158 FACT AGAINST FICTION. 



of surface and subsoil as to which they speak, 

 because I venture to say they liave never seen it 

 nor tested it, and that they know very little of 

 rural affairs. To be sure they can know nothing" 

 of things they have never seen, so I am most 

 happy to give them that ^^bolt hole" for escape. 



In many of these ^^ waste districts" thus claimed 

 as sinfully kept barren for the jDcrsonal joleasure of 

 the aristocracy, and to starve the '' Constitution," 

 the land lies thus. 



There is a scanty growth of poor heather upon 

 it, drawing its nourishment from a slight covering of 

 its own decayed roots, those roots lying on a white, 

 glassy sand and white flinty gravel on the surface 

 soil. 



I think I hear some of these self-constitutional 

 nurses (Heaven save the mark!) exclaim, ^^ Oh, aye, 

 but v/liat about the suhsoilV^ Of course they have 

 parroted that word from some market-gardener's 

 discourse over a pipe of tobacco, through the 

 fumes of which he quietly derides his questioners. 



The subsoil on many of these sites, as examined 

 by me, has l)een white, glassy sand and flinty 

 gravel, and, perhaps, beneath that an iron pan 

 holding unprolific water. 



