26 COUNTRY LIFE 



the Yorkshire Ridings, less lively in their way. You 

 may miss the tangled luxuriance of hedgerow, the rich 

 flowers or the fruit in the apple and cherry orchards, 

 the hop-plants twining themselves from pole to pole, 

 like the trellised vines of the plains of Italy ; but you 

 have an exhilarating sense of life and freedom among 

 those wide stretches of glorious galloping-ground divided 

 by their stiff ox-fences and bull-finches, with the halls 

 and manor-houses sheltering among their covers, and 

 the willow-bordered streams meandering peacefully 

 along the bottoms. 



If there was little in the formal French chateau 

 to excite any emotion of envy, we must own it is 

 altogether a different thing when you are out on 

 your wanderings in rural England. It must be a 

 contented spirit indeed that is not being perpetually 

 tempted by the hall or the rectory house, by the 

 luxurious cottage or the comfortable homestead. 

 Wedded as you may be to the ways of the town 

 inspired by some devouring ambition, or hotly 

 excited in the fever of money-getting you fancy, 

 for the moment at least, that you might be perfectly 

 happy if you were settled in one of those seductive 

 abodes. It may be partly that the simpler and sounder 

 part of our nature is asserting its instincts ; and it 

 seems so easy to take kindly to a country life when 

 a soothing languor has settled down on the smiling 

 landscape, and you see everything around you in its 

 rosiest colours. Of course it is long odds that you are 

 altogether deceiving yourself, as a little cool reflection 

 reminds you. You are like the veteran winebibber who 



