OLD ROADS. 353 



these humble scenes dwells the highest kind of beauty, 

 and that he is a happy man who cares for no more em- 

 bellishments than his own hands have undesignedly 

 added to the simple charms of Nature. 



Let us, therefore, carefully preserve these ancient 

 winding roads, with all their primitive eccentricities. 

 Let no modern vandalism, misnamed public economy, 

 deprive the traveller of their pleasant advantages, by 

 stopping up their beautiful curves and building shorter 

 cuts for economizing distance. Who that is journeying 

 for pleasure is not delighted with them, as they pass on 

 through pleasant valleys, under the brows of hills, along 

 the banks of green rivers, or the borders of silvery lakes ; 

 now half-way up some gentle eminence that commands 

 a view of a neighboring village, or winding round a hill, 

 and giving us a new view of the scenes we have just 

 passed ? They are no niggardly economists of time ; but 

 they seem as if purposely contrived to present to the eye 

 of the traveller everything that renders the country de- 

 sirable to the sight ; now leading us over miles bounded 

 by old gray stone- walls, half covered with sweet-briers, 

 viburnums, and goldenrods ; then again through fragrant 

 woods, under the brink of precipices nodding with wild 

 shrubbery, and seeming to emulate the capricious wind- 

 ings of the stream in its blue course among the hills. 

 How pleasant, when journeying, to enter a village by one 

 of these gentle sweeps that gives us several glimpses of 

 its scenes, in different aspects, before our arrival ! How 

 much indeed would be done for us by Nature, if we did 

 not, in conformity with certain notions of improvement, 

 constantly check her spontaneous efforts to cover the 

 land with beauty! 



