The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1885-08-08 00:00:00

,Stottdribge eberinr.

84.TURDAT AUGUST Bth, 1885

TRE• ANNUAL AUTUMNAL AIRING,.

fio strong is the desire of members of Par-
liament to break away from the Palace of
Westminster and its purlieus at the beginning-
of August that cart-ropes will hardly suffice,
, it has. been sal, to tether them to town.
The conventional London season is over,- the
'Goodwood races have run their course, and
it is almost impossible, whatever importance
may attach to the measures Still under con-
sideration, to induce them to prolong their
stay. This desire is shared by members of
both Houses, although the Peers of the
realm, considering the leisurely way in which
they conduct their proceedings, cannot
pretend to feel 'fagged by hard work, or by
close attention daring weary months to the
claims of public business. The vision of
their spacious ancestral demesnes, in their
lawny pomp and arboreal beauty, waiting to
receive them with open arms, intensifies
their longing to leave far behind the noise,
glare, and. turmoil of the metropolis. Put
there are thousands upon thousands besides
our legislators who are seized just at the
same. time by it similar irrepressible impulse.
All -who have money to spare, or who are
, fortunate enough to be able to get away
from their ordinary avocations, deem it an
absolute necessity to go somewhere, within
or without the bounds of the British Islands,
for change of scene and air; and they would
feel aa miserable as exiles in a foreign land
if they were, doomed to remain tied to the
same spot all the year round. The working
classes, as a rule, have to content themselves
with occasional outings, and to them the
Bank Holiday, coming early in August, is a
sauch-prized boon, as the weather is gener-
ally then in a genial and enjoyable state,
after July has expended its battery of
thunder-storms and sudden downpours cf
rain,- and the golden due of the ripening
fields of grain, contrasted with the green of
meadows and woodlands, imparts a cheerful
aspect to the whole face of nature. It would
form a vast additior to the sum of human
happiness.- if only the humbler Classes of
dwellers in-otu• large towns could be trans-
fer:ed to the country for a week or two at
the most delightful season of the year. The
remark has been made that all children
should be brought up in the country. This
would certainly be desirable, if it were pos-
- ible (which, • unfortunately, it is not), in
order that their minds might become imbued
with imperishable rural associations; but it
is something to their advantage when those
of them who are born and brought up in
towns can enjoy opportunities of sitting in
the lap of nature though for no longer period
,thana single day at a time. Of the migra-
tory multitudes who flock away to all parts
of the compass, the most happily circum-
stanced are the voyageur tourists who, snugly
quartered on board white-winged and well-
appointed yachts, glide over the German
Ocean to Norwegian fiords, or pass through
the Straits of Gibraltar to the "shores of
romance" that border the Mediterranean,
across whose waters were borne of yore the
long-forgotten sea-songs of Phoenician and
Carthagenian, Greek and Roman martial
mariners, sung to the merry music of the
oars. But the great majority of those who
have some weeks at their disposal for the
purposes of recreation and enjoyment can
hardly be said to utilize them in the ways
best calculated to produce beneficial results,
or to give them complete respite from the
• harrassments of business life in town. Too
many of them throng the beaten tracks of
tourists in the lake districts of England,
Scotland, and Ireland, or join in the rush to
the Rhine, the Vale of Chamouni, and the
fashionable resorts of the Riviera. The ex-
hilaration of spirits, which should be the
natural outcome of holiday time, is not at all
likely to be brought about by the kind of
experiences that are the common lot of Con-
tinental tourists such. as the bndying of
railway officials, crowded steamboats, over-
flowing hotels, the chatter and clatter of
table d'hote dinners, and the extortionate
vharges of landlords, with the attendant
worry Of computing the value of unfamiliar
foreign coins. The "rapture in the lonely
shore" of which Byron sang, is not to be
experienced at Watering-places like Rams-
gate and Margate, Boulogne and Dieppe, and
other much-frequented towns on the English
and French coasts, where the sands are as
noisy and lively as the shouting and bustling
streets of Cairo. It may do well enough
for migrants who have youth and high
spirits on their aide, mad who do not suffer
from over-pressure of any kind, to dombine
the enterprise of scenery-hunting, day alter
day in hot weather, with the excitement of
mixing in the chance medly of voluble
foreigners at crowded hotels; bat middle-
._ aged people, who feel the effects of the
-severe- strain of active City life,:should seek
to enjoy the sort of recreation that suits them
best in quiet nooks of the land, where the
healthgiving and soothing influences of
nature, clothed in autumnal beauty, will act
_Non'tlietn like a charm. While certain
ifilahrated parts of the Highlands are over.
run each season by hosts of invaders, many
OT theta bailing from France and Germany,
and still more from America, there are plenty-
of delightful spots, well-known to artists„
embosomed among the mountains, where the
undistracted days can be pleasantly passed as
in a waking dream. A few weeks' residence,
comfortably housed, by the side of Loch
Luhniag, which lies between the romantic
Pass of Leny and ti,e Braes of Balquidder, is
not only a restorative at the time on account
of the purity of thu air, and the picturesque
speet of the rugged slopes, bright with
purple heather blooms, but it remains
treasured up in the memory, and recalls de-
parted joys in after years and among far
other. scenes. To many hardworked citizens
it would give a new lease of vigorous life if
they were to spend totir autumnal holidays
in some, sequestered old-fashioned farm-
house, and become healthily, bronzed by.
walking and riding in the rural lanes, or
helping the harvestirs in the leisurely style
of an amateur to cover the stubbly fields
with their encampments of tent-like uplifted
scythe or reaping-machine sheaves, when the
has cut down the golden grain.

____---- --
EDUCATION IN THE 19TH CENTURY.
The following is a copy of a letter which
has been found in the street and forwarded
to -us for publication.
-*** 4 * 9
aug -
Dear Mother hoping thy will kind you well
as it levet; us booth very well to present
Dear mother shod rot hefor now but I have
been over to see my Mother and I have brot
a board back with me and it is good won
Dear Mother rit back Sarah anti as gone out
and I Lep she will have a good place for she
a good gay! I no god blass hear and says he
will boy hear som think Dear Mother John
says I. coining. in thee week ore a month if
san and he In a club now and I lntm glad
to tell you that ha Was mde last satday and ,
he in in it now AO .I hop this:letter will find
you all well al horn as it lives John very
well at present bat I cont say I ham mysali
for I have been vary bad this last week so
must coneudlo with my best love from both
of us beat love to harry and is wife and all
the met of thim and you Motaar and godu
ibiglig you 8/1 good by all goou night *