“Many poplars and many elms shook overhead, and close by, holy water swashed down noisily from a cave of the nymphs. Brown grasshoppers whistled busily through the dark foliage. Far treetoads gobbled in the heavy thornbrake. Larks and goldfinch sang, turtledoves were moaning, and bumblebees whizzed over the plashing brook. The earth smelled of rich summer and autumn fruit: we were ankle-deep in pears, and apples rolled all about our toes. With dark damson plums the young sapling branches trailed on the ground.”