COUNTRY LIFE. 131 



country, so different is it from what one meets with in 

 France and the Continent generally. The largest towns, 

 like Birmingham, Manchester, Sheffield, or Leeds, are in- 

 habited only by workmen and shopkeepers, and the parts 

 of the town occupied by their dwellings have a poor 

 and melancholy appearance. Few or no ornamental 

 buildings ; little or no luxury ; nothing to be heard but 

 the noise of trades, and nothing but busy people to be 

 seen. The stranger as well as the inhabitant hastens to 

 get out of the smoke and dirt, to breathe beyond it a 

 purer air, and to escape the sight of that incessant work 

 which does not always keep away misery. In London, 

 even, the people think more of business than pleasure ; 

 and this is the reason why our good Parisians find them- 

 selves so much out of their element there ; they do not 

 meet with congenial tastes in London. 



I never experienced this difference so much as in going 

 from Chats worth to Sheffield. Chats worth is one of the 

 finest of those princely residences of the English aristo- 

 cracy, where such kingly luxury is displayed. This 

 splendid palace is surrounded with a finely -timbered 

 park of several leagues in circumference, stocked with 

 deer, sheep, and cattle, all grazing together. Fountains, 

 artificial cascades, and ornamental basins, almost rival the 

 celebrated decorations of Versailles and St Cloud ; an 

 immense conservatory constructed with iron and glass, 

 and which gave the idea for the Great Exhibition building, 

 contains quite a forest of tropical trees ; an entire village 

 of handsome cottages, picturesquely situated, has been 

 built by the proprietor for his workmen and labourers ; 

 the river Derwent, winding beautifully through the park, 

 seems almost as if it were designed by art ; and encom- 

 passing this scene, already so grand, are the Derbyshire 

 mountains, forming a magnificent horizon to the whole : 



