Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1882-10-06
ENGLISH NATURE.
Rural and Pastoral Scenes of
Unequaled Beauty-DOVer
cliffs.
John Burroughs.

For rural and pastoral beauty
Of fields, parks, downs, hofms-
beauty Of grass, trees, groves, etc., 20
to England. You shall there see at
its full that of which you catch only
glimpses ia this Countrywide broad,
beaming, hospitable beauty of a per
fectly cultivated landscape. Indeed,
to see England is to take ones fill Of
the orderly, the permanent, the we'll
kept in the works of man, and of the
continent, the beneficent, the uniform,
In the works of nature. 1t is to see
the most perfect bit of garden lawn
expanded till it covers an empire; it is
to see the history Of two thousand
years written in grass and verdure,and
in the lines Of the landscape; a cont
nent concentrated into a State, the
deserts and waste places left out, every
rood OF it swarming with life; the pith
and marrow OF wide tracts compacted
into narrow fields and recruited and
forwarded by the most vigilant hus-
bandry. Those fields look stall fed,
those cattle beam contentment;
those rivers have never left
their banks; those mountains are
the paradise Of shepherds; those open
forest glades, half sylvan, halt pastoral
clean, stately, full of long vistas aud
cathedral like aisles-where else can
one find beauty like that2 The wild
and the savage flee away. The rocks
pull the green turf over them like Gov
erlidsi the hills are plump with vege.
table mould, and when they bend this
way or that, their ,ides are wrinkled
and dimpled like the forms of fatted
sheep. And lated they are; not
merely by the care of man, but by the
elements themselves; the sky rains
fertility upon them; there is no wear
and tear, as with u alternately
flooded, parehed and frozen hill tops;
the soil accumulates, Che mould deep
ems; the matted turf binds it and
yearly adds to it.
All this is not simply because mar
is or has been SC potent in the land
scape (this is but half the truth), but
because the very mood and humor of
Nature herself is domestic and human.
She seems to have grown up with man
and taken On his looks and ways. Her
spirit is that Of the full, placid stream
that you may lead through your garden
or conduct by your doorstep without
other danger than a wet sill or a soaked
howerpOt, at rare intervals. 1t is the
opulept nature OF the Southern seas,
brought by the Cult stream, and re-
produced and perpetuated here under
these cool Northern skies, the fangs
and the poison taken out; full, but no
longer feverish; lusty, but no longer
lewd.
But the charm Of the wild, the fas-
cination of the savage, the sublime
did not wonder, after being in England
a few months hat so many of her
sons hungered and thirsted after these
things and pursue them with such
zest to the uttermost parts Of the
earth. What a godsend Niagara
would be to Notwithstanding they
could saddle and bride; or a section
OF that awful chasm below the falls
or a bit Of the Colorado valley. Dove
Cliffs, which their poets have magni.
fed, are pleasing but not grand; they
are a broad meadow propped up by {
piece Of chalk $50 feet high. The
pillow and the scythe come to the brink
Of them, and there is no terror in theil
frown. A load of hay the same hight
and breadth would be as impressive
Amid these scenes one comes in tim,
to feel as | imagine a we'll fed dog feel
that has not had q bone to gnaw in
long while; like a squirrel whose teetl
are spelling for aunut; like q hawl
ahunger for the quarry The sparse
the shy, the furtive, are good too. On
wants the elements of surprise-beau
ty that darts upon one like a will
spirit from unexpected places; tn
perilous charm that turks on the brin'
Of the abyss. Amid the daily, gentle
! tiresome rains, and the weather kin
o thundery, as my Surry farmer pu
IL, but never actually coming to
head" | could have put up cheerful
I with one or two Of our sky splitter
when the workable crack Of door
seems to have come, One does nj
see the stars in England except ne
and thee dimly, and through a vail
P yapor. Never is that awful abyss