SHOES AND APPARATUS FOR WALKING.—RURAL SEATS.—NATURAL OBJECTS NOTED IN A COUNTRY WALK: THE MOLE; THE SHRIKE; THE BLACK SNAIL; THE SILLER CUPS; THE WOUNDWORT.—PLEASURES OF STUDYING BOTANY.—GRANITE.—APPEARANCE OF THE CLOUDS.
It gives me the greatest pleasure, my dear Annie, to find that you are entering so warmly into country pursuits, and I have read over repeatedly the passage in which you thank me for having taught you to love the country, and in which you say that when you look at your beautiful garden (now so brilliant with bright scarlet verbenas and golden-yellow calceolarias, that you can scarcely gaze at it in the sunshine), and that when you sit in your light cheerful room, or wander near the house, and see in one direction the village church peeping through the trees, and in another a river winding like a silver riband through the valley, you can scarcely believe it is the same place as that which struck you as the very palace of gloominess only a few months ago. "The very rooms themselves seem changed," you add, "and even the situation of the house; for, instead of being buried in a deep valley, and surrounded by a thick forest which rose on every side as if to entomb it, and which appeared to forbid the possibility of walking out, it is now every thing I could desire, and I would not alter it even if I had Aladdin's lamp."
I am not, however, quite so well pleased to find that it is several weeks since you have been beyond the precincts of what you call your own domain; that is, the garden, poultry-yard, &c., immediately adjoining the house. It is well to love home, and to take a deep interest in all relating to it; but it is not well to live entirely in so confined a sphere. The mind indeed becomes contracted by dwelling only on a limited number of objects, and those all in what may be called an artificial state; while, on the contrary, it is expanded, and noble feelings are elicited, by communion with nature. "I have been talking to the vines," said the great Goethe after paying a visit to the country, "and you cannot think what beautiful things they have said to me." Seek nature then, my dear Annie; leave your trim flower-garden, and your tame poultry, and wander in the woods, admiring the poetry of forest scenery, and watching the habits of the various creatures which people what seems to the careless observer only one vast solitude.
You must not suppose, however, that I want you to set forth like a female knight-errant in quest of adventures; but I do think that attended by your maid, who I was glad to hear is a highly respectable and well-educated young woman, you may wander through the woods of your own park without incurring any very serious dangers.
In the first place, however, I would advise you to provide yourself with a pair of strong and yet comfortable boots. I prefer German boots made to tie round the ankles, so that they can be easily taken off when you come home with them dirty; as it is not very agreeable, when you are tired, to wait till your boots are unlaced before you can enjoy the comfort of clean dry shoes after a fatiguing walk. If you can walk in clogs comfortably they will keep you very dry, as two pairs of even thin soles admit less damp to the feet than one pair of thick ones. I do not, however, think you will find clogs advisable, unless you walk to church, or to make calls, as they fatigue the feet exceedingly by their irregular pressure; and, while Indian rubber clogs make the feet cold by preventing the evaporation of the insensible perspiration, the jointed clogs may very probably break at a considerable distance from the house, and reduce you to the disagreeable necessity of walking home in thin shoes through the mud. When you lived in town I remember you were not capable of bearing much fatigue, and though I have no doubt but the country air has greatly invigorated you, yet I think you will find it advisable to let your maid carry a camp stool with you in your excursions, as nothing can be more injurious to a person of delicate constitution than over-fatigue.
In the course of your walks, you will doubtless find many situations where a rustic seat might be introduced advantageously. I do not mean one of those distorted chairs or garden-seats made of crooked pieces of wood nailed together in the strangest possible shapes and then painted and varnished, but a real rustic seat formed by the stump of an old tree or the trunk of a fallen one, only made sufficiently smooth to prevent it from tearing your clothes; or, at most, only a few plain pieces of wood nailed together by some village workman, and placed under the spreading branches of a tree, so as to be not at all obtrusive.
When you first begin to walk out you will probably find the beauty of the scenery quite sufficient to interest you; but after a time, as your walks must all necessarily partake of the same character, you will want a little variety, and you must make sources of interest to yourself by observing the various natural objects you meet with, and when you come home endeavouring to make yourself acquainted with some particulars respecting them. To illustrate what I mean by an example, I will just enumerate the objects you may very probably meet with in a morning's walk, and show you how much entertainment you may derive from them.
I will suppose first, that you see a mole-hill with a mole caught and hanging in a trap near it. Struck with the curious form of the mole, its long snout, its hands, and its velvet fur, and your curiosity being excited to know something of its habits, you write the word "mole" in your notebook. A little farther on, you see a rather small bird, with a dead mouse in its beak almost as large as itself, dash the mouse violently against the branch of a tree, and leave it there sticking in the fork of the branch. This appears so strange that you approach the branch to examine it, and find on another branch an insect completely impaled on a twig, which apparently some boy has forced through its body. Shuddering at the cruelty of human nature you walk on; but shortly afterwards perceiving a curious excrescence on the trunk of a tree, which is almost above your reach, you stand to look at it, and see to your astonishment some other insects impaled in the same manner as the first, at a height no boy could reach; and, quite puzzled, you enter a note in your journal. A little farther on, you meet with a black snail that crawls across your path, and leaves a long line of shining slime behind; and you then find some curious little fungi (fig. 18.) which look like fairy birds' nests full of eggs. Your attention is next attracted by a plant with a square stem, and soft hairy leaves, heart-shaped at the base, and tapering to the point; and very pretty spotted pink flowers, something like those of the snapdragon, but much smaller. You afterwards pick up a bit of stone that appears composed of various particles; and, lastly, as you go home you observe the singular appearance of the clouds, which look like long plumes of feathers streaming in the wind. You make notes of all that you have seen, and when you get home amuse yourself by searching in books for an explanation of those subjects which have excited your curiosity.
Fig. 18. Nidulària campanulàta.