NATURE IN ENGLAND. 5 



we entered port was such a one as you would select 

 from a hundred. 



The traveler is in a mood to be pleased after clear- 

 ing the Atlantic gulf ; the eye in its exuberance is full 

 of caresses and flattery, and the deck of a steamer is 

 a rare vantage-ground on any occasion of sight-see- 

 ing ; it affords just the isolation and elevation needed. 

 Yet fully discounting these favorable conditions, the 

 fact remains that Scotch sunshine is bewitching, and 

 that the scenery of the Clyde is unequaled by any 

 other approach to Europe. It is Europe, abridged 

 and assorted and passed before you in the space of 

 a few hours : the highlands and lochs and castle- 

 crowned crags on the one hand ; and the lowlands, 

 with their parks and farms, their manor halls and 

 matchless verdure, on the other. The eye is conserv- 

 ative, and loves a look of permanence and order, of 

 peace and contentment ; and these Scotch shores, 

 with their stone houses, compact masonry, clean 

 fields, grazing herds, ivied walls, massive foliage, per- 

 feet roads, verdant mountains, etc., fill all the condi- 

 tions. We pause an hour in front of Greenock, and 

 then, on the crest of the tide, make our way slowly 

 upward. The landscape closes around us. We can 

 almost hear the cattle ripping off the lush grass in 

 the fields. One feels as if he could eat grass himself. 

 It is a pastoral paradise. We can see the daisies and 

 buttercups ; and from above a meadow on the right, 

 a part of the song of a sky-lark reaches my ear. In- 

 deed, not a little of the charm and novelty of this 



