Tea in the Country. 



compelled one's excursions to be like the angels' visits, 

 few and far between. The railways, penetrating every 

 nook and corner, now enable us to reach the very heart 

 of the country in a very little while, fresh and nimble 

 for our enjoyment, and, when over, the same will 

 bring us home again. Honoured for ever be the name 

 of Stephenson! It is in facilitating men's intercourse 

 with nature, and the purest and most ennobling recrea- 

 tions they can enjoy and are capable of, that the social 

 blessings of railways have their highest realisation. Vast 

 is their use to commerce, but still vaster their unreckoned 

 friendship to health and healthy-mindedness. Now, also, 

 there are more persons prepared to supply our wants in 

 the way of "Tired nature's sweet restorer, balmy tea" 

 Time was when the alehouse by the roadside, or the 

 weary walk back to town, were the only choice open to 

 our poor hunger and fatigue. But with the Saturday 

 half-holiday, and the impetus it gave to rural visitings, 

 there has sprung up a readiness on the part of country 

 folks to open their doors in a hospitable spirit, which is 

 quite tempting and delightful ; and, most assuredly, 

 nothing forms so pleasant a conclusion to an afternoon's 

 ramble as to sit down in a neat cottage to a comfortable 

 farmhouse meal, with its huge broad piles of bread and 

 butter, and inexhaustible store of green salad and new- 

 laid eggs. There, with the sun shining aslant through 

 the old-fashioned window, the doors open, and the breeze 

 gently peeping in, the cows lowing in the pasture, 

 and the very atmosphere redolent of the country, we 



