INTRODUCTION 



IVEN the free air which, with its buoyant and 

 life-giving power, roams in sweetness and 

 purity over mountain and plain, hill-side, meadow, 

 and stream, and wherever the free gifts of Nature, 

 far away from the habitations of man, abound in 

 spontaneous luxuriance. Given the sight of a river 

 as it rolls through the valley from its mountain 

 home, fresh from dews and vapours, unsullied by 

 contact with towns and cities ; or of a streamlet 

 whose smaller volume winds its silvery thread 

 through the moorland. Given the sight and sound 

 of the gurgling brook, as it babbles and sparkles 

 over stones and shallows, meandering by copse and 

 through mead. Given the wild paths of the wood 

 through which to wander free and untrammelled, 



