CHAPTER XI 



THE STORY OF THE FIELDS 



What was Ancient Britain ? — Marshes and bittern— Oak forest — Pines — 

 Savage country — Cornfield — Fire — Ice — Forest — Worms — Paleolithic 

 family — The first farmers— Alfred the Great's first Government 

 agricultural leaflet — Dr. Johnson — Prince Charlie's time —Misery of 

 our forefathers — Oatmeal, milk, and cabbages — Patrick Miller — 

 Tennyson's Nwihefrn Farm&r — Flourishing days of 1830 to 1870 — 

 Derelict farmhouses and abandoned crofts — Where have the people 

 gone ?— Will they come back ? 



WHEN the eyes of man first beheld Britain, what 

 sort of country was this of ours ? It is very 

 interesting to try to imagine what it was like, but 

 of course it is a very difficult task. Still it is worth the 

 attempt, for we ought to know something of what has been 

 done by our forefathers. 



Where the great rivers Thames, Humber, Tyne, Forth, 

 Clyde, Mersey, and Severn, approached the seashore they 

 lost themselves in wildernesses of desolate, dreary fenlands. 

 Here a small scrubby wood of willow, birch, and alder ; 

 there a miles -wide stretch of reeds and undrained marsh 

 intersected by sluggish, lazy rivers, or varied by stagnant 

 pools. The bittern boomed in those marshes. Herons, 

 geese, swans, ducks, and aquatic birds of all sorts found what 

 is now Chelsea a paradise, only disturbed by the eagle, 

 harrier-hawk, vulture, and the like. 



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