i88 



AN OCTOBER ABROAD. 



from time to time laid open to the traveller in a way 

 that is full of novelty and surprise. The day was 

 bright and lovely, and I found my eyes running riot 

 the same as they had done during my first ride on Brit- 

 ish soil. The contrast between the two countries is 

 quite marked, France in this region being much more 

 broken and picturesque, with some waste or sterile 

 land, a thing I did not see at all in England. Had I 

 awoke from a long sleep just before reaching Paris, I 

 should have guessed I was riding through Maryland, 

 and would soon see the dome of the Capitol at Wash- 

 ington rising above the trees. So much wild and 

 bushy, or barren and half-cultivated land, almost under 

 the walls of the French capital, was a surprise. 



Then there are few or none of those immense home- 

 parks which one sees in England, the land being 

 mostly held by a great number of small proprietors, 

 and cultivated in strips or long, narrow parallelograms, 

 making the landscape look like many-colored patch- 

 work. Everywhere along the Seine, stretching over 

 the flats, or tilted up against the sides of the hills, in 

 some places seeming almost to stand on end, were 

 these acre or half-acre rectangular farms, without any 

 dividing lines or fences, and of a great variety of 

 shades and colors, according to the crop and the till- 

 age. 



I was glad to see my old friend, the beech-tree, all 

 along the route. His bole wore the same gray and 

 patched appearance it does at home, and, no doubt, 



