ON PLAIN AND PEAK 



It is curious what a vague idea the average 

 Briton possesses of geography, even to-day. I met 

 an old college friend a few weeks ago, whom I had 

 not seen since we were at Cambridge together. 

 After we had exchanged greetings, and expressed 

 surprise at coming across one another quite unex- 

 pectedly, we began to inquire into one another's 

 well-being. 



"And what have you been doing with yourself? " 

 was his first question. 



" I have been in Bohemia for the last six months," 

 I said. 



" Bohemia ! Where's that ? " he asked. 



"In Central Europe ; it forms part of the Aus- 

 trian Empire," I replied, for I always like to give 

 information when I can. 



" Does it?" he said ; " I always thought Bohemia 

 was a suburb of London." 



A vast plain, surrounded by a circlet of moun- 

 tains, Bohemia resembles a gigantic soup-plate in 

 its conformation. A melancholy land, and a melan- 

 choly people. And yet, whether one sees it in the 

 summer months, basking in the rays of a glaring 

 sun, with the broad expanse of level ground tinged 

 with the gold of the ripening corn ; or in the depths 

 of winter, when the spotless snow-field, glittering 

 beneath a steel-blue sky, stretches away and away 

 to the horizon, the country well deserves Shake- 



4 



