Pleasant, too, we find it, in sweet summer-time, to get up early; to be up and out, and all about the buildings, to look the horses over and see the cows—Pansy and Tiny, Pretty-maid and Daisy, Fill-pail, and Spot and Polly—good-coloured ones, and also famous milkers; or to the fowl-house to inspect the fowls, and on into the paddock to the calves, as the mist, so smoke-like, rising from the meadows, floats slowly upwards, over the soft blue haze of early morning. Then, round through the shrubbery, where birds build freely, and back across the lawn, to see the pigeons and to pet the fantails. "And so to breakfast"—as old Pepys would say—for vigorous onslaught on good things provided—pure milk and new-laid eggs and clotted cream, and juicy home-cured hams and hissing rashers, and come-and-cut-again sirloins or ribs—good farmhouse fare—contrasting with our hasty meal in town to catch the train for business. We know then the joy of getting up so soon, and wish we could often do it; but no one in the country can lie late, for the birds there beat town-sparrows, they are so early. First, the cuckoo, who calls you, continues his harsh shrill cry, till he wakes up the swallows under the eaves of the hop-kilns; then, as they cease their twitterings, the blackbirds begin, and rouse the sparrows, who rustle forth out of the ivy, to wrangle and scuffle and quarrel; the starlings and finches, the black-caps and linnets, having next to them their say in the matter, till joined by the robins, should rain be at hand. So that, what with the birds singing loudly, and the sun shining brightly for our room in that old house faces east—we find the best thing we can do on a hot summer morning is to turn out as soon as we can.
Source: The Illustrated London News, July 1, 1882, p.19
See also:—
Summer: July
Summer: Roses
Summer: Sounds
Summer: Drawing
Summer: Walks
Summer: Models
Summer: Girls
Summer: Rest