40 FoiLv-in-Hand in Britain. 



resque variety and pastoral repose of the English land- 

 scape spring, in a considerable measure, from the 

 imaginative taste and the affectionate gentleness of the 

 English people. The state of the country, like its 

 social constitution, flows from principles within (which 

 are constantly suggested), and it steadily comforts and 

 nourishes the mind with a sense of kindly feeling, moral 

 rectitude, solidity, and permanence. Thus, in the pe- 

 culiar beauty of England the ideal is made the actual, 

 is expressed in things more than in words, and in 

 things by which words are transcended. Milton's 

 ' L'Allegro,' fine as it is, is not so fine as the scenery — 

 the crystallized, embodied poetry — out of which it 

 arose. All the delicious rural verse that has been 

 written in England is only the excess and superflux of 

 her own poetic opulence ; it has rippled from the hearts 

 of her poets just as the fragrance floats away from her 

 hawthorn hedges. At every step of his progress the 

 pilgrim through English scenes is impressed with this 

 sovereign excellence of the accomplished fact, as con- 

 trasted with any words that can be said in its celebra- 

 tion." 



The roads are a theme of continual wonder to those 

 who have not before seen England. To say that from 

 end to end of our journey they equalled those of New 

 York Central Park would be to understate the fact. 

 They are equal to the park roads on days when these 

 are at their best, and are neither" wet nor dusty. We 



