University of Virginia Library


280

COCKINGTON LANES,

near Torquay.

Rare afternoon in an October rare!
We passed red cliffs environing blue seas,
Red lanes with green banks bounded and elm trees;
The sky was clouded lightly; soft the air
And fresh and soft the breezes; the rich glare
Of red and green was almost Cinghalese,
Recalling for the traveller reveries
Of red-tiled roofs and palm-tree groves, so fair
To unaccustomed eyes; but soon the green
Of elms with linden-yellow, hawthorn-red,
And marvellous horse-chestnut-orange sheen
Was tempered, and once more 'twas mine to tread
The merry, crackling leaves—a sound scarce known
In ever-green Australia's milder zone.