returns and in this mood the piece ends. The whole atmosphere of
it is one of loneliness, and, except for a sonorous bar or two,
its expression is subdued. It gives an impression of the quiet
that hangs around an old country home long since deserted, where
human life once existed with all its joys and sorrows.

9. _By a Meadow Brook_ (_Gracefully, merrily_). This goes
bubbling and sparkling along, now swirling round a little rock,
now running over a little waterfall, but always going merrily on
until softer and softer grows the tonality, finally vanishing
from musical sight. The piece is purely a play of tone, but never
shallow, for it suggests not only a particular type of Nature
scene, but the significance of the beauty and goodness it
symbolises.

10. _Told at Sunset_ (_With pathos_). This piece is of some
importance from the fact that it contains thematic allusions to
two of the preceding numbers. It opens with a sad, reflective
theme that is reminiscent of _A Deserted Farm_. It proceeds for
nineteen bars, dying softly away high in the scale. After a
moment's silence, a softly breathed, but firmly emphasised
marching tune appears, marked _Faster sturdily_. It grows
gradually louder until it is thundered out in its full strength,
with something of the nervous accentuation peculiar to Elgar's
music. It dies gradually away again, until nothing is left but a
few last faint references to its sturdy quality. The grave theme
of _A Deserted Farm_ (_No._ 8) is now introduced (transposed a
semitone lower than the original to F minor), freely altered, and
infused with more intense expressiveness. The conclusion is
dramatic, for after twenty-four bars of deep and tender