DIhTERENCES OF OPINION. 95 



kept gardens, whose early produce were begin- 

 ning to bloom — such were the agrements of the 

 road. 



Every mile presented a new feature ; the green 

 fields, the earth teeming with fertility, the velvet 

 lawns, the verdant fields, the luxuriant woods, 

 the peaceful valleys, the shady lanes, the 

 blossomed orchards, the " balmy odours" of 

 nature — her breath upon the breeze — -all com- 

 bined to raise your dull spirits to a state of 

 ecstasv. Then the excitement as the well- 

 appointed "drag" drove through the village, the 

 guard sounding his cheerful horn, and the coach 

 pulled up for a snack at a cleanly wayside 

 public-house, where the buxom landlady and 

 the pretty barmaid dispensed the creature com- 

 forts to the hungry guests, their appetites 

 sharpened by a drive of some twenty or five-and- 

 twenty miles. 



They then turn to the rail, declaring that, in- 

 stead of the " balmy odours" of nature — her 

 breath upon the breeze — the traveller is nearly 

 suffocated with the rank smell of oil, smoke, 

 gas, and sulphur. Instead of gazing upon the 

 beauties of England's rural scenery, you are 

 whirled along at the rate of fifty miles an hour, 

 amidst the densest smoke, the groanings of 



