The Portland daily press., 1883-02-07
English Nature.

[From Hawthorne's Doctor Grimshawe's Secret.rl
The path along which the traveller was
passing deserved at least world of descrip
tion; it was wel-trodden foot-path, run
ming just here along the edge of field of
grass and bordered on one side by hedge
which contained materials within itself for
varied and minute researches in natural his
tory; so richly luxuriant was it with its di-
verse vegetable life, such a green intricacy
did it form, so impenetrable and so beauti-
full, and such a paradise it was for the birds
that built their nests there in labyrinth of
little boughs and twigs, unseen and mac
cessible, while close beside the human race
to which they attach themselves as safe as
when they sang to Eve. Homely flowers,
likewise grew in it and many creeping and
twining plants, that were an original part of
the hedge, had come of their ov n accord
and dwelt here, beautifying and enriching
the verdant fence by way of repayment for
the shelter and support which it afforded
them. At intervals, trees of vast trunk end
mighty spread of foliage, whether ems or
oaks, grew in the line of the hedge, and the
bark of those gigantic age-long patriarchs
was not gray and naked, like the trees which
the traveller had been accustomed to see,
but verdant with moss, or in many cases
richly enwreathed with network of creep
ing plants and oftenest the ivy Of old growth,
clambering upward and making its own
twisted 'em almost of one substance with
the supporting tree. On one venerable oak
there was plant of mystic leaf, which the
traveller knew by instinct, and plucked a
bough of it with certain reverence for the
sake of the Druids and Christmas kisses
and of the party in which it was rooted from
of old.
The path in which he walked, rustic as it
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pressed 1t down, was one of the anclenteSt
of ways; older than the oak that bore the
mistletoe, older than the villages between
which it passed, older perhaps than the
common road which the traveller had crossed
that morning; old as the times when people
first debarred themselves from wandering
freely and widely wherever vagrant impulse
led them. The footpath, therefore, still re-
tains some OF the characteristics of a wood
land walk, taken at random by lover of
nature not pressed for time nor restrained
by artificial barriers; it sweeps and fingers
along, aud finds pretty little dels and hooks
OF delightful scenery, and picturesque
glimpse OF halls or cottages, in the same
neighberhood where high-road would dis
Ittcb only d llFCSOIu6 DIdDk. IDey run INTO
one another for miles and miles together,
and traverse rigidly guarded parks aud do
mains, not as matter of favor, but as
right; so that the poorest man thus retains
kind of property and privilege in the old
est Inheritance of the richest. The high
road sees only the outside; the foot-path
leads down into the heart of the country.
A pleasant feature of the footpath was the
stile, between two fields; no frail and tempo
rary structure, but betokenipg the perma-
nence Of this rustic way; the ancient solidity
OF the stone steps, worn into cavities by the
hobnaled shoes that have passed upon them
here not only the climbing foot had passed
for ages, but here had sat the maiden with
her milk pail, the rustic on his way afied or
hlmeward; here had been lover meetings,
cheerful chance chats, song as natural as
bird note, a thousand pretty scenes of rustic
manners.
IL was curious to see the traveller pause to
contemplate so simple a thing as this old
stile OF few stone steps; antique as an old
castle, simple and rustic as the gap in rail
fence; and while he sat on one of the steps
making himself pleasantly sensible of his
whereabouts, like one who should handle
dream and find it tangible and real he heard
sound that bewitched him with still anoth-
er dreamy delight. A bird rose out of the
grassy field, and, still soaring aloft, made
a cheery melody, that was like spire of au-
dible fame-rapturous music, as if the
soul and substance of the winged creature
had been distilled into this melody, as it
vanished skyward.
"Ihe larki the larkp' exclaimed the tray
eler, recognizing the note Though never
heard before) as if his childhood had known
it.
A moment asterward another bird was
heard in the shadow of neighboring wood
or some other inscruta5le hiding place, sing
ing softly in fnte-like note, as if blown
through an instrument of wood, Cuckoo!
cuckooD' only twice, and then stiffness.
How familiar these rustic soundsr' he
exclaimed, surely, was born herev'