Read "Amaryllis at the Fair" by Richard Jefferies online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
Perhaps the reason Alere never took to colours was because of his inherent and unswerving truthfulness of character. Genuine to a degree, he could not make believe -- could not deceive -- could not masquerade in a dress-coat.
Now, most of the landscape-painting in vogue today is nature in a dress-coat.