The Houma courier. (Houma, La.) 1878-1939, 1903-01-17
ENGLAND's HIGH TABLELAND.
Picturesque Minchinhampton Com-
mons, Its Historic and Lit
eFHFy A-ss0cintIOnH, Etc.

Through the vale. the bells Of q
dominican monsters e ringing. At
intervals by night q by day they
break.
The silence that ls lis airy sky;
The sleep that Is amor oneIy hills.
Monks come and go. tintinnabul-
alton resounds throk the vale and.
rises high up TO a 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 might be Iaid ir
certain cantons Of Switzerland, or
along n 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 a typical English one.
IT is not the valley, however, with its
idyllic charm, that interests so much
as the tableland. This strangely un-
expected tract of fiat country-an
oasis of rest in a land Of hill and dale
lis in the heart of the Cotswolds, far
from the life and hustle associated
with the haunts-o Of men. England's
highest ta%bleland, 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.
Minchinhampton common is no or
binary one. 1t is not a mere waste
land, an unbroken stretch of unpictur-
es1ue g-reenness or a broken wilderness
of furze and heath. It stands almost
700 feet above sea level; it covers fully
500 acres and there is abundantspace
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 lump which remains a land
mark of interest in days when the
strife of sect is not a thing of the past.
The common also afforded royal hunt
ing quarters for one of the Henrgs
and the building reputed to have
housed a king now serves as a golf
house, and this not at all i~nappropri-
ately, as the royal and ancient game
is, TO many, facile prineeps among the
attractions Of the common. It is, of
course, claimed for these Cotswold
links that they are the finest Gnland)
in England. They have a prominence
at least in one respect-there are six
quarriess some of them ugly, yawning
chasms, to be negotiated in the round
of is holes, and the course generally
is the mettle Of 80 out of every 100
golfers, and the player who holes out
in so, even with the aid of a Haskell or
a 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. Fringfng the broad acres Of
the plateau, and depending into the
valleys, there are dotted here and
there, and almost everywhere, tiny
TiDages-Amberley, Box Burleigh, and
Brimscombe are some of them-mere
higgiy-piggedly little clusters Of rose
decked iyy-smothered cottages, and
quantity gabled villas, with now and
again a spire Lifting itself above the
rich foliage of the beeches and elms
that grow with rare luxurianee in this
fertile shire Of Glouehester. The val
leys which run along two sides of the
lakeland offer scenes as dainty as they