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235
The Private Papers of Henry Ryecroft
·
George Gissing
97
XIV.
Vituperation
of
the
English
climate
is
foolish.
A
better
climate
does
not
exist--for
healthy
people;
and
it
is
always
as
regards
the
average
native
in
sound
health
that
a
climate
must
be
judged.
Invalids
have
no
right
whatever
to
talk
petulantly
of
the
natural
changes
of
the
sky;
Nature
has
not
them
in
view;
let
them
(if
they
can)
seek
exceptional
conditions
for
their
exceptional
state,
leaving
behind
them
many
a
million
of
sound,
hearty
men
and
women
who
take
the
seasons
as
they
come,
and
profit
by
each
in
turn.
In
its
freedom
from
extremes,
in
its
common
clemency,
even
in
its
caprice,
which
at
the
worst
time
holds
out
hope,
our
island
weather
compares
well
with
that
of
other
lands.
Who
enjoys
the
fine
day
of
spring,
summer,
autumn,
or
winter
so
much
as
an
Englishman?
His
perpetual
talk
of
the
weather
is
testimony
to
his
keen
relish
for
most
of
what
it
offers
him;
in
lands
of
blue
monotony,
even
as
where
climatic
conditions
are
plainly
evil,
such
talk
does
not
go
on.
So,
granting
that
we
have
bad
days
not
a
few,
that
the
east
wind
takes
us
by
the
throat,
that
the
mists
get
at
our
joints,
that
the
sun
hides
his
glory
too
often
and
too
long,
it
is
plain
that
the
result
of
all
comes
to
good,
that
it
engenders
a
mood
of
zest
under
the
most
various
aspects
of
heaven,
keeps
an
edge
on
our
appetite
for
open-air
life.
I,
of
course,
am
one
of
the
weaklings
who,
in
grumbling
at
the
weather,
merely
invite
compassion.
July,
this
year,
is
clouded
and
windy,
very
cheerless
even
here
in
Devon;
I
fret
and
shiver
and
mutter
to
myself
something
about
southern
skies.
Pshaw!
Were
I
the
average
man
of
my
years,
I
should
be
striding
over
Haldon,
caring
not
a
jot
for
the
heavy
sky,
finding
a
score
of
compensations
for
the
lack
of
sun.
Can
I
not
have
patience?
Do
I
not
know
that,
some
morning,
the
east
will
open
like
a
bursting
bud
into
warmth
and
splendour,
and
the
azure
depths
above
will
have
only
the
more
solace
for
my
starved
anatomy
because
of
this
protracted
disappointment?
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