Excerpt from Sketches of English Life and Character

These are bad times for farmers. I am sorry for it. Independently of all questions of policy, as a mere matter of taste and of Old association, it was a fine thing to witness the hearty hospitality, and to think of the social happiness of a great farm house. No situation in life seemed so richly privileged, none had so much power for good and so little for evil, it seemed a place where pride could not live, and poverty could not enter. These thoughts pressed on my mind the other day, in passing the green sheltered lane, overhung with trees like an avenue, that leads to the great farm at M., where, ten or twelve years ago, I used to spend so many pleasant days. I could not help advancing a few paces up the lane, and then turn ing to lean over the gate, seemingly gazing on the rich undulating valley, crowned with woody hills, which, as I stood under that dark and shady arch.

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