124 LANDSCAPE GARDENING. 



be the universal pleasure of the nation. The successful statesman, 

 professional man, merchant, trader, mechanic, all look to it as the 

 only way of enjoying the otium cum dignitate ; and the great 

 beauty and extent of our rural scenery, as well as the absence of any 

 great national capital, with its completeness of metropolitan life, 

 must render the country the most satisfactory place for passing a 

 part of every man's days, who has the power of choice. 



It is not to be denied, however, that " retirement to the country," 

 which is the beau ideal of all the busy and successful citizens of our 

 towns, is not always found to be the elysium which it has been 

 fondly imagined. No doubt there are good reasons why nothing in 

 this world should afford perfect and uninterrupted happiness. 



" The desire of the moth for the star " 



might cease, if parks and pleasure-grounds could fill up the yearn- 

 ings of human nature, so as to leave no aspirations for futurity. 



But this is not our present meaning. What we would say is, 

 that numbers are disappointed with country life, and perhaps leave 

 it in disgust, without reason, either from mistaken views of its na- 

 ture, of their own incapacities for enjoying it, or a want of practical 

 ability to govern it. 



We might throw our views into a more concrete shape, perhaps, 

 by saying that the disappointments in country life arise chiefly from 

 two causes. The first is, from expecting too much. The second, from 

 undertaking too much. 



There are, we should judge from observation, many citizens who 

 retire to the country, after ten or twenty years' hard service in the 

 business and society of towns, and who carry with them the most 

 romantic ideas of country life. They expect to pass their time in 

 wandering over daisy-spangled meadows, and by the side of mean- 

 dering streams. They will listen to the singing of birds, and find 

 a perpetual feast of enjoyment in the charm of hills and mountains. 

 Above-all, they have an extravagant notion of the purity and the 

 simplicity of country life. All its intercourse, as well as all its plea- 

 sures, are to be so charmingly pure, pastoral, and poetical ! 



What a disappointment to find that there is prose even in coun- 



