midnight
A mile below , the long bridge and the white walled town , all sleeping pearly in the soft haze , beneath a cloudless vault of blue . The white glare of dawn , which last night hung high in the northwest , has travelled now to the northeast , and above the wooded wall of the hills the sky is flushing with rose and amber . A long line of gulls goes wailing up inland ; the rooks from Annery come cawing and sporting round the corner at Landcross , while high above them four or five herons flap solemnly along to find their breakfast on the shallows . The pheasants and partridges are clucking merrily in the long wet grass ; every copse and hedgerow rings with the voice of birds , but the lark , who has been singing since midnight in the `` blank height of the dark , '' suddenly hushes his carol and drops headlong among the corn , as a broad-winged buzzard swings from some wooded peak into the abyss of the valley , and hangs high-poised above the heavenward songster . The air is full of perfume ; sweet clover , new-mown hay , the fragrant breath of kine , the dainty scent of sea-weed wreaths and fresh wet sand . Glorious day , glorious place , `` bridal of earth and sky , '' decked well with bridal garlands , bridal perfumes , bridal songs , -- What do those four cloaked figures there by the river brink , a dark spot on the fair face of the summer morn ? Yet one is as cheerful as if he too , like all nature round him , were going to a wedding ; and that is Will Cary .