Vlll JNTKODUCTION. 



land, gorse-clad heath, and open down. The in- 

 habitants of our great and growing cities — grow- 

 ing, unfortunately, at the expense of what God 

 made — ' the country' — now thirst, as they never 

 thirsted before, for green winding lane and sylvan 

 glade, and, in the joyous holiday seasons, turn 

 from the dry, hot air of the street to the breezy 

 field-path with a yearning which was never before 

 experienced in the same degree. 



But long anterior — as we have seen — to the 

 existence of that public feeling, created and 

 strengthened by the action of those worse than 

 modern vandals^men who have ruthlessly de- 

 stroyed what have been beautifully and appro- 

 priately called ' the buildings of God ' — buildings 

 which, once levelled with the ground, no human 

 art can restore — and long before a sense of depri- 

 vation began to' deepen public interest in oxir wild 

 woods and open commons, the public mind was 

 attracted to the subject by the quiet charm and 

 the all-pervading simplicity of Gilpin's writings. 

 The success of these writings, therefore, in the 

 absence of any immediately exciting cause, can be 

 attributed only and solely to their intrinsic merit. 



