AN OCTOBER ABROAD 141 



And yet, to American eyes, the country seems 

 quite uninhabited, there are so few dwellings and 

 so few people. Such a landscape at home would be 

 dotted all over with thrifty farmhouses, each with 

 its group of painted outbuildings, and along every 

 road and highway would be seen the well-to-do turn- 

 outs of the independent freeholders. But in Eng- 

 land the dwellings of the poor people, the farmers, 

 are so humble and inconspicuous and are really so 

 far apart, and the halls and the country-seats of the 

 aristocracy are so hidden in the midst of vast estates, 

 that the landscape seems almost deserted, and it is 

 not till you see the towns and great cities that you 

 can understand where so vast a population keeps 

 itself. 



Another thing that would be quite sure to strike 

 my eye on this my first ride across British soil, and 

 on all subsequent rides, was the enormous number 

 of birds and fowls of various kinds that swarmed in 

 the air or covered the ground. It was truly amaz- 

 ing. It seemed as if the feathered life of a whole 

 continent must have been concentrated on this island. 

 Indeed, I doubt if a sweeping together of all the 

 birds of the United States into any two of the 

 largest States would people the earth and air more 

 fully. There appeared to be a plover, a crow, a 

 rook, a blackbird, and a sparrow to every square 

 yard of ground. They know the value of birds in 

 Britain, — that they are the friends, not the enemies, 

 of the farmer. It must be the paradise of crows 

 and rooks. It did me good to see them so much at 



