MA 1581.233, p. [5]

the water there were yet beds of green, and, in some of
the hollow places in the highest part of the woods, the
trees were of a yellow colour, and, through the glittering
light, they looked like masses of clouds as you see
them gathered together in the West, and tinged with
the golden light of the sun. After dinner we walk
-ed with M^rs Luff up the Vale; I had never had an
idea of the extent and width of it in passing thro’
along the road on the other side. We walked along
the path which leads from house to house; two or
three times it took us through some of those copses
or groves that cover every little hillock in the mid-
-dle of the lower part of the Vale, making an
intricate and beautiful intermixture of lawn and
woodland. We left William to prolong his walk; and when
he came into the house he told us that he had pitched
upon the spot where he should like to build a house
better than in any other he had ^ever^yet seen. M^rs Luff went
with him by moonlight to view it. The Vale looked
as if it were filled with white light when the moon
when the moon had climbed up to the middle of the
sky; but long before we could see her face, while all
the eastern hills were a black shade, those on the
opposite side were almost as bright as snow.
M^rs Luff’s large white Dog lay in the moonshine
upon the round knoll under the old yew tree,
a beautiful and romantic image – the dark