CHAPTER VI 



A Short Homily by the Country Mouse. — Why Towns must be Tenanted 

 and why Parks should be Planted. — Things to be Learned in the 

 Hunting Field. — Social and Political Aspects of Horses and Hounds. 



The rural wilds 

 Invite ; the mountains call you, and the vales : 

 The streams, the woods, and each ambrosial breeze 

 That fans the ever-undulating sky ; 

 A kindly sky ! whose fostering pow'r regales 

 Man, beast, and all the vegetable reign. 



However alluring or fascinating the recreations and 

 amusements of a town life may appear, there is a subtle 

 poison in the cup of these enjoyments, which those who 

 drink deeply of them soon would discover to their cost, 

 did not the rules of fashion put some check to their 

 enjoyment. The opera, the theatre, the ball-room, with 

 their reeking atmosphere of over-crowded humanity, 

 and heat more oppressive and debilitating than that of 

 Calcutta — what are these in comparison with the exhilar- 

 ating pastimes and health-giving exercises of a country 

 life, under the fresh and pure breath of Heaven ? How 

 soon, by the influence of the former, do the rosy hues on 

 beauty's cheek fade away, and give place to the sickly 

 shade which belongs to the votaries of dissipation. 



Ye who amid this feverish world would wear 

 A body free of pain, of cares a mind. 

 Fly the rank city, shun its turbid air. 



Yet there are thousands, milHons of human beings, 

 Gf 73 



