Rural England. 39 



Everthing of rural England is seen, and how exquisitely 

 beautiful it all is, this quiet, peaceful, orderly land ! 



" The ground's most gentle dimplement 

 (As if God's finger touched, but did not press, 

 In making England) — such an up and down 

 Of verdure ; nothing too much up and down, 

 A ripple of land, such little hills the sky 

 Can stoop to tenderly and the wheat-fields climb ; 

 Such nooks of valleys lined with orchises, 

 Fed full of noises by invisible streams, 

 I thought my father's land was worthy too of being Shake- 

 speare's." 



I think this extract from Mr. Winter's charming 

 volume expresses the feelings one has amid such scenes 

 better than anything I know of : 



'' If the beauty of England were merely superficial, 

 it would produce a merely superficial effect. It would 

 cause a passing pleasure, and would be forgotten. It 

 certainly would not — as now in fact it does — inspire a 

 deep, joyous, serene and grateful contentment, and lin- 

 ger in the mind, a gracious and beneficent remem- 

 brance. The conquering and lasting potency of it re- 

 sides not alone in loveliness of expression, but in love- 

 liness of character. Having first greatly blessed the 

 British Islands with the natural advantages of position, 

 climate, soil, and products, nature has wrought out 

 their development and adornment as a necessary con- 

 sequence of the spirit of their inhabitants. The pictu- 



