e summit of
the cliffs and the river in the bottom of the valley; and I went in and
out, as I followed it, from bays of shadow into promontories of
afternoon sun. This was a pass like that of Killiecrankie; a deep
turning gully in the hills, with the Tarn making a wonderful hoarse
uproar far below, and craggy summits standing in the sunshine high
above. A thin fringe of ash trees ran about the hill-tops, like ivy on a
ruin; but, on the lower slopes, and far up every glen, the Spanish
chestnut trees stood each four-square to heaven under its tented
foliage. Some were planted, each on its own terrace no larger than a
bed; some, trusting in their roots, found strength to grow and prosper
and be straight and large upon the rapid slopes of the valley; others,
where there was a margin to the river, stood marshaled in a line and
mighty like cedars of Lebanon. Yet even where they grew most thickly
they were not to be thought of as a wood, but as a herd of stalwart
individuals; and the dome of each tree stood forth separate and large,
and as it were a little bill, from among the domes of its companions.
They gave forth a faint sweet perfume which pervaded the air of the
afternoon; autumn had put tints of gold and tarnish in the green; and
the sun so shone through and kindled the broad foliage, that each
chestnut was relieved against another, not in shadow, but in light. A
humble sketcher here laid down his pencil in despair.

I wish I could convey a notion of the growth of these noble trees; of
how they strike out boughs like the oak, and trail sprays of drooping
foliage like the willow; of how they stand on upright fluted columns
like the pillars of a church; or like the olive, from the most shattered
hole can put out smooth and youthful shoots, and begin a new life upon
the ruins of the old. Thus they partake of the nature of many different
trees; and even their prickly top-knots, seen near at hand against the
sky, have a certain palm-like air that impresses the imagination. But
their individuality, although compounded of so many elements, is but the
richer and the more original. And to look down upon a level filled with
these knolls of foliage, or to see a clan of old unconquerable chestnuts
cluster "like herded elephants" upon the spur of a mountain, is to rise
to higher thoughts of the powers that are in Nature.

Between Modestine's laggard humour and the beauty of the scene, we made
little progress all that afternoon; and