About four o'clock
And then you went away , and I found that though I had the boys my life and my heart were empty . You are my life , Biddy . '' `` My blessed child . '' * * * * * About four o'clock they came home . An upland country of pastures and shallow dales fell quietly to the river levels , and on a low spur that was its last outpost stood Mintern Abbas , a thing half of the hills and half of the broad valleys . At its back , beyond the home-woods , was a remote land of sheep walks and forgotten hamlets ; at its feet the young Thames in lazy reaches wound through water-meadows . Down the slopes of old pasture fell cascades of daffodils , and in the fringes of the coppices lay the blue haze of wild hyacinths .