2 EASY-CHAIR MEMORIES 



corner of an old house on the side of a hill 

 surrounded by an almost perfect circle of still 

 higher hills, some of them wooded to their 

 summits ; others cultivated, showing every 

 variety of greens of meadows and turnips, the 

 dark foliage of trees, and the yellow fields of 

 waving corn, here and there grim tops of bare 

 mountains ; and I said that " if peace can be 

 found in the world, the heart that is humble 

 might look for it here." The semicircular 

 view that I get from this window extends pro- 

 bably twenty miles, and from the other side 

 of the house I get the other half of the circle 

 with equally distant and attractive views. A 

 little higher up the view extends in some direc- 

 tions for fifty miles. There are only a few 

 houses scattered hereabouts ; no traffic, no 

 vehicles, no noise of any kind, except occa- 

 sionally the barking of a dog, the lowing of a 

 cow, or the distant snorting of a railway engine 

 as it winds up the valley. Down yonder, a 

 mile away, flows the Wye, a broad and mighty 

 river, hidden from my present view by rows 

 of trees, by a big and scattered village, by the 

 square tower of the old church, and by the 

 ruins of an old castle. Happily, motor-cars 



