66 
JOURNEY TO BETHELSDORP. [1813. 
fine things, and certainly it is a charming place. The 
boor is a simple hearted, friendly man, and appears to 
fear the God of Israel. His wife is a sensible and 
zealous Christian. She has many opportunities of 
improvement, a^ her house is visited by travellers 
almost every evening. 
During a suspension of the rain, two of us walked 
to a neighbouring wood, where every thing appeared 
in a state of nature, never having experienced human 
interference. The apparent disorder in which the trees 
and shrubs stood, was far more enchanting to the 
beholder than any human arrangement could have 
made them, like the unequal length of the fingers on 
the hand, whose inequality is an ornament. Many 
trees of antiquity, rendered feeble by the lapse of time, 
were unable to support themselves, and therefore re- 
clined, in various positions, on those that were able to 
support them; and as they had lost all their own 
ornaments of leaves and flowers, other plants, such as 
ivy, and wild vines were rapidly supplying this defect. 
Many beautiful myrtles were growing to the height of 
fifteen or twenty feet. 
The wood lay between two mountains, and a river 
flowed between, but so tall are the trees, and so 
abundant their foliage, and so thick are the shrubs 
on each side, that even at mid-day the river runs 
in an agreeable obscurity. With great pleasure we 
walked a little way along the left bank of this con- 
cealed river, under the shade of healthy evergreens. 
