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of the birch and ash, to the deep greens of the unfaded oak
and alder, and of the ivy upon the rocks, upon the trees,
and the cottages. Yet, as most travellers are either
stinted, or stint themselves, for time, the space between
the middle or last week in May, and the middle or last week
of June, may be pointed out as affording the best
combination of long days, fine weather, and variety of
impressions. Few of the native trees are then in full leaf;
but, whatever may be wanting in depth of shade, more than an
equivalent will be found in the diversity of foliage, in the
blossoms of the fruit-and-berry-bearing trees which abound
in the woods, and in the golden flowers of the broom and
other shrubs, with which many of the copses are interveined.
In those woods, also, and on these mountain-sides which have
a northern aspect, and in the deep dells, many of the
spring-flowers still linger; while the open and sunny places
are stocked with the flowers of approaching summer. And,
besides, is not an exquisite pleasure still untasted by him
who has not heard the choir of linnets and thrushes
chaunting their love-songs in the copses, woods, and
hedge-rows of a mountainous country; safe from the birds of
prey, which build in the inaccessible crags, and are at all
hours seen or heard wheeling about in the air? The number of
these formidable creatures is probably the cause, why, in
the narrow vallies, there are no skylarks; as the
destroyers would be enabled to
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