64 Four-in-Hand m Britain. 



tion act, and the rural population is to have the political 

 franchise and a voice in the election of county boards. 



At Horsham we lunched at the King's Arms, walked 

 about its principal square, and were off again for Guild- 

 ford. As we leave the sea the soil becomes richer, and 

 ere we reach Horsham we say, yes, this is England in- 

 deed ; but I forgot we passed through the Weald of 

 Sussex before reaching Horsham. The cloudy sky cast 

 deep shadows with the sunbeams over the rich, wooded 

 landscape, as no clear blue sky has power to do, and 

 brought to my mind Mrs. Browning's lines : 



..." my woods in Sussex have some purple shades at gloaming, 

 Which are worthy of a king in state, or poet in his youth. 

 ********* 

 Oh, the blessed woods of Sussex, I can hear them still around me, 

 With their leafy tide of greenery still rippling up the wind ! '' 



And many a stately home did we see, fit for her " who 

 spake such good thoughts natural." 



Mrs. Browning is said to have written Lady Gerald- 

 ine in a few hours, lying upon a sofa. This is one of 

 the proofs cited that genius does its work as if by inspi- 

 ration, without great effort. What nonsense ! The 

 Agave Americana bursts into flower in a day ; but, look 

 you, a hundred years of quiet, unceasing growth, which 

 stopped not night nor day, was the period of labor pre- 

 ceding the miracle — a hundred years, during all of 

 which it drank of the sunshine and the dews. Scott 

 wrote some of his best works in a few weeks, but 



