8 
THE FERN PARADISE. 
business centres, and consequently kept for many 
months within city walls, wearily pine for fresh 
country breezes, and for the green—the delightful, 
the refreshing green—of the fields and hedgerows ? 
Well does the Author remember his own feel¬ 
ings after a first residence of a few months in 
London. Coming away from the delightful West 
of England, amidst whose beautiful scenes he 
must have imbibed in his earliest years his pas¬ 
sionate love for hill, woodland, and stream, the 
atmosphere of the Metropolis hung heavily upon 
him. Six months of that first residence in the 
great wilderness of houses seemed six years to 
him. But, oh! the glad sense of freedom when 
the time came at the end of the six months for 
relaxation, and business could be thrown up for 
a few weeks ! How keen was the enjoyment of 
the railway journey for a hundred and sixty miles ! 
how delightful to drink in the lovely landscapes 
which passed in rapid alternation before his eye ! 
Such an experience is by no means a solitary 
one. It has been said that there are hundreds of 
thousands of town dwellers who every day are 
wearily pining for the country, or something which 
