2 NOVA SCOTIA 



tcct the interval land from the encroaching wave ; the wide orcha 

 bask in sunshine, the quiet villages sleep peacefully under gre 

 ,-hurch steeples and on either side the hill-slopes, chequered wtH 

 ultivation and crested with dark forest, look down protecting^ 

 while a wreath of fog hanging over Blomindon suggests the stress 

 and disquiet of a cold world that lies beyond this dreamland. 

 Every American schoolgirl of the past generation was taught 

 recite Longfellow's solemn hexameters following the sad fortunes 

 of the lovely heroine and her people, with virtue and innocence 

 not unworthy the fabled golden age of mankind, truly marvellous 

 in a scratch lot of Brittany emigrants. As we survey the slow ml 

 rixrr winding through long fertile meadows, we perceive the M \ 



THE FARM-COTTAGE IN NOVA SCOTIA : DICBY, ANNAPOLIS BASIN. 



faithfully rendered by Longfellow from the shores of the Baa! 

 of Mm. is. and we can almost forgive the sentimental vapourin*| 

 which gave birth to the historical delusion, not yet a\v nd. d v 

 quietus, that the English authorities could possibly have act!/ 

 otherwise than they did when war had once more broken out wl! 

 France, in the matter of the expulsion of the malcontent peasant*/ 



Vt meadows stretched to the eastward, 



Giving the village its name, and pasture to flocks without number.! 

 Dikes, that the hands of the farmers had raised with labour incessant 

 Shut oat the turbulent tides ; but at stated seasons the floodgates I 

 Opened, and welcomed the sea to wander at will o'er the meadowsJ 

 West and south there were fields of flax, and orchards and cornfield! 

 Spreading afar and un fenced o'er the plain, and away to the northw 



