THE COMMON COUNTRYSIDE [To the Editor of the SrEcrxron.1 SIR,—There
are plenty of people to praise the beauty spots of our country, especially those in the English Lakes, but of the ordinary country it may be said, as the poet Wordsworth said of his maid, that there are none to praise, though one may hope there are more than a few to love. And yet it has a rare beauty of its own for those that have eyes to see, and this is a fortunate circumstance. We cannot all go to the high places, or stand in the butts and watch the grouse come sweeping over the moor, but a man must be unfortunate indeed if he cannot get a view, if it be only for a day, of the ordinary countryside.
I was once, a good many years ago, talking to a well-known Academician, a landscape painter, and he said that he found more subjects for his art in the common country than in the much vaunted, and probably overrun, beauty spots.
An American visitor has been complaining lately of the height of our wayside hedges. This complaint is certainly justified. The hedges are beautiful in themselves, especially when, as now, they are bordered by the pretty pink willow- . herb or the almost yellow meadowsweet, but they are out of place when they obstruct the view of a wide stretch of country and the blueness of the distant hills.—I am, Sir, &c.,
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