My life : a record of events and opinions - Wallace-online.org

;284 MY LIFEsimple rural beauty which has resulted, in our owncountry and in some other parts of Europe, from thevery gradual occupation of the land as it was requiredto supply food for the inhabitants, together with ourmild winters allowing of continuous cultivation, andthe use in building of local materials adapted to thepurposes required by handwork, instead of thosefashioned by machinery. This slow development ofagriculture and of settlement has produced almostevery feature which renders our country picturesqueor beautiful :the narrow winding lanes, following thecontours of the ground ; the ever-varying size of theenclosures, and their naturally curved boundariesthe ditch and bank and the surmounting hedgerow,with its rows of elm, ash or oak, giving variety andsylvan beauty to the surroundings of almost everyvillage or hamlet, most of which go back to Saxontimes ;the farms or cottages built of brick, or stone,or clay, or of rude but strong oak framework filledwith clay or lath and roughcast, and with thatched ortiled roofs, varying according to the natural conditions,and in all showing the slight curves and irregularitiesdue to the materials used and the hand of theworker ;—the whole, worn and coloured by age andsurrounded by nature's grandest adornment of selfsowntrees in hedgerow or pasture, combine togetherto produce that charming and indescribable effect weterm picturesque. And when we add to these thenumerous footpaths which enable us to escape thedust of high-roads and to enjoy the glory of wildflowers which the innumerable hedgerows and moistditches have preserved for us,inthe breezy downs, thegorse-clad commons and the heath-clad moors stillunenclosed, we are, in some favoured districts at least,stillable thoroughly to enjoy all the varied aspects of