pertinaciously to avoid so pernicious a practice. This, however,
by the by.

I need scarcely accumulate other arguments and examples to show that my
favourite January deserves to rank first among the Months in merit, as
she does in place. But lest doubters should still remain, I will add,
ask the makers-out of annual accounts whether any month can compare with
January, since then they may begin to _hope_ for a settlement, and may
even in some cases venture to _ask_ for it; which latter is a comfort
that has been denied them during all the rest of the year; besides its
being a remote step towards the said settlement. And on the other hand,
ask the contractors of annual accounts whether January is not the best
of all possible months, since then they may begin to _order_ afresh,
with the prospect of a whole year’s impunity. The answers to these two
questions must of course decide the point, since the two classes of
persons to whom they are addressed include the whole adult(erated)
population of these commercial realms.



FEBRUARY.


Some one has said of the Scotch novels, that that is the best which we
happen to have perused last. It is thus that I estimate the relative
value and virtue of the Months. The one which happens to be present with
me is sure to be that one which I happen to like better than any of the
others. I lately insisted on the supremacy of January on various
accounts. Now I have a similar claim to put in in favour of the next in
succession. And it shall go hard but I will prove, to the entire
satisfaction of all whom it may concern, that each in her turn is,
beyond comparison, the “wisest, virtuousest, discreetest, best.” Indeed
I doubt whether, on consideration, any one (but a Scotch philosopher)
will be inclined to dispute the truth of this, even as a logical
proposition, much less as a sentiment. The time present is the best of
all possible times, _because_ it is present--because it _is_--because
it is something; whereas all other times are nothing. The time present,
therefore, is essentially better than any other time, in the proportion
of something to nothing. I hope this be logic; or metaphysics at the
least. If the reader determines otherwise, “he may kill the next Percy
himself!” In the mean time (and _that_, by the by, is the best time next
to the present, in virtue of its skill in connecting together two
refractory periods)--in the mean time, let us search for another and a
better reason why every one of the Months is, in its turn, the best. The
cleverest Scotch philosopher that ever lived has said, in a memoir of
his own life, that a man had better be born with a disposition to look
on the bright side of things, than to an estate of ten thousand a year.
He might have gone further, and said that the disposition to which he
alludes is worth almost as much to a man as being compelled and able to
earn an honest livelihood by the sweat of his brow! Nay, he might almost
have asserted that, with such a disposition, a man may chance to be
happy even though he be born to an estate of _twenty_ thousand a year!
But I, not being (thank my stars!) a Scotch or any other philosopher,
will venture to go still farther, and say, that to be able to look at
things _as they are_, is best of all. To him who can do this, all is as
it should be--all things work together for good--whatever is, is right.
To him who can do this, the present time is all-sufficient, or rather it
is all in all; for if he cannot enjoy any other, it is because no other
is susceptible of being enjoyed, except through the medium of the
present.

From the sublime to the ridiculous is but a step. Consequently, from the
ridiculous to the sublime must be about the same distance. In other
words, the transition from metaphysics to love is easy; as Mr.
Coleridge’s writings can amply testify. Hail! then, February! month and
mother of Love! Not that love which requires the sun of midsummer to
foster it into life; and is so restless and fugitive that nothing can
hold it but bands made of bright eye-beams; and so dainty that it must
be fed on rose-leaves; and so proud and fantastical that bowers of
jasmine and honeysuckle are not good enough for it to dwell in, or the
green turf soft enough for its feet to press, but it must sit beneath
silken canopies, and tread on Turkey carpets, and breathe the breath of
pastiles; and so chilly that it must pass all its nights within a
gentle bosom, or it dies. Not _this_ love; but its infant cousin, that
starts into life on cold Saint Valentine’s morning, and sits by the fire
rocking its own cradle, and listening all day long for the “sweet
thunder” of the twopenny postman’s knock!--Hail! February! Virgin mother
of this love of all loves, which dies almost the day that it is born,
and yet leaves the odour of its sweetness upon the whole after life of
those who were not too wise to admit it for a moment to their embraces!

The sage reader must not begrudge me these innocent little rhapsodies.
He must remember that all are not so wise and staid as he; and as in
January he permitted me to be, for a moment, a ranting schoolboy, so in
February he must not object to my reminding him that there are such
persons in the world as young ladies who have not yet finished their
education! He must not insist that, “because _he_ is virtuous, there
shall be no more cakes and ale.” Besides, to be candid, I do not see
that it is quite fair to complain of us anonymous writers, even if we do
occasionally insinuate into our lucubrations a few lines that are
directed to our own exclusive satisfaction. In fact, the privilege of
writing nonsense now and then is the sweetest source of our emolument,
and one which, if our readers attempt to cut us off from altogether,
they may rest assured that we shall very soon _strike_, and demand
higher pay in other respects than those only true patrons of literature,
the booksellers, can afford to give; for if a man is always to write
sense and reason, he might as well turn _author_ at once,--which we
“gentlemen who write with ease” flatter ourselves that none of us are. I
put it to the candour of Mr. Whittaker himself, whether, if I would
consent to place my name in the corner of each of these portraits of the
Months (_so and so pinxit_, 1825), he would not willingly give me double
price for them, and reckon upon remunerating himself from the purchaser
in proportion? Then let him use his interest with the critics to allow
me but half a page of nonsense in each paper, and I consent to forego
all this profit. As for the fame, I am content to leave posterity in the
lurch, and live only till I die.

Having now expended _my_ portion of this paper, I shall henceforth
willingly “keep bounds” till the next month; to which end, however, I
must be permitted to call in the aid of my able suggestive, Now.

Now, the Christmas holidays are over, and all the snow in Russia could
not make the first Monday in this month look any other than _black_, in
the home-loving eyes of little schoolboys; and the streets of London are
once more evacuated of happy wondering faces, that look any way but
straight before them; and sobs are heard, and sorrowful faces seen to
issue from sundry postchaises that carry sixteen inside, exclusive of
cakes and boxes; and theatres are no longer conscious of unconscious
_eclats de rire_, but the whole audience is like Mr. Wordsworth’s cloud,
“which moveth altogether, if it move at all.”

_En revanche_, now newspaper editors begin to think of disporting
themselves; for the great national school for “children of a larger
growth” is met in Saint Stephen’s Chapel, “for the _despatch_ of
business” and of time; and consequently newspapers have become a
nonentity; and those writers who are “constant readers” find their
occupation gone.

Now, the stones of Bond Street dance for joy, while they “prate of the
whereabout” of innumerable wheels; which latter are so happy to meet
again after a long absence, that they rush into each other’s embraces,
“wheel within wheel,” and there’s no getting them asunder.

Now, the Italian Opera is open, and the house is full; but if asked on
the subject, you may safely say that “nobody was there;” for the _flats_
that you meet with in the pit evidently indicate that their wearers
appertain to certain counters and counting-houses in the city, or serve
those that do--having “received orders” for the Opera in the way of
their business.

Now, a sudden thaw, after a week’s frost, puts the pedestrians of
Cheapside into a pretty pickle.

Now, the _trottoir_ of St. James’s Street begins to know itself again;
the steps of Raggett’s are proud of being pressed by right honourable
feet; and _the dandies’ watch-tower_ is once more peopled with playful
peers, peering after beautiful frailties in furred pelisses.

Now, on fine Sundays, the citizens and their wives begin to hie them to
Hyde Park, and having attained Wellington Walk, fancy that there is not
more than two pins to choose between them and their betters on the other
side the rail; while these latter, having come abroad to take the air
(of the insides of their carriages), and kill the time, and cure the
vapours, permit inquisitive equestrians to gaze at them through
plate-glass, and fancy, not without reason, that they look like flowers
seen through flowing water: Lady O----, for example, like an overblown
rose; Lady H----, like a painted-lady pea; the Countess of B----, like a
newly-opened apple-blossom; and her demure-looking little sister beside
her, like a _prim_-rose.

Now, winter being only on the wane, and spring only on the approach,
Fashion, for once in the year, begins to feel herself in a state of
interregnum, and her ministers, the milliners and tailors, don’t know
what to think. Mrs. Bean shakes her head like Lord Burleigh, and
declines to determine as to what may be the fate of future waists; and
Mr. Stultz is equally cautious of committing himself in the affair of
collars; and both agree in coming to the same conclusion with the
statesman in Tom Thumb, that, “as near as they can guess, they cannot
tell!” Now, therefore, the fashionable shops are shorn of their beams,
and none can show wares that are strictly in season, except the
stationer’s. But _his_, which for all the rest of the year is dullest of
the dull, is now, for the first fourteen days, gayest of the gay; for
here the poetry of love, and the love of poetry, are displayed under all
possible and impossible forms and metaphors,--from little cupids
creeping out of cabbage-roses, to large overgrown hearts stuffed with
double-headed arrows, and uttering piteous complaints in verse, while
they fry in their own flames. And this brings us safe back to the point
from which we somewhat prematurely set out; for Now, on good Saint
Valentine’s eve, all the rising generation of this metropolis, who feel
that they have reached the age of _in_discretion, think it full time for
them to fall in love, or be fallen in love with. Accordingly, infinite
are the crow-quills that move mincingly between embossed margins,

    “And those _rhyme_ now who never rhymed before,
     And those who always rhymed now rhyme the more;”

to the utter dismay of the newly-appointed twopenny postman the next
morning; who curses Saint Valentine almost as bitterly as does, in her
secret heart, yonder sulky sempstress, who has not been called upon for
a single twopence out of all the two hundred thousand[1] extra ones
that have been drawn from willing pockets, and dropped into canvas bags,
on this eventful day. She may take my word for it that the said
sulkiness, which has some show of reason in it to-day, is in the habit
of visiting her pretty face oftener than it is called for. If it were
not so, she would not have had cause for it now.

[1] This was the number of letters that passed through the Twopenny
Post-Office on the 14th of February, 1821, in addition to the usual
daily average.--See the official returns.

But good Bishop Valentine is a pluralist, and holds another see besides
that of London:

         “All the air is his diocese,
          And all the chirping choristers
          And other birds are his parishioners:
          He marries every year
    The lyrique lark, and the grave whispering dove;
    The sparrow, that neglects his life for love;
    The household bird with the red stomacher;
    He makes the blackbird speed as soon
    As doth the goldfinch or the halcyon.”

Let us be off to the country without more ado; for who can stay in
London in the face of such epithets as these, that seem to compel us,
with their sweet magic, to go in search of the sounds and sights that
they characterise? “The _lyric_ lark!” Why a modern poet might live for
a whole season on that one epithet! Nay, there be those that _have_
lived on it for a longer time, perhaps without knowing that it did not
belong to them!--“The sparrow that _neglects his life for love_!” “The
_household_ bird, _with the red stomacher_!”--That a poet who could
write in this manner, for pages together, should be almost entirely
unknown to modern _readers_ (except to those of a late number of the
Retrospective Review), would be somewhat astonishing, if it were not for
the consideration that he is so well known to modern _writers_! It would
be doing both parties justice if some one would point out a few of the
_coincidences_ that occur between them. In the mean time, _we_ shall be
doing better in looking abroad for ourselves into that nature to which
_he_ looked, and seeing what she offers worthy of particular
observation, in the course of this last month of winter in the Country,
though it is the first in London. Not that we shall, as yet, find much
to attract our attention in regard to the movements of the above-named
“parishioners” of good Bishop Valentine; for though he gives them full
authority to marry now as soon as they please, Frost forbids the bans
for the present; and when there is no love going forward in the
feathered world, there is little or no singing. On the contrary, even
the pert sparrows still go moping and sulking about silently, or sit
with ruffled plumes and drooping wings, upon the bare branches,
watching all day long for their scanty dole of crums, and thinking of
nothing else. The “lyric lark,” indeed, may already be heard; the thrush
and blackbird begin to practise their spring notes faintly; and the
yellow-hammer, the chaffinch, and the wren, utter a single stanza or so,
at long intervals: but all this can scarcely be called singing, but
rather talking of it; for

    “I shall not ask Jean Jacques Rousseau
     If birds confabulate, or no;”

but shall determine at once that they do; at least if any dependence can
be placed on eyes and ears. In short, the only bird that really _is_ a
bird this month, is he “with the red stomacher.” And he, with his low
plaintive piping, his silent spirit-like motions, and sudden and
mysterious appearings and disappearings,--coming in an instant before us
no one can tell whence, and going as silently and as suddenly no one
knows whither,--and, above all, his sweet and pert, yet timid confidence
in man--all these, to those who are happy enough to have nothing better
to do than to watch them, almost make up for the absence of all his
blithe brethren.

As for the general face of nature, we shall find _that_ in much the
same apparent state as we left it last month. And we must look into its
individual features very minutely, if we would discover any change even
in them. The trees are still utterly bare; the skies are cold and gray;
the paths and ways are, for the most part, dank and miry; and the air is
either damp and clinging, or bitter, eager, and shrewd. But then what
days of soft air and sunshine, and unbroken blue sky, do now and then
intervene, and transport us into the very heart of May, and make us look
about and wonder what is become of the green leaves and the flowers!

Now, hard frosts, if they come at all, are followed by sudden thaws; and
now, therefore, if ever, the mysterious old song of our school days
stands a chance of being verified, which sings of

    “Three children sliding on the ice
     All on a _summer’s_ day!”

Now, the labour of the husbandman recommences; and it is pleasant to
watch (from your library window) the plough-team moving almost
imperceptibly along, upon the distant upland that the bare trees have
disclosed to you. And now, by the way, if you are wise, you will get
acquainted with all the little spots that are thus, by the bareness of
the trees, laid open to you, in order that, when the summer comes, and
you cannot _look at_ them, you may be able to _see_ them still.

But we must not neglect the garden; for though “Nature’s journeymen,”
the gardeners, are undergoing an ignoble leisure this month, it is not
so with Nature herself. She is as busy as ever, if not openly and
obviously, secretly, and in the hearts of her sweet subjects the
flowers; stirring them up to that rich rivalry of beauty which is to
greet the first footsteps of Spring, and teaching them to prepare
themselves for her advent, as young maidens prepare, months beforehand,
for the marriage festival of some dear friend.

If the flowers think and feel (and he who dares to say that they do not
is either a fool or a philosopher--let him choose between the
imputations!)--if the flowers think and feel, what a commotion must be
working within their silent hearts, when the pinions of Winter begin to
grow, and indicate that he is at least meditating his flight! Then do
_they_, too, begin to meditate on May-day, and think on the delight with
which they shall once more breathe the fresh air, when they have leave
to escape from their subterranean prisons; for now, towards the latter
end of this month, they are all of them at least awake from their winter
slumbers, and most are busily working at their gay toilets, and weaving
their fantastic robes, and shaping their trim forms, and distilling
their rich essences, and, in short, getting ready in all things, that
they may be duly prepared to join the bright procession of beauty that
is to greet and glorify the annual coming on of their sovereign lady,
the Spring. It is true none of all this can be seen. But what a race
should we be, if we knew and cared to know of nothing, but what we can
see and prove!

    “Whose mind is but the mind of his own eyes,
     He is a slave--the meanest you can meet.”

But there is much going on in the garden now that may be seen by “the
naked eye” of those who carefully look for it. The bloom-buds of the
shrubs and fruit-trees are obviously swelling; and the leaves of the
lilac are ready to burst forth at the first favourable call. The
laurestinus still braves the winds and the frosts, and blooms in blithe
defiance of them. So does the China rose, but meekly, and like a maiden
who _will_ not droop though her lover _be_ away; because she knows that
he is true to her, and will soon return.

Now, too, the viable heralds of Spring approach, but do not appear; or
rather, they appear, but have not yet put on their gorgeous tabards or
surcoats of many colours. The tulips are but just showing themselves,
shrouded closely in their sheltering alcoves of dull green. The
hyacinths, too, have sent up their trim fences of green, and are just
peeping up from the midst of them in their green veils,--the cheek of
each flower-bud pressed and clustering against that of its fellow, like
a host of little heads peeping out from the porch of an ivy-bound
cottage, as the London coach passes.

Now, too, those pretty orphans, the crocuses and snowdrops--those
foundlings, that belong neither to Winter nor Spring--show their modest
faces scarcely an inch above the dark earth, as if they were afraid to
rise from it, lest a stray March wind should whistle them away.

Finally, now appear, towards the latter end of the month, those flowers
that actually belong to Spring--that do not either herald her approach,
or follow in her train, but are in fact a part of her, and prove that
she is virtually with us, though she chooses to remain incognita for a
time. The prettiest and most piquant of these in appearance are the
brilliant little Hepaticas, crowding up in sparkling companies from the
midst of their dark ivy-like leaves, and looking more like gems than
flowers.

The next in brilliance are the Anemonies, as gay in their colours, and
more various, but not so profuse of their charms as their pretty
relation Hepatica, and more jealous of each other’s beauty; as well they
may, for what flower can vie with them for exquisite delicacy of hue and
elegant fragility?

The primroses, polyanthuses, and daisies that venture to show themselves
this month, we will not greet; not because we are not even more pleased
to see them than their gayer and more gaudy rivals; but the truth is,
that they have no real claim upon our attention till next month, as
their pale hues and weakly forms evidently indicate.

In taking leave of the Country for this month, let me not forget to
mention that sure “prophet of delight and mirth,” the Common Pilewort,
or Lesser Celandine; about which (and what more can I say to interest
the reader in its favour?) Mr. Wordsworth has written two whole poems.
Its little yellow stars may now be seen gemming the woodsides, when all
around is cold, comfortless, and dead.

I have said that I designed to prove this to be the best of all possible
months. Is the reader still incredulous as to its surpassing merits?
Then be it known to him that I should insist on its supremacy, if it
were only in virtue of _one_ birthday which it includes: and one that
the reader would never guess, for the best of all reasons. It is _not_
that of “the wisest of mankind,” Lord Bacon, on the third; or of “the
starry Galileo,” on the nineteenth; or of the “matchless master of high
sounds,” Handel, on the twenty-fourth. True February does include all
these memorable days, and let it be valued accordingly. But it includes
another day, which is worth them all _to me_, since it gave to the
world, the narrow world of some half dozen loving hearts, one who is
wiser in her simplicity than the first of the abovenamed, since the
results of that wisdom are virtue and happiness; who is more far-darting
in her mental glance than the second, inasmuch as an instinctive
_sentiment_ of the truth is more infallible than the clearest
_perception_ of it; and whose every thought and look and motion are more
“softly sweet” and musical than all the “Lydian measures” of the third;
and, deprived of whom, those who have once been accustomed to live
within the light of her countenance would find all the wisdom of the
first to be foolishness, all the stars of the second dark, and all the
harmony of the third worse than discord.

Gentlest of readers (for I had need have such), pardon me this one
rhapsody, and I promise to be as “sobersuited” as the editor of an
Encyclopedia, for this two months to come. Nothing, not even the
nightingale’s song in the last week in April, shall move me from my
propriety. But I will candidly confess, that the effects of May-day
morning are more than I can venture to answer for. Even the
chimney-sweepers are allowed to disport themselves then; so that when
that arrives, there’s no knowing what may happen.



MARCH.


If there be a Month the aspect of which is less amiable, and its manners
and habits less prepossessing, than those of all the rest (which I am
loath to admit), that month is March. The burning heats of midsummer
(when they shall come to us at the prophetic call of the Quarterly
Reviewers--which they never will) we shall find no difficulty in
bearing; and the frosts and snows of December and January are as
welcome, to those who know their value, as the flowers in May. Nay--the
so much vituperated fogs of November I by no means set my face against;
on the contrary, I have a kind of appetite for them, both corporeal and
mental; as I shall prove, and endeavour to justify in its due place.

In fact, and by the by, November is a month that has not been fairly
dealt by; and, for my part, I think it should by no means have been
fixed upon as that which is _par excellence_ the month best adapted to
hang and drown oneself in;--seeing that, to a wise man, _that_ should
never be an affair of atmosphere. But if a month must be set apart for
such a proces, (on the same principle which determines that we are bound
to _begin_ our worldly concerns on a particular day--viz. Saturday--and
would therefore, by parity of reasoning, call upon us to end them with a
similar view to times and seasons), let that month be henceforth March;
for it has, at this present writing, no one characteristic by which to
designate it,--being neither Spring, Summer, Autumn, nor Winter, but
only March.

But what I particularly object to in March is its winds. They say

    “March winds and April showers
     Bring forth May flowers.”

But I doubt the fact. They may _call_ them forth, perhaps,--whistling
over the roofs of their subterraneous dwellings, to let them know that
Winter is past and gone. Or, in our disposition to “turn diseases to
commodities,” let us regard them as the expectant damsel does the sound
of the mail coach horn that whisks through the village, as she lies in
bed at midnight, and tells her that _to-morrow_ she may look for a
letter from her absent swain.

The only other express and specific reason why I object to March, is
that she drives hares mad; which is a great fault. But be all this as it
may, she is still fraught with merits; and let us proceed, without more
ado, to point out a few of them. And first of the country;--to which, by
the way, I have not hitherto allowed its due supremacy--for

    “God made the Country, but man made the Town.”

Now, then, even the winds of March, notwithstanding all that we have
insinuated in their disfavour, are far from being virtueless; for they
come careering over our fields, and roads, and pathways, and while they
dry up the damps that the thaws had let loose, and the previous frosts
had prevented from sinking into the earth, “pipe to the spirit ditties”
the words of which tell tales of the forthcoming flowers. And not only
so, but occasionally they are caught bearing away upon their rough
wings the mingled odours of violet and daffodil, both of which have
already ventured to

    “Come before the swallow dares, and take
     The winds of March with beauty.”

The general face of nature has not much changed in appearance since we
left it in February; though its internal economy has made an important
step in advance. The sap is alive in the seemingly sleeping trunks that
every where surround us, and is beginning to mount slowly to its
destination; and the embryo blooms are almost visibly struggling towards
light and life, beneath their rough, unpromising outer coats--unpromising
to the idle, the unthinking, and the inobservant; but to the eye that
“can see Othello’s visage in his mind,” bright and beautiful, in virtue
of the brightness and the beauty that they cover, but not conceal. Now,
too, the dark earth becomes soft and tractable, and yields to the kindly
constraint that calls upon it to teem with new life,--crumbling to the
touch, that it may the better clasp in its fragrant bosom the rudiments
of that gay, but ephemeral creation which are born with the spring, only
“to run their race rejoicing” into the lap of summer, and there yield up
their sweet breath, a willing incense at the shrine of that nature the
spirit of which is endless constancy growing out of endless change. Must
I tell the reader this in plainer prose?--Now, then, is the time to sow
the seeds of most of the annual flowering plants; particularly of those
which we all know and love--such as Sweet Pea, the most feminine of
flowers, that must have a kind hand to tend its youth, and a supporting
arm to cling to in its maturity, or it grovels in the dust, and straggles
away into an unsightly weed; and Mignionette, with a name as sweet as its
breath,--that loves “within a gentle bosom to be laid,” and makes haste
to die there, lest its white lodging should be changed; and Larkspur,
trim, gay, and bold, the gallant of the garden; and Lupines, blue, and
yellow, and rose coloured, with their winged flowers hovering above their
starry leaves; and a host of others, that we must try to characterise as
they come in turn before us.

Now, too, we have some of the bulbous rooted flowers at their best,
particularly the pretty Crocuses, yellow, blue, striped, and white;
while others, the Narcissus, Hyacinths, and Tulips, are visibly
hastening towards their perfection.

Those spring flowers, too, which ventured to show themselves last month
before they had well recovered from their winter trance, have now grown
bold in their renewed strength, and look the winds in the face
fearlessly. Perhaps the most poetical of these, because the most
pathetic in their pale and pining beauty, are the Primroses. Their bold
and bright-eyed relatives the Polyanthuses (no two alike) are also now
all on the look out for lovers, among the bees that the warm sunny
mornings already begin to call forth.

These, with the still prevailing Hepaticas and Anemonies, the Daisies
that start up singly here and there, an early Wall-flower, the pretty
pink rods of the Mezereon, and (in the woods) the lovely Wind-flower, or
white Wood-anemone, constitute the principal wealth of this preparatory
month.

Now, too, the tender green of spring first begins to peep forth from the
straggling branches of the hedge-row Elder, the trim Lilac, and the thin
threads of the stream enamoured Willow; the first to put on its spring
clothing, and the last to leave it off. And if we look into the kitchen
garden, there too we may chance to find those forest trees in miniature,
the Gooseberries and Currants, letting their leaves and blossoms (both
of a colour) look forth together, hand in hand, in search of the April
sun before it arrives, as the lark mounts upward to seek for it before
it has risen in the morning. It will be well if these early
adventurers-forth do not encounter a cutting easterly blast; or still
worse, a deceitful breeze, that tempts them to its embraces by its
milder breath, only to shower diseases upon them. But if they _will_ be
out on the watch for Spring before she calls them, they must be content
to take their chance.

NOW, about the middle of the month, a strange commotion may be seen and
heard among the winged creatures, portending momentous matters. The lark
is high up in the cold air before day-light; and his chosen mistress is
listening to him down among the dank grass, with the dew still upon her
unshaken wing. The Robin, too, has left off, for a brief season, his low
plaintive piping, which it must be confessed was poured forth for his
own exclusive satisfaction, and, reckoning on his spruce looks and
sparkling eyes, issues his quick peremptory love-call, in a somewhat
ungallant and husband-like manner.

The Sparrows, who have lately been sulking silently about from tree to
tree, with ruffled plumes and drooping wings, now spruce themselves up
till they do not look half their former size; and if it were not
pairing-time, one might fancy that there was more of war than of love in
their noisy squabblings. But the crouching forms, quivering wings, and
murmuring bills, of yonder pair that have quitted for a moment the
clamorous cabal, can indicate the movements of but _one_ passion.

But we must leave the feathered tribe for the present:

    “Sacred be love from sight, whate’er it is.”

We shall have many opportunities of observing their pretty ways
hereafter.

Now, also, the Ants (with whom we shall have a crow to pick by and by)
first begin to show themselves from their subterranean sleeping-rooms;
those winged abortions, the Bats, perplex the eyes of evening wanderers
by their seeming ubiquity; and the Owls hold scientific converse with
each other at half a mile distance.

Lastly, now we meet with one of the prettiest, yet most pathetic sights
that the animal world presents; the early Lambs, dropped, in their
tottering and bleating helplessness, upon the cold skirts of winter, and
hiding their frail forms from the March winds, by crouching down on the
sheltered side of their dams.

Now, quitting the country till next month, we find London all alive,
Lent and Lady-day notwithstanding; for the latter is but a day, after
all; and he must have a very countrified conscience who cannot satisfy
it as to the former, by doing penance once or twice at an Oratorio, and
hearing comic songs sung in a foreign tongue; or, if this does not do,
he may fast if he pleases, every Friday, by eating salt fish in addition
to the rest of his fare.

Now, the citizens have pretty well left off their annual visitings, and
given the great ones leave to begin; so that there is no sleep to be had
in the neighbourhood of May-fair, for love or money, after one in the
morning.

Now, the dress boxes of the winter houses can occasionally boast a
baronet’s lady; this, however, being the extent of their attainments in
that way; for how can the great be expected to listen to Shakespear
under the same roof with their shop-keepers? There is, in fact, no
denying that the said great are marvellously at the mercy of the said
little, in the matter of amusement; and there is no saying whether the
latter will not, some day or other, make an inroad upon Almack’s itself.
Now, however, in spite of the said inroads, the best boxes at the Opera
do begin to be worth exploring, since a beautiful Englishwoman of high
fashion is “a sight to set before a king.”

Now, the actors (all but the singing ones) in their secret hearts put up
periodical prayers for the annual agitation of the Catholic Question;
for without some stimulus of this kind, to correct the laxity of our
religious morals, there is no knowing how soon they may cease to give
thanks for three Sundays in the week during Lent.

Now, (during the said pious period) occasionally an inadvertent
apprentice gets leave to go to “the play” on a Wednesday or Friday; and,
having taken his seat in the one shilling gallery, wonders during six
long hours what can have come to the players, that they do nothing but
sit in a row with their hands before them, in front of a pyramid of
fiddlers, and break silence now and then by singing a psalm; for a psalm
he is sure it must be, though he never heard it at church.

Now, every other day, the four sides of the newspapers offer to the
wearied eye one unbroken ocean of _long-primer_; to the infinite
abridgement of the labour of Chapter Coffee House quidnuncs, who find
that they have only one sheet to get through instead of ten; and to the
entire discomfiture of the conscientious reader, who makes it a point of
duty to spell through all that he pays for, avowed advertisements
included; for in these latter there is some variety--of which no one can
accuse the parliamentary speeches. By the by, it would be but consistent
in the Times to bestow their ingenuous prefix of [_advertisement_] on a
few of the last named effusions. And if they were placed under the head
of “Want Places,” nobody but the advertiser would see cause to complain
of the mistake.

Now, Fashion is on the point of awaking from her periodical sleep,
attended by Mesdames Bean, Bell, and Pierrepoint on one side of her
couch, and Messieurs Myers, Stultz, and Davison on the other; each
individual of each party watching with apparent anxiety to catch the
first glance of her opening eye, in order to direct their several
movements accordingly; but each having previously determined on those
movements as definitively as if their legitimate monarch and directress
had nothing to do with matter; for, to say truth, notwithstanding her
boasted legitimacy, Fashion has but a very limited control, even in her
own court; the real government being an Oligarchy, the members of which
are each lords paramount in their own particular departments. Who, in
fact, shall dispute an epaulet of Miss Pierrepoint’s? and when Mr. Myers
has achieved a collar, who shall call it in question?

Now, Hyde Park is worth walking in at four o’clock of a fine week day,
though the trees are still bare; for there, as sure as the sunshine
comes, shall be seen sauntering beneath it three distinct classes of
fashionables; namely, first, the fair immaculates from the mansions
about May Fair, who loll listlessly in their elegant equipages, and
occasionally eye, with an air of infinite disdain, the second class, who
are peregrinating on the other side the bar,--the fair frailties from
the neighbourhood of the New Road; which latter, more magnanimous than
their betters, and less envious, are content, for their parts, to
appropriate the greater portion of the attentions of the third
class--the ineffables and exquisites from Long’s, and Stevens’s. Among
these last-named class something particular indeed must have happened if
you do not recognise that _arbiter elegantiarum_ of actresses, the
marquis of W----; that delighter in dennets and decaying beauties, the
honourable L---- S----; and that prince-pretty-man of rake-hells and
roués little George W----.



APRIL.


April is come! “proud--pied April!” and “hath put a spirit of youth in
every thing.” Shall our portrait of her, then, alone lack that spirit?
Not if words can speak the feelings from which they spring. “Spring!”
See how the name comes uncalled-for; as if to hint that it should have
stood in the place of “April.” But April _is_ spring--the only spring
month that we possess in this egregious climate of ours. Let us, then,
make the most of it.

April is at once the most juvenile of the Months, and the most
feminine--never knowing her own mind for a day together. Fickle as a
fond maiden with her first lover;--coying it with the young Sun till he
withdraws his beams from her, and then weeping till she gets them back
again. High-fantastical as the seething wit of a poet, that sees a world
of beauty growing beneath his hand, and fancies that he has created it,
whereas it is it that has created him a poet; for it is Nature that
makes April, not April Nature.

April is doubtless the sweetest month of all the year; partly because it
ushers in the May, and partly for its own sake, so far as any thing can
be valuable without reference to any thing else. It is, to May and June,
what “sweet fifteen,” in the age of woman, is to passion-stricken
eighteen, and perfect two-and-twenty. It is, to the confirmed Summer,
what the previous hope of joy is to the full fruition; what the boyish
dream of love is to love itself. It is indeed the month of promises; and
what are twenty performances compared with one promise? When a promise
of delight is fulfilled, it is over and done with; but while it remains
a promise, it remains a hope: and what is all good, but the hope of
good? What is every _to-day_ of our life, but the hope (or the fear) of
to-morrow? April, then, is worth two Mays, because it tells tales of May
in every sigh that it breathes, and every tear that it lets fall. It is
the harbinger, the herald, the promise, the prophecy, the foretaste of
all the beauties that are to follow it--of all, and more--of all the
delights of Summer, and all the “pride, pomp, and circumstance of
glorious” Autumn. It is fraught with beauties itself that no other month
can bring before us, and

    “It bears a glass which shews us many more.”

As for April herself, her life is one sweet alternation of smiles and
sighs and tears, and tears and sighs and smiles, till it is consummated
at last in the open laughter of May. It is like--in short, it is like
nothing in the world but “an April day.” And her charms--but really I
must cease to look upon the face of this fair month generally, lest, like
a painter in the presence of his mistress, I grow too enamoured to give a
correct resemblance. I must gaze upon her sweet beauties one by one, or I
shall never be able to think and treat of her in any other light than
that of _the Spring_; which is a mere abstraction,--delightful to think
of, but, like all other abstractions, not to be depicted or described.

Before I proceed to do this, however, let me inform the reader that what
I have hitherto said of April, and have yet to say, is intended to
apply, not to this or that April in particular--not to April eighteen
hundred and twenty-four, or fourteen, or thirty-four--but to APRIL _par
excellence_; that is to say, what April (“not to speak it profanely”)
_ought to be_. In short, I have no intention of being _personal_ in my
remarks; and if the April which I am describing should happen to differ,
in any essential particulars, from the one in whose presence I am
describing it, neither the month nor the reader must regard this as a
covert libel or satire. The truth is that, for what reason I know
not--whether to put to shame the predictions of the Quarterly Reviewers,
or to punish us Islanders for our manifold follies and iniquities, or
from any quarrel, as of old, between Oberon and Titania--but certain it
is that

    “The seasons alter: hoary headed frosts
     Fall in the fresh lap of the crimson rose;
     And on old Hyems’ thin and icy crown
     An odorous chaplet of sweet summer buds
     Is, as in mockery, set: the Spring, the Summer,
     The chilling Autumn, angry Winter, change
     Their wonted liveries; and the amazed world,
     By their increase, now knows not which is which.”

It is of April, then, as she is when Nature is in her happiest mood,
that I am now to speak; and we will take her in the prime of her life,
and our first place of rendezvous shall be the open fields.

What a sweet flush of new green has started up to the face of this
meadow! And the new-born Daisies that stud it here and there, give it
the look of an emerald sky powdered with snowy stars. In making our way
to yonder hedgerow, which divides the meadow from the little copse that
lines one side of it, let us not take the shortest way, but keep
religiously to the little footpath; for the young grass is as yet too
tender to bear being trod upon; and the young lambs themselves, while
they go cropping its crisp points, let the sweet daisies alone, as if
they loved to look upon a sight as pretty and as innocent as themselves.

I have been hitherto very chary of appealing to the poets in these
pleasant papers; because they are people that, if you give them an inch,
even in a span-long essay of this kind, always endeavour to lay hands on
the whole of it. They are like the young cuckoos, that if once they get
hatched within a nest, always contrive to oust the natural inhabitants.
But when the Daisy, “la douce Marguerite,” is in question, how can I
refrain from pronouncing a blessing on the bard who has, by his sweet
praise of this “unassuming commonplace of nature,” revived that general
love for it, which, until lately, was confined to the hearts of “the old
poets,” and of those young poets of all times, the little children? But
I need not do this, for he has his reward already, in the fulfilment of
that prophecy with which he closes his address to his darling flower:

    “Thy long-lost praise thou shalt regain;
     Dear shalt thou be to future men,
     As in old time.”

Does the reader, now that I have brought before him, in company with
each other, “this child of the year,” and the gentlest and most eloquent
of all her lovers, desire to hear a few more of the compliments that he
has paid to her, without the trouble of leaving the fields, and opening
a book? I can afford but a few; for beneath yonder hedgerow, and within
the twilight of the copse behind it, there are flocks of other sweet
flowers, waiting for their praise.

    “When soothed awhile by milder airs,
     Thee Winter in the garland wears
     That thinly shades his few gray hairs;
         Spring cannot shun thee;
     And Autumn, melancholy wight,
     Doth in thy crimson head delight
         When rains are on thee.”

[By the by, I cannot let pass this epithet, “melancholy,” without
protesting most strenuously against the above application of it. Seldom,
indeed, is it that the poet before us falls into an error of this kind;
and it is _therefore_ that I point it out.]

    “In shoals and bands, a morrice train,
     Thou greet’st the traveller in the lane.

     * * * *

     And oft alone in nooks remote
     We meet thee, like a pleasant thought,
         When such are wanted.

     Be violets, in their secret mews,
     The flowers the wanton Zephyrs choose;
     Proud be the Rose, with rains and dews
         Her head impearling;

     * * * *

     _Thou_ art the poet’s darling.

     If to a rock from rains he fly,
     Or some bright day of April sky
     Imprisoned by hot sunshine lie
         Near the green holly,
     And wearily at length should fare,
     He need but look about, and there
     Thou art, a friend at hand, to scare
         His melancholy!

     If stately passions in me burn,
     And one chance look to thee should turn,
     I drink out of an humbler urn
         A lowlier pleasure;
     The homely sympathy, that heeds
     The common life our nature breeds;
     A wisdom fitted to the needs
         Of hearts at leisure.”

And then do but see what “fantastic tricks” the poet’s imagination
plays, when he comes to seek out _similies_ for his fair favourite:

    “A nun demure, of lowly port;
     A sprightly maiden of love’s court,
     In thy simplicity the sport
         Of all temptations;
     A queen in crown of rubies drest;
     A starveling in a scanty vest;
     Are all, as seem to suit thee best,
         Thy appellations.

     A little Cyclops, with one eye
     Staring, to threaten or defy--
     That thought comes next--and instantly
         The freak is over;
     The shape will vanish--and behold!
     A silver shield with boss of gold,
     That spreads itself, some fairy bold
         In fight to cover.

     I see thee glittering from afar,--
     And then thou art a pretty star;
     Not quite so fair as many are
         In heaven above thee!
     Yet like a star, with glittering crest,
     Self-poised in air thou seem’st to rest!

     * * * *

     Sweet flower! for by that name at last,
     When all my reveries are past,
     I call thee, and to that cleave fast;
         Sweet silent creature!
     That breath’st with me in sun and air,
     Do thou, as thou art wont, repair
     My heart with gladness, and a share
         Of thy meek nature!”

What poetry is here! It “dallies with the innocence” of the poet and of
the flower, till we know not which to love best. But we must turn at
once from the fascination of both, and not allow them again to seduce us
from our duty to the rest of those sweet “children of the year” that are
courting our attention.

See, upon the sloping sides of this bank, beneath the hedgerow, what
companies of Primroses are dedicating their pale beauties to the
pleasant breeze that blows over them, and looking as faint withal as if
they had senses that could “ache” at the rich sweetness of the hidden
Violets that are growing here and there among them.

The intermediate spots of the bank are now nearly covered from sight by
the various green weeds that sprout up every where--beginning to fill
the interstices between the lower stems of the Hazel, the Hawthorn, the
Sloe, the Eglantine, and the Woodbine, which unite their friendly arms
together above, to form the natural inclosure,--that prettiest feature
in our English scenery, or at least that which communicates a
picturesque beauty to all the rest.

Of the above-named shrubs, the Hazel, you see, is scarcely as yet in
leaf; the scattered leaves of the Woodbine, of a dull purplish green,
are fully spread; the Sloe is in blossom, offering a pretty but
scentless imitation of the sweet hawthorn bloom that is to come next
month. This latter is now vigorously putting forth its crisp and
delicate filigree work of tender green, tipped with red; and the
Eglantine, or wild rose, is opening its green hands, as if to welcome
the sun.

Entering the little copse which this inclosure separates from the
meadow, we shall find, on the ground, all the low and creeping plants
pushing forth their various shaped leaves--stars, fans, blades, fingers,
fringes, and a score of other fanciful forms; and some of them bearing
the prettiest flowers in the world. Conspicuous among these, in addition
to those of February and March, are the elegant little Wood-sorrel, with
its delicately pencilled cups; the pretty Wild Strawberry; the common
blue Hyacinth,--so delightful when it comes upon you in innumerable
flocks while you are thinking of nothing less; the gently-stooping
Harebell, the most fragile of all flowers, yet braving the angriest
winds of heaven, by bowing to the ground before them; and, lastly, that
strangest of flowers (if flower it be) called by the country folks
Cuckoo-pint, and by the children Lords and Ladies.

Still passing on through this copse, we shall find all the young forest
trees, except the oaks, in a kind of half-dress, like so many village
maidens in their trim bodices, and with their hair in papers. Among
these are conspicuous the graceful Birch, hanging its head like a
half-shamefaced, half-affected damsel; the trim Beech, spruce as a
village gallant dressed for the fair; the rough-rinded Elm, grave and
sedate looking, even in its youth, and already bespeaking the future
“green-robed senator of mighty woods.” These, with the white-stemmed
Ash, the Alder, the artificial-looking Hornbeam, and the as yet bare
Oak, make up this silent but happy company, who are to stand here on the
same spot all their lives, looking upward to the clouds and the stars,
and downward to the star-like flowers, till we and our posterity (who
pride ourselves on our superiority over them) are laid in that earth of
which _they_ alone are the true inheriters.

But who ever heard of choosing a warm April morning to moralize in? Let
us wait till winter for that; and in the mean time pass out of this
pleasant little copse, and make our way windingly towards the village.

In the little green lane that leads to it we meet with nothing very
different from what we have already noticed; unless it be an early Bee
booming past us, or hovering for a moment over the snowy flower of the
Lady-smock; or a village boy looking upward with hand-shaded brow after
the mounting Lark, while he holds in his other hand the tether of a
young heifer, that he has led forth to take her first taste of the
fresh-sprouting herbage.

On reaching the Village Green, we cannot choose but pause before this
stately Chestnut-tree, the smooth stem of which rises from the earth
like a dark coloured marble column, seemingly placed there by art to
support the pyramidal fabric of beauty that surmounts it. It has just
put forth its first series of rich fan-like leaves, each family of which
is crowned by its splendid spiral flower; the whole, at this period of
the year, forming the grandest vegetable object that our kingdom
presents, and vying in rich beauty with any that Eastern woods can
boast. And if we could reach one of those flowers, to pluck it, we
should find that the most delicate fair ones of the Garden or the
Greenhouse do not surpass it in elaborate pencilling and richly varied
tints. It can be likened to nothing but its own portrait painted on
velvet.

Farther on, across the Green, with this little raised footpath leading
to it, stands a row of young Lindens, separating in the middle to admit
a view of the Parsonage-house; for it can be no other. What a lovely
green is theirs! and what an exact shape in their bright circular
leaves, all alike, clustering and flapping over each other! And their
smooth pillar-like stems shoot out from the hard gravel pathway like
artificial shafts, without a ridge, a knot, or an inequality, till they
spread forth suddenly just above the reach of branch-plucking
schoolboys.

The Honeysuckles, that wreathe the trellised door of the neat dwelling,
have already put forth their dull purple-tinged leaves, at distant
intervals, on the slim shoots; but the Jasmin, that spreads itself over
the circular-topped windows, is not yet sufficiently clothed to hide
the formality of its training.

To the right, the fine old avenue of Elms, forming the Walk leading to
the low Church, are sprinkled all over with their spring attire; but not
enough to form the shade that they will a month hence. At present the
blue sky can every where be seen through them.

We might wander on through the Village and its environs for a while
longer, pleasantly enough, without exhausting the objects of novelty and
interest that present themselves in this sweetest of months; but we must
get within more confined limits, or we shall not have space to glance at
half those which more exclusively belong to this time.

       *       *       *       *       *

If the Garden, like the Year, is not now absolutely at its best, it is
perhaps better; inasmuch as a pleasant promise but half performed
partakes of the best parts of both promise and performance. Now, all is
neatness and finish, or ought to be; for the weeds have not yet began to
make head; the annual flower seeds are all sown; the divisions and
changes among the perennials, and the removings and plantings of the
shrubs, have all taken place. The Walks, too, have all been turned and
freshened, and the Turf has began to receive its regular rollings and
mowings. Among the bulbous-rooted perennials, all that were not in
flower during the last two months, are so now; in particular the
majestic Crown-imperial; the Tulip, beautiful as the panther, and as
proud,--standing aloof from its own leaves; the rich double Hyacinth,
clustering like the locks of Adam; and Narcissus, pale and
passion-stricken at the sense of its own sweetness.

But what we are chiefly to look for now are the fibrous-rooted and
herbaceous Perennials. There is not one of these that has not awakened
from its winter dreams, and put on at least the half of its beauty. A
few of them venture to display all their attractions at this time, from
a wise fear of that dangerous rivalry which they must be content to
encounter if they were to wait for a month longer; for a pretty villager
might as well hope to gain hearts at Almack’s, as a demure daisy of a
modest polyanthus think to secure its due share of attention in presence
of the glaring peonies, flaunting roses, and towering lilies of May and
midsummer.

Now, too, those late planted Stocks and Wallflowers, that have had
strength to brave the cutting blasts of winter, feel the benefit of
their hardihood, and show it in the profusion of their blooms and the
richness of their colours.

Finally, among flowers we have now the singular spotted Fritillary;
Heart’s-ease, the “little western flower,” that cannot be looked at or
thought of without feeling its name; and the Auricula, that richest in
its texture and colour of all the vegetable tribe, and as various as
rich.

Among the Shrubs that form the inclosing belt of the flower-garden, the
Lilac is in full leaf, and loaded with its heavy bunches of bloom-buds;
the common Laurel, if it has reached its flowering age, is hanging out
its meek modest flowers, preparatory to putting forth its vigorous
summer shoots; and the Larch has on it hairy tufts of pink, stuck here
and there among its delicate threads of green.

But the great charm of this month, both in the open country and the
garden, is undoubtedly the infinite _green_ which pervades it every
where, and which we had best gaze our fill at while we may, as it lasts
but a little while,--changing in a few weeks into an endless variety of
shades and tints, that are equivalent to as many different colours. It
is this, and the budding forth of every living member of the vegetable
world, after its long winter death, that in fact constitutes THE SPRING;
and the sight of which affects us in the manner it does, from various
causes--chiefly moral and associated ones; but one of which is
unquestionably physical: I mean the sight of so much tender green after
the eye has been condemned to look for months and months on the mere
negation of all colour, which prevails in winter in our climate. The eye
feels cheered, cherished, and regaled by this colour, as the tongue does
by a quick and pleasant taste, after having long palated nothing but
tasteless and insipid things.

This is the principal charm of Spring, no doubt. But another, and one
that is scarcely second to this, is, the bright flush of Blossoms that
prevails over and almost hides every thing else in the Fruit-garden and
Orchard. What exquisite differences and distinctions and resemblances
there are between all the various blossoms of the fruit-trees; and no
less in their general effect than in their separate details! The
Almond-blossom, which comes first of all, and while the tree is quite
bare of leaves, is of a bright blush-rose colour; and when they are
fully blown, the tree, if it has been kept to a compact head instead of
being permitted to straggle, looks like one huge rose, magnified by some
fairy magic, to deck the bosom of some fair giantess. The various kinds
of Plum follow, the blossoms of which are snow-white, and as full and
clustering as those of the almond. The Peach and Nectarine, which are
now full blown, are unlike either of the above; and their sweet effect,
as if growing out of the hard bare wall, or the rough wooden paling, is
peculiarly pretty. They are of a deep blush colour, and of a delicate
bell shape, the lips, however, divided, and turning backward, to expose
the interior to the cherishing sun.

But perhaps the bloom that is richest and most _promising_ in its
general appearance is that of the Cherry, clasping its white honours all
round the long straight branches, from heel to point, and not letting a
leaf or a bit of stem be seen, except the three or four leaves that come
as a green finish at the extremity of each branch.

The other blossoms, of the Pears, and (loveliest of all) the Apples, do
not come in perfection till next month.

       *       *       *       *       *

In thinking of the circumstances which happen this month in connexion
with the animal world, I scarcely know where to begin my observations,
so numerous are the subjects, and so limited the space they must be
despatched in. The Birds must have precedence, for they are now, for
once in their lives, as busy as the bees are always. They are getting
their houses built, and seeing to their household affairs, and
concluding their family arrangements, that when the summer and the
sunshine are fairly come, they may have nothing to do but teach their
children the last new modes of flying and singing, and be as happy
as--birds, for the rest of the year. Now, therefore, as in the last
month, they have but little time to sing to each other; and the Lark has
the morning sky all to himself. Not but we have other April melodies,
and one or two the _prémices_ of which belong so peculiarly to this
month, that we must listen to them for a moment, whatever else is
awaiting us. And first let us hearken to the Cuckoo, shooting out its
soft and mellow, yet powerful voice, till it seems to fill the whole
concave of the heavens with its two mysterious notes, the most primitive
of musical melodies. Who can listen to those notes for the first time in
Spring, and not feel his school days come back to him? And not as he did
then

    “------------look a thousand ways
     In bush, and tree, and sky?”

But he will be likely to look in vain; for so shy are they, that lucky
(or rather _un_lucky, to my thinking) is he who has ever _seen_ a
cuckoo. I well remember that from the first moment I saw one flutter
heavily out of an old hawthorn bush, and flurr awkwardly away across the
meadow, as I was listening in rapt attention to its lonely voice, the
mystery of the sound was gone, and with it no small share of its beauty.

If we happen to be wandering forth on a warm still evening during the
last week in this month, and passing near a roadside orchard, or
skirting a little copse in returning from our twilight ramble, or
sitting listlessly on a lawn near some thick plantation, waiting for
bedtime, we may chance to be startled from our meditations (of whatever
kind they may be) by a sound, issuing from among the distant leaves,
that scares away the silence in a moment, and seems to put to flight
even the darkness itself;--stirring the spirit, and quickening the
blood, as no other mere sound can, unless it be that of a trumpet
calling to battle. That is the Nightingale’s voice. The cold spells of
winter, that had kept him so long tongue-tied, and frozen the deep
fountains of his heart, yield before the mild breath of Spring, and he
is voluble once more. It is as if the flood of song had been swelling
within his breast ever since it last ceased to flow; and was now gushing
forth uncontrollably, and as if he had no will to control it: for when
it does stop for a space, it is suddenly, as if for want of breath. In
our climate the nightingale seldom sings above six weeks; beginning
usually the last week in April. I mention this because many, who would
be delighted to hear him, do not think of going to listen for his song
till after it has ceased. I believe it is never to be heard after the
young are hatched.

Now, too, the pretty, pert-looking Blackcap first appears, and pours
forth his tender and touching love-song, scarcely inferior, in a certain
plaintive inwardness, to the autumn song of the Robin. The mysterious
little Grasshopper Lark also runs whispering within the hedgerows; the
Redstart pipes prettily upon the apple trees; the golden-crowned Wren
chirps in the kitchen-garden, as she watches for the new sown seeds; and
lastly, the Thrush, who has hitherto given out but a desultory note at
intervals to let us know that he was not away, now haunts the same tree,
and frequently the same branch of it, day after day, and sings an
“English Melody” that even Mr. Moore himself could not write appropriate
words to.

Though all the above-named are what are commonly called birds of
passage, yet from their not congregating together, and from their
particular habits (except of singing) being consequently but little
observed, we are accustomed to blend them among the general class of
English birds, and look upon them as if they belonged to us. But now
also first come among us (whether from a far off land, or from their
secret homes within our own, remains to this day undetermined) those
mysterious and interesting strangers that enliven all the air of Spring
and Summer with their foreign manners, and the infinite variety of whose
movements it is almost as pleasant to watch as it is to listen to the
modulations of their vocal brethren. I allude to the Swallow tribe, who
come usually in the following order, namely, first the Sand-Martin, the
least noticeable of the tribe, and not affecting the dwellings of man;
then the House or Chimney Swallow; then the House Martin; and lastly the
Swift. Those who can see shoot past them, like a thought, the first
swallow of the year, and yet continue pondering on their own affairs as
if nothing had happened, may be assured that “the seasons and their
change” were not made for them, and that, whatever they may fancy they
feel to the contrary, Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter are to them
mere words, indicating the periods when rents are payable and interest
becomes due.

As the Swallow tribe do nothing, for the first fortnight after their
arrival, but disport themselves, we will leave them and the rest of the
feathered tribe for the present. We shall have sufficient opportunities
of observing all their pretty ways hereafter.

I am afraid we must now quit the country altogether, _as_ the country;
not however without mentioning that now begins that most execrable of
all practices, Angling. Now Man, “lordly man,” first begins to set his
wit to a simple fish; and having succeeded in attracting it to his
lure, watches it for a space floundering about in its crystal waters, in
the agonies of death; and when he is tired of this _sport_, drags it to
the green bank, among the grass, and moss, and wild-flowers, and stains
them all with its blood![2] The “gentle” reader may be sure that I would
willingly have refrained altogether from forcing upon his attention this
hateful subject, especially amid such scenes and objects as we have just
been contemplating: but I was afraid that my “silence” might have seemed
to “give consent” to the practice.

[2] There is poetical authority for this expression, but I believe no
other:

    “And weltering dies the primrose with his blood.”

                                                     GRAHAM.

We must now transport ourselves to the environs of London, and see what
this happy season is producing there; for to leave the very heart of the
country, and cast ourselves at once into the very heart of town, would
be likely to put us in a temper ill suited to the time.

Now, on Palm Sunday, boys and girls (youths and maidens have got much
above so “childish” a practice) may be met early in the morning, in
blithe though breakfastless companies, sallying forth towards the
pretty outlets about Hampstead and Highgate on one side of the water,
and Clapham and Camberwell on the other (all of which they innocently
imagine to be “The Country”), there to sport away the pleasant hours
till dinner-time, and then return home, with joy in their hearts,
endless appetites in their stomachs, and bunches of the Sallow Willow
with its silken bloom-buds in their hands, as trophies of their travels.

Now, at last, the Easter week is arrived, and the Poor have for once in
the year the best of it,--setting all things, but their own sovereign
will, at a wise defiance. The journeyman who works on Easter Monday
should lose his _caste_, and be sent to the Coventry of Mechanics,
wherever that may be. In fact, it cannot happen. On Easter Monday ranks
change places; Jobson is as good as Sir John; the “rude mechanical” is
“monarch of all he surveys” from the summit of Greenwich Hill, and when
he thinks fit to say “It is our royal pleasure to be drunk!” who shall
dispute the proposition? Not I, for one. When our English mechanics
accuse their betters of oppressing them, the said betters should reverse
the old appeal, and refer from Philip sober to Philip drunk; and then
nothing more could be said. But NOW, they _have_ no betters, even in
their own notion of the matter. And in the name of all that is
transitory, envy them not their brief supremacy! It will be over before
the end of the week, and they will be as eager to return to their labour
as they now are to escape from it; for the only thing that an
Englishman, whether high or low, cannot endure patiently for a week
together, is, unmingled amusement. At this time, however, he is
determined to try. Accordingly, on Easter Monday all the narrow lanes
and blind alleys of our metropolis pour forth their dingy denizens into
the suburban fields and villages, in search of the said amusement, which
is plentifully provided for them by another class, even less enviable
than the one on whose patronage they depend; for of all callings, the
most melancholy is that of Purveyor of Pleasure to the poor.

During the Monday our determined holiday maker, as in duty bound,
contrives, by the aid of a little or not a little artificial stimulus,
to be happy in a tolerably exemplary manner. On the Tuesday, he
_fancies_ himself happy to-day, because he _felt_ himself so yesterday.
On the Wednesday he cannot tell what has come to him, but every ten
minutes he wishes himself at home, where he never goes but to sleep. On
Thursday he finds out the secret, that he is heartily sick of doing
nothing; but is ashamed to confess it; and then what is the use of going
to work before his money is spent? On Friday he swears that he is a fool
for throwing away the greatest part of his quarter’s savings without
having any thing to show for it, and gets gloriously drunk with the rest
to prove his words; passing the pleasantest night of all the week in a
watch-house. And on Saturday, after thanking “his Worship” for his good
advice, of which he does not remember a word, he comes to the wise
determination, that, after all, there is nothing like working all day
long in silence, and at night spending his earnings and his breath in
beer and politics!--So much for the Easter week of a London holiday
maker.

But there is a sport belonging to Easter Monday which is not confined to
the lower classes; and which fun forbid that I should pass over
silently. If the reader has not, during his boyhood, performed the
exploit of riding to the Turn-out of the Stag on Epping
Forest--following the hounds all day long at a respectful
distance--returning home in the evening with the loss of nothing but his
hat, his hunting whip, and his horse, not to mention a portion of his
nether person--and finishing the day by joining the Lady Mayoress’s Ball
at the Mansion-House; if the reader has not done all this when a boy, I
will not tantalize him by expiating on the superiority of those who
have. And if he _has_ done it, I need not tell him that he has no cause
to envy his friend who escaped with a flesh wound from the fight of
Waterloo; for there is not a pin to choose between them.

       *       *       *       *       *

I have little to tell the reader in regard to London exclusively, this
month; which is lucky, because I have left myself less than no space at
all to tell it in. I must mention, however, that now is heard in her
streets the prettiest of all the cries which are peculiar to
them--“Come, buy my Primroses!” and but for which the Londoners would
have no idea that Spring was at hand.

Now, too, spoiled children make “fools” of their mammas and papas; which
is but fair, seeing that the said mammas and papas return the
compliment during all the rest of the year. Now, not even a sceptical
apprentice (for such there be now-a-days, thanks to the enlightening
effects of universal education) but is religiously persuaded of the
merits of _Good_ Friday, and the propriety of its being so called, since
it procures him two Sundays in the week instead of one.

Finally,--now, Exhibitions of Paintings court the public gaze, and
obtain it, in every quarter; on the principle, I suppose, that the eye
has, at this season of the year, a natural hungering and thirsting after
the colours of the Spring leaves and flowers, and rather than not meet
with them at all, is content to find them on painted canvas!



MAY.


Spring is with us once more, pacing the earth in all the primal pomp of
her beauty, with flowers and soft airs and the song of birds every where
about her, and the blue sky and the bright clouds above. But there is
one thing wanting, to give that happy completeness to her advent, which
belonged to it in the elder times; and without which it is like a
beautiful melody without words, or a beautiful flower without scent, or
a beautiful face without a soul. The voice of Man is no longer heard,
hailing her approach as she hastens to bless him; and his choral
symphonies no longer meet and bless _her_ in return--bless her by
letting her behold and hear the happiness that she comes to create. The
soft songs of women are no longer blended with her breath as it whispers
among the new leaves; their slender feet no longer trace _her_ footsteps
in the fields and woods and wayside copses, or dance delighted measures
round the flowery offerings that she prompted their lovers to place
before them on the village green. Even the little children themselves,
that have an instinct for the Spring, and feel it to the very tips of
their fingers, are permitted to let May come upon them, without knowing
from whence the impulse of happiness that they feel proceeds, or whither
it tends. In short,

    “All the earth is gay;
     Land and sea
     Give themselves up to jollity,
     And with the heart of May
     Doth every beast keep holiday:”

while man, man alone, lets the season come without glorying in it; and
when it goes he lets it go without regret; as if “all seasons and their
change” were alike to him; or rather, as if he were the lord of all
seasons, and they were to do homage and honour to him, instead of he to
them! How is this? Is it that we have “sold our birthright for a mess of
pottage?”--that we have bartered “our being’s end and aim” for a purse
of gold? Alas! thus it is:

    “The world is too much with us; late and soon,
       Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers:
       Little we see in nature that is ours;
     We have given our hearts away--a sordid boon!”

And the consequence is, that, if we would know the true nature of those
hearts, and the manner in which they are adapted to receive and act upon
the impressions that come to them from external things, we must gain
what we seek at secondhand; we must look into the records that have been
copied from hearts that lived and beat ages ago; for in our own breasts
we shall find only a blurred and scribbled sheet, or at best but a blank
one. Even among our poets, the passions, characters, and events growing
out of an over-civilized state of society, have usurped the place of
those primary impulses and impressions in the susceptibility to receive
which the poetical temperament mainly consists; and instead of Nature
and her works being any longer the theme of our verse, these are only
brought in as occasional aids and ornaments, to show off, not _man_ as
he essentially is in all time, but _men_ as they accidentally are in the
nineteenth century. It is true that one of our poets, and he the
greatest, has nearly escaped the polluting influence of towns and
cities. But in doing so, he has been compelled to take such close
shelter within the citadel of his own heart, that his mental health has
somewhat suffered from a want of due airing and exercise. And this it is
which will, in a great measure, prevent his works from calling us back
to that vigorous and healthful condition which they otherwise might. No,
even Mr. Wordsworth himself has not been able, from the loopholes of his
retreat, to take that kind of glance at “man, nature, and society,”
which will enable him so to adapt himself to our wants as to do more
than persuade us of their existence. To supply or set aside those wants
will demand even a greater than he: unless indeed (as I fear) we are
“hurt past all _poetry_,” and must look for a cure to that Nature alone
which we have so long despised and outraged. But be this as it may, we
are still able to _feel_ what Nature is, though we have in a great
measure ceased to _know_ it; though we have chosen to neglect her
ordinances, and absent ourselves from her presence, we still retain some
instinctive reminiscences of her beauty and her power; and every now and
then the sordid walls of those mud hovels which we have built for
ourselves, and choose to dwell in, fall down before the magic touch of
our involuntary fancies, and give us glimpses into “that imperial
palace whence we came,” and make us yearn to return thither, though it
be but in thought.

    “Then sing ye birds, sing, sing a joyous song!
       And let the young lambs bound
       As to the tabor’s sound!
     We _in thought_ will join your throng,
       Ye that pipe and ye that play,
       Ye that through your hearts to-day
       Feel the gladness of the MAY!”

Meet me, then, gentle reader, here on this Village Green, and forgetting
that there are such places as cities in the world, let us “do observance
to a morn of May:” we shall find it almost as pleasant an employment as
money-getting itself! From this spot we can observe specimens of many of
those objects which are now in their fullest beauty, and which we were
obliged to pass over at our last meeting.

The stately Horse-chestnut is in still greater perfection than it was
last month--each of its pyramidal flowers looking like a “picture in
little” of the great American Aloe. The Limes, too, that shade the lower
windows of the Parsonage, and the Honeysuckles that make a little bower
of its trellised doorway, are now in full leaf.

By the sunshine, which falls in bright patches on this broad walk
leading to the Church, we may observe that the Elms are not as yet in
full leaf; and casting our eyes upward, we shall see, through the
intervals between the thinly spread leaves, spots of blue sky looking
down upon us like a host of blue eyes. In the little Churchyard the
graves are all covered with a flush of new green, spotted here and there
with Daisies, which make even them look gay; the Ivy, which binds
together the stones of the old belfry, is every where putting forth its
young shoots; and the dark Yew itself, that shades the low porch, feels
the influence of the season, and is once more putting on a look of green
old age.

Let us now pass over the little stile that divides this sadly sweet
inclosure from the adjacent paddock, and make our way into the open
fields beyond. But what is this rich perfume, that comes floating past
us as we go, borne on the warm breeze like incense? What but the sweet
breath of the Hawthorn, blended (for those who have organs delicate
enough to distinguish it) with that of the Violet, which grows about its
roots, and steams up its plaintive odours from a crowd of hidden
censers, till they reach the clouds of sweetness that are hanging above,
and both are borne away together on the wings of every wind that passes.
Those who are not accustomed to the _harmony of scents_, and cannot
detect two or three together when they are blended in this manner, are
exactly in the situation of those who are only susceptible of the
_melodies_ of music, and can hear nothing in _harmony_ but a _single
sound_.

One of the loveliest objects in the vegetable kingdom is a fine-grown
Hawthorn tree, in the state in which we meet with it this month. But
they are scarcely ever to be found in the open country, being of such
extremely slow growth that they require particular advantages of soil,
protection from the depredations of cattle, &c. before they can be made
to reach the state of _a tree_. They are seldom to be met with in this
state except in parks and pleasure-grounds; and even then they require
to stand perfectly alone, or they do not gain that picturesque elegance
of form on which so much of their beauty depends. There are some, I
remember, both pink and white, in the deer-park of Maudlin College,
that are _a sight_ to look upon. The extreme beauty of this tree when in
blossom arises partly from the delightful mixture of the leaves and
blossoms together,--almost all the other trees that can properly be
called _flowering_ ones putting forth their blossoms before they have
acquired sufficient green leaves to contrast with and set them off.
There is another tree that we have not yet noticed, the Sycamore, the
effect of which, when it is suffered to grow singly, is extremely
elegant at this season.

Now, too, and not till now, the Oak, the Walnut, and the Mulberry begin
to put forth their leaves, offering us, even till the commencement of
June, a seeming renewal or lengthening out of the Spring, when all the
rest of the vegetable world has put on the hues of Summer. The two first
of these, however, have during the first fortnight of their vegetation
the brown and golden hues of Autumn upon them.

But we must be more brief in our search after the beauties of May, or we
shall not have space to name the half of them. Let us turn, then,
towards our home inclosures; glancing, as we pass, at a few more of
those sweet sights which belong to the fields exclusively. And first
let us feed our eyes with the brilliant green of yonder Wheat-field. The
stems, you see, have just attained height enough to wave gracefully in
the wind; which, as it passes over them, seems to convert the whole into
a beautiful lake of bright green undulating water. That Meadow which
adjoins it, glittering all over with yellow King-cups, is no less bright
and beautiful. It looks like the bed where Jupiter visited Danäe in a
shower of gold. How pretty, too, are these Cowslips, starting up close
beside our path, as if anxious to be seen, and yet hanging down their
modest heads, as if afraid to meet the gaze that they seem to court.

We must delay for a moment beside this pretty Hedgerow, to observe a few
more of the various coloured weeds (so called by those manufacturers of
artificial flowers, the gardeners) which first put forth their blossoms
this month. Conspicuous is the Campion, rising from the bank, with its
single lake-coloured flowers scattered aloof from each other, upon their
long bare stems. Among the lower leaves of these, rising from the ditch
below, the Water-violet rears its elegant head, consisting of rosy
clusters ranged tier above tier, and lessening towards the top, till
they form a flowery pyramid. About the edges of the banks, low on the
ground, are scattered the Hyacinths in blue profusion, relieved here and
there by the white Cuckoo-flower, or Lady-smock, the plain, but
sweet-scented Woodruff, and the sunny Dandelion; while, close beneath
the overhanging hedgerow, the Cuckoo-pint stands motionless in its green
pavilion, and seems to keep watch, like a sentinel, over the flowery
tribe around.

But see! yonder Butterfly, fluttering past us like a winged flower,
reminds us that now come forth that ephemeral race whose lives are
scarcely of longer date than those of the flowers on whose aroma they
feed.

Now, shoot past us, like winged arrows, or hover near us like Fairies’
messengers come to bring us tidings of the Summer, those frail
creatures--green, and purple, and gold--borne on invisible gossamer
wings,--of which the flying dragons of fairy and of pantomime-land are
but clumsy imitations. Now, blithe companies of Gnats hum and hover up
and down in the warm air, like motes in a sunbeam. Now, the wayside
Cricket begins to chirrup forth its monotonous mirth; for ever harping
on one note, and never tiring or growing tired. Now, the great Humble
Bee goes booming along, startling the pleased ear as he passes; or
hurries suddenly out of the heart of some wayside flower, and leaves it
trembling at his departure, as if a thought of his distant home had
disturbed him in the midst of his blithe labours. Now, in the early
dusk, the heavy Cockchafer hums drowsily along, or flurs from out some
near lime-tree, and flings his mailed form (as if on purpose) into the
face of the startled passenger. Now, at night, the Glow-worm shows her
bright love-lamp to her distant mate, as he floats in the dim air above;
and, seeing it, he closes his thin wings about him, and drops down to
her side.

Now, the most active and industrious of all the smaller birds, the
Swallow tribe, begin to devote themselves seriously to the business of
the season. They have hitherto, since their first appearance, been
sporting about in seeming idleness. But without this needful exercise
and relaxation they would not be fit to go through the henceforth
unceasing toils of the Summer; for they have two or three broods to
bring up before they retire, each of which, when hatched, requires the
incessant toil of the parents from light till dark, to provide them
food,--so dainty and delicate are they in the choice of it. Now, during
this month, they begin and complete their dwellings; the House-swallow
in the shafts of chimneys, thus providing their young at once with
warmth and safety; the confiding Martin in the windows, and under the
eaves, of our houses; and the Swift within the clefts of castles and
other high old buildings, where “the air is delicate.”

Finally, now many of the earlier builders are _sitting_, and some few
have hatched their broods. Let those who would contemplate, in
imagination, the most perfect state of tranquil happiness of which a
sentient being is susceptible, gaze (still in imagination, for actual
sight would break the spell for both parties) on the mother bird,
breasting her warm eggs beneath the shade of some retired covert, while
her vocal lover (made vocal by his love) sits on some near bough beside,
and pours into her listening heart the joy that _will_ not be contained
within his own.

In the Garden we now find all the promises of April completed, and a
host of others springing up, to be fulfilled in their turn during the
rest of the season. But May, notwithstanding its reputation in this
particular, is not to be considered as, _par excellence_, the Month of
Flowers, at least in this climate, and in respect to those flowers which
have now become exclusively garden ones: though of _wild_ flowers, and
of blossoms which are afterwards to produce fruit, it is the month. Of
the annuals, for instance, which make so rich a show in common gardens,
(and it is of those alone that these unexotic pages profess to speak),
none flower in May; but all of them mix up their many-shaded greens, and
contrast their various shaped forms, with those that do. Among these
latter are, in addition to those of last month which still continue in
blow, the rich-scented Wall-flower; the flower of as many names as
colours, the prettiest of which is taken from that feeling which the
sight of it gives--Heart’s-ease; Crown-imperial; Lily of the Valley,
most delicate of all the vegetable tribe, both in shape and odour,--its
bright little illumination-lamps looking out meekly from their pavilions
of emerald green; the towering, blue Monk’s-hood; the pretty but
foreign-looking Fritillary, or Snake’s-head, as it is more appropriately
called, from its shape and colours; and sometimes, when the season is
unfavourably favourable, the Rose herself. But her and her attractions
we must leave till they come upon us in showers, in her _own_ month of
June.

Among the flowering shrubs we have now, also, many which demand their
Spring welcome. And first the Lilac; for it was scarcely in full bloom
last month; and it is its rich fulness that constitutes much of its
charm, though its scent is delightful. Now, too, the Guelder-rose flings
up its spheres of white light into the air, supported on their invisible
stems, and looking, as the wind blows them about, like the jugglers’
balls chasing each other as if in sport. The Mountain-ash, too, puts
forth its fans of white blossom, which the imagination converts, as soon
as they appear, into those rich bunches of scarlet berries that make the
winter months look gay; and which said “imagination” would do the same
by the Elder-bloom, which also now appears, but that its delicious
odour, when scented at a sufficient distance from its source, tells
tales of any thing but winter and elder-wine. Lastly, the Laburnum now
hangs forth its golden glories, and shows itself, for a few brief days,
the most graceful of all the inhabitants of the shrubbery. The blossoms
of the Laburnum, where they are seen from a little distance, and have
(from circumstances of soil, &c.) acquired their due dependent posture,
can scarcely be looked at steadily without a seeming _motion_ being
communicated to them, as if some invisible hand had detached them from
their stems, and they were in the act of falling to the earth in the
form of a yellow rain.

In the orchard, the loveliest of all fruit-blossoms, the Apples, are now
in full perfection. These flowers are scarcely ever examined or praised
for their beauty; and yet they are formed of almost every other flower’s
best. They are as fresh as the Rose, and more delicate; as innocent as
the Vale Lily, and more gay; as modest as the Daisy, and less prim. And
surely they are not the worse for being followed by a beautiful fruit;
any more than a beautiful bride is the worse for being a rich one. I
have been “cudgelling my brains” (which, to speak the truth, I am seldom
called upon to do) for a likeness to this lovely blossom; and I can
find none but that which I have used already. The Apple-blossom is like
nothing, in nature or in art, but the Countess of B----’s face; which is
itself not wholly in either, being a happy mixture of the best parts of
both--the sweet simplicity of the one, and the finished grace of the
other; and which--but I beseech her to take it away from before my
imagination at once, if she has any desire to see these pleasant papers
come to a conclusion; for if it should again open upon me from among the
flowers, like Cupid’s from out the Rose, I cannot answer for the
consequences on the remainder of this history; for, though I am able to
find in the Apple-blossom no likeness to any thing but _her_ face, if
once I am put upon pointing out resemblances in _that_, it shall go hard
but I will prove it to be, in some particular or other, the prototype of
all beautiful things,--always excepting Sir Thomas’s portrait of her;
which, however _she_ may be like _it_, is _not like her_. Her face is
like--

    ’Tis like the morning when it breaks;
    ’Tis like the evening when it takes
    Reluctant leave of the low sun;
    ’Tis like the moon, when day is done,
    Rising above the level sea;
    ’Tis like----

But hold!--if my readers, in consideration of the brief limits which
confine me, are not to be treated with other people’s poetry, they
shall, at least, not be troubled with mine; to which end I must bid
adieu to the abovenamed face, once and for ever.

We may now quit the garden for this month; though it would be ungrateful
to do so without condescending to take one glance at that portion of it
which is to supply our more substantial wants. Now, then, the
Kitchen-garden is in its best trim, its orderly inhabitants having all
put on their Spring liveries, and their sprightliest looks, but not
being yet sufficiently advanced in growth to call down that havoc which
will soon be at work among them. We must not venture into detail here;
though the real lover of the Garden (unless he affects the _genteel_)
would scarcely be angry with us if we did. But we may notice, in
passing, the first fruits of the year--Gooseberries and Currants; the
successive crops of Peas and Beans, “each under each,” the earliest just
getting into bloom; green lines of Lettuces, so spruce and orderly, that
it seems a pity ever to break them; (ditto of Cabbages we of course
utterly exclude, seeing that such things were never heard of in the
polite purlieus of Piccadilly;) Melon and Cucumber frames, glittering in
the bright light, and half open, to admit the morning visits of the sun
and air. In short, a flower-garden itself is but half complete, if we
cannot step out of it at pleasure into the kitchen one, on the other
side of the green screen or the fruit-clothed wall that bounds it.

       *       *       *       *       *

Must we, after all this pleasant expatiation among the natural delights
of May, repair to the metropolis, and see whether there is any thing
worthy of remark among the artificial ones? I suppose we must; for it is
mid-winter in London now, and the fashionable season is at its height.
But we must not be expected to look about us there in the best possible
humour, after having left the flowers and the sunshine behind us. We
will, at all events, contrive to reach London on May-day, that we may
not lose the only relic that is left us of the sports which were once as
natural to this period as the opening of the leaves or the springing of
the grass. I mean the gloomy merriment of Jack in the Green, and the sad
hilarity of the chimney-sweepers. This is, indeed, a melancholy affair,
contrasted with what that must have been of which it reminds us. The
effect of it, to the bystanders, is like that of a wobegone
ballad-singer chanting a merry stave. It is good as far as it goes,
nevertheless; inasmuch as it procures a holiday, such as it is, for
those who would not otherwise know the meaning of the phrase. The
wretched imps, whose mops and mowes produce the mock merriment in
question, are the _parias_ of their kind; outcasts from the society even
of their equals, the very charity-boys give themselves airs of patronage
in their presence; and the little beggar’s brat, that leads his blind
father along the streets, would scorn to be seen playing at
chuck-farthing with them. But even they, on May-day, feel themselves
somebody; for the rout of ragged urchins, that turned up their noses at
them yesterday, will to-day dog their footsteps with admiring shouts,
and, such is the love of momentary distinction, would not disdain to own
an acquaintance with them. Nay, some of them are trying, even now, to
recollect whether it was not with that young gentleman, in the gilt
jacket and gauze trowsers, that they had the honour of playing at
marbles “on Wednesday last.” There was not a man in the crowd, when
Jack Thurtell was hanged, that would not have been proud of a nod from
him on the scaffold.

Now, on the first day, the hats of the Hammersmith coachmen grow
progressively heavy, and their heads light, with the “favours” they
receive from the barmaids of the fifteen public-houses at which they
regularly stop to refresh themselves between Kensington Gravel Pits and
Saint Paul’s.

Now, the winter being fairly set in, London is full of life; and
Bond-street seems an enviable spot in the eyes of coach-makers, and
cavalry officers on duty.

Now, the innocent inhabitants of May-fair wonder what the people in the
street can mean by disturbing them at six in the morning, just as they
are getting to sleep, by crying, “come buy my nice bow-pots!” not having
any notion that there are natural flowers “in the midst of winter!”

Now, the Benefits have began at the winter theatres, and consequently
all “genteel” persons have left off going there; seeing that the only
attraction offered on those occasions is a double portion of amusement:
as if any body went to the theatre for _that_!

Now, the high fashionables, for once in the year, permit their horses’
hoofs to honour the stones of the Strand by striking fire out of them;
and, what is still more unaccountable, they permit plebeian shawls and
shoulders to come in contact with theirs, on the stairs of Somerset
House. And all to encourage the Arts! That their own portraits, by Sir
Thomas, are among the number of the works exhibited, cannot for a moment
be considered as the moving cause at such marvellous condescension.

Now, too, flowing through the Strand in opposite directions towards the
same spot, may be seen, on fine days of the first fortnight, two streams
of white muslin, on which flowers are floating, and which form a
confluence at the gates of the Academy, and ascending the winding
staircase together (which streams are seldom in the habit of doing),
presently disperse themselves into a lake at the top of the building,
which glows with as many colours as that on the top of Mount Cenis.

Now, too, still on the same spot, may be seen, peering half
shamefacedly in the purlieus of his own picture, some anxious young
artist, watching intently for those scraps of criticism which the
newspapers have as yet withheld from him (but which will doubtless
appear in _tomorrow’s_ report); and believing, from the bottom of his
soul, that the young lady, aged twelve years, who has just fetched her
mamma to admire _his_ production, is the best judge in the room; which,
considering that he is a reasonable person, and nowise prejudiced, is
more than he can account for in one so young!

Now, an occasional butterfly is seen fluttering away over the heads of
the pale pedestrians of Ludgate Hill, who wonder what it can portend.
Now, country cousins pay their triennial visits to the sights of London;
and having been happy enough to secure lodgings in a side street in the
Strand, have no doubt whatever that they are living at the west end of
the town. Accordingly, they perambulate Parliament-street with exemplary
perseverance, and then return to the country, to tell tales of the
fashionables they have seen.

Finally, now the Parks really are the pleasantest imitations of the
country that can be met with away from it. That of Hyde is worth
walking in at five on a fine week-day, if it be only to see how the
footmen and the horses enjoy themselves; and still more so at four on a
fine Sunday, to see how the citizens do the same. The Green Park, in
virtue of the youths and maidens who meander about it in all directions
on the latter day, looks, at a distance, like a meadow strewn all over
with moving wild-flowers. And the great alley in Kensington Gardens,
when the fashionables please to patronise it, is as pretty to look down
upon, from the Pavilion at top, as one of Watteau’s pictures.



JUNE.


Summer is come--come, but not to stay; at least, not at the commencement
of this month. And how should it, unless we expect that the seasons will
be kind enough to conform to the devices of man, and suffer themselves
to be called by what name and at what period _he_ pleases? He must die
and leave them a legacy (instead of they him) before there will be any
show of justice in this. Till then the beginning of June will continue
to be the latter end of May, by rights; as it was according to the _old
style_. And, among a thousand changes, in what one has the old style
been improved upon by the new? Assuredly not in that of substituting the
_utile_ for the _dulce_, in any eyes but those of almanack makers. Let
all lovers of Spring, therefore, be fully persuaded that, for the first
fortnight in June, they are living in May; and then, all the sweet
truths that I had to tell of the latter month, are equally applicable to
half the present. We shall thus be gaining instead of losing, after
all, by the impertinence of any breath, but that of Heaven, attempting
to force Spring into Summer, even in name alone.

Spring, therefore, may now be considered as employed in completing her
toilet, and, for the first weeks of this month, putting on those last
finishing touches which an accomplished beauty never trusts to any hand
but her own. In the woods and groves also, she is still clothing some of
her noblest and proudest attendants with their new annual attire. The
oak until now has been nearly bare; and, of whatever age, has been
looking old all the Winter and Spring, on account of its crumpled
branches and wrinkled rind. Now, of whatever age, it looks young, in
virtue of its new green, lighter than all the rest of the grove. Now,
also, the stately Walnut (standing singly or in pairs in the fore-court
of ancient manor-houses; or in the home corner of the pretty park-like
paddock at the back of some modern Italian villa, whose white dome it
saw rise beneath it the other day, and mistakes for a mushroom), puts
forth its smooth leaves slowly, as “sage grave men” do their thoughts;
and which over-caution reconciles one to the beating it receives in the
autumn, as the best means of at once compassing its present fruit, and
making it bear more; as its said prototypes in animated nature are
obliged to have their brains cudgelled, before any good can be got from
them.

Among the ornamental trees, the only one that is not as yet clothed in
all its beauty is, the most beautiful of all--the white Acacia. Its trim
taper leaves are but just spreading themselves forth to welcome the
coming summer sun; as those pretty female fingers which they resemble
are spread involuntarily at the approach of the accepted lover.

The Mulberry, too, which in this country never sees itself unprovided
with a smooth-shaven carpet of green turf beneath it, on which to drop
(without injuring) its tender fruit, is only now rousing itself from its
late repose. Its appearance is at present as poverty-stricken, in
comparison with most of its well-dressed companions, as six weeks hence
it will be rich, full, and umbrageous.

These are the chief appearances of the early part of this month which
appertain exclusively to the Spring. Let us now (however reluctantly)
take a final leave of that lovely and love-making season, and at once
step forward into the glowing presence of Summer--contenting ourselves,
however, to touch the hem of her rich garments, and not attempting to
look into her heart, till she lays that open to us herself next month:
for whatever school-boys calendar-makers may say to the contrary,
Midsummer never happens in England till July.

The most appropriate spots in which first to watch the footsteps of
Summer are amid “the pomp of Groves, and garniture of Fields.” There let
us seek her, then.

To saunter, at mid June, beneath the shade of some old forest, situated
in the neighbourhood of a great town, so that paths are worn through it,
and you can make your way with ease in any direction, gives one the idea
of being transferred, by some strange magic, from the surface of the
earth to the bottom of the sea! (I say it gives _one_ this idea; for I
cannot answer for more, in matters of so arbitrary a nature as the
association of ideas). Over head, and round about, you hear the sighing,
the whispering, or the roaring (as the wind pleases) of a thousand
billows; and looking upward, you see the light of heaven transmitted
faintly, as if through a mass of green waters. Hither and thither, as
you move along, strange forms flit swiftly about you, which may, for any
thing you can see or hear to the contrary, be exclusive natives of the
new world in which your fancy chooses to find itself: they may be
_fishes_, if that pleases; for they are as mute as such, and glide
through the liquid element as swiftly. Now and then, indeed, one of
larger growth, and less lubricated movements, lumbers up from beside
your path, and cluttering noisily away to a little distance, may chance
to scare for a moment your sub-marine reverie. Your palate too may
perhaps here step in, and try to persuade you that the cause of
interruption was not a fish but a pheasant. But in fact, if your fancy
is one of those which are disposed to “listen to reason,” it will not be
able to lead you into spots of the above kind without your gun in your
hand,--one report of which will put all fancies to flight in a moment,
as well as every thing else that has wings. To return, therefore, to our
walk,--what do all these strange objects look like, that stand silently
about us in the dim twilight, some spiring straight up, and tapering as
they ascend, till they lose themselves in the green waters above--some
shattered and splintered, leaning against each other for support, or
lying heavily on the floor on which we walk--some half buried in that
floor, as if they had lain dead there for ages, and become incorporate
with it; what do all these seem, but wrecks and fragments of some mighty
vessel, that has sunk down here from above, and lain weltering and
wasting away, till these are all that is left of it! Even the floor
itself on which we stand, and the vegetation it puts forth, are unlike
those of any other portion of the earth’s surface, and may well recall,
by their strange appearance in the half light, the fancies that have
come upon us when we have read or dreamt of those gifted beings, who,
like Ladurlad in Kehama, could walk on the floor of the sea, without
waiting, as the visitors at Watering-places are obliged to do, for the
tide to go out.

“But why,” exclaims the reasonable reader, “detain us, at a time of year
like this, among fancies and associations, when facts and realities a
thousand times more lovely are waiting to be recorded?” He is right, and
I bow to the reproof; only I must escape at once from the old Forest
into which I had inadvertently wandered; for _there_ I shall not be able
to remain a moment fancy-free.

Stepping forth, then, into the open fields, what a bright pageant of
Summer beauty is spread out before us! We are standing, you perceive, on
a little eminence, every point of which presents some particular
offering of the season, and from which we can also look abroad upon
those which require a more distant and general gaze. Everywhere about
our feet flocks of Wild-Flowers

    “Do paint the meadow with delight.”

We must not stay to pluck and particularize them; for most of them have
already had their greeting from us in the two preceding months; and
though they insist on repeating themselves during this, they must not
expect us to do the same, to the exclusion of others whose claims are
newer and not less noticeable. That we may duly attend to these latter,
let us pass along beside this flourishing Hedge-row, that skirts the
Wood from which we have just emerged.

The first novelty of the Season that greets us here is perhaps the
sweetest, the freshest, and fairest of all, and the only one that could
supply an adequate substitute for the Hawthorn bloom which it has
superseded. Need the Eglantine be named? the “sweet-leaved Eglantine;”
the “rain-scented Eglantine;” Eglantine--to which the Sun himself pays
homage, by “counting his dewy rosary” on it every morning;
Eglantine--which Chaucer, and even Shakespeare--but hold--let me again
insist on the Poets not being permitted to set their feet even within
the porticos of these pleasant papers; for if once they do, good bye to
the control of the rightful owner! I did but invite Mr. Wordsworth in,
two months ago, as the reader may remember, just to say a few words in
favour of the Daisy, in pure gratitude for his having made it a sort of
sin to tread on one,--and lo! there was no getting him out again, till
he had poured forth two or three pages full of stanzas, touching that
one “wee, modest, crimson-tipped Flower!” Besides, what need have we for
the aid of Poets (I mean _the_ Poets, so called _par excellence_) when
in the actual presence of that Nature which made _them_ such, and can
make _us_ such too, if any thing can. In fact, whatsoever the Poets
themselves may insinuate to the contrary, to read poetry in the
presence of Nature is a kind of impiety: it is like reading the
commentators on Shakespeare, and skipping the text; for you cannot
attend to both; to say nothing of Nature’s book being a _vade mecum_
that can make “every man his own poet” for the time being; and there is,
after all, no poetry like that which we create for ourselves. Away,
then, with the Poets by profession--at least till the winter comes, and
we want them.

Begging pardon of the Eglantine for having permitted any thing--even her
own likeness in the Poets’ looking-glass--to turn our attention from her
real self,--look with what infinite grace she scatters her sweet
coronals here and there among her bending branches; or hangs them,
half-concealed, among the heavy blossoms of the Woodbine that lifts
itself so boldly above her, after having first clung to _her_ for
support; or permits them to peep out here and there close to the ground,
and almost hidden by the rank weeds below; or holds out a whole arch-way
of them, swaying backward and forward in the breeze, as if praying of
the passers hand to pluck them. Let who will praise the Hawthorn--now it
is no more! The Wild Rose is the Queen of Forest Flowers, if it be only
because she is as unlike a Queen as the absence of every thing courtly
can make her.

The Woodbine deserves to be held next in favour during this month;
though more on account of its _intellectual_ than its personal beauty.
All the air is faint with its rich sweetness; and the delicate breath of
its lovely rival is lost in the luscious odours which it exhales.

These are the only _scented_ Wild Flowers that we shall now meet with in
any profusion; for though the Violet may still be found by looking for,
its breath has lost much of its spring power. But if we are content with
mere beauty, this month is perhaps more profuse of it than any other,
even in that department of Nature which we are now examining--namely,
the Fields and Woods. The rich hedge-row from which we have just been
plucking the Eglantine and the Wild Honeysuckle is fringed all along its
borders, and festooned in every part, with gay clusters, some of which
appeared for the first time last month, and continue through this, and
with numerous others which now first come forth. Most conspicuous among
the latter are the brilliant Hound’s tongue; the striped and variegated
Convolvulus; the Wild Scabious, pale and scentless sister of the rich
garden one; the Ox-eye, or Great White Daisy, looking, with its yellow
centre surrounded by white beams, like the miniature original of the Sun
on country sign-posts; the Mallow, that supplies the little children
with _cheeses_; and two or three of the almost animated Orchises,
particularly the Bee-Orchis,--which escapes being rifled of its sweets
by that general plunderer who gives his name to it, by always seeming to
be pre-occupied.

Before quitting the little elevation on which we have commenced our
observations, we must take a brief general glance at the various masses
of objects that it brings within our view. The Woods and Groves, and the
single Forest Trees that rise here and there from out the bounding
Hedge-rows, are now in full foliage; all, however, presenting a somewhat
sombre, because monotonous, hue, wanting all the tender newness of the
Spring, and all the rich variety of the Autumn. And this is the more
observable, because the numerous plots of cultivated land, divided from
each other by the hedge-rows, and looking, at this distance, like beds
in a garden divided by box, are nearly all still invested with the same
green mantle; for the Wheat, the Oats, the Barley, and even the early
Rye, though now in full flower, have not yet become tinged with their
harvest hues. They are all alike green; and the only change that can be
seen in their appearance is that caused by the different lights into
which each is thrown, as the wind passes over them. The patches of
purple or of white Clover that intervene here and there, and are now in
flower, offer striking exceptions to the above, and at the same time
load the air with their sweetness. Nothing can be more rich and
beautiful in its effect on a distant prospect at this season, than a
great patch of purple Clover lying apparently motionless on a sunny
upland, encompassed by a whole sea of green Corn, waving and shifting
about it at every breath that blows.

Before quitting this Wood-side, let us observe that the hitherto full
concert of the singing birds is now beginning to falter, and fall short.
We shall do well to make the most of it now; for in two or three weeks
it will almost entirely cease till the Autumn. I mean that it will cease
as a full concert; for we shall have single songsters all through the
Summer at intervals; and those some of the sweetest and best. The best
of all, indeed, the Nightingale, we have now lost. It is never to be
heard for more than two months in this country, and never at all after
the young are hatched, which happens about this time. So that the youths
and maidens who now go in pairs to the Wood-side, on warm nights, to
listen for its song (hoping they may _not_ hear it), are well content to
hear each other’s voice instead.

We have still, however, some of the finest of the second class of
songsters left; for the Nightingale, like Catalani, is a class by
itself. The mere chorus-singers of the Grove are also beginning to be
silent; so that the _jubilate_ that has been chanting for the last month
is now over. But the Stephenses, the Trees, the Patons, and the Poveys,
are still with us, under the forms of the Woodlark, the Skylark, the
Blackcap, and the Goldfinch. And the first-named of these, now that it
no longer fears the rivalry of the unrivalled, not seldom, on warm
nights, sings at intervals all night long, poised at one spot high up in
the soft moonlit air.

We have still another pleasant little singer, the Field Cricket, whose
clear shrill voice the warm weather has now matured to its full
strength, and who must not be forgotten, though he has but one song to
offer us all his life long, and that one consisting but of one note; for
it is a note of joy, and _will_ not be heard without engendering its
like. You may hear him in wayside banks, where the Sun falls hot,
shrilling out his loud cry into the still air all day long, as he sits
at the mouth of his cell; and if you chance to be passing by the same
spot at midnight, you may hear it then too.

We must now make our way towards home, noticing a few of the remaining
marks of mid-June as we pass along. Now, then, in covert Copses, or on
the skirts of dark Woods, the Foxglove rears its one splendid spire of
speckled flowers from the centre of its cone of dull, down-hanging
leaves.--Now, scarlet Poppies peer up here and there in bright companies
among the green shafts of the Corn, and scatter beauty over the mischief
they do.--Now, Bees and little boys banquet on the honey-laden flowers
of the white Hedge-nettle.--Now, the Brooms put forth their gold and
silver blossoms on hitherto barren Heaths, and change them into
beauteous gardens.--Now, whole fields of Peas send out their winged
blossoms, which look like flocks of purple and white butterflies
basking in the sun.--Now, too, the Bean, which has little or no
perceptible scent when gathered and smelt to singly, growing together in
fields breathes forth the most enchanting odour,--only to be come at,
however, by the wind, which bears and spreads it half over the adjacent
plains.

Now, also, we meet with several new objects among the animated part of
the creation, a few only of which we must stay to notice.--Now, the
Grasshopper vaults merrily in the meadows, leaping over the tops of
their mountains (the molehills), and fancying himself a bird.--Now, the
great Dragon-flies shoot with their shining wings through the air, as if
bearing some fairy to its distant bower; or hover, apparently motion and
motiveless, as if they had forgotten their way, or were waiting to look
at some invisible direction-post. We had best not inquire too curiously
into their employment at those moments, lest we should find that they
are only stopping to take a bait, consisting of some beautiful invisible
that had just began to enjoy its age of half an hour.--Now, lastly, as
the Sun declines, may be seen, emerging from the surface of shallow
streams, and lying there for a while till its wings are dried for
flight, the (misnamed) _May_-fly. Escaping, after a protracted struggle
of half a minute, from its watery birth-place, it flutters restlessly,
up and down, up and down, over the same spot, during its whole era of a
summer evening; and at last dies, as the last dying streaks of day are
leaving the western horizon. And yet, who shall say that in that space
of time it has not undergone all the vicissitudes of a long and eventful
life? That it has not felt all the freshness of youth, all the vigour of
maturity, all the weakness and satiety of old age, and all the pangs of
death itself? In short, who shall satisfy us that any essential
difference exists between _its_ four hours and _our_ fourscore years?

Before entering the home inclosure, we must pay due honour to the two
grand husbandry occupations of this month; the Hay-harvest, and the
Sheep-shearing.

The Hay-harvest, besides filling the whole air with its sweetness, is
even more picturesque in the appearances it offers, as well as more
pleasant in the associations it calls forth, than _the_ Harvest in
Autumn. What a delightful succession of pictures it presents! First, the
Mowers, stooping over their scythes, and moving with measured paces
through the early morning mists, interrupted at intervals by the
freshening music of the whetstone.

Then--blithe companies of both sexes, ranged in regular array, and
moving lengthwise and across the Meadow, each with the same action, and
the ridges rising or disappearing behind them as they go:

    “There are forty _moving_ like one.”--

Then again, when the fragrant crop is nearly fit to be gathered in, and
lies piled up in dusky-coloured hillocks upon the yellow sward, while
here and there, beneath the shade of a “hedgerow elm,” or braving the
open sunshine in the centre of the scene, sunburnt Groups are seated in
circles at their noonday meal, enjoying that ease which nothing but
labour can generate.

And lastly, when Man and Nature, mutually assisting each other, have
completed the work of preparation, and the cart stands still to receive
its last forkfull; while the horse, almost hidden beneath his apparently
overwhelming load, lifts up his patient head sideways to pick a
mouthful; and all about stand the labourers, leaning listlessly on their
implements, and eyeing the completion of their work.

What sweet pastoral pictures are here! The last, in particular, is
prettier to look upon than any thing else, not excepting one of
Wouvermann’s imitations of it.

Sheep-shearing, the other great rural labour of this delightful month,
if not so full of variety as the Hay-harvest, and so creative of matter
for those “in search of the picturesque” (though it is scarcely less
so), is still more lively, animated, and spirit-stirring; and it besides
retains something of the character of a Rural Holiday,--which rural
matters need, in this age and in this country, more than ever they did
since it became a civilized and happy one. The Sheep-shearings are the
only _stated_ periods of the year at which we hear of festivities, and
gatherings together of the lovers and practisers of English husbandry;
for even the Harvest-home itself is fast sinking into disuse, as a scene
of mirth and revelry, from the want of being duly encouraged and
partaken in by the great ones of the Earth; without whose countenance
and example it is questionable whether eating, drinking, and sleeping,
would not soon become vulgar practices, and be discontinued accordingly!
In a state of things like this, the Holkham and Woburn Sheep-shearings
do more honour to their promoters than all their wealth can purchase
and all their titles convey. But we are getting beyond our soundings:
honours, titles, and “states of things,” are what we do not pretend to
meddle with, especially when the pretty sights and sounds preparatory to
and attendant on Sheep-shearing, as a mere rural employment, are waiting
to be noticed.

Now, then, on the first really summer’s day, the whole Flock being
collected on the higher bank of the pool formed at the abrupt winding of
the nameless mill-stream, at the point perhaps where the little wooden
bridge runs slantwise across it, and the attendants being stationed
waist-deep in the midwater, the Sheep are, after a silent but obstinate
struggle or two, plunged headlong, one by one, from the precipitous
bank; when, after a moment of confused splashing, their heavy fleeces
float them along, and their feet, moving by an instinctive art which
every creature but man possesses, guide them towards the opposite
shallows, that steam and glitter in the sunshine. Midway, however, they
are fain to submit to the rude grasp of the relentless washer; which
they undergo with as ill a grace as preparatory-schoolboys do the same
operation. Then, gaining the opposite shore heavily, they stand for a
moment till the weight of water leaves them, and, shaking their
streaming sides, go bleating away towards their fellows on the adjacent
green, wondering within themselves what has happened.

The Shearing is no less lively and picturesque, and no less attended by
all the idlers of the Village as spectators. The Shearers, seated in
rows beside the crowded pens, with the seemingly inanimate load of
fleece in their laps, and bending intently over their work; the
occasional whetting and clapping of the shears; the neatly attired
housewives, waiting to receive the fleeces; the smoke from the
tar-kettle, ascending through the clear air; the shorn Sheep escaping,
one by one, from their temporary bondage, and trotting away towards
their distant brethren, bleating all the while for their Lambs, that do
not know them;--all this, with its ground of universal green, and
finished every where by its leafy distances, except where the village
spire intervenes, forms together a living picture, pleasanter to look
upon than words can speak, but still pleasanter to think of when _that_
is the nearest approach you can make to it.

We must now betake ourselves to the Garden, which I have perhaps kept
aloof from longer than I ought, from something like a fear that the
flush of beauty we shall meet there will go near to infringe upon that
perfect sobriety of style on which these papers so much pique
themselves, and which, I hope, has not hitherto been departed from! What
may happen now, however, is more than I shall venture to anticipate. If,
therefore, in passing across yonder smooth elastic Turf, now in its
fullest perfection, and making our way towards the Flower-plots that are
imbedded in it, my imagination should imbibe some of the occasionally
undue warmth of the season, and my fancy find itself “half in a blush of
clustering roses lost,” and these should together engender a style as
flowery as the subject about which it is to concern itself, the reader
will be good enough to bear in mind, that even the Berecinian blood of
an Irish Barrister can scarcely be made to keep within due bounds, when
he has a beauty for his client! nay, that even _the_ Irish Barrister
_par excellence_ is sometimes misled into a metaphor, and inveigled into
an allitteration, when his theme happens to be more than ordinarily
inspiring!

As the Wild Rose is the reigning belle of the Forest during this Month,
so _the_ Rose occupies a similar rank in the more courtly realm of the
Garden; and the latter is to her sweet relative of the Woods what the
centre of the court circle in town (whoever she may be) is to the
_Cynosure_ of a country village. Here, in these oval clumps, which she
has usurped entirely to herself, we find her greeting us under a host of
different forms at the same time, all of which are her own, all unlike
each other, and yet each and all more lovely than all the rest! I must
be content merely to call by name upon a few of the principal of these
“fair varieties,” and allow their prototypes in the reader’s imagination
to answer for themselves; for the Poets, those purloiners of all public
property that is worth possessing, have long precluded us plain prosers
from being epithetical in regard to Roses, without incurring the
imputation of borrowing that from _them_, which _they_ first borrowed
from their betters, the Roses themselves.

What, then, can be more enchanting to look upon than this newly-opened
Rose of Provence, looking upward half shamefacedly from its fragile
stem, as if just awakened from a happy dream to a happier reality? It
is the loveliest Rose we have, and the sweetest--_except_ this by its
side, the Rose-unique, which looks like the image of the other cut in
marble--the statue of the Venus de’ Medici beside the living beauty that
stood as its model. _This_, surely, _is_ the loveliest of all
Roses--_except_ the White Blush-Rose, that rises here in the centre of
the group, and looks like the marble image of the two former, just as
the enamoured gaze of its Pygmalion has warmed it into life. You see,
its delicate lips are just becoming tinged with the hues of vitality;
and it _breathes_ already, as all the air about it bears witness.
Undoubtedly _this_ is the loveliest of Roses--_except_ the Moss Rose
that hangs flauntingly beside it, seemingly the most careless, but in
reality the most coquettish of court beauties; apparently the sport of
every coxcomb Zephyr that passes, but in truth indifferent to all but
her own sweet self; and if more modest in her attire than all other of
her fair sisterhood, only adopting this particular mode because it makes
her look more pretty and piquant. Her “close-fit cap of green,” the
fashion of which she never changes, has exactly that _becoming_ effect
on her face which a French _blonde_ trimming has on the face of an
English _londe_ beauty. But I must refrain from further details,
touching the attractions of the Rose family, or I shall inevitably lose
my credit with all of them, by discovering some reason why each, as it
comes before me, is without exception preferable to all the rest. And,
in fact, without wishing to be personal in regard to any, I must insist
that, philosophically speaking, that Rose which is nearest at hand _is_,
without exception, the best of Roses, in relation to the person affected
by it; and that even the gaudy Damask, and the intense velvet-leaved
Tuscan (each of which, in its own particular ear be it said, is
handsomer than any of the beforenamed), must yield in beauty to the
pretty little innocent blossoms of the Sweet-briar Rose itself, when
none but that is by.

I am afraid the other Garden Flowers, that first appear in June, must go
without their fair proportion of praise, since they _will_ risk a
rivalry with the unrivalled. They must be content with a passing “now”
of recognition. Now, then, the flaring Peony throws up its splendid
globes of crimson and blush-colour from out its rich domelike pavilion
of dark leaves.--Now, the elegant yet exotic-looking family of the
Amaranths begin to put on their fantastical attire of fans, feathers,
and fringes. Those, however, which give name to the tribe, the truly
_Amaranthine_, or Everlasting ones, are not yet come; nor that other,
most elegant and pathetic of them all, which is known by the name of
Love-lies-bleeding.

Now, the Ranunculus tribe begin to scatter about their many-coloured
balls of brilliant light. The Persian ones, when planted in beds, with
their infinite varieties of tint and penciling, and their hundred
leaves, lapped over each other with such inimitable art, eclipse all the
Tulips of the Spring, and would eclipse their Summer rivals the
Carnations too, but that the latter are as sweet as they are beautiful.

Now, the delicate Balsams rejoice in the fresh air which is allowed to
blow upon them, and which, like too tender maidens, they have been
sighing for ever since they came into bloom, without knowing that one
rude breath of it would have blown them into the grave.

Now, too, the Fuchsia, that most exquisitely formed of all our flowers,
native or exotic, is no longer confined, like an invalid, to a fixed
temperature, but is permitted to mix with its more hardy brethren in the
open air.

Now, also, the whole tribe of Geraniums get leave of absence from their
winter barracks, and are allowed to keep guard on each side the
hall-door, in their gay regimentals of scarlet, crimson, and the rest,
ranged “each under each,” according to their respective inches, and all
together making up as pretty a show as a crack regiment at a review.
What the passers in and out can mean by plucking part of a leaf as they
go, rubbing it between their fingers, and then throwing it away, is more
than they (the Geraniums) can divine.

The other flowers, that present themselves for the first time in this
most fertile of all the months, must be dismissed with a very brief
glance at the commonest of them: which epithet, by the way, is always a
synonyme for the most beautiful, among flowers. Now, the favourite
family of the Pinks shoot up their hundred-leaved heads from out their
low ground-loving clump of frosty-looking leaves, and are in such haste
to scatter abroad their load of sweetness, that they break down the
polished sides of the pretty green vase in which they are set, and hang
about it like the tresses of a school-girl on the afternoon of
dancing-day.

Now, Sweet-Williams lift up their bold but handsome faces, right against
the meridian Sun,--disdaining to shrink or bend beneath his most ardent
gaze: whence, no doubt, their claim to the name of William; for no
lady-flower would think of doing so!

Now, the Columbine dances a _pas-seul_ to the music of the breeze;
“being her first appearance this season;” and she performs her part to
admiration, notwithstanding her Harlequin husband, Fritillary, has not
been heard of for this month past.

Now, the yellow Globe-flower flings up its balls of gold into the air;
and the modest little Virginia Stock scatters its rubies, and sapphires,
and pearls, profusely upon the ground; and Lupines spread their wings
for flight, but cannot, for very fondness, escape from the handsome
leaves over which they seem hovering; and Mignonette begins to make good
its pretty name; and, finally, the princely Poppy, and the starry
Marigold, and the innocent little wild Pansy, and the pretty Pimpernel,
and the dear little blue Germander, _will_ spring up, unasked, all over
the Garden, and you cannot find in your heart to treat them as weeds.

In the Fruit Garden, all is still for the most part promise: not,
however, the flowery and often fallacious promise of the Spring; but
that solid and satisfying assurance which one feels in the word of a
friend who never breaks it. So that, to the eye and palate of the
imagination, this month and the next are richer than those which follow
them; for now you can “_have_ your fruit and _eat_ it too;” which you
cannot do then. In short, now the fruit blossoms are all gone, and the
fruit is so fully _set_ that nothing can hurt it; and what is better
still, it is not yet stealable, either by boys, birds, or bees; so that
you are as sure of it as one can be of any thing the enjoyment of which
is not actually past. Enjoy it now, then, while you may; in order that,
when in the Autumn it _disappears_, on the eve of the very day you had
destined for the gathering of it (as every body’s fruit does), _you_
alone may feel that you can afford to lose it. Every heir who is worthy
to enjoy the estate that is left to him in reversion, _does_ enjoy it
whether it ever comes to him or not.

On looking more closely at the Fruit, we shall find that the
Strawberries, which lately (like bold and beautiful children) held out
their blossoms into the open sunshine, that all the world might see
them, now, that their fruit is about to reach maturity, hide it
carefully beneath their low-lying leaves, as conscious virgins do their
maturing beauties;--that the Gooseberries and Currants have attained
their full growth, and the latter are turning ripe;--that the Wall-fruit
is just getting large enough to be seen among the leaves without looking
for;--that the Cherries are peeping out in white or “cherry-cheeked”
clusters all along their straight branches;--and that the other
standards, the Apples, Pears, and Plums, are more or less forward,
according to their kinds.

For reasons before hinted at, and in deference to the delicacy of that
class of readers for whom these papers are in part propounded, I must,
however reluctantly, refrain from descending any lower in the scale of
vegetable life. It would ill become me to speak in praise of Green Peas
in presence of a Peeress--who could not possibly understand the
allusion! Think of mentioning Summer Cabbages within hearing of a
Countess, or French Beans to a Baronet’s Lady! I could not do it. I
cannot even persuade myself to “mention _Herbs_ to ears polite!” If it
were not for this proper, and indeed necessary restriction, there would
be no end to the pleasant sights I might show the ordinary reader during
this month, in the Kitchen-garden. But it may not be. I know my duty,
and in pursuance of it must now at once “stay my hand, and change my
measure.”

       *       *       *       *       *

Behold us, then, in the heart of London. In the Country, when we left
it, Midsummer was just at hand. Here mid-Winter has just passed away!
and the Fashionable World finds itself in a condition of the most
melancholy intermediateness. It is now much too late to stay in Town,
and much too early to go into the Country. And what is worse, all
fashionable amusements are at an end in London, and have not yet
commenced elsewhere; on the express presumption that there is no one at
hand to partake of them in either case. There are two places of public
resort, however, which still boast the occasional countenance of people
of fashion; probably on account of their corresponding with the
intermediate character of the month--not being situated either in
London or the Country, but at equal distances from each. I mean
Kensington Gardens and Vauxhall. Now, in fact, during the first
fortnight, Kensington Gardens is a place not to be paralleled: for the
unfashionable portion of my readers are to know, that this delightful
spot, which has been utterly deserted during the last age (of seven
years), and could not be named during all that period without incurring
the odious imputation of having a taste for trees and turf, has now
suddenly started into vogue once more, and you may walk there even
during the “morning” part of a Sunday afternoon with perfect impunity,
always provided you pay a due deference to the decreed hours, and never
make your appearance there earlier than twenty minutes before five, or
later than half-past six; which is allowing you exactly two hours after
breakfast to dress for the Promenade, and an hour after you get home to
do the same for dinner: little enough, it must be confessed; but quite
as much as the unremitting labour of a life of idleness can afford!
Between the abovenamed hours, on the three first Sundays of this month,
and the two last of the preceding, you may (weather willing) gladden
your gaze with such a galaxy of Beauty and Fashion (I beg to be pardoned
for the repetition, for Fashion _is_ Beauty) as no other period or
place, Almack’s itself not excepted, can boast: for there is no denying
that the fair rulers over this last-named rendezvous of the regular
troops of _bon ton_ are somewhat too _recherchée_ in their requirements.
The truth is, that though the said Rulers will not for a moment hesitate
to patronise the above proposition under its simple form, they entirely
object to that subtle interpretation of it which their sons and nephews
would introduce, and on which interpretation the sole essential
difference between the two assemblies depends. In fact, at Almack’s
Fashion is Beauty; but at Kensington Gardens Beauty and Fashion are one.
At any rate, those who have not been present at the latter place during
the period above referred to, have not seen the finest sight (with one
exception) that England has to offer.

Vauxhall Gardens, which open the first week in this month, are somewhat
different from the above, it must be confessed. But they are unique in
their way nevertheless. Seen in the darkness of noonday, as one passes
by them on the top of the Portsmouth coach, they cut a sorry figure
enough. But beneath the full meridian of midnight, what is like them,
except some parts of the Arabian Nights’ Entertainments? Now, after the
first few nights, they begin to be in their glory, and are, on every
successive Gala, illuminated with “ten thousand _additional_ lamps,” and
include all the particular attractions of every preceding Gala since the
beginning of time!

Now, on fine evenings, the sunshine finds (or rather loses) its way into
the galleries of Summer Theatres at whole price, and wonders where it
has got to. Now, Boarding-school boys, in the purlieus of Paddington and
Mile End, employ the whole of the first week in writing home to their
distant friends in London a letter of not less than eight lines,
announcing that the “ensuing vacation will commence on the ----
instant;” and occupy the remaining fortnight in trying to find out the
unknown numerals with which the blank has been filled up.

Finally, now, during the first few days, you cannot walk the streets
without waiting, at every crossing, for the passage of whole regiments
of little boys in leather breeches, and little girls in white aprons,
going to church to practise their annual anthem singing, preparatory to
that particular Thursday in this month, which is known all over the
world of Charity Schools by the name of “walking-day;” when their little
voices, ten thousand strong, are to utter forth sounds that shall dwell
for ever in the hearts of their hearers. Those who have seen this sight,
of all the Charity Children within the Bills of Mortality assembled
beneath the dome of Saint Paul’s, and heard the sounds of thanksgiving
and adoration which they utter there, have seen and heard what is
perhaps better calculated than any thing human ever was to convey to the
imagination a faint notion of what we expect to witness hereafter, when
the Hosts of Heaven shall utter, with _one voice_, hymns of adoration
before the footstool of the Most High.



JULY.


At last Summer _is_ come among us, and her whole world of wealth is
spread out before us in prodigal array. The Woods and Groves have
darkened and thickened into one impervious mass of sober uniform green,
and having for a while ceased to exercise the more active functions of
the Spring, are resting from their labours, in that state of “wise
passiveness” which _we_, in virtue of our so infinitely greater wisdom,
know so little how to enjoy. In Winter, the Trees may be supposed to
sleep in a state of insensible inactivity, and in Spring to be labouring
with the flood of new life that is pressing through their veins, and
forcing them to perform the offices attached to their existence. But in
Summer, having reached the middle term of their annual life, they pause
in their appointed course, and then, if ever, _taste_ the nourishment
they take in, and “enjoy the air they breathe.” And he who, sitting in
Summer time beneath the shade of a spreading Plane-tree, can see its
brave branches fan the soft breeze as it passes, and hear its polished
leaves whisper and twitter to each other, like birds at love-making; and
yet can feel any thing like an assurance that it does _not_ enjoy its
existence, knows little of the tenure by which he holds his own, and
still less of that by which he clings to the hope of a future. I do not
ask him to make it an article of his _faith_ that the flowers feel; but
I do ask him, for his own sake, not to make it an article of his faith
that they _do not_.

Like the Woods and Groves, the Hills and Plains have now put off the
bright green livery of Spring; but, unlike them, they have changed it
for one dyed in almost as many colours as a harlequin’s coat. The Rye is
yellow, and almost ripe for the sickle. The Wheat and Barley are of a
dull green, from their swelling ears being alone visible, as they bow
before every breeze that blows over them. The Oats are whitening apace,
and quiver, each individual grain on its light stem, as they hang like
rain-drops in the air. Looked on separately, and at a distance, these
three now wear a somewhat dull and monotonous hue, when growing in great
spaces; but this makes them contrast the more effectually with the
many-coloured patches that every where intermix with them, in an
extensively open country; and it is in such a one that we should make
our _general_ observations, at this finest period of all our year.

What can be more beautiful to look on, from an eminence, than a great
Plain, painted all over with the party-coloured honours of the early
portion of this month, when the all-pervading verdure of the Spring has
passed away, and before the scorching heats of Summer have had time to
prevail over the various tints and hues that have taken its place? The
principal share of the landscape will probably be occupied by the sober
hues of the above-named Corns. But these will be intersected, in all
directions, by patches of the brilliant emerald which now begins to
spring afresh on the late-mown meadows; by the golden yellow of the Rye,
in some cases cut, and standing in sheaves; by the rich dark green of
the Turnip-fields; and still more brilliantly, by sweeps, here and
there, of the bright yellow Charlock, the scarlet Corn-poppy, and the
blue Succory, which, like perverse beauties, scatter the stray gifts of
their charms in proportion as the soil cannot afford to support the
expenses attendant on them.

Still keeping in the open Fields, let us come into a little closer
contact with some of the sights which they present this month. The high
Down on which we took our stand, to look out upon the above prospect,
has begun to feel the parching influence of the Sun, and is daily
growing browner and browner beneath its rays; but, to make up for this,
all the little Molehills that cover it are purple with the flowers of
the wild Thyme, which exhales its rich aromatic odour as you press it
with your feet; and among it the elegant blue Heath-bell is nodding its
half-dependent head from its almost invisible stem,--its perpetual
motion, at the slightest breath of air, giving it the look of a living
thing hovering on invisible wings just above the ground. Every here and
there, too, we meet with little patches of dark green Heaths, hung all
over with their clusters of exquisitely wrought filigree flowers,
endless in the variety of their forms, but all of the most curiously
delicate fabric, and all, in their minute beauty, unparalleled by the
proudest occupiers of the Parterre. This is the singular family of
Plants that, when cultivated in pots, and trained to form heads on
separate stems, give one the idea of the Forest Trees of a Lilliputian
people. Those who think there is nothing in Nature too insignificant for
notice, will not ask us to quit our present spot of observation (a high
turf-covered Down) without pointing out the innumerable little
thread-like spikes that now rise from out the level turf, with scarcely
perceptible seed-heads at top, and keep the otherwise dead flat
perpetually alive, by bending and twinkling beneath the Sun and breeze.

Descending from our high observatory, let us take our way through one of
the pretty green Lanes that skirt or intersect the Plain we have been
looking down upon. Here we shall find the ground beneath our feet, the
Hedges that inclose us on either side, and the dry Banks and damp
Ditches beneath them, clothed in a beautiful variety of flowers that we
have not yet had an opportunity of noticing. In the Hedge-rows (which
are now grown into impervious walls of many-coloured and many-shaped
leaves, from the fine filigree-work of the White-thorn, to the large,
coarse, round leaves of the Hazel) we shall find the most remarkable of
these, winding up intricately among the crowded branches, and shooting
out their flowers here and there, among other leaves than their own, or
hanging themselves into festoons and fringes on the outside, by unseen
tendrils. Most conspicuous among the first of these is the great
Bind-weed, thrusting out its elegantly-formed snow-white flowers, but
carefully concealing its leaves and stem in the thick of the shrubs
which yield it support. Nearer to the ground, and more exposed, we shall
meet with a handsome relative of the above, the common red and white
wild Convolvolus; while all along the face of the Hedge, clinging to it
lightly, the various coloured Vetches, and the Enchanter’s Night-shade,
hang their flowers into the open air; the first exquisitely fashioned,
with wings like the Pea, only smaller; and the other elaborate in its
construction, and even beautiful, with its rich purple petals turned
back to expose a centre of deep yellow; but still, with all its beauty,
not without a strange and sinister look, which at once points it out as
a poison-flower. It is this which afterwards turns to those bunches of
scarlet berries which hang so temptingly in Autumn, just within the
reach of little children, and which it requires all the eloquence of
their grandmothers to prevent them from tasting. In the midst of these,
and above them all, the Woodbine now hangs out its flowers more
profusely than ever, and rivals in sweetness all the other field scents
of this month.

On the bank from which the Hedge-row rises, and on _this_ side of the
now nearly dry water-channel beneath, fringing the border of the green
path on which we are walking, a most rich variety of Field Flowers will
also now be found. We dare not stay to notice the half of them, because
their beauties, though even more exquisite than those hitherto
described, are of that unobtrusive nature that you must stoop to pick
them up, and must come to an actual commune with them, before they can
be even seen distinctly; which is more than our desultory and fugitive
gaze will permit,--the plan of our walk only allowing us to pay the
passing homage of a word to those objects that _will_ not be overlooked.
Many of the exquisite little Flowers, now alluded to generally, look, as
they lie among their low leaves, only like minute morsels of
many-coloured glass scattered upon the green ground--scarlet, and
sapphire, and rose, and purple, and white, and azure, and golden. But
pick them up, and bring them towards the eye, and you will find them
pencilled with a thousand dainty devices, and elaborated into the most
exquisite forms and fancies, fit to be strung into necklaces for fairy
Titania, or set in broaches and bracelets for the neatest-handed of her
nymphs.

The little flowers of which I now speak,--with their minute blossoms,
scarcely bigger than pins’ heads, scattered singly among their low-lying
leaves,--are the Veronicas, particularly that called the Wild Germander,
with its flowers coloured like no others, nor like any thing else,
except the Turquoise; the Scarlet Pimpernel; the Red Eyebright; and the
Bastard Pimpernel, the smallest of flowers. All these, however, and
their like, I must pass over (as the rest of the world does) without
noticing them particularly; but not without commending them to the
reader’s best leisure, and begging him to give to each one of them more
of it than I have any hope he will bestow on me, or than he would bestow
half so well if he did.

But there are many others that come into bloom this month, some of which
we cannot pass unnoticed if we would. We shall meet with most of them in
this green Lane, and beside the paths through the meadows and corn-fields
as we proceed homeward. Conspicuous among them are the Centaury, with its
elegant cluster of small, pink, star-like flowers; the Ladies’ Bed-straw,
with its rich yellow tufts; the Meadow-sweet--sweetest of all the
sweeteners of the Meadows; the Wood Betony, lifting up its handsome head
of rose-coloured blossoms; and, still in full perfection, and towering up
from among the low groundlings that usually surround it, the stately
Fox-glove.

Among the other plants that now become conspicuous, the Wild Teasal must
not be forgotten, if it be only on account of the use that one of the
Summer’s prettiest denizens sometimes makes of it. The Wild Teasal
(which now puts on as much the appearance of a flower as its rugged
nature will let it) is that species of thistle which shoots up a strong
serrated stem, straight as an arrow, and beset on all sides by hard
sharp-pointed thorns, and bearing on its summit a hollow egg-shaped
head, also covered at all points with the same armour of threatening
thorns--as hard, as thickly set, and as sharp as a porcupine’s quills.
Often within this fortress, impregnable to birds, bees, and even to
mischievous boys themselves, that beautiful Moth which flutters about so
gaily during the first weeks of Summer, on snow-white wings spotted all
over with black and yellow, takes up its final abode,--retiring thither
when weary of its desultory wanderings, and after having prepared for
the perpetuation of its ephemeral race, sleeping itself to death, to the
rocking lullaby of the breeze.

Now, too, if we pass near some gently lapsing water, we may chance to
meet with the splendid flowers of the Great Water Lily, floating on the
surface of the stream like some fairy vessel at anchor, and making
visible, as it ripples by it, the elsewhere imperceptible current.
Nothing can be more elegant than each of the three different states
under which this flower now appears;--the first, while it lies unopened
among its undulating leaves, like the Halcyon’s egg within its floating
nest; next, when its snowy petals are but half expanded, and you are
almost tempted to wonder what beautiful bird it is that has just taken
its flight from such a sweet birth-place; and lastly, when the whole
flower floats confessed, and spreading wide upon the water its pointed
petals, offers its whole heart to the enamoured sun. There is I know
not what of _awful_, in the beauty of this flower. It is, to all other
flowers, what Mrs. Siddons is to all other women.

In the same water, congregating together towards the edge, and bowing
their black heads to the breeze, we shall now see those strange
anomalies in vegetation, the flowers, or fruit, or whatever else they
are to be called, of the Bullrush, the delight of village boys, when,
like their betters, they are disposed to “play at soldiers.” And on the
bank, the handsome Iris hangs out its pale flag, as if to beg a truce of
the besieging sun.

Before entering the Garden, to luxuriate among the flocks of Flowers
that are waiting for us there, let us notice a few of the miscellaneous
objects that present themselves this month in the open country. Now,
then, cattle wade into shallow pools of warm water, and stand half the
day there stock still, in exact imitation of Cuyp’s pictures.--Now,
breechesless little boys become amphibious,--daring each other to dive
off banks a foot high, to the bottom of water two feet deep.--Now,
country gentlemen who wander through new-cut Rye-fields, or across sunny
meadows, are first startled from their reveries by the rushing sound of
many wings, and straightway lay gunpowder plots against the peace of
partridges, and have visions redolent of double-barrelled guns.--Now,
another class of children, of a smaller growth than the above, go
through one of their preparatory lessons in the pleasant and profitable
art of lying, by persuading Lady-birds to “fly away home” from the tops
of their extended fingers, on the forged information that “their house
is on fire, their children at home.”

Now, those most active and industrious of the feathered tribes, the
Swallows and House Martins, bring out their young broods into the
cherishing sunshine, and having taught them to provide for themselves,
they send them “about their business,” of congregating on slate-roofed
houses and churches, and round the tops of belfry towers; while they
(the parents) proceed in their periodical duty of providing new flocks
of the same kind of “fugitive pieces,” as regularly as the editors of a
Magazine.

Now may be observed that singular phenomenon which (like all other
phenomena) puzzles all those observers who never take the trouble of
observing. Whole meadows, lanes, and commons, are covered, for days
together, with myriads of young Frogs, no bigger than horse-beans,--
though there is no water in the immediate neighbourhood, where they are
likely to have been bred, and the ponds and places where they _are_
likely to breed are entirely empty of them. “Where _can_ they have come
from in this case, but from the clouds?” say the before-named observers.
Accordingly, from the clouds they _do_ come, the opinion of all such
searching inquirers; and I am by no means sure they will be at all
obliged to me for telling them, that the water in which these animals
are born is not their natural element, and that, on quitting their
Tad-pole state, they choose the first warm shower to _migrate_ from
their birth-place, in search of that food and home which cannot be found
_there_. The circumstance of their almost always appearing for the first
time after a warm shower, no doubt encourages the searchers after
mystery in assigning them a miraculous origin.

Now, the Bees (those patterns of all that is praiseworthy in domestic
and political economy) give practical lessons on the Principles of
Population, by expelling from the hive, _vi et armis_, all those
heretofore members of it who refuse to aid the commonweal by working
for their daily honey. When they need those services which none but the
Drones can perform, they let them live in idleness and feed luxuriously.
But as the good deeds of the latter are of that class which “in doing
pay themselves,” those who benefit by them think that they owe the doers
no thanks, and therefore, when they no longer need them, send them
adrift, or if they will not go, sacrifice them without mercy or remorse.
And this--be it known to all whom it may concern (and those are not a
few)--this is the very essence of Natural Justice.

Now, as they are wandering across the meadows thinking of nothing less,
gleams of white among the green grass greet the eyes of bird-nesting
boys, who all at once dart upon the welcome prize, and draw out from its
hiding-place piece-meal what was once a Mushroom; and forthwith
mushrooming becomes the order of the day.--Now, the lowermost branches
of the Lime-tree are “musical with Bees,” who eagerly beset its almost
unseen blossoms--richer in sweets than the sweetest inhabitants of the
garden.

Finally, now we occasionally have one of those sultry days which make
the house too hot to hold us, and force us to seek shelter in the open
air, which is hotter;--when the interior of the Blacksmith’s shop looks
awful, and we expect the foaming porter pot to hiss, as the brawny
forger dips his fiery nose into it;--when the Birds sit open-mouthed
upon the bushes; and the Fishes fry in the shallow ponds; and the Sheep
and Cattle congregate together in the shade, and forget to eat;--when
pedestrians along dusty roads quarrel with their coats and waistcoats,
and cut sticks to carry them across their shoulders; and cottagers’
wives go about their work gown-less; and their daughters are anxious to
do the same, but that they have the fear of the Vicar before their
eyes;--when every thing seen beyond a piece of parched soil quivers
through the heated air; and when, finally, a snow-white Swan, floating
above its own image, upon a piece of clear cool water into which a
Weeping-Willow is dipping its green fingers, is a sight not to be turned
from suddenly.

But we must no longer delay to glance at the Garden, which is now fuller
of beauty than ever: for nearly all the flowers of last month still
continue in perfection, and for one that has disappeared, half a dozen
have started forward to supply its place.

Against the house, or overhanging the shaded arbour, among Shrubs, we
have the Jasmin, shooting out its stars of white light from among its
throng of slender leaves; and the white Clematis (well worthy of both
its other names, of Virgin’s Bower, and Traveller’s Joy) flinging its
wreaths of scented snow athwart the portico, and rivaling the Hawthorn
in sweetness; and the Syringa, sweeter still. Now, too, the large Lilies
lift up their lofty heads proudly, and do not seem to forget that they
once held the rank of Queens of the Garden;--the rich-scented white one
looking, in comparison with the red, what a handsome Countess does to a
handsome Cook-maid.

Among the less aspiring we have now several whose beauty almost makes us
forget their want of sweetness. Conspicuous among these are the
Convolvulus, whose elegant trumpet-shaped cups open their blue eyes to
greet the sun, and, at his going down, close them never to open again;
and the Nasturtium, as gaudy in its scarlet and gold as an Officer of
the Guards on a levee day; and the fine-cut Indian Pink; and the
profuse Larkspur, all flower, shooting up its many-coloured cones here
and there at random, or ranging them in rich companies, that rival the
Tulip-beds of the Spring.

In the Orchard and Fruit-Garden the hopes of the last month begin in
part to be realized, and in all to be confirmed. The elegant Currant,
red and white (the Grape of our northern latitudes), now hangs its
transparent bunches close about the parent stem, and looks through its
green embowering leaves most invitingly. But there you had best let it
hang as yet, till the Autumn has sweetened its wine with sunbeams: for
Autumn is your only honest wine-maker in this country; all others
sweeten with sugar-of-lead instead of sunshine.--The Gooseberry, too,
has gained its full growth, but had better be left where it is for
awhile, to mature its pleasant condiment. As for the Tarts into which it
is the custom to translate it during this and the last month,--they are
“pleasant but wrong.”--Now, too, is in full perfection the most grateful
fruit that grows, and the most wholesome--the Strawberry. I grieve to be
obliged to make “odious comparisons” of this kind, between things that
are all alike healthful, where the partakers of them are living under
natural and healthful circumstances. But if Man _will_ live upon what
was not intended for him, he must be content to see what _was_ intended
for him lose its intended effect. The Strawberry is the only fruit in
which we may indulge to excess with impunity: accordingly I hereby give
all my readers (the young ones in particular) Mr. Abernethy’s full
permission to commit a debauch of Strawberries once every week during
this month, always provided they can do it at the bed itself; for
otherwise they are taking an unfair advantage of nature, and must expect
that she will make reprisals on them.--Now, too, the Raspberry is
delicious, if gathered and eaten at its place of growth. There it is
fragrant and full of flavour, elsewhere flat and insipid.

The other fruits of this month are Apricot, one or two of the early
Apples, and if the season is forward a few Cherries. But of these, the
two latter belong by rights to the next month; so till then we leave
them. And as for Apricots, they look handsome enough at a distance,
against the wall; but they offer so barefaced an imitation of the
outward appearance of Peaches and Nectarines, without possessing any one
of their intrinsic merits, that I have a particular contempt for them,
and beg the reader to dismiss them from his good graces accordingly.

       *       *       *       *       *

Of London in July--“_London_ in _July_?”--surely there can be no such
place! It sounds like a kind of contradiction in terms. But, alas! there
_is_ such a place, as yonder thick cloud of dust, and the blare of the
horn that issues from it, too surely indicate. And what is worse, we
must, in pursuance of our self-imposed duty, proceed thither without
delay. We cannot, therefore, do better (or worse) than mount the coming
vehicle (the motto of which at this time of the year ought to be “per me
si va nella citta, dolente,”) and,

    Half in a cloud of stifling road-dust lost,

get there as soon as we can, that we may the sooner get away again.

Of London in July, there is happily little to be said; but let that
little be said good humouredly; for London _is_ London, after all--ay,
even after having ridden fifty miles on the burning roof of the
Gloucester Heavy, to get at it. Now, then, London is entirely empty; so
much so that a person well practised in the art of walking its streets
might wager that he would make his way from St. Paul’s to Charing Cross
(a distance of more than a mile) within forty minutes!

Now, the _Winter_ Theatres having just closed, the Summer ones “make hay
_while the sun shines_.” At that in the Hay-market Mr. Liston acts the
part of Atlas,--supporting every thing (the heat included) with
inimitable coolness; while, in virtue of his attractions, the Managers
can afford annually to put in execution their benevolent and patriotic
plan, of permitting the principal _Barn-staple_ actors to practise upon
the patience of a London Pit with impunity.

At the English Opera-house the Managers, (Mr. Peake),--for fear the
public, amid the refreshing coolness of the Upper Boxes, should forget
that it is Summer time,--transfer the country into the confines of their
Saloon (having purchased it at and for half-price in Covent Garden
Market); and there, from six till eight, flowers of all hues look at
each other by lamp-light despondingly, and after that hour turn their
attention to the new accession of flowers, the Painted Ladies, which do
not till then begin blowing in this singular soil. In the mean time, on
the stage, Mr. Wrench (that easiest of actors with the hardest of names)
carries all before him, not excepting his arms and hands. I never see
Wrench, [who, by the bye, or by any other means that he can, ought by
all means to get rid of the roughening letter in his name, and call
himself Wench, Tench, Clench, Bench, or any other that may please him
and us better. Indeed I cannot in conscience urge him to adopt either of
the above, if he can possibly find another guiltless of that greatest of
all enormities in a name, the susceptibility of being punned upon; for
it is obvious that if he _should_ adopt either of the above, he must
not, on his first after appearance in the Green Room, hope to escape
from his punegyrical friend Mr. Peake, without being told, in the first
case, (Wench) that his place is not _there_ but in the _other_ Green
Room (the Saloon);--in the second, (Tench) that he need not have changed
his name, for that he was a sufficiently _odd fish_ before;--in the
third, (Clench) that he (Mr. P.) is greatly in want of a clever one for
the finale of his next farce, and begs to make use of _him_ on the
occasion;--and in the fourth, (Bench) that, belonging to a Royal
Company, he is neither more nor less than the _King’s Bench_, and “as
such” must not be surprised if his theatrical friends fly to _him_ for
shelter and protection in their hour of need, in preference to his
name-sake over the water.--I beg the reader to remember, that the
punishment due to all these prospective puns belongs exclusively to Mr.
Peake; and on him let them be visited accordingly. Though I doubt not he
will intimate in extenuation, that they are quite _pun-ish-meant_ enough
in themselves.--But where was I?--oh]--I never see Wrench without
fearing that, some day or other, a gleam of common sense may by accident
miss its way to the brain of our winter managers, and they may bethink
them (for if one does, both will) of offering an engagement to this most
engaging of actors. But if they should, let me beseech him to turn (if
he has one) a deaf ear to their entreaties; for we had need have
something to look for at a Summer Theatre that cannot be had elsewhere.

I am not qualified to descend any lower than the Major of the Minor
Theatres, in regard to what is doing there at this season; though it
appears that Mr. Ducrow is still satisfying those who were not satisfied
of it before, that Horsemanship is one of the Fine Arts; and though the
Bills of the Coburg append sixteen instead of six notes of admiration to
Mr. Nobody’s name. Being somewhat fastidious in the affair of
phraseology, the only mode in which I can explain my remissness in
regard to the above particular is, that, whereas at this season of the
year _Steam conveys us_ to all other places,--from the theatres
frequented by throngs of “rude mechanicals” it most effectually keeps us
away.

Now, on warm evenings after business hours, citizens of all ages grow
romantic; the single, wearing away their souls in sighing to the breezes
of Brixton Hill, and their soles in getting there; and the married,
sipping syllabub in the arbours of White Conduit House, or cooling
themselves with hot rolls and butter at the New River Head.

Now, too, moved by the same spirit of Romance, young patricians, who
have not yet been persuaded to banish themselves to the beauty of their
paternal groves, fling themselves into funnies, and fatigue their
_ennui_ to death, by rowing up the river to Mrs. Grange’s garden, to eat
a handful of strawberries in a cup-full of cream.

Now, adventurous cockneys swim from the Sestos of the Strand stairs to
the Abydos of the coal-barge on the opposite shore, and believe that
they have been rivaling Lord Byron and Leander--not without wondering,
when they find themselves in safety, why the Lady for whom the latter
performed a similar feat is called the Hero of the story, instead of the
Heroine.

Finally,--now pains-and-pleasure taking citizens hire cozey cottages for
six weeks certain in the Curtain Road, and ask their friends to come and
see them “in the country.”



AUGUST.


The Year has now reached the parallel to that brief, but perhaps best
period of human life, when the promises of youth are either fulfilled or
forgotten, and the fears and forethoughts connected with decline have
not yet grown strong enough to make themselves felt; and consequently
when we have nothing to do but look around us, and be happy. It has,
indeed, like a man at forty, turned the corner of its existence; but,
like him, it may still fancy itself young, because it does not begin to
feel itself getting old. And perhaps there is no period like this, for
encouraging and bringing to perfection that habit of tranquil enjoyment,
in which all true happiness must mainly consist: with _pleasure_ it has,
indeed, little to do; but with _happiness_ it is every thing.

August is that debateable ground of the year, which is situated exactly
upon the confines of Summer and Autumn; and it is difficult to say
which has the better claim to it. It is dressed in half the flowers of
the one, and half the fruits of the other; and it has a sky and a
temperature all its own, and which vie in beauty with those of the
Spring. May itself can offer nothing so sweet to the senses, so
enchanting to the imagination, and so soothing to the heart, as that
genial influence which arises from the sights, the sounds, and the
associations connected with an August evening in the Country, when the
occupations and pleasures of the day are done, and when all, even the
busiest, are fain to give way to that “wise passiveness,” one hour of
which is rife with more real enjoyment than a whole season of revelry.
Those who will be wise (or foolish) enough to make comparisons between
the various kinds of pleasure of which the mind of man is capable, will
find that there is none (or but one) equal to that felt by a true lover
of Nature, when he looks forth upon her open face silently, at a season
like the present, and drinks in that still beauty which seems to emanate
from every thing he sees, till his whole senses are steeped in a sweet
forgetfulness, and he becomes unconscious of all but that _instinct of
good_ which is ever present with us, but which can so seldom make
itself felt amid that throng of thoughts which are ever busying and
besieging us, in our intercourse with the living world. The only other
feeling which equals this, in its intense quietude, and its satisfying
fulness, is one which is almost identical with it,--where the accepted
lover is gazing unobserved, and almost unconsciously, on the face of his
mistress, and tracing there sweet evidences of that mysterious union
which already exists between them. The great charm of Claude’s pictures
consists in their power of generating, to a certain degree, the
description of feeling above alluded to; a feeling which no other
pictures produce in the slightest degree; and which even his produce
only enough of to either remind us of what we have experienced before,
or give us a foretaste of what Nature herself has in store for us. And I
only mention them here, in order that those who are accustomed to expend
themselves in admiration of the copies may be led to look at the
originals in the same spirit; when they will find, that the one is to
the other, what a thought is to a feeling, or what a beautiful mask is
to the beautiful living face from which it was modelled. Let the
professed enthusiasts to Claude look at Nature’s pictures through the
same eyes, and with the same prepared feelings, as they look at his
(which few, if any of them have ever done), and they will find that they
have hitherto been content to _fancy_ what they now _feel_; and this
discovery will not derogate from the value of the said fancy, but will,
on the contrary, make it more effective by making it less vague. When
you hear people extravagant in their general praise of Claude’s
Landscapes, you may shrewdly suspect that they have never experienced in
the presence of Nature herself those sensations which enabled Claude to
be what he was; and that, in admiring him, they have only been yielding
to involuntary yearnings after that Nature which they have hitherto
neglected to look upon. They have been worshipping the image, and
passing by the visible god.

The whole face of Nature has undergone, since last month, an obvious
change; obvious to those who delight to observe all her changes and
operations, but not sufficiently striking to insist on being seen
generally by those who can read no characters but such as are written in
a _text_ hand. If the general _colours_ of all the various departments
of natural scenery are not changed, their _hues_ are; and if there is
not yet observable the infinite variety of Autumn, there is as little
the extreme monotony of Summer. In one department, however, there _is_ a
general change, that cannot well remain unobserved. The rich and
unvarying green of the Corn-fields has entirely and almost suddenly
changed, to a still richer and more conspicuous gold colour; more
conspicuous on account of the contrast it now offers to the lines,
patches, and masses of green with which it every where lies in contact,
in the form of intersecting Hedge-rows, intervening Meadows, and
bounding masses of Forest. These latter are changed too; but in _hue_
alone, not in colour. They are all of them still green; but it is not
the fresh and tender green of the Spring, nor the full and satisfying,
though somewhat dull, green of the Summer; but many greens, that blend
all those belonging to the seasons just named, with others at once more
grave and more bright; and the charming variety and interchange of which
are peculiar to this delightful month, and are more beautiful in their
general effect than those of either of the preceding periods: just as a
truly beautiful woman is perhaps more beautiful at the period
immediately before that at which her charms begin to wane, than she
ever was before. Here, however, the comparison must end; for with the
year its incipient decay is the signal for it to put on more and more
beauties daily, till, when it reaches the period at which it is on the
point of sinking into the temporary death of Winter, it is more
beautiful in general appearance than ever.

But we must not anticipate. We may linger upon one spot, or step aside
from our path, or return upon our steps; but we must not anticipate; for
those who would duly enjoy and appreciate the Present and the Past, must
wait for the Future till it comes to them. The Future and the Present
are jealous of each other; and those who attempt to enjoy both at the
same time, will not be graciously received by either.

The general appearance of natural scenery is now much more varied in its
character than it has hitherto been. The Corn-fields are all redundant
with waving gold--gold of all hues--from the light yellow of the Oats
(those which still remain uncut), to the deep sunburnt glow of the red
Wheat. But the wide rich sweeps of these fields are now broken in upon,
here and there, by patches of the parched and withered looking Bean
crops; by occasional bits of newly ploughed land, where the Rye lately
stood; by the now darkening Turnips--dark, except where they are being
fed off by Sheep Flocks; and lastly by the still bright-green Meadows,
now studded every where with grazing cattle, the second crops of Grass
being already gathered in.

The Woods, as well as the single Timber Trees that occasionally start up
with such fine effect from out the Hedge-rows, or in the midst of
Meadows and Corn-fields, we shall now find sprinkled with what at first
looks like gleams of scattered sunshine lying among the leaves, but
what, on examination, we shall find to be the new foliage that has been
put forth since Midsummer, and which yet retains all the brilliant green
of the Spring. The effect of this new green, lying in sweeps and patches
upon the old, though little observed in general, is one of the most
beautiful and characteristic appearances of this season. In many cases,
when the sight of it is caught near at hand, on the sides of thick
Plantations, the effect of it is perfectly deceptive, and you wonder for
a moment how it is, that while the sun is shining so brightly _every
where_, it should shine so much _more_ brightly on those particular
spots.

We shall find those pretty wayside Shrubberies, the Hedge-rows, and the
Field-flower-borders that lie beneath and about them, less gay with new
green, and less fantastic with flowers, than they have lately been; but
they still vie with the Garden both in sweetness and in beauty. The new
flowers they put forth this month are but few. Among these are the
pretty little Meadow Scabious, with its small purple head standing away
from its leaves; the various Goosefoots, curious for their leaves,
feeling about like fingers for the fresh air; the Camomile, shooting up
its troops of little suns, with their yellow centres and white rays; and
a few more of lesser note. But, in addition to these, we have still many
which have already had their greeting from us, _or should have had_; but
really, when one comes every month, self-invited, to Nature’s morning
levees, and meets there flocks of flowers, every one of which claims as
its single due a whole morning’s attention, it must not be taken as
unkind or impolite by any of them, if, in endeavouring hastily to record
the company we met, for the benefit of those who were not there, we
should chance to forget some who may fancy themselves quite as worthy of
having their presence recorded, and their court dresses described, as
those who do figure in this Court Calendar of Nature. It is possible,
too, that we may have fallen into some slight errors in regard to the
places of residence of some of our fair flowery friends, and the
particular day on which they first chose to make their appearance at
Nature’s court; for we are not among those reporters who take short-hand
notes, or any other, but such as write themselves in the tablet of our
memory. But if any lady _should_ feel herself aggrieved in either of the
above particulars, she has only to drop us a leaf to that effect,
stating, at the same time, her name and residence, and she may be
assured that we shall take the first opportunity of paying our personal
respects to her, and shall have little doubt of satisfying her that our
misconduct has arisen from any thing rather than a wilful neglect
towards her pretensions, or a want of taste in appreciating them. In the
mean time let us add, that, in addition to the new company which graces
this month’s levee, the following are still punctual in their
attendance; namely, Woodbine, Woodruff, Meadow-sweet, and Wild Thyme;
(N. B. These ladies are still profuse in their use of perfumes); and,
among those who depend on their beauty alone, Eyebright, Pansie, the
lesser and greater Willow-herb, Daisy, two or three of the Orchises,
Hyacinth, several sisters of the Speedwell and Pimpernel families, and
the scentless Violet.

Now, after the middle of the month, commences that great rural
employment to which all the hopes of the farmer’s year have been
tending; but which, unhappily, the mere labourer has come to regard with
as much indifference as he does any of those which have successively led
to it. This latter is not as it should be. But as we cannot hope to
alter, let us not stay to lament over it. On the contrary, let us
rejoice that at least Nature remains uninjured--that _she_ shows more
beautiful than ever at harvest time, whether Man chooses to be more
happy then or not. It is true Harvest-home has changed its moral
character, in the exact proportion that the people among whom it takes
place have changed _theirs_, in becoming, from an agricultural, a
mechanical and manufacturing nation; and we may soon expect to see the
produce of the earth gathered in and laid by for use, almost without
the intervention of those for whose use it is provided, and in supplying
whose wants it is chiefly consumed: for the rich, so far from being
“able to live by bread alone,” would scarcely feel the loss if it were
wholly to fail them. But Nature is not to be changed by the devices
which man employs to change and deteriorate himself. She has willed that
the scenes attendant on the gathering in of her gifts shall be as
fraught with beauty as ever. And accordingly, Harvest time is as
delightful to look on to _us_, who are mere spectators of it, as it was
in the Golden Age, when the gatherers and the rejoicers were one. Now,
therefore, as then, the Fields are all alive with figures and groups,
that seem, in the eye of the artist, to be made for pictures--pictures
that he can see but one fault in; (which fault, by the bye, constitutes
their only beauty in the eye of the farmer;) namely, that they will not
stand still a moment, for him to paint them. He must therefore be
content, as we are, to keep them as studies in the storehouse of his
memory.

Here are a few of those studies, which he may practise upon till
doomsday, and will not then be able to produce half the effect from them
that will arise spontaneously on the imagination, at the mere mention
of the simplest words which can describe them:--The sunburnt Reapers,
entering the Field leisurely at early morning, with their reaphooks
resting on their right shoulders, and their beer-kegs swinging to their
left hands, while they pause for a while to look about them before they
begin their work.--The same, when they are scattered over the Field:
some stooping to the ground over the prostrate Corn, others lifting up
the heavy sheaves and supporting them against one another, while the
rest are plying their busy sickles, before which the brave crop seems to
retreat reluctantly, like a half-defeated army.--Again, the same
collected together into one group, and resting to refresh themselves,
while the lightening keg passes from one to another silently, and the
rude clasp-knife lifts the coarse meal to the ruddy lips.--Lastly, the
piled-up Wain, moving along heavily among the lessening sheaves, and
swaying from side to side as it moves; while a few, whose share of the
work is already done, lie about here and there in the shade, and watch
the near completion of it.

I would fain have to describe the boisterous and happy revelries that
used to ensue upon these scenes, and should do still. And what if they
were attended by mirth a little over-riotous, or a few broken crowns?
Better so, than the troops of broken spirits that now linger amidst the
overflowing plenty of the last Harvest-field, and begin to think where
they shall wander in search of their next week’s bread.

But no more of this. Let us turn at once to a few of the other
occurrences that take place in the open Fields during this month. The
Singing Birds are, for the most part, so busy in educating and providing
for their young broods, that they have little time to practise their
professional duties; consequently this month is comparatively a silent
one in the Woods and Groves. There are some, however, whose happy hearts
will not let them be still. The most persevering of these is that poet
of the skies, the Lark. He still pours down a bright rain of melody
through the morning, the mid-day, and the evening skies, till the whole
air seems sparkling and alive with the light of his strains.--His
sweet-hearted relation, the Woodlark, also still warbles high up in the
warm evening air, and occasionally even at midnight--hovering at one
particular spot during each successive strain.--The Goldfinch, the
Yellowhammer, and the Green and Brown Linnet, those pretty flutterers
among the summer leaves,--as light hearted and restless as they,--still
keep whistling snatches of their old songs, between their quick
fairy-like flittings from bough to bough. As for the solitary Robin, his
delicate song may be heard all through the year, and is peculiarly
acceptable now in the neighbourhood of human dwellings--where no other
is heard, unless it be the common wren’s.

By the middle of this month we shall lose sight entirely of that most
airy, active, and indefatigable of all the winged people,--the
Swift--Shakespeare’s “temple-haunting Martlet.” Unlike the rest of its
tribe, it breeds but once in the season; and its young having now
acquired much of their astonishing power of wing, young and old all
hurry away together--no one can tell whither. The sudden departure of
the above singular species of the Swallow tribe, at this very moment,
when every thing seems to conform together for their delight,--when the
winds (which they shun) are hushed--and the Summer (in which they
rejoice) is at its best--and the air (in which they feed) is laden with
dainties for them--and all the troubles and anxieties attendant on the
coming of their young broods are at an end, and they are wise enough not
to think of having more;--that, at the very moment when all these
favourable circumstances are combining together to make them happy, they
should suddenly, and without any assignable cause whatever, disappear,
and go no one knows whither, is one of those facts, the explanation of
which has hitherto baffled all our inquiring philosophizers, and will
continue to do so while the said inquirers continue to judge of all
things by analogies invented by their own boasted _reason_: as if reason
were given us to explain instinct! and as if a being which passes its
whole life on the wing--(for sleep is not a part of life, and the Swift,
during its waking hours, never sets foot on tree or ground--almost
realizing that fabled bird which has wings but no feet) were not likely
to be gifted with any senses but such as _we_ can trace the operations
of! The truth is, all that we can make of this mysterious departure is,
to accept it as an omen--the earliest, the most certain, and yet the
least attended to, because it happens in the midst of smiling
contradictions to it--that the departure of Summer herself is nigh at
hand.

It is not good to cull out the sad points of reflection which present
themselves, in the various subjects which come before us, in
contemplating the operations of Nature. But as little is it good,
studiously to avoid those points. Perhaps the only wise course is, to
let them suggest what they will, of sadness or of joy; and then, so to
receive and apply those suggestions, that even the sad ones themselves
may be made subservient to good. To me, this early departure, in the
very heart of our summer, of the most bird-like of all the birds that
visit us only for a season, always comes at first like an omen of evil,
that I cannot doubt, and yet will not believe. It might as well be told
me, that the being who sits beside me now, in all the pomp of health,
and all the lustre of loveliness, will leave me to-morrow, and go--like
the bird--I know not whither. And yet, if such a prediction _were_ made
to me, what should I do in regard to it, but (as one ought in the case
of the omen of departing summer) to _believe_ that it is true, and yet
_feel_ that it is false; and, acting upon the joint impulse thus
created, enjoy the blessing tenfold, while it remains mine, and leave
the lamentations for its loss till I can no longer feel the delight that
flows from its presence?

But, enough of philosophy--even of that which is intended to cure us of
philosophizing. Let us get into the air and the sunshine again; which
can bid us be happy in spite of all philosophy, and _will_ be obeyed
even by philosophers themselves,--who have long since found that they
have no resource left against those enemies to their art, but to fly
their presence, and shut themselves up in schools and studies.

The Swift, whose strange flight has for a moment led us astray from our
course, is the only one of its tribe that has yet made any preparations
towards departure: though the young broods of House-swallows and
House-martins are evidently _thinking_ of it, and congregating together
in great flocks, about the tops of old towers and belfries, to talk the
matter over, and wonder with one another what will happen to them in
their projected travels--if they _do_ travel. Their parents, however,
who are to lead them, are still employed in increasing their company,
and have just now brought out their second broods into the open air.

Now, on warm still evenings, we may sometimes see the whole air about us
speckled with another class of emigrants, who are not usually regarded
as such; namely, the flying Ants, whom their own offspring, or their
inclinations (for it is uncertain which), have expelled from their
birth-place, to found new colonies, and find new habitations, where they
can. It is a ticklish task to make people more knowing than they wish to
be, and one which, even if I were qualified for the office, I should be
very shy of undertaking. But when a race of comparatively foolish and
improvident little creatures have for ages enjoyed the credit of being
proverbial patterns of wisdom, prudence, and forethought, I cannot
refuse to assist in dispelling the delusion. Be it known, then, to the
elderly namesakes of the above, that when they bid their little nephews
and nieces “go to the Ant, and consider its ways,” they can scarcely
offer them advice less likely to end, if followed, in teaching them to
“be wise:” for, in fact, one of those “ways” is, to sleep (“sluggards”
as they are!) all the winter through; another is, never to lay up a
single morsel of store even for a day, much less for a whole year, as
has been reported of them; and a third is, to do what they are in fact
doing at this very moment--namely, to come out in myriads from their
homes, and fill the air with that food (themselves) which serves to
fatten the _really_ wise, prudent, and industrious Swallows and Martins,
who are skimming through the air delightedly in search of it. It is
true, the Ants are active enough in providing for their immediate wants,
and artful enough in overcoming any obstacles to their immediate
pleasures. But all this, and more, the _other_ Aunts, who hold them up
as patterns, will find their little pupils sufficiently expert in,
without any assistance.

Now, we may observe that pretty pair of rural pictures (not, however,
_peculiar_ to this month); first, when the numerous Flock is driven to
fold, as the day declines,--its scattered members converging towards a
point as they enter the narrow opening of their nightly enclosure, which
they gradually fill and settle into, as a shallow stream runs into a bed
that has been prepared for it, and there settles into a still pool.--And
again, in the early morning, when the slender barrier that confines them
is removed, they crowd and hurry out at it,--gently intercepting each
other; and as they get free, pour forth their white fleeces over the
open field, as a lake that has broken its bank pours its waters over the
adjoining land: in each case, the bells and meek voices of the patient
people making music as they move, and the Shepherd standing carelessly
by (leaning on his crook, even as shepherds did in Arcady itself!) and
leaving the care of all to his half-reasoning dog.

As I have again got my pencil in hand, instead of my pen, let me not
forget to sketch a copy of that other pretty picture, at once so still
and yet so lively, which may be had this month for the price of looking
at, and than which Paul Potter himself could not have presented us with
a sweeter: and indeed, but that he was a mere imitator of Nature, one
might almost swear it to be his, not hers.--Fore-ground: on one side, a
little shallow pond, with two or three pollard willows stooping over it;
and on the other a low bank, before which stand as many more pollard
willows, with round trim heads set formally on their straight
pillar-like stems: between all these, the sunshine lying in bright
streaks on the green ground, and made distinguishable by the straight
shadows thrown by the thick stems of the trees. Middle distance: a moist
meadow, level as a line, and on it half a dozen cattle; three lying at
their ease, and “chewing the cud of sweet” (not “bitter”) herbage--two
cropping the same--and one lifting up its grave matronly face, and
lowing out into the side distance; while, about the legs of all of them,
a little flock of Wagtails are glancing in and out merrily, picking up
their delicate meal of invisible insects; and upon the very back of one
of the ruminators, a pert Magpie has perched himself. Of the extreme
distance, half is occupied by dim-seen willows, of the same stunted
growth with those in front; and the rest shows indistinctly, and half
hidden by trees, a little village,--its church spire pointing its silent
finger straight upward, as if bidding us look at a sky scarcely less
calm and sweet than the scene which it canopies.--How says the
connoisseur? Is this a picture of Paul Potter’s, or of Nature? But no
matter,--for they are almost the same. There is only just enough
difference between them to make us feel (as the possessor of twin
children does) that we are blessed with _two_ instead of _one_.

In the Plantation and Flower-garden we must hardly expect to find much
of novelty, after the profusion of last month. And in fact there are
very few flowers the first appearance of which can be said to be
absolutely _peculiar_ to this month; most of those hitherto unnamed
choosing to be the medium of a pleasant interchange between the two
months, according as seasons, and circumstances of soil and planting,
may dispose them. It must be admitted, however (though I am very loth,
even by implication, to dissever this month from absolute summer), that
many of the flowers which do come forward now are _autumn_ ones.
Conspicuous among those which first appear in this month, is the stately
Holyoak; a plant whose pretensions are not so generally admitted as they
ought to be, probably on account of its having, by some strange
accident, lost its character for _gentility_. Has this (in the present
day) dire misfortune happened to it, because it condescends to flower in
as much splendour and variety when leaning beside low cottage porches,
or spiring over broken and lichen-grown palings, as it does in the
gardens of the great? I hope not; for then those who contemn it must do
the same by the vaunted Rose, and the rich Carnation; for where do
_they_ blow better than in the daisy-bordered flower-beds of the poor?
The only plausible plea which I can discover, for the reasonableness of
banishing from our choice parterres this most magnificent of all their
inhabitants, is, that its aspiring and oriental splendour may put to
shame the less conspicuous beauties of Flora’s court. I hope the latter
have not, through envy, been entering into a conspiracy to fix an ill
name upon the Holyoak, and thus stir up in the hearts of their admirers
a dislike to it, that nothing else is so likely to produce: for, give
even a flower “an ill name,” and you may as well treat it like a dog at
once. In fact, I do not think that any thing short of calling it
_ungenteel_ could have displaced the Holyoak from that universal favour
with us which it always acquires during our youth, in virtue of its
being the only flower that we can distinguish in “garden scenes” on the
stage.

As the Holyoak is at present a less _petted_ flower than any other,
perhaps the Passion-flower (which blows this month) is, of all those
which bear the open air, the most so; and, I must say, with quite as
little reason. In fact, its virtue lies in its name; which it owes,
however, to its fantastical construction suggesting certain religious
associations, and not to any romantic or sentimental ones; which latter,
when connected with it, have grown out of its name, and not its name
out of them. If, however, it has little that is beautiful and
flower-like about it, it has something bizarre and recherchée, which is
well worth examining. But we examine it as we would a watch or a
compass, and not a flower; which is its great fault. It is to other
flowers, what a Blue-stocking is to other women.

Among the other flowers that appear now, the most conspicuous, and most
beautiful, is that one of the Campanulas which shoots up from its
cluster of low leaves one or more tall straight spires, clustered around
from heel to point with brilliant sky-blue stars, crowding as closely to
each other as those in the milky way,--till they look like one
continuous rod of blue, or like the sky-blue ribbons on the mane of a
Lord Mayor’s coach-horse. These are the flowers that you see in pots,
trained into a fan-like shape, till they cover, with their brilliant
galaxy of stars, the whole window of the snug parlour where sits at her
work the wife of the village apothecary. Of course I speak of a not less
distance from town than a long day’s journey: any nearer than that, all
flowers but exotics have long since been banished from parlour windows,
as highly ungenteel.

There are a few other very noticeable flowers, which begin to show
themselves to us late in this month; but as they by rights rank among
the autumn ones, and as I am not willing to admit that we have as yet
arrived even on the confines of that season, I must consider that they
have chosen to come before their time, and treat them accordingly.

In the Shrubbery, too, we shall find little of novelty. We will,
therefore, at once pass through it, and reach the Orchard and Fruit
Garden; merely observing as we go, that the Elder is beginning to cast a
tinge of autumnal purple on its profuse berries; that those of the
Rowan, or Mountain Ash, are on the point of putting on their scarlet
liveries, which they are to wear all the winter; and that the Purple
Clematis is heavy with its handsome flowers.

Perhaps the Fruit-Garden is never in a more favourable state for
observation than at present; for most of its produce is sufficiently
advanced to have put on all its beauty, while but little of it is in a
state to disturb: so that there it hangs in the sight of its satisfied
owner--at once a promise, and a fulfilment, without the attendant ills
of either.

The inferior fruit, indeed (so at least it is reckoned with us, though
in the East Indies a plate of Currants is sometimes placed in the centre
of the table, as a Pine-apple is here, and holds exactly the same
relative value in respect to the rest of the dessert), the Currants and
Gooseberries are now in perfection, and those epicures from the nursery,
who alone condescend to eat them in their natural state, may now be
turned loose among them with impunity. A few of the Apples, too, are now
asking to be plucked; namely, the pretty little, tender, and pale-faced
Jeannotin (vulgaricè _Gennettin_); the rude-shaped, but firm, sweet, and
rosy-cheeked Codling; and the cool, crisp, and refreshing
Nonsuch,--eating, when at its best, like a glass of Apple-ice; and with
a shape and make which entitles it to be called the very Apollo of
Apples.

The Cherries, too, have most of them acquired their “cherry-cheeks,” and
are looking down temptation

    “Unto the white upturned wond’ring eyes
     Of _school-boys_, that fall back to gaze on them,”

as they hang over the garden-wall, next to the road.

As to the other fruits, they look almost as handsome and inviting as
ever they will. But we must be content to let them “enjoy the air they
breathe” for a month or so longer, if we expect them to do the same by
us.

       *       *       *       *       *

Of London what shall we say, at this only one of its seasons when it has
nothing to say for itself? when even the most immoveable of its citizens
become migratory for at least a month, and permit their wives and
daughters to play the parts of mermaids on the shores of Margate, while
they themselves pore over the evening papers all the morning, and over
the morning ones all the evening?--when ’Change Alley makes a transfer
of half its (live) stock every Saturday to the Steine at Brighton, to be
returnable by Snow’s coaches on Monday morning?--nay, when even the
lawyers’ clerks themselves begin to grow romantic, and, neglecting their
accustomed evening haunts at the Cock in Fleet-street, Offley’s, and the
Cider Cellar, permit themselves to be steamed down from Billingsgate to
Broadstairs, where they meditate moonlight sonnets to their absent
Seraphinas (not without an eye to half-a-guinea each in the magazines),
beginning with “Oh, come unto these yellow sands!”

What _can_ be said of the Town at a time like this? The truth is, I am
not disposed to quarrel with London (any more than I am with my “bread
and butter,” and for a similar reason) at any season; so that the less I
say or think of it now the better. Suffice it, that London in August is
a species of nonentity, to all but those amateur architects who “go
partnerships” in candle-lit grottos at the corners of courts. But, _en
revanche_, it is to them a month that, like May to the chimney-sweepers,
“only comes once a year.”



SEPTEMBER.


I am sorry to mention it, but the truth must be told, even in a matter
of age. The Year, then, is on the wane. It is “declining into the vale”
of months. It has reached “a certain age.” Its _bloom_ (that
indescribable something which surpasses and supersedes all mere beauty)
is fled, and with it all its pretensions to be regarded as an object of
passionate admiration.

A truce, then, to our treatment of the Months as mistresses. But let us
henceforth look upon them as the next best thing, as dear and devoted
friends: for

                  “Turn wheresoe’er we may,
                    By night or day,
    The things which we have seen we now can see no more.”

’Tis true that still

        “The Rainbow comes and goes,

          * * *

        The moon doth with delight
    Look round her when the heavens are bare;
        Waters on a starry night
        Are beautiful and fair;
    The sunshine is a glorious birth;--
        But yet we know, where’er we go,
    That there hath passed away a glory from the Earth.”

Let me be permitted to make use of a few more words from the same poem;
for by no others can I hope so well to kindle in the reader, that
feeling with which I would fain have him possessed, on the advent of
this still delightful season of the year, if it be but received and
enjoyed in the spirit in which it comes to us.

“What,” then----

    “What though the radiance which was once so bright
     Be now for ever taken from our sight--
     Though nothing can bring back the hour
     Of splendour in the grass, of glory in the flower;
     We will grieve not--rather find
     Strength in what remains behind;
     In the primal sympathy
     Which, having been, must ever be;

     * * * *

     In the faith that looks through death;
     In thoughts that bring the philosophic mind.”

I cannot choose but continue this strain a little longer; and I suppose
my readers will be the last persons to complain of my doing so; it is
the poet alone who will have cause to object to his meanings throughout,
and in one or two instances his words, being diverted from their
original purpose, but I hope not degraded in their application, nor
disenchanted of their power.

    “And oh! ye Fountains, Meadows, Hills, and Groves,
     Think not of any severing of our loves!
     Yet in my heart of hearts I feel your might.

     * * * *

     The innocent brightness of a new-born day
                 Is lovely yet;
     The clouds that gather round the setting sun
     Do take a sober colouring from an eye
     That watches o’er the Year’s mortality.

     * * * *

     Thanks to the human heart by which we live;
     Thanks to its tenderness, its joys and fears;
     To me the meanest flower that blows can give
     Thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears.”

Reader, this is said by the greatest poet of our age, and one of the
deepest, wisest, and most virtuous of her philosophic sages. And it is
said by him even in the sense in which it is here applied, _now that it
has been once so applied_: for much of his words have this in common
with those of Shakspeare, that you may turn them to an almost equally
apt and good account in many different ways, besides those in which they
were at first directed. Let them be received, then, in the spirit in
which they are here uttered, and we shall be able and entitled to
continue our task, of following the year through its vicissitudes, and
still (as we began it) “pursue our course to the end, rejoicing.”

The youth of the year is gone, then. Even the vigour and lustihood of
its maturity are quick passing away. It has reached the summit of the
hill, and is not only looking, but descending, into the valley below.
But, unlike that into which the life of man declines, _this_ is not a
vale of tears; still less does it, like that, lead to that inevitable
bourne, the Kingdom of the Grave. For though it may be called (I hope
without the semblance of profanation) “The Valley of the _Shadow_ of
Death,” yet of Death itself it knows nothing. No--the year steps onward
towards its temporary decay, if not so rejoicingly, even more
majestically and gracefully, than it does towards its revivification.
And if September is not so bright with promise and so buoyant with hope
as May, it is even more embued with that spirit of serene repose, in
which the only true, because the only continuous enjoyment consists.
Spring “never _is_, but always _to be_ blest;” but September is the
month of consummations--the fulfiller of all promises--the fruition of
all hopes--the era of all completeness. Let us then turn at once to gaze
on, and partake in, its manifold beauties and blessings, not let them
pass us by, with the empty salutation of mere praise; for the only
panegyric that is acceptable to Nature is that just appreciation of her
gifts which consists in the full enjoyment of them.

Supposing ourselves, as usual, in the middle of the month, we shall find
the seed Harvests quite completed, and even the ground on which they
stood appearing under an entirely new aspect,--the Plough having opened,
or being now in the act of opening, its fragrant breast, and exposing it
for a while to the genial influence of the sun and air, before it is
again called upon to perform its never-failing functions.

There are other Harvests, however, which are still to be gathered in; in
particular, that most elegant and picturesque of all with which this
country is acquainted, and which may also be considered as _peculiar_ to
this country, upon any thing like a great scale: I mean the Hop Harvest.
In the few counties in which this plant is cultivated, we are now
presented with the nearest semblance we can boast, of the Vintages of
Italy and Spain.

The Apple Harvest, too, of the Cider counties takes place this month;
and though I must not represent it as very fertile in the elegant and
picturesque, let me not neglect to do justice to its produce, as the
only one deserving the name of British Wine; all other so-called liquors
being, the reader may rest assured, worse than poisons, in the exact
proportion that specious hypocrites are worse than open, bold-faced
villains.

I hope the good housewives of my country (the only country in the world
which produces the breed) need not be told, that, in thus placarding the
impostor above-named, I have not the slightest thought of hurting the
high reputation of her immaculate “home-made,” which she so generously
brings out from the bottom division of her shining beaufet, and presses
(somewhat importunately) on every morning comer. She shall never have to
ask me twice to taste even a second glass of it, always provided she
calls it by its true and trustworthy name of “home-made”--to which, in
_my_ vocabulary, Montepulciano itself must yield the pas. But if, bitten
perhaps by some London Bagman, she happen to have contracted an
affection for fine phrases, and chooses to call her cordial by the
style and title of “_British wine_”--away with it, for me! I would not
touch it,

    “Though ’twere a draught for Juno when she banquets.”

In fact, she might as well call it _Cape_ at once!

The truth is, I once, to oblige an elderly lady at Hackney, _did_ taste
two glasses of “British wine” at a sitting; and my stomach has had a
load (of sugar of lead) upon its conscience ever since.

It must be confessed, that the general face of the country has undergone
a very material change for the worse since we left it last month; and
none of its individual features, with the exception of the Woods and
Groves, have improved in their appearance. The Fields are for the most
part bare, and either black and arid with the remains of the Harvest
that has been gathered from them, or at best but newly furrowed by the
plough. The ever green Meadows are indeed still beautiful, and the more
so for the Cattle that now stud them almost every where; the second
crops of grass being long since off. The Hedge-rows, too, have lost much
of their sweet tapestry of flowers, and even their late many-tinted
greens are sobered down into one dull monotonous hue. And the berries
and other wild fruits that the latter part of the season produces, do
not vary this hue,--having none of them as yet assumed the colours of
their maturity. It is true the Woodbine again flings up, here and there,
its bunches of pale flowers, after having ceased to do so for many
weeks. But they have no longer the rich luxuriance of their Spring
bloom, nor even the delicious scent which belonged to them when the
vigour of youth was upon them. They are the pale and feeble offspring of
the declining life of their parent.

It follows, from this general absence of wild flowers, that we are now
no longer greeted, on our morning or evening wanderings, by those
exquisite odours that float about upon the wings of every Summer wind,
and come upon the captivated sense like strains of unseen music.

Even the Summer birds, both songsters and others, begin to leave
us--urged thereto by a prophetic instinct, that will not be disobeyed:
for if they were to consult their _feelings_ merely, there is no season
at which the temperature of our climate is more delightfully adapted to
their pleasures and their wants.

But let it not be supposed that we have nothing to compensate for all
these losses. The Woods and Groves, those grandest and most striking
among the general features of the country, are now, towards the end of
the month, beginning to put on their richest looks. The Firs are
gradually darkening towards their winter blackness; the Oaks, Limes,
Poplars, and Horse-chestnuts, still retain their darkest summer green;
the Elms and Beeches are changing to that bright yellow which produces,
at a distance, the effect of patches of sunshine; and the Sycamores are
beginning, here and there, to assume a brilliant warmth of hue almost
amounting to scarlet. The distant effect, therefore, of a great company
of all these seen together, and intermingled with each other, is finer
than it has hitherto been, though not equal in beauty and variety to
what it will be about the same time next month.

But we have some other pretty sights belonging to the open country,
which must not be passed over; and one which the whole year, in point of
time, and the whole world, in point of place, can scarcely parallel. The
Sunsets of September in this country are perhaps unrivalled, for their
infinite variety, and their indescribable beauty. Those of more southern
countries may perhaps match, or even surpass them, for a certain glowing
and unbroken intensity. But for gorgeous variety of form and colour,
exquisite delicacy of tint and pencilling, and a certain placid
sweetness and tenderness of general effect, which frequently arises out
of a union of the two latter, there is nothing to be seen like what we
can show in England at this season of the year. If a painter, who was
capable of doing it to the utmost perfection, were to dare depict on
canvas one out of twenty of the Sunsets that we frequently have during
this month, he would be laughed at for his pains. And the reason is,
that people judge of pictures by pictures. They compare Hobbima with
Ruysdael, and Ruysdael with Wynants, and Wynants with Wouvermans, and
Wouvermans with Potter, and Potter with Cuyp; and then they think the
affair can proceed no farther. And the chances are, that if you were to
show one of the sunsets in question to a thorough-paced connoisseur in
this department of Fine Art, he would reply, that it was very
beautiful, to be sure, but that he must beg to doubt whether it was
_natural_, for he had never seen one like it in any of the old masters!

Another singular sight belonging to this period, is the occasional
showers of gossamer that fall from the upper regions of the air, and
cover every thing like a veil of woven silver. You may see them
descending through the sunshine, and glittering and flickering in it,
like rays of another kind of light. Or if you are in time to observe
them before the Sun has dried the dew from off them in the early
morning, they look like robes of fairy tissue-work, gemmed with
innumerable jewels.

Now, too, Thistle-down, and the beautiful winged seeds of the Dandelion,
float along through the calm air upon their voyages of discovery, as if
instinct with life.

Now, among the Birds, we have something like a renewal of the Spring
melodies. In particular, the Thrush and Blackbird, who have been silent
for several weeks, recommence their songs,--bidding good bye to the
Summer, in the same subdued tone in which they hailed her approach.

Finally, in connexion with the open country, now Wood-owls hoot louder
than ever; and the Lambs bleat shrilly from the hill-side to their
neglectful dams; and the thresher’s Flail is heard from the unseen barn;
and the plough-boy’s whistle comes through the silent air from the
distant upland; and Snakes leave their last year’s skins in the
brakes--literally creeping out at their own mouths; and Acorns drop in
showers from the oaks, at every wind that blows; and Hazel-nuts ask to
be plucked, so invitingly do they look forth from their green dwellings;
and, lastly, the evenings close in too quickly upon the walks to which
their serene beauty invites us, and the mornings get chilly, misty, and
damp.

Thanks to the art of the cultivator, we shall find the Garden almost as
gay with flowers as it was last month; for many of those of last month
still remain; and a few, and those among the most gorgeous that blow,
have only just opened. The chief of these latter is the China-aster; the
superb _Reine Marguerite_, whose endless variety of stars shoot up in
rich clusters, and glow like so many lighted catherine-wheels. The great
climbing Convolvulus also hangs out its beautiful cups among its smooth
and clustering leaves; and the rich aromatic Scabious lifts up its
glowing purple flowers on their lithe stems; and the profuse Dahlia,
that beautiful novelty, which was till so lately almost unknown to us,
scatters about its rich double and single blooms, some of them so
intense in colour that they seem to _glow_ as you look upon them. And
lastly, now the pendulous Amaranth hangs its gentle head despondingly,
and tells its tender tale almost as pathetically as the poem to which it
gives a name[3].

[3] “O’Connor’s Child; or the Flower of Love lies Bleeding.”

Among the flowering Shrubs, too, we have now some of the most beautiful
at their best. In particular, the Althea Frutex, and the Arbutus, or
Strawberry-tree.

As for the Fruit Garden, _that_ is one scene of tempting profusion.
Against the wall, the Grapes have put on that transparent look which
indicates their complete ripeness, and have dressed their cheeks in that
delicate bloom which enables them to bear away the bell of beauty from
all their rivals.--The Peaches and Nectarines have become fragrant, and
the whole wall where they hang is “musical with bees.”--Along the
Espaliers, the rosy-cheeked Apples look out from among their leaves,
like laughing children peeping at each other through screens of foliage;
and the young standards bend their straggling boughs to the earth with
the weight of their produce.

       *       *       *       *       *

Quitting the Country, we shall find London but ill qualified to
compensate us for the losses we have sustained there; and if there be
any reason in betaking oneself to places at the seaside, that are
neither London nor the Country, now is the time to do it--as the
citizens of London, and the liberties thereof, know full well.
Accordingly, now the mansions in Finsbury and Devonshire Squares on the
East, and Queen and Russell on the West, are changed for mouse-traps
(miscalled marine villas); and the tradesman who does not send his wife
and family to wash themselves in sea-water cannot be doing well in the
world. Now, therefore, the Brighton boarding-houses bask in the sunshine
of city favour, always provided their drawing-rooms look upon the sea;
and if you pass them on a warm afternoon about five o’clock, you may see
their dining-room windows wide open, and their inmates acting a
picturesque passage in one of Mr. Wordsworth’s pastorals:

    “There are forty feeding like one.”

But if the citizens (because they cannot help it) permit their wives and
daughters to be in their glory, _out_ of London at this period, they
permit their apprentices, for the same reason, to be so _in_ it: for now
arrives that Saturnalia of nondescript noise and nonconformity, Bartlemy
Fair;--when that Prince of peace-officers, the Lord Mayor, changes his
sword of state into a sixpenny trumpet, and becomes the Lord of Misrule
and the patron of pickpockets; and Lady Holland’s name leads an
unlettered mob instead of a lettered one; when Mr. Richardson maintains,
during three whole days and a half, a managerial supremacy that must be
not a little enviable even in the eyes of Mr. Elliston himself; and Mr.
Gyngell holds, during the same period, a scarcely less distinguished
station as the Apollo of servant-maids; when “the incomparable (not to
say _eternal_) _young_ Master Saunders” rides on horseback to the
admiration of all beholders, in the person of his eldest son; and when
all the giants in the land, and the dwarfs too, make a general muster,
and each proves to be, according to the most correct measurement, at
least a foot taller or shorter than any other in the fair, and, in fact,
the only one worth seeing,--“all the rest being impostors!” In short,
when every booth in the fair combines in itself the attractions of all
the rest, and so perplexes with its irresistible merit the rapt
imagination of the half-holiday schoolboys who have got but sixpence to
spend upon the whole, that they eye the outsides of each in a state of
pleasing despair, till their leave of absence is expired twice over, and
then return home filled with visions of giants and gingerbread-nuts, and
dream all night long of what they have _not_ seen.

_Au reste_, London must needs be but a sorry place in September, when
even its substantial shopkeepers are ashamed to be seen in it, and when
a careful porter may, if he pleases, carry a load on his head from Saint
Paul’s to the Mansion House, without damaging the heads of more than
half a dozen pedestrians.

As for the West End at this period, it looks like a model of itself,
seen through a magnifying glass--every thing is so sad, silent, and
empty of life. The vacant windows look blank at each other across the
way; the doors and their knockers are no more at variance; the porters
sleep away the heavy hours in their easy chairs, leaving the rings to be
answered from the area; and if you want to cross the street, you look
both ways first, for fear of being run over--thinking, from the absolute
stillness, that the stones of the pavement have been put to silence by
the art-magic of Mr. Macadam.

But notwithstanding all this, the Winter Theatres, having permitted
their Summer rivals to play to empty benches for nearly three months,
now put in their claim to share this pleasing privilege, lest it should
be supposed that they too cannot afford to lose a hundred pounds a night
as well as their inferiors. Accordingly, every body can have orders now
(except those who ask for them); and the pit is the only place for those
who are above sitting on the same bench with their boot-maker.

Let us not forget to add, that there is _one_ part of London which is
never out of season, and is never more _in_ season than now. Covent
Garden Market is still the Garden of Gardens; and as there is not a
month in all the year in which it does not contrive to belie something
or other that has been said in the foregoing pages, as to the
particular season of certain flowers, fruits, &c. so now it offers the
flowers and the fruits of every season united. How it becomes possessed
of all these, I shall not pretend to say: but thus much I am bound to
add by way of information,--that those ladies and gentlemen who have
country houses in the neighbourhood of Clapham Common or Camberwell
Grove, may now have the pleasure of eating the best fruit out of their
own Gardens--provided they choose to pay the price of it in Covent
Garden Market!



OCTOBER.


They tell us, in regard to this voyage of ours, called Human Life, that

    “Hope travels through, nor leaves us till we die.”

But they might have gone still farther, and shown us that Hope is not
only our companion on the journey, but at once the vehicle which bears
us along, the food which supports us as we go, and the goal to which all
our travels tend, not merely in the great voyage of discovery itself,
but in all the little outlets and byeways which break in upon and
diversify it.

Even in regard to the objects of external nature, Hope is the great
principle on which we take any thing like a continuous moral interest in
the contemplation of them; and if we never cease to feel that interest
during all the different periods of the year, it is because hope is no
sooner lost in fruition, than, like the Phœnix, it revives again, and
keeps fluttering on before us, like the beautiful Green Bird before the
lover, in the fairy tale; leading us--no matter where, so that it do
not leave us to plod on by ourselves, through a world that, however
beautiful _with_ it, were without it an overpeopled wilderness.

The month that we have just left behind us was indeed one made up, for
the most part, of consummations; the promises of the year being almost
forgotten in the fulness of their performance, and the season standing
still to enjoy itself, and to let its admirers satiate themselves upon
the rich completeness of its charms. It is now gone; and October is
come; and Hope is come with it; and the general impulse that we feel is,
to _look forward_ again, as we have done from the beginning of the year.

It must be confessed, however, that the hopes of _this_ month, in
particular, are not unblended with that sentiment of melancholy--gentle
and genial, but still melancholy--which results from the constant
presence of decay. The year has reached its grand climacteric, and is
fast falling “into the sere, the yellow leaf.” Every day a flower drops
from out the wreath that binds its brow--not to be renewed. Every hour
the Sun looks more and more askance upon it, and the winds, those Summer
flatterers, come to it less fawningly. Every breath shakes down showers
of its leafy attire, leaving it gradually barer and barer, for the
blasts of winter to blow through it. Every morning and evening takes
away from it a portion of that light which gives beauty to its life, and
chills it more and more into that torpor which at length constitutes its
temporary death. And yet October is beautiful still, no less “for what
it gives than what it takes away;” and even for what it gives during the
very act of taking away.

Let us begin our observations with an example of the latter. The whole
year cannot produce a sight fraught with more rich and harmonious beauty
than that which the Woods and Groves present during this month,
notwithstanding, or rather in consequence of, the daily decay of their
summer attire; and at no other season can any given spot of landscape be
seen to much advantage as a mere picture. This, therefore, is, above all
others, the month for the artist to ply his delightful task, of fixing
the fugitive beauties of the scene; which, however, he must do quickly,
for they fade away, day by day, as he looks upon them.

And yet, if it were represented faithfully, an extensive plantation of
Forest Trees now presents a variety of colours and of tints that would
scarcely be considered as _natural_ in a picture, any more than many of
the Sunsets of September would. Among those trees which retain their
green hues, the Fir tribe are the principal; and these, spiring up among
the deciduous ones, now differ from them no less in colour than they do
in form. The Alders, too, and the Poplars, Limes, and Horse-chestnuts,
are still green,--the hues of their leaves not undergoing much change as
long as they remain on the branches. Most of the other Forest Trees have
put on each its peculiar livery; the Planes and Sycamores presenting
every variety of tinge, from bright yellow to brilliant red; the Elms
being, for the most part, of a rich sunny umber, varying according to
the age of the tree and the circumstances of its soil, &c.; the Beeches
having deepened into a warm glowing brown, which the young ones will
retain all the winter, and till the new spring leaves push the present
ones off; the Oaks varying from a dull dusky green to a deep russet,
according to their ages; and the Spanish Chestnuts, with their noble
embowering heads, glowing like clouds of gold.

As for the Hedge-rows this month, they still retain all their effect as
part of a general and distant view; and when looked at more closely,
though they have lost nearly all their flowers, the various fruits that
are spread out upon them for the winter food of the birds, make them
little less gay than they were in Spring and Summer. The most
conspicuous of these are the red hips of the Wild Rose; the dark purple
bunches of the luxuriant Blackberry; the brilliant scarlet and green
berries of the Nightshade; the wintry-looking fruit of the Hawthorn; the
blue Sloes, covered with their soft tempting-looking bloom; the dull
bunches of the Woodbine; and the sparkling Holly-berries.

We may also still, by seeking for them, find a few flowers scattered
about beneath the Hedge-rows, and the dry Banks that skirt the Woods,
and even in the Woods themselves, peeping up meekly from among the
crowds of newly fallen leaves. The prettiest of these is the Primrose,
which now blows a second time. But two or three of the Persicaria tribe
are still in flower, and also some of the Goosefoots. And even the
elegant and fragile Heathbell, or Harebell, has not yet quite
disappeared; while some of the ground flowers that have passed away have
left in their place strange evidences of their late presence; in
particular, the singular flower (if it can be called one) of the Arums,
or Lords and Ladies, has changed into an upright bunch, or long cluster,
of red berries, starting up from out the ground on a single stiff stem,
and looking almost like the flower of a Hyacinth.

The open Fields during this month, though they are bereaved of much of
their actual beauty and variety, present sights that are as agreeable to
the eye, and even more stirring to the imagination, than those which
have passed away. The Husbandman is now ploughing up the arable land,
and putting into it the seeds that are to produce the next year’s crops;
and there are not, among rural occupations, two more pleasant to look
upon than these: the latter, in particular, is one that, while it gives
perfect satisfaction to the eye as a mere picture, awakens and fills the
imagination with the prospective views which it opens.

Another very lively rural sight, on account of the many hands that it
employs at the same time, men, women, and children, is the general
Potato gathering of this month.

Among the miscellaneous events of October, one of the most striking and
curious is the interchange which seems to take place between our
country, and the more northern as well as the more southern ones in
regard to the Birds. The Swallow tribe now all quit us; the Swift
disappeared wholly, more than a month ago; and now the House Swallow,
House Martin, and Bank or Sand Martin, after congregating for awhile in
vast flocks about the banks of rivers and other waters, are seen no more
as general frequenters of the air. And if one or two _are_ seen during
the warm days that sometimes occur for the next two or three weeks, they
are to be looked upon as strangers and wanderers; and the sight of them,
which has hitherto been so pleasant, becomes altogether different in its
effect: it gives one a feeling of desolateness, such as we experience on
meeting a poor shivering Lascar in our winter streets.

In exchange for this tribe of truly Summer visitors, we have now great
flocks of the Fieldfares and Redwings come back to us; and also Wood
Pigeons, Snipes, Woodcocks, and several of the numerous tribe of
Water-fowl.

Now, occasionally, we may observe the singular effects of a mist, coming
gradually on, and wrapping in its dusky cloak a whole landscape that
was, the moment before, clear and bright as in a Spring morning. The
vapour rises visibly (from the face of a distant river perhaps) like
steam from a boiling caldron; and climbing up into the blue air as it
advances, rolls wreath over wreath till it reaches the spot on which you
are standing; and then, seeming to hurry past you, its edges, which have
hitherto been distinctly defined, become no longer visible, and the
whole scene of beauty, which a few moments before surrounded you, is as
it were wrapt from your sight like an unreal vision of the air, and you
seem (and in fact _are_) transferred into the bosom of a cloud.

Drawing towards the home scene, we find the Orchard by no means devoid
of interest this month. The Apples are among the last to shed their
leaves; so that they retain them yet; and in some cases of late fruit,
they retain that too,--looking as bright and tempting as ever it did.
The Cherry-trees, too, are more beautiful at this time than ever they
have been since their brief period of blossoming, on account of the
brilliant scarlet which their leaves assume,--varying, however, from
that colour all the way through the warm ones, up to the bright yellow.
There are also two species of the Plum, the Purple and the White Damson,
which have only now reached their maturity.

The Elders, that frequently skirt the Orchard, or form part of its
bounding hedge, are also now loaded with their broad outspread bunches
of purple and white berries, and instantly call up (to those who are
lucky enough to possess such an association at all) that ideal of old
English snugness and comfort, the farm-house chimney corner, on a cold
winter’s Saturday night; with the jug of hot Elder-wine on the red brick
hearth; the embers crackling and blazing; the toasted bread, and the
long-stemmed glasses on the two-flapped oak table; and the happy ruddy
faces of the young ones around, looking expectantly towards the comely
and portly dame for their weekly _treat_.

The gentle (query _genteel_) reader will be good enough to remember that
I am now speaking of old times; that is to say, twenty years ago; and
will not suppose me ignorant enough to imagine that _they_ can possibly
know what I mean either by “_Elder-wine_,” or a “_chimney corner_.” But
though the merits of mulled claret, an ottoman, and a hearth-rug, shall
never be called in question by me, I must be excused for remembering
that there _was_ a time when I knew no better than the above, and that I
have not grown wise enough to cease sighing for the return of that time
ever since it has passed away. Accordingly, though I would on no account
be supposed to permit Elder-wine to pass my actual palate, I could not
resist the above occasion of tasting it once more in imagination; and I
must say, that the flavour of it is quite as agreeable as it was before
claret became a common-place.

Now is the time for performing another of those praiseworthy operations
which modern refinement has driven almost out of fashion. I mean the
brewing of Beer that is to be called, _par excellence_, “October,” some
ten or fifteen years hence, when it is worth drinking. Country folks
brew as usual, it is true; because the drink which is sent them down by
the London dealers is what they cannot comprehend: but it has become a
regular monthly work; bearing, however, about the same relation to those
of the good old times which have passed away, as the innumerable
“twopenny trash” of the present day do to the good old “Gentleman’s
Magazine” that they have almost superseded. Brewing, nowadays, (thanks
to Mr. Cobbet’s Cottage Economy) is an affair of a tea-kettle, a
washing-tub, and a currant-wine cask; and “October,” now, will scarcely
keep till November.

Now, the Hives are despoiled of their honey; and by one of those sad
necessities attendant on artificial life, the hitherto happy and
industrious collectors of it are rewarded with death for their pains.

It is not till this month that we usually experience the Equinoxial
Gales, those fatal visitations which may now be looked upon as the
immediate heralds of the coming on of Winter; as in the Spring they were
the sure signs of its having passed away. Bitter-sweet is it, now, to
lie awake at night, and listen wilfully (as if we would not let them
escape us) to the fierce howlings of the winds, each accession of which
gives new vividness to the vision of some tall ship, illumined by every
flash of lightning--illumined, but not rendered _visible_--for there are
no eyes within a hundred leagues to look upon it; and crowded with human
beings--(not “souls” only, as the sea-phrase is, for then it were
pastime--but _bodies_) every one of which sees, in imagination, its own
grave a thousand fathom deep beneath the dark waters that roar around,
and feels itself there beforehand.

Returning to the home enclosures, we shall find them far from destitute
of attraction; and indeed if they have been properly attended to, with a
view to that almost unceasing succession of which the various objects of
cultivation admit, we shall scarcely as yet perceive any of the ravages
which the mere approach of Winter has already made among their
uncultivated kindred.

In the Flower Garden, if much of the beauty of Summer has now passed
away, its place has been supplied by that which affords one of the
pleasantest employments of the lover of gardening; for those who do not
grow and collect their own seeds know but half the pleasures of that
most delightful of all merely physical occupations. The principal flower
seeds come to perfection this month, and are now to be gathered and
laid by, before they scatter themselves abroad at random.

Now, too, is the time for employing another and an equally fertile and
interesting mode of propagation; that by means of offsets, suckers,
cuttings, partings, &c. Now, in short, most of the fibrous-rooted
perennial plants (regardless of Mr. Malthus’s principles of population)
put forth more offspring than the ground which they occupy can support;
and unless the Government under which they live were to provide them
with due means of colonization, they would presently over-run and
destroy each other, until the whole kingdom, which now belongs to them
jointly, became the exclusive property and possession of some one
powerful but worthless family among them: as we see on lands that are
left to themselves, and suffered to lie waste: whatever variety of
plants may spring up spontaneously upon them during the first season or
two, at the end of three or four years all is one unbroken expanse of
rank unproductive grass.

It may be a childish pleasure, perhaps, but it is a very unequivocal and
a very innocent one, to bid the perennial plants “increase and
multiply,” and to see how aptly and willingly they obey the mandate.
Making plants by this means is a pleasant substitute for making money,
to those who have none of the latter to begin with. Indeed I question
whether a dozen money-bags, made out of one, ever yet afforded the maker
half the real satisfaction that a dozen Daisies have done, multiplied in
a similar manner. Not that I can pretend to judge by experience of the
comparative merits of these multiplication tables; and I am liberal
enough to be willing to give the former a fair trial, on the very first
opportunity that offers itself.

But though most of the Garden plants are now busily employed in
disseminating themselves by seeds and offsets, many of them are still
wearing their merely ornamental attire, and looking about them for
admiration as if they were made for nothing else. If the arrangements of
the borders have been attended to with a properly prospective eye, they
still present us with several of the Amaranths, and particularly the
everlasting ones; with some of the finest Dahlias; the great climbing
Convolvolus; French and African Marigolds, which have now increased to
almost the size of flowering shrubs; Scabious; China-Asters; Golden-rod;
the interminable Stocks; and, running about among them all, and
flowering almost as profusely and as prettily as ever, sweet-breathing
Mignonette.

Among the Shrubs, too, there are still some whose flowers continue to
look the coming Winter in the face. In particular, the Arbutus is in all
its beauty,--hanging forth, like the Orange, its flowers, fruit, and
leaves, all at once. The Ivy, too, is covered with its unassuming
blossoms, which are as rich in honey as they are poor in show, and are
rifled of their sweets by the all-wooing bees, with even more avidity
than the fantastical Passion-flower, or the flaunting Rose.

It is a little singular that the most gorgeous show which the Garden
presents during the whole year should occur at this late period of the
season, and without the intervention of flowers. I allude to the
splendid foliage of the Great Virginian Creeper, which may now be seen
hanging out its scarlet banners against some high battlement, or
wreathing them into gay and graceful tapestry about the mouldering
walls of some old watch-tower, or, still more appropriately, fringing
and festooning the embayed windows of some secluded building, sacred to
the silence of study and contemplation. If I remember rightly, some
beautiful examples of it, under the latter character, may be seen in two
or three of the inner quadrangles both of Oxford and Cambridge.

Finally, now, that at once wildest and tamest of birds, most social and
most solitary, the Robin, first begins to place its trust in man;
flitting about the feet of the Gardener, as he turns up the freshened
earth, and taking its food almost from the spade as it moves in his
hand; or standing at a little distance from him among the fallen leaves,
and singing plaintively, as if practising beforehand the dirge of the
departing year.

       *       *       *       *       *

October is to London what April is to the Country; it is the Spring of
the London Summer, when the hopes of the shopkeeper begin to bud forth,
and he lays aside the insupportable labour of having nothing to do, for
the delightful leisure of preparing to be in a perpetual bustle. During
the last month or two he has been strenuously endeavouring to persuade
himself that the Steyne at Brighton is as healthy as Bond-street; the
_pavé_ of Pall Mall no more picturesque than the Pantiles of Tunbridge
Wells; and winning a prize at one-card-loo at Margate as piquant a
process as serving a customer to the same amount of profit. But now that
the time is returned when “business” must again be attended to, he
discards with contempt all such mischievous heresies, and re-embraces
the only orthodox faith of a London shopkeeper--that London and his shop
are the true “beauteous and sublime” of human life. In fact, “now is the
winter of his discontent” (that is to say, what other people call
Summer) “made glorious Summer” by the near approach of Winter; and all
the wit he is master of is put in requisition, to devise the means of
proving that every thing he has offered to “his friends the public,” up
to this particular period, has become worse than obsolete. Accordingly,
now are those poets of the shopkeepers, the investors of patterns,
“perplexed in the extreme;” since, unless they can produce a something
which shall necessarily supersede all their previous productions, their
occupation’s gone.

It is the same with all other caterers for the public taste; even the
literary ones. Mr. Elliston, “ever anxious to contribute to the
amusement of his liberal patrons, the public,” is already busied in
sowing the seeds of a New Tragedy, two Operatic Romances, three Grand
Romantic Melodrames, and half a dozen Farces, in the fertile soil of
those _poets_ whom he employs in each of these departments respectively;
while each of the London publishers is projecting a new “periodical,” to
appear on the first of January next; that which he started on the first
of _last_ January having, of course, died of old age ere this!

As to the external appearance of London this month, the East End of it
shows symptoms of reviving animation, after the two months’ trance which
the absence of its citizens had cast over it; and Cheapside, though it
cannot boast of being absolutely impassable, is sufficiently crowded to
create hopes in its inhabitants that it soon will be.

But the West End is as melancholy as the want of that which ever makes
it otherwise can render it: for the fashionables, though it is more than
a month since they retired from the fatiguing activity of a London
Winter in July, to the still more fatiguing repose of an October Summer
in the Country, pertinaciously refuse themselves permission to return to
the lesser evil of the two, till they have partaken of the greater to
such a degree of repletion as to make them fancy, when the former is on
the point of being restored to them, that it is none at all; thus making
each re-act upon the other, until, to their enfeebled and diseased
imaginations, “nothing is but what is not;” and being in London, they
sigh for the Country; and in the Country, for London.

But has London no one positive merit in October, then? Yes; one it has,
which half redeems all its delinquencies. In October, Fires have fairly
gained possession of their places, and even greet us on coming down to
breakfast in the morning. Of all the discomforts of that most
comfortless period of the London year which is neither winter nor
summer, the most unequivocal is that of its being too cold to be without
a fire, and not cold enough to have one. At a season of this kind, to
enter an English sitting-room, the very ideal of snugness and comfort in
all other respects, but with a great gaping hiatus in one side of it,
which makes it look like a pleasant face deprived of its best feature,
is not to be thought of without feeling chilly. And as to filling up the
deficiency by a set of polished fire-irons, standing sentry beside a
pile of dead coals imprisoned behind a row of glittering bars,--this,
instead of mending the matter, makes it worse; inasmuch as it is better
to look into an empty coffin, than to see the dead face of a friend in
it. At the season in question, especially in the evening, one feels in a
perpetual perplexity, whether to go out or stay at home; sit down or
walk about; read, write, cast accounts, or call for the candle and go to
bed. But let the fire be lighted, and all uncertainty is at an end, and
we (or even _one_) may do any or all of these with equal satisfaction.
In short, light but the fire, and you bring the Winter in at once; and
what are twenty Summers, with all their sunshine (when they are gone),
to one Winter, with its indoor sunshine of a sea-coal fire?

Henceforth, then, be Winter my theme; and if I do not grow warm in its
praise, it shall not be for want of inditing that praise beside as
pleasant a fire as nubbly Wall’s Ends, a register-stove (not a
Cobbett’s-Register one, I am sorry to say[4]), and a slim-pointed poker,
can produce.

[4] I modestly propose, that the stoves lately introduced by Mr.
Cobbett, and recommended in his Register, be henceforth known by no
other than the above style and title:--Cobbett’s-Register Stoves. And if
they are, it shall never be said that, anonymous as I am, I have lived
or written in vain; for the next best thing to _having_ a name, is the
being able to _give_ one, even to a fire-place. Let me add, for fear of
being taxed with that meanest of all our mental propensities, the habit
of joking at the expense of justice, that I offer the proposed name as
any thing but a “nick” one. In fact, nothing but that change of climate
which the Quarterly Reviewers have promised us can prevent Mr. Cobbett’s
stoves from one day or other gaining him almost as sure a passport to
immortality, as any other of his works.



NOVEMBER.


Of the twin maxims, which bid us to “Welcome the coming, speed the going
guest,” the latter is better appreciated than practised. The over
refinements of modern life make people afraid of giving in to it, who
yet feel it to be an excellent one. The truth is, that when a guest, of
no matter how agreeable a presence, or how attractive an air, has made
up his mind to go, the sooner he goes the better. Let him go at once,
therefore. Do not press him to stay, or detain him at the door, but
“speed” him on his way. It is best for both parties, if they like each
other. When, indeed, an unpleasant intruder is about to depart, there is
a kind of satisfaction in detaining him a little. We dally with the
prospective pleasure of having him gone, till we forget that he is
present. But when those we love are leaving us, the best way is, to
wink, and part at once; for to be “going” is even worse than to be
“gone.”

Thus let it be, then, with that delightful annual guest, the Summer
(under the agreeable alias of Autumn), in whose presence we have lately
been luxuriating. We might perhaps, by a little gentle violence, prevail
upon her to stay with us for a brief space longer; or might at least
prevail upon ourselves to believe that she is not quite gone. But we
shall do better by speeding her on her way to other climes, and
welcoming “the coming guest,” gray-haired Winter. So be it, then.

The last storm of Autumn, or the first of Winter, call it which you
will, has strewed the bosom of the all-receiving earth with the few
leaves that were still clinging, though dead, to the already sapless
branches; and now all stand bare at once,--spreading out their
innumerable ramifications against the cold, gray sky, as if sketched
there for a study, by the pencil of your only successful
drawing-mistress--Nature. Of all the numerous changes that are
perpetually taking place in the general appearance of rural scenery
during the year, there is none so striking as this which is attendant on
the falling of the leaves; and there is none in which the unpleasing
effects so greatly predominate over the pleasing ones. To say truth, a
Grove, denuded of its late gorgeous attire, and instead of bowing
majestically before the winds, standing erect and motionless while they
are blowing through it, is “a sorry sight,” and one upon which we will
not dwell. But even this sad consequence of the coming on of Winter, sad
in most of its mere visible effects, is not entirely without redeeming
accompaniments; for in most cases it lays open to our view objects that
we are glad to see again, if it be but in virtue of their association
with past years; and in many cases it opens vistas into sweet distances
that we had almost forgotten, and brings into view objects that we may
have been sighing for the sight of all the Summer long. Suppose, for
example, that the summer view from the windows of a favourite
sleeping-room is bounded by a screen of shrubs, shelving upward from the
turf, and terminating in a little copse of Limes, Beeches, and
Sycamores--the prettiest boundary that can greet the morning glance,
when the shutters are opened, and the Sun slants gaily in at them, as if
glad to be again admitted. How pleasant is it,--when, as now, the winds
of Winter have stripped the branches that thus bound our view in,--to
spy beyond them, as if through net-work, the sky-pointing spire of the
distant village church, rising from behind the old Yew-tree that darkens
its portal; and the trim parsonage beside it, its ivy-grown windows
glittering perhaps in the early sun! Oh--none, but those who _will_ see
the good that is in everything, know how very few evils there are
without some of it attendant on them.

But though the least pleasant sight connected with the coming on of
Winter in this month is, to see the leaves, that have so gladdened the
groves all the Summer long, falling everywhere around us, withered and
dead,--that sight is accompanied by another which is too often
overlooked. Though most of the leaves fall in Winter, and the stems and
branches which they beautified stand bare, many of them remain all the
year round, and look brighter and fresher now than they did in Spring,
in virtue of the contrasts that are everywhere about them. Indeed the
cultivation of Evergreens has become so general with us of late years,
that the home enclosures about our country dwellings, from the proudest
down to even the poorest, are seldom to be seen without a plentiful
supply, which we now, in this month, first begin to observe, and
acknowledge the value of. It must be a poor plot of garden-ground indeed
that does not now boast its clumps of Winter-blowing Laurestinus; its
trim Holly-bushes, bright with their scarlet berries; or its tall Spruce
Firs, shooting up their pyramid of feathery branches beside the low,
ivy-grown porch.

Of this last-named profuse ornamenter of whatever is permitted to afford
it support (the Ivy), we now too everywhere perceive the beautifully
picturesque effects: though there is one effect of it, also perceived
about this time, which I cannot persuade myself to be reconciled to: I
mean where the trunk of a tall tree is bound about with Ivy almost to
its top, which during the Summer has scarcely been distinguished as a
separate growth, but which now, when the other leaves are fallen, and
the outspread branches stand bare, offers to the eye, not a contrast,
but a contradiction.

But let us not dwell on any thing in disfavour of Ivy,--which is one of
the prime boasts of the village scenery of our island, and which, even
at this season of the year, offers pictures to the eye that cannot be
paralleled elsewhere. Perhaps as a single object of sight, there is
nothing which gives so much innocent pleasure to so many persons, as an
English Village Church, when the Ivy has held undisputed possession of
it for many years, and has hung its fantastic banners all about it.
There is a charm about an object of this kind, which it is as difficult
to resist as to explain the secret of. _We_ will attempt neither; but
instead, continue our desultory observations.

Now, as the branches become bare, another sight presents itself, which,
trifling as it is, fixes the attention of all who see it, and causes a
sensation equally difficult with the above satisfactorily to explain. I
mean the Birds’ nests that are seen here and there in the now
transparent hedges, bushes, and copses. It is not difficult to conceive
why this sight should make the heart of the schoolboy leap with an
imaginative joy, as it brings before his eyes visions of five blue eggs
lying sweetly beside each other, on a bed of moss and feathers; or as
many gaping bills lifting themselves from out what seems one callow
body. But we are, unhappily, not all schoolboys; and it is to be hoped
not many of us ever _have been_ bird-nesting ones. And yet we all look
upon this sight with a momentary interest, that few other so indifferent
objects are capable of exciting. The wise may condescend to explain this
interest, if they please, or if they can. But if they do, it will be for
their own satisfaction, not ours, who are content to be pleased, without
insisting on penetrating into the cause of our pleasure.

Now, the felling of Wood for the winter store commences; and, in a mild
still day, the measured strokes of the Woodman’s axe, heard far away in
the thick Forest, bring with their sound an associated feeling, similar
to that produced by a wreath of smoke rising from out the same scene:
they tell us a tale of

    “Uncertain dwellers in the pathless Woods.”

The “busy flail,” too, which is now in full employment, fills the air
about the homestead with a pleasant sound, and invites the passer by to
look in at the great open doors of the Barn, and see the Wheatstack
reaching to the roof on either hand; the little pyramid of bright Grain
behind the Threshers; the scattered ears between them, leaping and
rustling beneath their fast-falling strokes; and the flail itself flying
harmless round the Labourers’ heads, though seeming to threaten danger
at every turn; while, outside, the flock of “barn-door” Poultry ply
their ceaseless search for food, among the knee-deep straw; and the
Cattle, all their summer frolics forgotten, stand ruminating beside the
half-empty Hay-rack, or lean with inquiring faces over the gate that
looks down into the Village, or away towards the distant Pastures.

Of the Birds that have hitherto made merry even at the approach of
Winter, now all are silent; all save that one who now earns his title of
“the Household Bird,” by haunting the thresholds and window-cills, and
casting sidelong glances indoors, as if to reconnoitre the positions of
all within, before the pinching frosts force him to lay aside his fears,
and flit in and out silently, like a winged spirit. All are now silent
except him; but _he_, as he sits on the pointed palings beside the
doorway, or on the topmost twig of the little Black Thorn that has been
left growing in the otherwise closely-clipt Hedge, pipes plaintive
ditties with a low _inward_ voice,--like that of a love-tainted maiden,
as she sits apart from her companions, and sings soft melodies to
herself, almost without knowing it.

Some of the other small Birds that winter with us, but have hitherto
kept aloof from our dwellings, now approach them, and mope about among
the House-sparrows, on the bare branches, wondering what has become of
all the leaves, and not knowing one tree from another. Of these the
chief are, the Hedge-sparrow, the Blue Titmouse, and the Linnet. These
also, together with the Goldfinch, Thrush, Blackbird, &c. may still be
seen rifling the hip and haw grown hedges of their scanty fruit. Almost
all, however, even of those Singing-birds that do not migrate, except
the Redbreast, Wren, Hedge-sparrow, and Titmouse, disappear shortly
after the commencement of this month, and go no one knows whither. But
the pert House-sparrow keeps possession of the Garden and Court-yard all
the Winter; and the different species of Wagtails may be seen busily
haunting the clear cold Spring-heads, and wading into the unfrozen water
in search of their delicate food, consisting of insects in the _aurelia_
state.

Now, the Farmer finishes all his out-of-door work before the frosts set
in, and lays by his implements till the awakening of Spring calls him to
his hand-labour again.

Now, the Sheep, all their other more natural food failing, begin to be
penned on patches of the Turnip-field, where they first devour the green
tops joyfully, and then gradually hollow out the juicy root,--holding it
firm with their feet, till nothing is left but the dry brown husk.

Now, the Herds stand all day long hanging their disconsolate heads
beside the leafless Hedges, and waiting as anxiously, but as patiently
too, to be called home to the hay-fed Stall, as they do in Summer to be
driven afield.

Now, (for they will not be overlooked or forgotten, do what we will to
dwell on other things), now come the true disagreeables of a Winter in
the Country; and perhaps at no other time are they so determinate in
making themselves felt, or is it so difficult to escape from them. And
yet what are they after all, (_i. e._ after they are over) but wholesome
bitters thrown occasionally into the cup of life, to keep the appetite
in health, and give a true tone to those powers of enjoyment, upon which
the luxuries of Summer would pall, if they were not frequently to pass
away in fact, and exist only in fancy? We may talk as much as we will
about the perpetual blue skies of Southern Italy, and enjoy them, if we
please, in imagination. And we may even _wish_ for them here, without
any great harm, provided we are content to do without them. But no
Englishman, who was at once a lover of external Nature, and an attentive
observer of her effects on his own heart and mind, ever, by absolute
choice, determined to live away from his own variable climate, even
_before_ he had tried that of other countries, still less after. Even if
there were nothing else to keep him at home, he would never consent to
part with the perpetual _green_ of his native Fields, in exchange for
that perpetual _blue_ with which it cannot coexist: and this, if for no
other reason, because green is naturally a more grateful colour to the
eye than blue. But, in fact, to those who have the means of enjoying all
that England has the means of offering for enjoyment, its climate is the
best in the world; and it is even that which, upon the whole, gives rise
to the greatest number of beautiful natural appearances. We boast, not
without reason, of our unrivalled skill in gardening, and our taste in
taking advantage of the natural beauties of picturesque scenery. But we
claim too much credit for ourselves, and give too little to our climate,
for the creation of this taste. If we had lived under Italian or French
skies, our Gardens and Pleasure-grounds would have been Italian or
French. Where can the Sunsets and Sunrisings of England be equalled in
various beauty? But that beauty depends, in a great measure, on her
mists, clouds, and exhalations. The countries of clear skies and
unbroken sunshine scarcely know what a Rainbow is: and yet what pageant
of the earth, the air, or the water, is like it? In short, the climate
of England, like her people, is the best in the world; and what is more,
the latter are the best precisely _because_ the former is. And that this
can be said with perfect sincerity, in the heart of the country during
the heart of November, is a proof, not to be gainsaid, that the joint
proposition is true.

Perhaps I may now safely return to my duty, of depicting the several
unamiable aspects which the face of November is apt to assume; and
which, in my lover-like disposition to “see Helen’s beauty in a brow of
Egypt,” I had serious thoughts of either passing over altogether, or
denying the existence of outright!

Now, then (there is no denying it), cold rains do come deluging down,
till the drenched ground, the dripping trees, the pouring eaves, and the
torn ragged-skirted clouds, seemingly dragged downward slantwise by the
threads of dusky rain that descend from them, are all mingled together
in one blind confusion; while the few Cattle that are left in the open
Pastures, forgetful of their till now interminable business of feeding,
turn their backs upon the besieging storm, and hanging down their heads
till their noses almost touch the ground, stand out in the middle of the
Fields motionless, like dead images.

Now, too, a single rain-storm, like the above, breaks up all the paths
and ways at once, and makes home no longer “home” to those who are not
obliged to leave it; while, _en revanche_, it becomes doubly endeared to
those who are. What sight, for instance, is so pleasant to the wearied
Woodman, who has been out all day long in the drenching rains of this
month, as his own distant cottage window, seen through the thickening
dusk, lighted up by the blazing faggot that is to greet his sure return
at the accustomed minute? What, I say, is so pleasant a sight as this,
except the window of the village alehouse, similarly seen, and offering
a similar greeting, to him who has _no_ home?

The name of home warns us that we are too long delaying our approach to
its environs, even though they have little to offer us different from
the comparative desolation that prevails elsewhere.

In short, the Fruits of the Orchard are all gathered in, and all but the
keeping ones are gone; and the Flowers of the Garden are gradually
growing thinner and thinner, and the places where they lately stood are
forgotten.

Still, however, of the former we have the Winter store, laid by in
fragrant heaps in the low-roofed loft over the Granary; and of the
latter we have yet left some that scatter their till now neglected
beauties up and down the half-deserted Parterre, and gain that
admiration by their rarity, which in the presence of their more fleeting
rivals they were fain to do without; and even a few that have not
ventured to show their faces to the hot sun of Summer, but are bold
enough to bare them before the chilling winds of Winter. Of these the
most various and conspicuous are the Chrysanthemums, shooting out their
sharp rays of different lengths, like stars--purple, and pink, and
white, and yellow, and blue; but all pale, faint, and scentless, and
looking more like artificial flowers than real ones.

Some of the rich Dahlias, too, still remain, unless the killing frosts
have come; and the Geraniums, that have been turned out of their winter
homes into the open earth, still keep flowering profusely. But a single
night’s frost makes sad havoc among both these bright ornaments of the
Autumn Flower-garden; and what is to-day a rich cluster of green leaves,
interspersed with gay groups of flowers, may to-morrow become, by an
invisible agency, an unsightly heap of corruption.

       *       *       *       *       *

London is so perfect an antithesis to the Country in all things, that
whatever is good for the one is bad for the other. Accordingly, as the
Country half forgets itself this month, so London just begins to know
itself again. Not that I would insinuate any thing so injurious to the
reputation of the high fashionables, as that they have as yet began to
entertain the remotest thought of throwing themselves into the arms of
one another, merely because they have become wearied of themselves. On
the contrary, persons of fashion are perpetual martyrs to the
selfdenying principles on which they act, of doing every thing for or
with a reference to other people. Every body knows, that if there _is_
a month of the year in which the Country puts forth less claims than
usual to the undivided love of her admirers, it is November. But people
of fashion never yet pretended either to love or admire any thing--even
themselves;--any thing but that abstraction of abstractions from which
they take their title. Accordingly, to them the Country is as much the
Country in November as ever it was, simply because London is not yet
London. In short, to be in London, is to be _in the world_; and to be in
the Country, or any where else but in London, is to be _out of the
world_; and therefore, to say that one is “in the Country,” when it is
not decorous to be in London, is a mere _façon de parler_, exactly
equivalent to that of “not at home,” when one does not choose to be
seen; so that there is no difficulty whatever in being “in town” all the
year round, and yet “out of town,” exactly when it is proper and
becoming to be so.

But if the world of fashion belongs exclusively to London, luckily
London does not belong exclusively to the world of fashion; and if that
has not yet began to enlighten London with its presence, all the other
worlds have. Accordingly, now its streets revive from their late
suspended animation, and are alive with anxious faces, and musical with
the mingled sounds of many wheels.

Now, the Shops begin to shine out with their new Winter wares; though as
yet the chief profits of their owners depend on disposing of the “Summer
stock” at fifty per cent. under prime cost.

Now, the Theatres, admonished by their no longer empty benches, try
which shall be the first to break through that hollow truce on the
strength of which they have hitherto been acting only on alternate
nights.

Now, during the first week, the citizens see visions and dream dreams,
the burthens of which are Barons of Beef; and the first eight days are
passed in a state of pleasing perplexity, touching their chance of a
ticket for the Lord Mayor’s Dinner on the ninth.

Now, all the little boys give thanks in their secret hearts to Guy Faux,
for having attempted to burn “the Parliament” with “Gunpowder, treason,
and plot,” since the said attempt gives them occasion to burn every
thing they can lay their hands on,--their own fingers included: a
bonfire being, in the eyes of an English schoolboy, the true “beauteous
and sublime of human life.”

Finally,--now the atmosphere of London begins to thicken overhead, and
assume its _natural_ appearance--preparatory to its becoming, about
Christmas time, that “palpable obscure” which is one of its proudest
boasts; and which, among its other merits, may reckon that of engendering
those far-famed Fogs of which everybody has heard, but to which no one
has ever done justice. A London Fog in November is a thing for which I
have a sort of natural affection;--to say nothing of an acquired one, the
result of a Hackney-coach adventure, in which the fair part of the fare
threw herself into my arms for protection, amidst the pleasing horrors of
an overthrow.--As an affair of mere breath, there is something tangible
in a London Fog. In the evanescent air of Italy, a man might as well not
breathe at all, for any thing he knows of the matter. But in a well-mixed
Metropolitan Fog there is something substantial, and satisfying. You can
feel what you breathe, and see it too. It is like breathing water,--as we
may fancy the fishes to do. And then the taste of it, when dashed with a
due seasoning of sea-coal smoke, is far from insipid. It is also meat
and drink at the same time; something between egg-flip and omelette
soufflée, but much more digestible than either. Not that I would
recommend it medicinally,--especially to persons of queasy stomachs,
delicate nerves, and afflicted with bile. But for persons of a good
robust habit of body, and not dainty withal--(which such, by the by,
never are)--there is nothing better in its way. And it wraps you all
round like a cloak, too--a patent water-proof one, which no rain ever
penetrated.

No--I maintain that a real London Fog is a thing not to be sneezed
at--if you can help it.

_Mem._ As many spurious imitations of the above are abroad,--such as
Scotch Mists, and the like--which are no less deleterious than
disagreeable,--please to ask for the “True London Particular,” as
manufactured by Thames, Coal-gas, Smoke, Steam, and Co. No others are
genuine.



DECEMBER.


My pleasant task approaches to its pleasant close; for it is pleasant to
approach the close of _any_ task--even a pleasant one. The beautiful
Spring is almost forgotten in the anticipation of that which is to come.
The bright Summer is no more thought of, than is the glow of the morning
sunshine at night-fall. The rich Autumn only just lingers on the memory,
as the last red rays of its evenings do when they have but just quitted
the eye. And Winter is once more closing his cloud-canopy over all
things, and breathing forth that sleep-compelling breath which is to
wrap all in a temporary oblivion, no less essential to their healthful
existence than is the active vitality which it for a while supersedes.

Of the mere external appearances and operations of Nature I shall have
comparatively little to say in connexion with this month, because many
of the former have been anticipated in January, while the latter is for
the most part a negation throughout the whole realms of animate as well
as inanimate nature.

The Meadows are still green--almost as green as in the Spring, with the
late-sprouted grass that the last rains have called up, since it has
been fed off, and the Cattle called home to enjoy their winter fodder.
The Corn-fields, too, are bright with their delicate sprinkling of young
autumn-sown Wheat; the ground about the Hedge-rows, and in the young
Copses, is still pleasant to look upon, from the sobered green of the
hardy Primrose and Violet, whose clumps of unfading leaves brave the
utmost rigour of the season; and every here and there a bush of Holly
darts up its pyramid of shining leaves and brilliant berries, from
amidst the late wild and wandering, but now faded and forlorn company of
Woodbines and Eglantines, which have all the rest of the year been
exulting over and almost hiding it, with their quick-growing branches
and flaunting flowers. The Evergreens, too, that assist in forming the
home enclosures, have altogether lost that sombre hue which they have
until lately worn--sombre in comparison with the bright freshness of
Spring and the splendid variety of Autumn; and now, that not a leaf is
left around them, they look as gay by the contrast as they lately looked
grave.

Now, the high-piled Turnip cart is seen labouring along the narrow
lanes, or stands ready with its white load in the open field, waiting to
be borne to the expectant Cattle that are safely stalled and sheltered
for the season; while, for the few that are still permitted to remain at
the mercy of the inclement skies, and to make their unwholesome bed upon
the drenched earth, the moveable Hay-rack is daily filled with its
fragrant store, and the open shed but poorly supplies the place of the
warm and well-roofed stalls of the Straw-yard.

Now, too, some of the younger members of the herd (for the old ones know
by experience that it is not worth the trouble), seeing the tempting
green of the next field through the leafless Hedge-rows, break their way
through, and find the fare as bitter and as scanty as that which they
have left.

Now, the Hazels throw out their husky blossoms from their bare
branches,--looking, as they hang straight down, like a dark rain
arrested in its descent; and the Furze flings out its bright yellow
flowers upon the otherwise bare common, like little gleams of sunshine;
and the Moles ply their mischievous night-work in the dry meadows; and
the green Plover “whistles o’er the lea;” and the Snipes haunt the
marshy grounds; and the Wag-tails twinkle about near the spring-heads;
and the Larks get together in companies, and talk to each other, instead
of singing to themselves; and the Thrush occasionally puts forth a
plaintive note, as if half afraid of the sound of his own voice; and the
Hedge-sparrow and Titmouse try to sing; and the Robin does sing still,
even more delightfully than he has done during all the rest of the year,
because it now seems as if he sang for us rather than for himself--or
rather _to_ us, for it is still for his supper that he sings, and
therefore for himself.

There is no place so desolate as the Orchard this month; for none of the
fruit-trees have any beauty _as trees_, at their best; and now, they
have not a leaf left to cover their unsightly nakedness.

Not so with the Kitchen Garden; _that_, if it has been duly attended to,
is full of interest this month,--especially by comparison with the
scenes of decay and barrenness by which it is surrounded. The Fruit
Trees on the walls are all nailed out with the most scrupulous
regularity; and by them, as much as by any thing else, may you now judge
of the skill and assiduity of your gardener. Indeed this is of all
others the month in which _his_ merits are put to the test, and in which
they often seem to vie with those of Nature herself. Anybody may have a
handsome garden from May to September; but only those who deserve one
can have it from September to May. Now, then, the walls are all covered
with their wide-spread fruit fans; the Celery beds stretch out their
unbroken lines of fresh-looking green; the late-planted Lettuces look
trim and erect upon the sheltered borders where they are to stand the
Winter, and be ready, not to open, but to shut up their young hearts at
the first warm breath of Spring; the green strings of autumn-sown Peas
scarcely lift their tender downward-turning stems above the dark soil;
the hardy Endives spread out their now full-grown heads of fantastically
curled leaves, or stand tied up from the sun and air, doing the penance
necessary to acquire for them that agreeable state of unhealthiness
without which (like modern fine ladies who contrive to blanch
themselves in a similar manner, and by similar means) our squeamish
appetites could not relish them; the Cauliflower, Brocoli, and Kale
plants, maintain their unbroken ranks; and, finally, even the Cabbages
themselves (Mr. Brummel being self-banished to Boulogne, and therefore
not within hearing, I may venture to say it), even the young Cabbages
themselves contrive to look genteel, in virtue of their as yet heartless
state; which is, in fact, the secret of all gentility, whether in a
Cabbage or a Countess.

As to the Flower-garden this month, it looks a picture either of
pleasantness or of poverty, according to the degree of care and skill
which has been bestowed upon it; for though Nature wills that we shall
enjoy her beauties during a certain period of the year, whether we use
any efforts towards the obtaining them or not, yet she lays it down as a
general principle, in regard to her gifts, that to seek them, is at once
to deserve, to have, and to enjoy them; and that without such seeking,
we shall only have just enough to make us sigh after more. Accordingly,
her sun shines with equal warmth upon the Gardens of the just and the
unjust; and her rains fertilise the Fields of all alike. In short, as it
is with the loveliest of her works, Woman, her favours are to be
obtained by assiduous seeking alone; her love is the reward, not of
riches, nor beauty, nor power, nor even of virtue, but of love alone. No
man ever gave a woman his entire love, and sought hers in return, that
he did not, to a certain extent, obtain it; and no man ever paid similar
court to Nature, and came away empty handed.

But we are wandering from the Garden; which should not be, even at this
least attractive of all its seasons; for though the honours which it
offers to the close of the year cannot vie with those which it scatters
so profusely about the footsteps of the Spring, we shall find them full
of interest and beauty, where we find them at all.

Now, then, if the frosts have not set in, the Garden contains, or ought
to contain, a numerous variety of the Chinese Chrysanthemums, which
resemble and take the place of the more glaring, but less delicately
constructed China-asters. The most beautiful of these is the Snow-white,
looking, with its radii of different lengths, like a lighted
catherine-wheel. To have these in any perfection, however, their growth
must have been a little retarded by art; for their natural time of
blowing is during the last month. But it must be remembered, that the
Winter Garden is an affair of Art assisted by Nature, rather than of
Nature assisted by Art. So that I doubt, after all, whether I shall not
be overstepping the path I had marked out for myself, in describing what
a Winter Garden _may be_. As this is what I would, above all things,
avoid, let me at once refrain from pointing out any thing but what
_must_ be found in my prototype, Nature, under ordinary circumstances;
for I would rather omit from my portraits much of what their originals
do contain, than introduce into them any thing that they do not. And,
even with this restriction, we shall find the Garden replete with
pleasant objects.

The Annuals, even the latest blowing, have all been rooted up, and their
straggling stems cleared away; all, except perhaps a few lingering
Marigolds, and some clumps of Mignonette, that will go on blowing till
the frost cuts them off. The Geraniums that were turned into the open
ground in the Autumn, to fill up the vacancies left by the falling off
of the early annuals, are still in flower, always provided there has not
yet been a night’s sharp frost: if there has, they have all withered
beneath its (to them) baleful influence, as if by magic. The same may
be said of the Dahlias, with this difference,--that the destruction of
their luxuriant upper and visible growth is but the renewal of the
vigorous vitality that lies hid for a season in their self-generating
roots.

Now, the Monthly, or China Rose, begins to be again appreciated. It has
been flowering all the Summer long for its own peculiar satisfaction,
and almost unnoticed amidst the flush of fresher looking beauty that
surrounded it. But now, its pale blossoms, with their faint perfume, are
the favourites of the Garden; and a whole company of them, wreathing
about a low trellised porch, make a momentary Summer in the most wintry
of scenes.

Finally, now, every here and there, start up those stray gifts which
have “no business” to be seen at this season, but which, like fragments
of blue sky scattered among black overhanging clouds, remind us of the
beautiful whole to which they belong. I mean the little precocious
Primroses, Snowdrops, &c. that sometimes during this month find, or
rather lose, their way from their Winter homes, where they ought now to
be hiding, and peep up with their pale faces, as if in search of that
Spring which they will now never see.

       *       *       *       *       *

If there is no denying that the Country is at its worst during this much
abused month, it must be conceded, in return, that London is at its
best: for at what other time is it so difficult and disagreeable to get
along the streets? and when are they so perfumed with the peculiar odour
of their own mud, and is their atmosphere so rich in the various “choice
compounds” with which it always abounds?

But even these are far from being the prime merits of the Metropolis, at
this season of its best Saturnalia. The little boys from school have
again taken undisputed possession of all its pleasant places; and the
loud laughter of unchecked joy once more explodes on spots from whence,
with these exceptions, it has long since been exploded. In short,
Christmas, which has been “coming” all the year (like a waiter at an
inn), is at last actually come; and “merry England” is, for a little
while, no longer a phrase of mockery and scorn.

The truth is, we English have fewer faults than any other people on
earth; and even among those which we have, our worst enemies will not
impute to us an idle and insane levity of deportment. We still for the
most part, as we did five hundred years ago, _nous amusons tristement,
sêlon l’usage de notre pays_. We do our pleasures, as we do our duties,
with grave faces and solemn airs, and disport ourselves in a manner
becoming our notions of the dignity of human nature. We feel at the
theatre as if it were a church, and consequently at church as if it were
a theatre. Our processions to a rout move at the same rate as those to a
funeral, and there are, in proportion, as many sincere mourners at the
former as the latter. We dance on the same principle as that on which
our soldiers do the manual exercise; and there is as much (and as
little) of impulse in the one as the other. And we fight on the same
principle as we dance; namely, because circumstances require it of us.

All this is true of us under ordinary circumstances. But the arrival of
Christmas-time is _not_ an ordinary circumstance; and therefore _now_ it
is none of it true. We are merry-makers once more, and feel that we can
now afford to play the fool for a week, since we have so religiously
persisted in playing the philosopher during all the rest of the year. Be
it expressly understood, however, by all those “surrounding nations” who
may happen to meet with this candid confession of our weakness in the
above particular, that we permit ourselves to fall into it in favour of
our children alone. They (poor things!) being as yet at so pitiable a
distance from “years of discretion,” cannot be supposed to have achieved
the enviable discovery, that happiness is a thing utterly beneath the
attention of a reasoning and reasonable being. Accordingly, they know no
medium between happiness and misery; and when they are not enjoying the
one, they are suffering the other.

But that English parents, generally speaking, love their children better
than themselves, is another national merit which I must claim for them.
The consequence of this is natural and necessary, and brings us safely
round to the point from which we started: an English father and mother,
rather than their offspring should not be happy at Christmas-time, will
consent to be happy at that time themselves! It does not last long; and
surely a week or so spent in a state of foolish felicity may hope to be
expiated by a whole year of unimpeachable indifference! This, then, is
the secret of the Christmas holiday-making, among the “better sort” of
English families,--as they are pleased somewhat invidiously to call
themselves.

Now, then (to resume our details), “the raven down” of metropolitan
darkness is “smoothed” every midnight “till it smiles,” by that pleasant
relic of past times, “the waits;” which wake us with their low wild
music mingling with the ceaseless sealike sound of the streets; or
(still better) lull us to sleep with the same; or (best of all) make us
dream of music all night long, without waking us at all.

Now, too, the Bellman plies his more profitable but less pleasant
parallel with the above; nightly urging his “masters and mistresses” to
the practice of every virtue under heaven, and in his own mind
prospectively including them all in the pious act of adding an extra
sixpence to his accustomed stipend.

Now, during the first week, the Theatres having begun to prepare “the
Grand Christmas Pantomime, which has been in active preparation all the
Summer,” the Carpenter for the time being, among other ingenious changes
which he contemplates, looks forward with the most lively satisfaction
to that which is to metamorphose _him_ (in the play-bills at least) into
a “machinist;” while, pending the said preparations, even the “Stars” of
the Company are “shorn of their beams” (at least in making their transit
through that part of their hemisphere which is included behind the
scenes), and all things give way before the march of that monstrous
medley of “inexplicable dumb show and noise,” which is to delight the
Galleries and Dress-circle, and horrify the more _genteel_ portion of
the audience, for the next nine weeks.

Finally, now occur, just before Christmas, those exhibitions which are
peculiar to England in the nineteenth century; I mean the Prize-Cattle
Shows. “Extremes meet;” and accordingly, one of the most unequivocal
evidences we have to offer, of the surpassing refinement of the age in
which we live, consists in these displays of the most surpassing
grossness. The alleged _beauty_ of these unhappy victims of their own
appetites acting with a view to ours, consists in their being unable to
perform a single function of their nature, or enjoy a single moment of
their lives; and the value of the meat that they make is in exact
proportion to the degree in which it is _un_fit to be eaten.

To describe the joys and jollifications attendant on Christmas, is what
my confined limits would counsel me not to attempt, even if they were
describable matters. But, in fact, there is nothing which affords such
truly “lenten entertainment” as a feast at secondhand: the Barmecide’s
dishes were fattening by comparison with it. In conclusion, therefore,
let me say that I shall think it very hard, if the gentle readers of
these pen and ink sketches of the Months have not been persuaded, during
the perusal of each, that I have fulfilled my promise made at the
commencement, of proving each, in its turn, to be better than all the
rest. At any rate, if they are not so persuaded, they must, to be
consistent, henceforth abandon all pretended _admiration_,--which is an
affair of impulse, not of judgment,--and must proceed to _compute_ the
value of every thing that comes before them, according to its
comparative value in regard to some other thing. In short, they must at
once adopt Horace’s hateful worldly-minded maxim of “nil admirari” &c.
as rendered still more hateful and worldly-minded by Bolingbroke and
Pope’s version of it; and must “make up their minds,” as the mechanical
phrase is, that not merely “not to _wonder_,” (which is what Horace
meant, if he meant any thing) but

    “Not to _admire_, is all the art _they_ know,
     To make men happy, and to keep them so.”

But, in truth, as it is only for the satisfaction of living friends and
lovers that people sit for their portraits; not to gratify the spleen of
cavilling critics, nor even to convey their effigies to a posterity that
will not care a penny about them; so it is only to please the friends
and lovers of Nature, that I have painted the merely natural portion of
these “pictures in little” of the Months.

As to the artificial portions,--being of no use to any one else, the
posterity of a twelve-month hence is welcome to them, as records of the
manners of the day, caught, not “_living_ as they _rise_,” but dying as
they fall: for in the gardens of Fashion and Folly there are happily no
perennials; and though the plants which grow there for the most part
belong to that species which have winged seeds, and therefore disperse
themselves to wheresoever the winds of heaven blow, the same provision
causes them to escape from the spot where they sprang up, and make way
for those which the chances and changes of the season may have deposited
there. Thus each plant in turn has its day; and each parterre has an
annual opportunity of priding itself upon an exhibition of specimens,
which last year it would have laughed at, and which next year it will
despise. And “thus runs the world (of Fashion) away.”

But not so with the world of Nature. Here, all as surely returns as it
passes away; and whatever is true in these papers in regard to that,
will be true of it while time shall last. Wishing my readers, therefore,
“many happy returns of the _present_ season” (meaning whichever it may
happen to be during which they are favouring these light leaves with a
perusal), let me conclude by counselling such of them (if any there be)
as have hitherto failed to appreciate and enjoy the good that is every
where scattered about them, not to waste themselves away in vain regrets
over what cannot be recalled, but hasten to atone to that Nature which
they have neglected, by making the Future repay them for the Past, until
their reckoning of happiness is even. Of this they may be assured, that
it is rarely if ever too late to do so, and that the human mind never
parts with the power of righting itself, so long as “the human heart by
which we live” is not wilfully closed against the counsel which comes to
it from all external things.


FINIS.


LONDON:

PRINTED BY THOMAS DAVISON, WHITEFRIARS.



BOOKS

PUBLISHED BY

GEO. B. WHITTAKER, LONDON.


  PANDURANG HARI; or, Memoirs of a Hindoo. 3 vols. price 24s.

  OUR VILLAGE; Sketches of Rural Character and Scenery. By MARY RUSSEL
    MITFORD, Author of “Julian,” a Tragedy. Second Edition. Post 8vo.
    7s. 6d. boards.

“This is an engaging volume, full of feeling, spirit, and vivacity; and
the descriptions of rural scenery and rural life are vivid and
glowing.”--_New Monthly Mag._

“These ‘Sketches,’ we are of opinion, will, ere long, be extremely
popular; for they are highly-finished ones, and evince infinite taste,
judgment, and feeling. They are somewhat in the manner of _Geoffrey
Crayon_; but, to our liking, are far more interesting.”--_Examiner._

  ALICE ALLAN; The COUNTRY TOWN, &c. By ALEXANDER WILSON. Post 8vo. 8s.
    6d. boards.

  BRITISH GALLERIES of ART; being a Series of descriptive and critical
    notices of the principal Works of Art, in Painting and Sculpture,
    now existing in England; arranged under the Heads of the different
    public and private Galleries in which they are to be found.

This Work comprises the following Galleries:--The National (late the
Angerstein) Gallery--The Royal Gallery at Windsor Castle--the Royal
Gallery at Hampton Court--The Gallery at Cleveland House--Lord
Egremont’s Gallery at Petworth--The late Fonthill Gallery--The Titian
Gallery at Blenheim--The Gallery at Knowle Park--The Dulwich
Gallery--Mr. Matthews’s Theatrical Gallery.

    In post 8vo. price 8s. 6d. boards.


_Books published by Geo. B. Whittaker, London._

  BEAUTIES of the DULWICH PICTURE GALLEY. In 12mo. price 3s. boards.

“A very useful and interesting little work has just appeared, entitled,
‘_Beauties of the Dulwich Picture Gallery_.’ The object of the book is
to increase the pleasure of the visitor to Dulwich, by pointing out the
characteristic excellencies of most of the celebrated works of art which
adorn the Gallery. The work before us will be found a pleasant companion
to the Gallery, since it is so well calculated to shorten the road to
its beauties. The Author has selected a number of the principal
pictures, and has so classed them in his pages as to render his remarks,
which are very sensibly put, highly pleasing and instructive to the
general observer.”--_Courier._

  SCENES and THOUGHTS. Post 8vo. 7s. 6d. boards.

“The _Scenes_ in this volume are highly descriptive, and the _Thoughts_
are sensible and correct. The Author, throughout, displays a most
amiable feeling, and is an eloquent advocate in the cause of morality.
The articles are on well-selected subjects, and are altogether of a
domestic nature.”--_Literary Chron._

  HIGH-WAYS and BY-WAYS; or, Tales of the Road Side, picked up in the
    French Provinces, by a WALKING GENTLEMAN. Fourth Edition. In 2
    vols. post 8vo. price 14s. boards.

“There is a great deal of vivacity and humour, as well as pathos, in
these Stories; and they are told with a power of national
character-painting, that could have only resulted from long residence in
France, and from habits of social intimacy with the unsophisticated and
country-part of the French community, with whom the English traveller
seldom gives himself the trouble of getting acquainted.”--_New Monthly
Mag._

  The LUCUBRATIONS of HUMPHREY RAVELIN, Esq. late Major in the * * *
    Regiment of Infantry. 2d Edition. Post 8vo. 8s. boards.

“The author’s remarks exhibit the frankness, acuteness, ease, and
good-feeling, which we are proud to think, and pleased to say, so often
belong to the character of the experienced British officer; while they
are so well conveyed, and, in fact, with such particular correctness,
that not only few military men have the opportunity of forming and
maturing so good a style, but many of the practised writers must _fall
into the rear_ in competition with _Major Ravelin_, who must _stand
muster_ with Geoffry Crayon.”--_Monthly Rev._



------------------------------------------------------------------------

Transcriber’s Note:


Minor punctuation errors have been corrected without note. Irregular
hyphenation and archaic or unusual spellings have also been left as in
the original.

In the plain-text versions of this book, _italics markup_ is not used
for the abbreviations s. and d., although they were italicised in the
original.

The Table of Contents was added by the transcriber.

The following correction was made to the text:

p. 264: thier to their (their straggling stems)





*** End of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "Mirror of the Months" ***

Copyright 2023 LibraryBlog. All rights reserved.