The dew, exhaled already from the long grass, still glittered here and
there upon the shrubs and trees, though a soft fresh south-western
breeze was shaking it thence momently in bright and rustling showers;
the sun, but newly risen, and as yet partially enveloped in the thin
gauze-like mists so frequent at that season, was casting shadows,
seemingly endless, from every object that intercepted his low rays, and
chequering the whole landscape with that play of light and shade, which
is the loveliest accessory to a lovely scene; and lovely was the scene,
indeed, as e'er was looked upon by painter's or by poet's eye--how then
should humble prose do justice to it?
Seated upon the first slope of a gentle hill, midway of the great valley
heretofore described, the village looked due south, toward the chains of
mountains, which we had crossed on the preceding evening, and which in
that direction bounded the landscape. These ridges, cultivated half-way
up their swelling sides, which lay mapped out before our eyes in all the
various beauty of orchards, yellow stubbles, and rich pastures dotted
with sleek and comely cattle, were rendered yet more lovely and
romantic, by here and there a woody gorge, or rocky chasm, channeling
their smooth flanks, and carrying down their tributary rills, to swell
the main stream at their base.
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