Work and Play. 7 



think are so little known by the bulk of our town's 

 people, when they might contribute to an almost endless 

 delight. Let it not be supposed that we are speaking of 

 botany, entomology, etc., as proper to be made the chief 

 business of life. "A man," said Dr. Johnson, "is never 

 so well employed as when he is earning money." Yes. 

 One of the best friends a man has in the world is a 

 good round balance at his banker's, the fruit and reward 

 of his own toil. We speak of them as employments for 

 the intervals of business, which it is quite as important to 

 occupy carefully and diligently as the hours of business 

 themselves. The more delight derived from the con- 

 templation and study of nature a man can pack into his 

 leisure moments, the keener, it is certain, will be his 

 aptitude for his ordinary duties. It is not only delight 

 of spirit either that comes of attention to nature; there 

 are the salutary effects of it upon the body. Rambling 

 in the fields, the town-cobwebs get dusted out of one's 

 lungs, and the whole frame becomes buoyant and elastic. 

 Good as is a bathe in the cold water, scarcely inferior, 

 when the skin is clean, is a good bathe in the blowing 

 wind. 



With these inducements and recommendations to the 

 love of nature so amply spread before us, we purpose 

 introducing our readers to the principal scenes of rural 

 beauty in the immediate neighbourhood, those sweet 

 side-chapels in the grand cathedral which no locality is 

 absolutely without. The experience of half a lifetime 

 has shown us that no trifling source of pleasure is such 



