The Ashley Meadows. 1 5 



out to the imagination by green forbidden paths and 

 tangled thickets; then, as in Dunham Park, the primi- 

 tive causes of floral variety being absent, the flowers 

 themselves, though they may be plentiful in their 

 respective kinds, are necessarily few as to distinct species. 

 It does not follow that where the variety is considerable 

 we are to look below the turf for the explanation. 

 Meadows and pastures are always more prolific than 

 ground covered with forest-trees (except, perhaps, in the 

 tropics), the reason being partly that such trees offer too 

 much obstruction to the rays of the sun, and partly that 

 their immense and spreading roots block up the soil and 

 hinder the growth of smaller plants. The Ashley 

 meadows, after all, like all other places abounding in 

 wild-flowers, are the miniature of a romantic scene. For 

 in landscape, as in history, wherever we go, we have only 

 the same ideas on a larger or smaller scale, the great 

 repeated in the little, the little repeated in the great. 

 Here is the mighty forest, clinging to the mountain side ; 

 here the extended plain, watered by its winding river; 

 here the terrible chasm and deep ravine, all, however, 

 in that delicate and reduced measure which, while it 

 gives us the type of nature universally, enables us to see 

 the whole at one view. 



To get to the Ashley meadows, go by the railway to 

 Bowdon, then along the "Ashley Road" for about a mile, 

 and then down the lane on the left hand, which leads to 

 Mr. Nield's model farm. After passing through the field 

 by the farm, there is seen a small wood upon the right, in 



