FE BN LAN D 



CHAPTER I. 



INTRODUCTION. 



the pure air which, with its 

 buoyant and life-giving power, 

 roams in sweetness and freedom 

 over mountain and plain, hill- 

 side, meadow, and stream, and 

 wherever the rich gifts of Nature, 

 far away from the habitations of man, 

 abound in spontaneous luxuriance. Given 

 the sight of a river as it rolls through 

 the valley from its mountain home, fresh 

 from dews and vapours, unsullied by contact with 

 towns and cities ; or of a streamlet whose smaller 

 volume winds its silvery thread through the 

 moorland. Given the sight and sound of a 

 gurgling brook, as it babbles and sparkles over 



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