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The Private Papers of Henry Ryecroft
·
George Gissing
69
SUMMER
I.
To-day,
as
I
was
reading
in
the
garden,
a
waft
of
summer
perfume--some
hidden
link
of
association
in
what
I
read--I
know
not
what
it
may
have
been--took
me
back
to
school-boy
holidays;
I
recovered
with
strange
intensity
that
lightsome
mood
of
long
release
from
tasks,
of
going
away
to
the
seaside,
which
is
one
of
childhood's
blessings.
I
was
in
the
train;
no
rushing
express,
such
as
bears
you
great
distances;
the
sober
train
which
goes
to
no
place
of
importance,
which
lets
you
see
the
white
steam
of
the
engine
float
and
fall
upon
a
meadow
ere
you
pass.
Thanks
to
a
good
and
wise
father,
we
youngsters
saw
nothing
of
seaside
places
where
crowds
assemble;
I
am
speaking,
too,
of
a
time
more
than
forty
years
ago,
when
it
was
still
possible
to
find
on
the
coasts
of
northern
England,
east
or
west,
spots
known
only
to
those
who
loved
the
shore
for
its
beauty
and
its
solitude.
At
every
station
the
train
stopped;
little
stations,
decked
with
beds
of
flowers,
smelling
warm
in
the
sunshine
where
country-folk
got
in
with
baskets,
and
talked
in
an
unfamiliar
dialect,
an
English
which
to
us
sounded
almost
like
a
foreign
tongue.
Then
the
first
glimpse
of
the
sea;
the
excitement
of
noting
whether
tide
was
high
or
low--stretches
of
sand
and
weedy
pools,
or
halcyon
wavelets
frothing
at
their
furthest
reach,
under
the
sea-banks
starred
with
convolvulus.
Of
a
sudden,
our
station!
Ah,
that
taste
of
the
brine
on
a
child's
lips!
Nowadays,
I
can
take
holiday
when
I
will,
and
go
whithersoever
it
pleases
me;
but
that
salt
kiss
of
the
sea
air
I
shall
never
know
again.
My
senses
are
dulled;
I
cannot
get
so
near
to
Nature;
I
have
a
sorry
dread
of
her
clouds,
her
winds,
and
must
walk
with
tedious
circumspection
where
once
I
ran
and
leapt
exultingly.
Were
it
possible,
but
for
one
half-hour,
to
plunge
and
bask
in
the
sunny
surf,
to
roll
on
the
silvery
sand-hills,
to
leap
from
rock
to
rock
on
shining
sea-ferns,
laughing
if
I
slipped
into
the
shallows
among
starfish
and
anemones!
I
am
much
older
in
body
than
in
mind;
I
can
but
look
at
what
I
once
enjoyed.
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