The record-union., 1893-04-22

the Dryasdusts and the iconoclasts of
rural England. 1t is with thrill of de-
light that you wander through Saltwood
peeplng out between leafy hills upon the
glorious sea; Lyminge, messy and still
Deside the most ancient church OF south
ern Kent, SO ancient that in its walls are
actually seen every specimen of ecclesi-
asuc architecture from Saxon TO Perpen-
ulcular, so ancient still that ST. Edilber-
ga, one OF its patron saints and daughter
oil the Saxon King Ethelbert, who reigned
more than l,0UU years ago, lies buried
within; Firth, with its unique old houses,
us winding lanes of green, banks of
chalk, shadowy combes and tender up
lands; Gotham, leatiest, Snuggest and
prettiest OF all Keutish villages, with its
IordIy park, its straightforward church
and brasses of coo years in memory of
the noble Cobhams, and its Leather
Bottle" inn made famous i'll the immor-
tai pages OF Pickwick; beautiful old
Shorne, girdled with massive elms and
richest orchard bloom, and an hundred
more set along the lane-girt downs, clus-
terlng in the woody Weld, or nesting
among the hentish orchards and hop
gardens, with their rows of cottages with
whltewashed walls, dormer windows,
matched roofs and garden fronts each
maZa OF fuschiaS, pinks, carnations and
roses, and all of them from an hundred to
a thousand years old.
VINO is there TO fifty describe or paint
the droning old villages of that curious
English region variously known as the
IN ortolk Broads,' The Broad Dis
trict' and the Norfolk and Suffolk
tens," where, as at Dilham and Ruston,
many an old daub-and- waffle cottage
may still be seen? 1t is land OF lagoons,
OF grassy dykes, of ghostly windmills as
huge and as numerous as Ill Holland; of
rich and low lying farm steadings inter
SDarS10 nv ehrO1HG'' of SadnNr shallow
lakes; OF mighty herds OF cattle and
sheep; OF duck, widgeon, mallard and
cool; OF picturesque inns-ot-call half hid
den among copses of willows; of ruined
castles, abbeys and priors whose ancient
moats are now serving as market-gar-
deners' canals; of gray old hamlets set
about with clumps Of pollard oaks, and
OF peasantry as simple, brave and true
as IN good old Sir John Eastolfs days
not Shakespeare's unctious knave OF the
Merry Wives" but of the real Fastolf
who vigorously fought the Battle of Her.
rings and soundly drubbed the French.
Inc eYentlde pictures from some of
these old waterside hamlet porches are
worthy the brush of a Turner or Millet.
AS the sun goes down in forests Of wav-
ing reeds, it flames the matches of ham
lets on opposite shore, weirdly lights the
arms of The spectral windmills, bringing
to looming nearness the grim Norman
lvled top of some medieval ruin as with
gold. AS 1t sinks from sight the waters
OF the Breads are for moment purple,
then pitchy black, when instantly the
stars are shining in the depths above and
from the waters beneath with a SHIN
merlng luster enYeloping ALI Then the
songs and chirps of myriad insects; the
whirr and splash of late-homing water
fowl, and the witching, whispered sough-
Ing OF the breeze in the rushes and the
reeds.
Up in Cumberland and Westmoreland
what loving wraiths of memory are con-
jured when basking in the glowing
beauty of slumberous, verdure-clad,
blossom powered Keswick, Grasmere.
Rydal, Ambleside and Bownessl Here
in old Keswick town dwelu and sang, and
lies buried in Crossthwaite Churchyard,
near the murmurings of the Greta ne so
loved, that highsouled poet of pensive
remembrance and meditative calm, Rob-
ert Southey. Here, too, the unhappy
COlerldge passed the most fruitful, though
still the most miserable, years of his bale
full slavery to deadly drug; and with his
girl-wife, Harriet, Shelley here knew the
only happy hours of his unfortunate lite
In ancient Grasmere-Grasmere of an
cient 'rushbearing' fame; Grasmere
with, perhaps. the eldest, and certainly
the quaiutest church in England; Gras-
walloped the Prince of Wales for thar
rying" her sheep-Thomas Dc Quincy
lived in his dream-lite madness; and in
st. Oswald's Churchyard sleep Hartley
Colerldge and William Wordsworth, be-
side the beauteous Rothay, which, leap
ing from sequeStering meadows, gives
back along the old church wall the death
less songs they sung.
That one whose memory gives to the
organ tones of the two cascades of Rydal
their Wondrous heart-thrilling power
who is first and last when your eyes of
fancy penetrate the past, is Wordsworth,
who lived on Rydal Mount, above the
hamlet, for forty sunlit years. Sturdy,
iconoclastic, yet true and practically
Christian, if still hereto, Harriet Mar
tineau stands bright and clear in the
picture among the blossoms of songful
Ambleside. Christopher North, with his
huge frame and benign face, as il The
very spirit of the lovely region shone
from his kindly eyes, make these village
ways SUMMER for his strong, steady tread
With him, though later, you will see an
other one, hrm, calm, tender, noble-one
who, through his labor at Rugby, sweet
forever from the British educational sys-
tenn the rule of brutality and dread, lofty
souled, noble DIR. Arnold, while old Bow
ness, budding between the highway and
the teli-side, is sweeter still because you
see through its tiny cottage Danes the
wrath of good Felicia Hemans with a
tinge of sadness in her paIlid, patient
| face
Pleasant, indeed, is a weeks idle lott
ering among the villages of Surrey.
Some OF the most picturesque timbered
cottages of England can be found among
these ancient hamlets. Sleepy old Cod
aiming was once nest of fullers' homes,
and numbers of these habitations are still
| in good preservation. At Shere the for
mer home of the Earls of Ormond and the
noble house of Audley, and roundabout
are wondrously interesting lanes of cot
! tages. Besides, there are Wonersb. with
its gables and chimneys and charmingly
picturesque old millhouse; Haslemere
with its high and graceful chimneys;
| Chidding ford, where glass was first made
in England with its fine fourteenth GEN.
fury cottagesiand famous old Crown Inn:
Whitley, with itslchurch tower surmounted
| by q tower as quaint as that of Stoke
Poges, ana its cottages which are in every
artists sketch-book; Afford, most primi-
tive of Surrey villages, with its curious
| iron work and moats, and with scores
more, winsome old Cranleigh, where. at
| Baynards, Jane Roper. wife of the young
er Sir Edward Bray, so long kept the
head of her father, Inflated Sir Thomas
More, which was finally deposited in st.
Dustans', Canterbury.
You will never heed the passing hours
if, atioat upon the Avon, you set out in
quest OF English villages within the west
ern shires. The thatches of the hamlets
lean everywhere along the Avon almost
to the rivers brink. You will have no
need of an inn. With your woman com
panion you will be welcomed everv-
where at night among the village peasant
try. By and by you come to the wales
among the Cotswolds. Then will you see
hamlets and villages dotting the valleys.
embedded in gardens, perched upon the
nights, IN settings of lush orchards, way
| inc fields within limos ~ -