November 6th.--The weather is as peaceful to-day, as calm, and as
mild, as in early April; and, perhaps, an autumn afternoon and a spring
morning do resemble each other more in feeling, and even in appearance,
than any two periods of the year. There is in both the same freshness
and dewiness of the herbage; the same balmy softness in the air; and the
same pure and lovely blue sky, with white fleecy clouds floating
across it. The chief difference lies in the absence of flowers, and the
presence of leaves. But then the foliage of November is so rich, and
glowing, and varied, that it may well supply the place of the gay
blossoms of the spring; whilst all the flowers of the field or the
garden could never make amends for the want of leaves,--that beautiful
and graceful attire in which nature has clothed the rugged forms of
trees--the verdant drapery to which the landscape owes its loveliness,
and the forests their glory.
If choice must be between two seasons, each so full of charm, it is at
least no bad philosophy to prefer the present good, even whilst looking
gratefully back, and hopefully forward, to the past and the future. And
of a surety, no fairer specimen of a November day could well be found
than this,--a day made to wander
'By yellow commons and birch-shaded hollows,
And hedgerows bordering unfrequented lanes;'
nor could a prettier country be found for our walk than this shady and
yet sunny Berkshire, where the scenery, without rising into grandeur or
breaking into wildness, is so peaceful, so cheerful, so varied, and so
thoroughly English.
We must bend our steps towards the water side, for I have a message
to leave at Farmer Riley's: and sooth to say, it is no unpleasant
necessity; for the road thither is smooth and dry, retired, as one
likes a country walk to be, but not too lonely, which women never like;
leading past the Loddon--the bright, brimming, transparent Loddon--a
fitting mirror for this bright blue sky, and terminating at one of the
prettiest and most comfortable farmhouses in the neighbourhood.
How beautiful the lane is to-day, decorated with a thousand colours! The
brown road, and the rich verdure that borders it, strewed with the pale
yellow leaves of the elm, just beginning to fall; hedgerows glowing
with long wreaths of the bramble in every variety of purplish red; and
overhead the unchanged green of the fir, contrasting with the spotted
sycamore, the tawny beech, and the dry sere leaves of the oak, which
rustle as the light wind passes through them; a few common hardy yellow
flowers (for yellow is the common colour of flowers, whether wild or
cultivated, as blue is the rare one), flowers of many sorts, but almost
of one tint, still blowing in spite of the season, and ruddy berries
glowing through all. How very beautiful is the lane!
And how pleasant is this hill where the road widens, with the group of
cattle by the wayside, and George Hearn, the little post-boy, trundling
his hoop at full speed, making all the better haste in his work, because
he cheats himself into thinking it play! And how beautiful, again, is
this patch of common at the hilltop with the clear pool, where
Martha Pither's children,--elves of three, and four, and five years
old,--without any distinction of sex in their sunburnt faces and
tattered drapery, are dipping up water in their little homely cups
shining with cleanliness, and a small brown pitcher with the lip broken,
to fill that great kettle, which, when it is filled, their united
strength will never be able to lift! They are quite a group for a
painter, with their rosy cheeks, and chubby hands, and round merry
faces; and the low cottage in the background, peeping out of its vine
leaves and china roses, with Martha at the door, tidy, and comely, and
smiling, preparing the potatoes for the pot, and watching the progress
of dipping and filling that useful utensil, completes the picture.
But we must go on. No time for more sketches in these short days. It is
getting cold too. We must proceed in our walk. Dash is showing us the
way and beating the thick double hedgerow that runs along the side of
the meadows, at a rate that indicates game astir, and causes the leaves
to fly as fast as an east-wind after a hard frost. Ah! a pheasant! a
superb cock pheasant! Nothing is more certain than Dash's questing,
whether in a hedgerow or covert, for a better spaniel never went into
the field; but I fancied that it was a hare afoot, and was almost as
much startled to hear the whirring of those splendid wings, as the
princely bird himself would have been at the report of a gun. Indeed, I
believe that the way in which a pheasant goes off, does sometimes make
young sportsmen a little nervous, (they don't own it very readily, but
the observation may be relied on nevertheless), until they get as it
were broken in to the sound; and then that grand and sudden burst of
wing becomes as pleasant to them as it seems to be to Dash, who is
beating the hedgerow with might and main, and giving tongue louder, and
sending the leaves about faster than ever--very proud of finding the
pheasant, and perhaps a little angry with me for not shooting it; at
least looking as if he would be angry if I were a man; for Dash is a
dog of great sagacity, and has doubtless not lived four years in the
sporting world without making the discovery, that although gentlemen do
shoot, ladies do not.
The Loddon at last! the beautiful Loddon! and the bridge, where every
one stops, as by instinct, to lean over the rails, and gaze a moment
on a landscape of surpassing loveliness,--the fine grounds of the Great
House, with their magnificent groups of limes, and firs, and poplars
grander than ever poplars were; the green meadows opposite, studded with
oaks and elms; the clear winding river; the mill with its picturesque
old buildings, bounding the scene; all glowing with the rich colouring
of autumn, and harmonised by the soft beauty of the clear blue sky, and
the delicious calmness of the hour. The very peasant whose daily path it
is, cannot cross that bridge without a pause.
But the day is wearing fast, and it grows colder and colder. I really
think it will be a frost. After all, spring is the pleasantest season,
beautiful as this scenery is. We must get on. Down that broad yet
shadowy lane, between the park, dark with evergreens and dappled with
deer, and the meadows where sheep, and cows, and horses are grazing
under the tall elms; that lane, where the wild bank, clothed with fern,
and tufted with furze, and crowned by rich berried thorn, and thick
shining holly on the one side, seems to vie in beauty with the
picturesque old paling, the bright laurels, and the plumy cedars, on
the other;--down that shady lane, until the sudden turn brings us to an
opening where four roads meet, where a noble avenue turns down to the
Great House; where the village church rears its modest spire from amidst
its venerable yew trees: and where, embosomed in orchards and gardens,
and backed by barns and ricks, and all the wealth of the farmyard,
stands the spacious and comfortable abode of good Farmer Riley,--the end
and object of our walk.
And in happy time the message is said and the answer given, for this
beautiful mild day is edging off into a dense frosty evening; the leaves
of the elm and the linden in the old avenue are quivering and vibrating
and fluttering in the air, and at length falling crisply on the earth,
as if Dash were beating for pheasants in the tree-tops; the sun gleams
dimly through the fog, giving little more of light and heat than his
fair sister the lady moon;--I don't know a more disappointing person
than a cold sun; and I am beginning to wrap my cloak closely round me,
and to calculate the distance to my own fireside, recanting all the way
my praises of November, and longing for the showery, flowery April, as
much as if I were a half-chilled butterfly, or a dahlia knocked down by
the frost.
Ah, dear me! what a climate this is, that one cannot keep in the same
mind about it for half an hour together! I wonder, by the way, whether
the fault is in the weather, which Dash does not seem to care for, or
in me? If I should happen to be wet through in a shower next spring, and
should catch myself longing for autumn, that would settle the question.