Literary by-paths in old England . IN OLD ENGLAND Mollycoddles that we moderns are! Even if itwere — what then ? Life is vastly overrated inthese days ; too much is done for the survival ofthe unfittest. But is it ? Those heroes who laidthe proud Armada low were bred under roofs ofthatch. What walks there are in this old-world village!There are footpaths everywhere, and none of. The Lythe them lead whither Richard Jeffries footpathsled him — back to a railway station, and so toLondon. The great iron road is so far away thatnot even the engines shriek carries to this quietdell. There is a meand
Literary by-paths in old England . IN OLD ENGLAND Mollycoddles that we moderns are! Even if itwere — what then ? Life is vastly overrated inthese days ; too much is done for the survival ofthe unfittest. But is it ? Those heroes who laidthe proud Armada low were bred under roofs ofthatch. What walks there are in this old-world village!There are footpaths everywhere, and none of. The Lythe them lead whither Richard Jeffries footpathsled him — back to a railway station, and so toLondon. The great iron road is so far away thatnot even the engines shriek carries to this quietdell. There is a meandering valley called TheLythe, — the village has a vocabulary of itsown, — and there is a choice of two paths towards 131 LITERARY BY-PATHS the old priory, whither it leads. The one on theleft of the valley dips down over a swelling hill,passes through such a wicket-gate as Constablewould have loved, winds leisurely on under theshadow of the stately beeches, crosses a meadowor two in luscious grass, strikes into a wildcopse, where the bracken and bramble and dog-rose tangle themselves across the footway, andemerges in a field where a prostrate stone coffinis nearly all that remains of the priory whichreared its head here five hundred years ago. Yetnot quite all. In the corner of the farmhousegarden is a small arbour, bright still with thetiles which sandalled monkis
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Keywords: ., bookauthorshelleyh, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, bookyear1906
