THE ANGLERS SOUVENIR. 



167 



fusion, the solidity and the grandeur of the many 



hills, and the loveliness of their intersecting glens, 



J tpoke of half-savage wildness and half-barbaric 



M freedom ; yet the denizens of those sequestered 



a ' farms held themselves but as serfs in bondage to a 



rich landowner. They claimed the independence 



LO of the Cymri, yet bowed down slavishly to the will 



\j[ ^ of their landlord and why ? Because they must 



,^P live, and poverty falls with the snow in these wild 



C&^ hill villages, and springs up with the stones in their 



ploughed fields and as poverty teaches so do they 



^ learn. So that, to him who looks under the surface, 



f** the fair freshness of the hill country is too often 



^ but a painful foil to the narrow and straitened life 



7&k beneath. 



We had but to turn around, and there before us, 



for mile on mile, stretched the greater portion of 

 four fine counties : rich plains, massy woods, silver 

 winding streams, and landmark hills such as the 

 Wrekin, the Breidden, Hawkstone, Longmynd, and 

 others. There peace and plenty reigned ; and com- 

 fortable homesteads, with well-filled stackyards, 

 spoke to the gold that came from the bosom of the 

 earth. 



Around us the wind sighed loudly in the fir-trees, 

 and the ripples washed among the reeds. Thero 

 was no sound of man or domestic animal nothing 

 save our own voices, and the croak of the coots, 

 and cackle of wild-ducks, and noises in the wood 

 which were hard to assign to their natural causes. 



