Capricious Weather But in spite of the mischief it has
made amongst the Allies' plans for the knockout blow, it has, by its caprice and surprises, given moments of almost theatrical beauty to the countryside. I was up in the West Riding two weeks ago, and just outside Bradford (a city, to my mind, of great character) I saw the effect of a sudden and short gale from the north-east, with a flood of rain. All the polar side of the soot-coated trees shone with a sort of olive-green, under-water richness, so that the sombre landscape seemed to step out of itself, revealing a beauty such as old John. Crome's pictures show us after the lapse of a century.
The recent fierce gales from the south-west which. have flung deluges of rain up the Surrey and Kent Weald, have usually dropped after sunset. The following starlight has been superb, and I have been able once again to try that magical device of leaning as far back as possible and staring up vertically at the central sky. Sometimes this effort results in one seeing the heavens three-dimensionally, with the stars in their stations, near or far, and not as mere points of light on a flat surface. The effect can be intimidating. One is lifted away from solid earth, and for a moment of ecstatic terror is floating amongst the constellations, lonely and disembodied. The experience is similar to that of levitation, though it requires neither saintliness nor neurosis for its inducement. It is eucharistic in its effect upon the mind.
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