186 VIRGINIA 



struction to the view. Narrow as the valley 

 was, there was nothing else to be seen in 

 that direction. Immediately behind it dense 

 clouds hung so low that from my altitude 

 there was no looking under them. In one 

 respect it was better so, as sometimes, for 

 the undistracted enjoyment of it, a single 

 painting is better than a gallery. 



There was nothing peculiar or striking 

 in the scene, nothing in the slightest degree 

 romantic or extraordinary : a common patch 

 of earth, without so much as the play of sun- 

 light and shadow to set it off ; a pretty val- 

 ley, closely shut in between a mountain and 

 a cloud ; a quiet, grassy place, fenced into 

 small farms, the few scattered houses, per- 

 haps half a dozen, each with its cluster of 

 outbuildings and its orchard of blossoming 

 fruit-trees. Here and there cattle were graz- 

 ing, guinea fowls were calling potrack in 

 tones which not even the magic of distance 

 could render musical, and once the loud baa 

 of a sheep came all the way up the mountain 

 side. If the best reward of climbing be to 

 look afar off, the next best is to look down 

 thus into a tiny valley of a world. In either 

 case, the gazer must take time enough, and 



