The Blue-Grass Region of Kentucky, and Other Kentucky Articles

OLD STONE HOMESTEAD.

Copyright, 1892, by Harper & Brothers.
The articles herein reprinted from Harper's and The Century magazines represent work done at intervals during the period that the author was writing the tales already published under the title of Flute and Violin .
JAMES LANE ALLEN
AUTHOR OF THE KENTUCKY CARDINAL, THE CHOIR INVISIBLE, THE REIGN OF LAW, ETC.
BOOK NEWS PORTRAIT N VOL. 24. NO. 287, JULY.
One might well name it Saxon grass, so much is it at home in Saxon England, so like the loveliest landscapes of green Saxon England has it made other landscapes on which dwell a kindred race in America, and so akin is it to the type of nature that is peculiarly Saxon: being a hardy, kindly, beautiful, nourishing stock; loving rich lands and apt to find out where they lie; uprooting inferior aborigines, but stoutly defending its new domain against all invaders; paying taxes well, with profits to boot; thriving best in temperate latitudes and checkered sunshine; benevolent to flocks and herds; and allying itself closely to the history of any people whose content lies in simple plenty and habitual peace—the perfect squire-and-yeoman type of grasses.
BLUE-GRASS.
All winter the blue-grass continues green—it is always green , of course, never blue —and it even grows a little, except when the ground is frozen. Thus, year after year, drawing needful nourishment from the constantly disintegrating limestone below, flourishes here as nowhere else in the world this wonderful grass.
SHEEP IN WOODLAND PASTURE.
But if grass is the first element in the lovely Kentucky landscape, as it must be in every other one, by no means should it be thought sole or chief. In Dante, as Ruskin points out, whenever the country is to be beautiful, we come into open air and open meadows. Homer places the sirens in a meadow when they are to sing. Over the blue-grass, therefore, one walks into the open air and open meadows of the blue-grass land.