Page:Walks in the Black Country and its green border-land.pdf/211

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and its Green Border Land.
197

on the summer edge of May. Then there are other qualities that not only compensate the season for all its early frosts have abstracted, but give it more than the virgin month of summer can offer to the senses. The bloom and breath of flowers in May delight the eye and that sense which needs not sight for its enjoyment. But October's flowers, which she hangs in the sun from a thousand orchards, are beautifully tinted, too, and the breath of her ripe pears and apples is more delicious still, nor will it pall so soon as that of roses upon the delicate sense that drinks in the odours of the three life-bearing seasons of the year. Over and above this universal savour of ripened fruits and harvested corn, there is a sense of plenty which even a blind man may enjoy in autumn, as if the earth were offering up her thanksgiving incense to the soft bending skies above, so full of the sun's best smile that they look like humid eyes moistened and glistening with tears of joy.

When standing on the Wrekin's crown. I felt it were worth the journey and the ascent merely to see from it the English autumn in its full glory. But blending this vista with all the other features of the view, it was a grand standpoint for observation and reflection for the eye and mind to roam in thoughtful silence over that wide scene of the industries and histories of England