Now genial suns and gentle breezes reign,
And summer's fairest splendours deck the plain;
Exulting Flora view 3 her new-born rose,
And all the ground with short-liv'd beauty glows,

JUNE is really, in this climate, what the poets represent May to be, the most lovely month in the year. Summer is com menced, and warm weather thoroughly established; yet the heats rarely arise to excess, or interrupt the enjoyment of those pleasures which the scenes of nature, at this time, afford. The trees are in their fullest dress, and a profusion of the gayest flowers is every where scattered around, which put on all their beauty, just before they are cut down by the scythe, or withered by the heat.

Soft showers are extremely welcome to wards the beginning of this month, to

forward the growth of the young herbage. Such a one is thus described by Thomson:

Gradual sinks the breeze

Into a perfect calm; that not a breath

Is heard to quiver through the closing woods,
Or rustling turn the many twinkling leaves
Of aspen tall.

At last

The clouds consign their treasures to the fields;
The stealing show'r is scarce to patter heard,
By such as wander through the forest walks,
Beneath th' umbrageous multitude of leaves.
But who can hold the shade, While Heaven descends
In universal bounty, shedding herbs,

And fruits, and flowers, on Nature's ample lap?

One of the earliest rural employments of this month is the shearing of sheep; a business of much importance in various parts of Great Britain, where wool, being the basis of the principal manufactures, is one of the most valuable products that the country affords, England has been for many ages famous for its breeds of sheep, which yield wool of various qualities, suited to different branches of the manufacture. The Downs of Dorsetshire and other southern, and western counties, feed sheep, the fine short fleeces of which are employed

SHEEP SHEARING.

in making the best broad cloths. The coarser wool of Yorkshire and the northern counties, is used in the narrow cloths. The large Leicestershire and Lincolnshire sheep are clothed with long thick flakes, proper for the hosier's use; and every other kind is applied to some valuable purpose.

The season for sheep-shearing commences as soon as the warm weather is so far settled, that the sheep may, without danger, lay aside great part of their clothing. The following tokens are laid down by Dyer, in his Fleece, to mark out the proper time.

If verdant elder spreads

Her silver flowers; if humble daisies yield
To yellow crowfoot and luxuriant grass,
Gay shearing time approaches.

Before shearing, the sheep undergo the operation of washing, in order to free the wool from the foulness which it has contracted.

On the bank

Of a clear river, gently drive the flock,

And plunge them one by one into the flood:
Plung'd in the flood not long the struggler sinks

With his white flakes, that glisten thro' the tides;

The sturdy rustic, in the middle wave,
Awaits to seize him rising; one arm bears
His lifted head above the limpid stream,
While the full clammy fleece the other laves
Around, laborious, with repeated toil,
And then resigns him to the sunny bank,
Where, bleating loud, he shakes his dripping locks.
DYER.

The shearing itself is conducted with a degree of ceremony and rural dignity, being a festival, as well as a piece of labour.

At last, of snowy white, the gather'd flocks
Are in the wattled pen innum'rous press'd,
Head above head; and, rang'd in lusty rows,
The shepherds sit, and whet the sounding shears.
The housewife waits to roll her fleecy stores,
With all her gay-drest maids attending round.
One, chief, in gracious dignity enthron'd,
Shines o'er the rest, the past'ral queen, and rays
Her smiles, sweet-beaming, on her shepherd-king.
A simple scene! yet hence BRITANNIA sees
Her solid grandeur rise; hence she commands
Th' exalted stores of ev'ry brighter clime,
The treasures of the sun, without his rage.
THOMSON.

A sweet fragrance now arises from the fields of clover in blossom. Of this plant there are the varieties of white and purple ;