3 io IS COUNTRY LIFE STILL POSSIBLE* 



and a gude year for our books" was the reply. But in 

 the country it is always a "good year" for books, 

 whether for writing or reading them, and Sir Walter's 

 pen might never have run with such astonishing ease 

 and quickness had he not been supported by the bodily 

 and mental vigour gained by his country life at Abbots- 

 ford. Charles Kingsley is another instance of a good 

 and vigorous worker who did his task the better for his 

 country surroundings. Yet even in his active nature 

 the inroads upon his leisure made by his parish and 

 pupils were, in the literary sense, a burden ; and his 

 pen never showed such charm and freedom as when, 

 in a brief holiday, he wrote The Water-Babies. So 

 long as it has such gifts to offer, the country can never 

 remain long discredited ; and the reaction from town 

 and suburban life will be all the stronger because it 

 has been for a time deferred. Even now there is in 

 many minds a half-unconscious repulsion to the sus- 

 tained strain of modern life, which will before long 

 find expression in a new exodus to the fields ; and in 

 others the tastes of Wordsworth and his followers have 

 never died. The unbought beauty of the country 

 which so strongly influenced them is still its main and 

 most potent charm, and at the same time we comfort 

 ourselves with the thought that country life, with all 

 its beauty and repose, may be one of vitality and 

 vigour, and not of " calm decay." 



THE END 



[R. Clay &* Sons, Ld., London & Bungay. 



