OWLS IN A VILLAGE 165 



have straw." The land has mostly gone out 

 of cultivation, many vacant farms could be had 

 at about five shillings an acre, and the landlords 

 would in many cases, when pay day came round, 

 be glad to take half-a-crown and forgive the rest. 



The fields that were once ploughed are used 

 for grazing, but the sheep and cattle on them 

 are very few; one can only suppose that the 

 land is not suitable for grazing purposes, or else 

 that the farmers are too poor to buy sufficient 

 stock. 



Viewed from some eminence, the wide, green 

 country appears a veritable waste ; the idle 

 hedges enclosing vacant fields, the ancient 

 scattered trees, the absence of Ufe, the noonday 

 quiet, where the silence is only broken at 

 intervals by some distant bird voice, strangely 

 impress the mind as by a vision of a time to 

 come and of an England dispeopled. It is 

 restful ; there is a melancholy charm in it similar 

 to that of a nature untouched by man, although 

 not so strong. Here, everywhere are visible 

 the marks of human toil and ownership — the 

 wave-like, parallel ridges in the fields, now 

 mantled with grass, and the hedges that cut up 



