64 PERSONAL EXPERIENCE 



wide and general view of the subject, and to confine 

 myself for the rest of this section to the purely 

 personal aspect of the matter my own private 

 sense of smell. 



So long as a smell is not a warning or disgustful 

 one, even if acrid or sour or pungent, it is agreeable 

 to me. The heavy greasy smell of sheep, for instance, 

 and of sheep-folds, of cattle and cow-houses and 

 stables, of warehouses filled with goods, and drapers', 

 grocers', cheesemongers', and apothecaries' shops, 

 of leather and iron and wood, of sawpits and car- 

 penters' workshops. Wood-smells are indeed almost 

 as grateful as aromatic and fragrant scents. And 

 many other smells tanneries, breweries, and all 

 kinds of works, including gasworks. But it is always 

 a pleasing change from the great manufacturing 

 centres to the country and the dusty smell of rain 

 after dry, hot weather; the smell of rain-wet pine- 

 woods, of burning weeds and peat, and above all 

 the smell of the fresh-turned earth the smell which, 

 as the agricultural labourer believes, gives him his 

 long, healthy, peaceful life. 



One of my first sharp unforgettable experiences 

 in England was a novel smell, which I will not say 

 assailed, but rushed hospitably on me to receive me, 

 so to speak, in its soft, flesh-like, welcoming arms 

 an earth-born, thick, warm smell, something like 

 cookery and Russian leather, a happy, pleasant smell 

 the like of which I had never encountered before. 



I had just landed at Southampton on a bright 

 morning in early May, and the whole air seemed 



