St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1903-01-31
ENGLAND'S HIGH TABLELAND.
Picturesque Minchinham pton Com
mons, Its HiAt0ric and Lit
erary AAs0ciations, Etc.


dominican monastery are ringing. At
intervals by night and by day they
break.
The silence that is in the starry sky;
| The sleep that is among the lonely hills
| Monks come and CO. The tintinna bull
alton resounds through the vale and
rises high up to great green expanse
of tableland, where the most perfect
atmosphere may be. inhaled; air strong
and bracing, gracious and balmy, and
at times family dashed with brine
from the distant ocean. For pictur-
esqueness the scene mi ght be laid in
certain cantons of Switzerland, or
along one of the Rhine tributaries,
such as the Abr Thai; but, despite the
monastery bells and a nunnery close
by the dominican retreat, the valley
is typical English one.
1t is not the valley, however, with it's
| idyllic charm, that interests SO much
as the tableland. This strangely I'M
| expected tract of fat country-an
| oasis of rest in a land of hill and dale
is in the heart of the Cotswolds, far
from the life and hustle associated
| with the haunts of men. England's
highest tableland, Minchinhampton
! common, "a broad, green sweep, moth
| ing but sky and common, common and
sky" is, indeed, exceedingly inacces-
sible, and on this account it remains to-
day a practically undiscovered holiday
resort. III. f,.ssH
inn 1oY of1n G n r..
| binary one. It is not a mere waste
land, an unbroken stretch of unpictur-
esque greenness or broken wilderness
of furze and heath. 1t stands almost
| 700 feet above sea level; it covers fully
600 acres and there is abundant space
for the playing of golf, cricket, tennis,
hockey, and simple walking room for
the mere pedestrian.
The common has a long history.
There are many traces on its surface
of Roman, Danish, and British camps.
In more modern times it was the scene
of some lively religious ongoings when
the eloquent Whitfield lifted his voice
on his ''tump," which remains land
mark of interest in days when the
The common also afforded royal hunt
ing quarters for one of the Henrys
and the building reputed to have
housed king now serves as a golf
house, and this not at all inappropri-
ately, as the "royal and ancient game"
is, to many, facile princeps among the
attractions of the common. 1t is, of
course, claimed for these Cotswold
links that they are the finest (inland)
in England. They have preeminence
at least in one respect-there are six
quarries, some of them ugly, yawning
chasms, to be negotiated in the round
of 10 holes, and the course generally
is the mettle of SO out of every 100
golfers, and the player who holes out
in so, even with the aid of a Haskell or
Kempshall, is no mean wielder of the
clubs.
But this commonland has wider
claims to attention than those of golf.
Lying high up amid the peaks and spurs
of the Cotswolds, there is no disap-
pointment for the eye east or west or
north or south. Every prospect
pleases. bringing the broad acres of
the plateau, and depending into the
valleys, there are dotted here and
there, and almost everywhere, tiny
villages-Amberley, Box, Burleigh, and
Br1mscombe are some of them-mere
higgly- piggedly little clusters of rose
decked ivy-smothered cottages, and
quantity gabled villas, with now and
again a spire lifting itself above the
rich foliage Of the bceches and elms
that grow with rare luxuriance in this
fertile shire of Glouchester. The val
leys which run along two sides of the
tableland offer scenes as dainty as they
are enhancing. 1.-THE Golden Valley"
was the name given to one of them by
Queen Victoria. Perched high as any
German castle, Rodborough fort lover
looking Stroud) stems the northern
outlook from the common, and toward
the south the medieval township Of
Minchinhampton stands guard. Ten
miles way the cleaning of the Severn
waters may be seen on clear days, and
further still the black mountains Of
Hereford andthe Sugar Loaf of Aberga-
venny. "a &St
The common has also it's literary as
eo,iations, says writer in the London
Pail Mall Gazette. It is the Enderly
fiat that figures so breezily in "John
Halifax. Gentleman" Miss Mulock