Sometimes the descriptions are given before the incident and sometimes the two are intermixed.  In the following incident from the Legend of Sleepy Hollow, notice how the description prepares the mind for the action that follows.  We are told that the brook which Ichabod must cross runs into a marshy and thickly wooded glen; that the oaks and chestnuts matted with grapevines throw a gloom over the place, and already we feel that it is a dreadful spot after dark.  The fact that Andre was captured here adds to the feeling.  We are prepared to have some exciting action take place, and had Ichabod ridden quietly across the bridge, we should have been disappointed.

About two hundred yards from the tree a small brook crossed the road, and ran into a marshy and thickly wooded glen, known by the name of Wiley’s swamp.  A few rough logs, laid side by side, served for a bridge over this stream.  On that side of the road where the brook entered the woods, a group of oaks and chestnuts, matted thick with wild grapevines, threw a cavernous gloom over it.  To pass this bridge was the severest trial.  It was at this identical spot that the unfortunate Andre was captured, and under covert of those vines were the sturdy yeomen concealed who surprised him.  This has ever since been considered a haunted stream, and fearful are the feelings of the schoolboy who has to pass it alone after dark.

As he approached the stream his heart began to thump; he summoned up, however, all his resolution, gave his horse half a score of kicks in the ribs, and attempted to dash briskly across the bridge; but instead of starting forward, the perverse old animal made a lateral movement, and ran broadside against the fence.  Ichabod, whose fears increased with the delay, jerked the reins on the other side, and kicked lustily with the contrary foot.  It was all in vain; his steed started, it is true, but it was only to plunge to the opposite side of the road into a thicket of brambles and alder bushes.  The schoolmaster now bestowed both whip and heel upon the starveling ribs of old Gunpowder, who dashed forward, snuffling and snorting, but came to a stand just by the bridge, with a suddenness that had nearly sent his rider sprawling over his head.  Just at this moment a plashy tramp, by the side of the bridge caught the sensitive ear of Ichabod.  In the dark shadow of the grove, on the margin of the brook, he beheld something huge, misshapen, black, and towering.  It stirred not, but seemed gathered up in the gloom like some gigantic monster ready to spring upon the traveler.

—­Irving:  Legend of Sleepy Hollow.