LETTER XVII.
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.
[Illustration: Fig. 18. _Nidulària campanulàta._]
First, if you will look for the article Mole in Bell's _British
Quadrupeds_, you will find an engraving of the curious little hands,
or rather paws, by which the mole makes its passages through the
earth, with a plan of its castle under ground; and you will read a
description of the little animal itself, and of its fur which is set
horizontally from its skin, so as not to offer any obstruction in the
narrow passages through which it moves, sometimes forward and sometimes
backward. You will also read an account of the ingenious experiment of
M. Henri Le Court, who, to discover how fast a mole could go, fixed
straws in the track of the mole's burrow; and then, blowing a horn at
the entrance, counted with what rapidity the different straws were
thrown down, and calculated that a mole can run as fast as a horse can
trot. The whole account is extremely curious; and I am quite sure, when
you have read it, you will feel an interest in moles that you have
never had before; and that you will look with quite different feelings
at every mole-hill that you may see.
The next thing you saw was a bird hanging a field-mouse upon the fork
of a branch, and near it you saw several insects impaled upon twigs,
too high for it to have been the work of a mischievous boy. The bird
you saw was the Greater Shrike, or butcher bird, whose habit it is to
hang up the insects or small animals it kills as a butcher does the
meat in his stall, and afterwards to return to feed upon them. You
will find accounts of this curious bird in Yarrell's _British Birds_;
Montagu's _Ornithological Dictionary_; and the _Penny Cyclopædia_,
under the article Shrike.
You will next find entered in your journal the creature called a black
snail, but which is in fact a slug, as it has no visible shell. On
looking for the word Slug in the _Penny Cyclopædia_ you will find
yourself referred to Limax, and under that head you will find a figure
very nearly resembling the creature you are seeking for, though it
differs in colour; as it is called Arìon rùfa, or the red slug, while
the creature you saw was the black slug, called Arìon àter; and if you
have the courage to examine the living animal you will find it very
curiously formed. Its back is covered with a black ribbed skin, and on
the upper part it bears a shield, which consists of a piece of bone,
the only one in the slug's body, covered with skin; the shield being
designed to protect the air-hole through which the creature breathes.
What we are accustomed to call its horns are, in fact, tentacula or
feelers, which the creature has the power of drawing into its body or
pushing out at pleasure, and which are gifted with an exquisitely fine
sense of touch. The long shining line with which the creature marked
its path is the slime which proceeds from its body, and with which it
is enabled to glide smoothly over sand or gravel that would otherwise
injure it. I have said more on this subject than I should otherwise
have done, because I wish to point out to you that even a creature so
humble and so despicable as a slug, is as curiously and wonderfully
made, and displays the power and wisdom of its Creator, as decidedly,
as the noblest and most beautiful animal. The study of natural history
is, indeed, I think, more fitted than any other to open our minds to
a proper knowledge of the wisdom and goodness of God; and the more we
study it the more firmly we shall be convinced that nothing has been
made in vain, and that everything has been most admirably suited to the
station which it is destined to fill.
The curious fungus you will find, by comparing it with the
_Encyclopædia of Plants_, is Nidulària campanulàta, which the Scotch
call "Siller Cups." There is a popular superstition in Scotland
respecting these pretty little cups, which says that if you find them
alone you will have as much money as they contain little balls. These
balls are, however, cases containing the sporules, or seeds, of the
fungus.
I now come to the flower which I have supposed to have attracted your
attention, and you will find, upon a minute examination, that it has
a corolla divided into two distinct parts, the upper one standing up
like a hood or helmet, and the lower one hanging down like a pouting
under lip. It is this last which gives you a clue to find out what the
plant is, as you perceive immediately that it belongs to the Labiàtæ,
or lipped plants. You may then turn to any work you may possess on
the British wild flowers, when, if the text is arranged according
to the natural system, you will find your plant under the head of
Labiàtæ, and, if the work has coloured plates, you will recognise it
without any further trouble; but, if the work has no plates, you must
endeavour to identify it by the description, and finding your plant
has a square solid stem, soft, hairy, heart-shaped leaves, which taper
gradually to a point, and that the lower lip of the flower, which is
much larger than the helmet, is spotted, you discover that the plant
agrees in description with the common woundwort (_Stàchys sylvática_.)
If you want to find it in Sowerby's _English Botany_, you had better
take the second edition of that work, where you will find the plant in
question in the Linnæan class and order Didynàmia Gymnospérmia, from
two of the stamens being longer than the others, and the seeds being
what is called naked, that is, not enclosed in any visible pod or other
seed-vessel. This will appear difficult to you at first; but, as I
think you have told me that your husband understands botany, it will be
an amusement to him to explain to you at his convenience the principles
both of the Linnæan and the natural systems, and to leave you to make a
practical application of them in your morning walks.
Nothing can be more delightful than to study a science in this manner.
It is pleasing to be schooled by the lips of those we love, and the
wish to prove yourself deserving of the pains your master takes with
you, will make you exert yourself to conquer any little difficulty you
may meet with; while, on the other hand, your husband will be proud
of the proficiency of his pupil, and a new occupation will be given
to you, which will prevent your conversations becoming so monotonous
as those of two persons who live together, and who see few strangers,
would otherwise inevitably become. One of the great secrets for
enabling a woman to render her husband happy, and, of course, to be
happy herself, is partaking with him as much as possible in both his
amusements and his studies. A woman should have as many subjects of
interest as possible in common with her husband; and, in fact, she
should have no objects of interest in the cares for which he cannot
participate. It is true that in her domestic occupations she must
be employed differently from him, as a man cannot interfere in the
details of household arrangements; but a good wife will always have her
husband's comfort in view, even when she is attending to her store-room
or her kitchen; and she will be proud to show him the result of her
labours in their due season. Men also have duties to attend to in
which a woman cannot participate, such as those of a justice of the
peace; and some manly sports, such as shooting and hunting. But these
will often supply subjects for conversation, and afford that variety
which gives life its greatest charm. It is, indeed, better that married
people should have separate occupations during a part of the day; but
they should never have separate interests, and they should always study
to have as many subjects in common as possible.
But I am forgetting that you have still two objects of natural history
to be explained, which excited your attention during your walk. The
first is the piece of stone that was picked up, and which, from the
numerous particles it contains, was probably a piece of Granite,
that is to say, if shining particles were mixed with others of a
different nature; and it will be an amusement to you if you have
any mineralogical specimens, to endeavour to find out what it is by
comparing it with them; or, if you have not, to take it with you the
first time you go to a town where there is a museum. The curious
appearance you noticed in the clouds you will find, by consulting a
book on meteorology, was of the kind called Cirrus, or, popularly,
mare's tail, and that it is said to indicate the approach of windy
weather.
It would be useless to multiply instances of the mode in which an
interest may be created in country walks; but what I have said will be
sufficient to show that, though we may complain of the monotony of a
country life, there are a thousand sources of interest in it within our
reach, if we will only give ourselves the trouble to observe them.