The weather becomes misty, though the middle of the day is often very
fine. Hence it is the proper season for the enjoyment of forest scenery.
The leaves, which, towards the close of September, began to assume their
golden tints and gorgeous hues, now lecture us with their scenes of
falling grandeur; and nothing is more delightful than in an autumnal
walk to emerge from the pensive gloom of a thick forest, and just catch
the last glimpse of an October sun, shedding his broad glare over the
varied tints of its leaves and branches, for the sombre and silvery
barks of the latter add not a little to the picture. "The hedges," says
the author already quoted, "are now sparkling with their abundant
berries,--the wild rose with the hip, the hawthorn with the haw, the
blackthorn with the sloe, the bramble with the blackberry; and the
briony, privet, honey-suckle, elder, holly, and woody nightshade, with
their other winter feasts for the birds."

October is the great month for _brewing_--that luxurious and
substantial branch of rural economy; and many and merry are the songs
and stories of nut-brown October to "gladden the heart of man," with the
soul-stirring influence of its regalings. Hops, too, are generally
picked this month.

October in Italy is thus vividly described: "It was now the beginning of
the month of October; already the gales which attend upon the equinox
swept through the woods and trees; the delicate chestnut woods, which
last dare encounter the blasts of spring, and whose tender leaves do not
expand until they may become a shelter to the swallow, had already
changed their hues, and shone yellow and red, amidst the sea-green
foliage of the olives, the darker but light boughs of the cork-trees,
and the deep and heavy masses of ilexes and pines."