Closes of greensward & meadow eaten down by cattle about harvest time & pieces of naked water such as ponds lakes & pools without fish make me melancholly to look over it & if ever so cheerfull I instantly feel low spirited depressed & wretched — on the contrary pieces of greensward where the hay has been cleared off smooth & green as a bowling green with lakes of water well stocked with fish leaping up in the sunshine & leaving rings widening & quavering on the water with the plunge of a Pike in the weeds driving a host of roach into the clear water slanting now & then towards the top their bellies of silver light in the sunshine — these scenes though I am almost wretched quickly animate my feelings & make me happy as if I was rambling in Paradise and perhaps more so then if I was there where there would still be Eves to trouble us
[N6, 20]