The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1901-11-28
VIEWS FROM TRAIN AND coach.

of pictures. Yes, that was it. For
many years | was a student of art and
always lover of paintings. and never
missed an opportunity of visiting gal
leries or attending exhibitions of paint
ings. Thus it was that there was hardly
a feature of the English and Scotch
landscape that | had not seen depicted
on canvas by more Or less famous artists.
The little stone cottages with their
matched roofs; the stately country
mansions with their extensive outbuild-
ings; the placid streams flowing through
quiet meadows and under substantial
stone bridges; the iyy-clad ruins; the
trim little garden plats; the Scotch
moors, where gorse and heather bloom;
the parks with deer feeding under the
giant oaks-all this and more [ had
seen on my own side of the Atlantic
faithfully portrayed on canvas. But
this did not lessen in the least degree
the interest with which, on boat or train,
| viewed the landscape; recalling ia
miliar scenes and finding new ones. 1t
was some time before | saw matched
roof and they were not frequent. l
fancy they are going out. Then here
and there | saw outbuildings covered
with galvanized iron, in contrast with
the prevailing structures of solid stone
or brick. This is an innovation, surely.
There are no barns, as with us. Hay
and graiu are stacked near the house,
in the manner in which meadow hay is
stacked in this country. We called
these all hay stacks until one day lady
on the train informed US that the stacks
at which we were looking were wheat.
We were told later that wheat was low
and farmers were stacking it to hold for
higher prices. These stacks often in
size and number dwarfed the little stone
farm house adjoining. In a few places
they were cutting or getting in their
second-or was it the third?-crop of
hay: but generally the hay was stacked
and the grain harvested. The vegetable
crops i'll the vicinity OF the cities and
larger places were mainly potatoes,
cabbaoes and caulitloWer. turnips and
beets, the potatoes leading i'll point of
acreage. The root crops are grown
mainly for feeding sheep and cattle.
Caulifower sold in the markets at
penny two cents a head. Cows and
horses were frequently seen grazing III
the fields; but sheep predominated.
Even in the cities, if there was half an
acre of vacant land you would see sheep
on it. Another feature of the land
scape was the great profuslon OF mush-
rooms in the fields and along the line of
railway. Such enormous mushrooms.
Indeed, a near-sighted member of the
party who gazed steadily out of the car
windows used sometimes to ask, ''are
those sheep or mushrooms in that tield?"
There are no rocks or rubbish. no
II reelected corners, in the English and
Scotch landscapes; and very few fences.
The fields are divided by hedges, and
will see a large section thus marked off
in squares or oblong lots, meadows and
hills alike. The fallow lands are fair
and smooth, save in wet places, where
slight hollows are left for drainage.
Even the streams are kept within
bounds. They are ''canalized," as the
4l,ar To
formed like the sides of canal and the
stream is not allowed to wash out here
and deposit there, but is confined to the
regular course. There are no waste
corners: no wild, straggly shrubs; no
half decayed trees; no rock piles to plow
around. The whole country is like the
home of New England housewife after
the semi-annual housekeeping n. P.
Willis wrote more than so years ago,
and the words are true to-day: ENG
land is described always very justly
and always in the same words; it is all
one garden.
Then the roads, Shall we ever have
such roads in this country? How they
are constructed, or how kept in order,
| cannot tell. The country roads we
saw from the train, and | did not
happen to come in contact with road
commissioner and so had no opportuni-
ty to obtain what might have proved val
liable information. We did in one place
see man breaking stone by the road
side. 1t was in Melrose, and they were
hard pebbles from the bed of the river
Dee-almost as hard to crack as hick-
DRY nuts: and at another place men
were putting coarse yellow gravel on
the road But whatever the material
used the desired result is reached. The
roads are as hard and smooth as floor;
the heaviest wheels make no impress
sion upon them; and this is certainly an
ideal country for the touring cyclist
Every day some of the party would
wish for the wheels they had left at
home: while others were content with
four wheels, comfortably cushioned
seat, pair of sturdy horses and typ
ical British coachman on the box. There