24 NATURE IN ENGLAND. 



to be a kind of finer soil floating in the air. How 

 else can one account for the general smut of the 

 human face and hands in this country, and the 

 impossibility of keeping his own clean ? The un- 

 washed hand here quickly leaves its mark on what- 

 ever it touches. A prolonged neglect of soap and 

 water, and I think one would be presently covered 

 with a fine green mould, like that upon the boles of 

 the trees in the woods. If the rains were not occa- 

 sionally heavy enough to clean them off, I have no 

 doubt that the roofs of all buildings in England would 

 in a few years be covered with turf, and that daisies 

 and buttercups would bloom upon them. How quickly 

 all new buildings take on the prevailing look of age 

 and mellowness. One needs to have seen the great 

 architectural piles and monuments of Britain to ap- 

 preciate Shakespeare's line, 



"Thatunswept stone, besmeared with sluttish Time." 

 He must also have seen those Scotch or Cumberland 

 mountains to appreciate the descriptive force of this 

 other line, 



" The turfy mountains where live the nibbling sheep." 



The turfy mountains are the unswept stones that 

 have held and utilized their ever-increasing capi- 

 tal of dirt. These vast rocky eminences are stuffed 

 and padded with peat; it is the sooty soil of the 

 house-tops and of the grimy human hand, deepened 

 and accumulated till it nourishes the finest, sweetest 

 grass. 



