x THE A UTHOR TO THE READER. 



many months within city walls, wearily pine 

 for fresh country breezes, and for the green, the 

 delightful, the refreshing green of the fields and 

 hedgerows ? 



Well does the author remember his own feelings 

 after a first residence of a few months in London. 

 Coming away from the delightful West of England, 

 amidst whose beautiful scenes he must have im- 

 bibed in his earliest years his passionate love for 

 hill, woodland and stream, the atmosphere of the 

 Metropolis hung heavily upon him. Six months 

 of that first residence in the great wilderness of 

 houses seemed six years to him. But oh ! the glad 

 sense of freedom when the time came at the end of 

 the six months for relaxation, and business could 

 be thrown up for a few weeks. How keen was the 

 enjoyment of the railway journey for a hundred 

 and sixty miles how delightful to drink in the 

 lovely landscapes which passed in rapid alternation 

 before his eye ! 



Such an experience is by no means a solitary 

 one. It has been said that there are hundreds of 

 thousands of town dwellers who every day are 



