THE FERN PARADISE. 



business centres, and consequently kept for many 

 months within city walls, wearily pine for fresh 

 country breezes, and for the green the delightful, 

 the refreshing green of the fields and hedgerows ? 



Well does the Author remember his own feel- 

 ings after a first residence of a few months in 

 London. Coming away from the delightful West 

 of England, amidst whose beautiful scenes he 

 must have imbibed in his earliest years his pas- 

 sionate love for hill, woodland, and stream, the 

 atmosphere of the Metropolis hung heavily upon 

 him. Six months of that first residence in the 

 great wilderness of houses seemed six years to 

 Trim. But, oh ! the glad sense of freedom when 

 the time came at the end of the six months for 

 relaxation, and business could be thrown up for 

 a, few weeks ! How keen was the enjoyment of 

 the railway journey for a hundred and sixty miles ! 

 how delightful to drink in the lovely landscapes 

 which passed in rapid alternation before his eye ! 



Such an experience is by no means a solitary 

 one. It has been said that there are hundreds of 

 thousands of town dwellers who every day are 

 wearily pining for the country, or something which 



