OUT-OF-TOWN PLACES 



tion of his boyish days with the country, for 

 an earnest love; it may well be only a senti- 

 ment which will wilt with the scorching heats 

 of August, and die utterly when the frosts 

 nip the verdure of the year. 



A man may take his business to the coun- 

 try—whether as manufacturer, stock-breeder, 

 tobacco-grower— and decorate his business 

 with country charms; but the retired citizen 

 cannot go there, and find enjoyment, except 

 he have an ineradicable love for such charms— 

 except he can read lovingly such books as those 

 of Walton, or White of Selborne. 



In closing, I filch from Walton's pages a 

 verse by that "excellent preacher and angler," 

 Phineas Fletcher; there is a heavy British 

 mildew on the lines; and the countryman be- 

 praised by the poet would not surely make a 

 very active railway-director; and yet the 

 mouldy old British portrait will not serve badly 

 as a pendant to these Rural Studies: — 



No empty hopes, no courtly fears him fright, 

 No begging wants his middle fortune bite. 

 But sweet content exiles both misery and spite. 

 His certain life, that never can deceive him. 



Is full of thousand sweets, and rich content; 

 The smooth-leaved beeches in the field receive 

 him 



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