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    ( 246 )

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    " XXXIV.—A WOMAN'S PEN.

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    40O The Chester and Hereford railway pas...

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    ( 246 )

    ( 246 )

    " Xxxiv.—A Woman's Pen.

    " XXXIV . —A WOMAN'S PEN . BY SIJLYERPE _^ r .

    40o The Chester And Hereford Railway Pas...

    _40 _O The Chester and Hereford railway passes through , a tract of

    country , that for its larger portion is one of extreme beauty . Between Shrewsbury and Hereford it crosses the great Silurian

    region , and there are ranges of hills , rocky escarpments , low-lying valleysnestling vernal in the sterile wilderness , and brooks and

    lesser rivers , in abundance . It is a classic region to the geologist . Here nature has wrought on the mightiest scale , here written her

    incontrovertible signs , and here man himself , increasing in knowledand so in humilitygathers a higher view of the sublimity of

    Creative ge Wisdom , and of , the worth , on his own part , of duty and patient endeavor in the course lie has to run .

    It is afternoon , and an early autumn day . A train which speeds swift to Hereford sets down some gentlemen at one of the _loveliest

    of the country stations . Green hills surround it ; more sterile ones give darker background ; brooks and pools , cottages and

    cottage gardens , orchards and sun-lit fields , lie peaceful in the hush of afternoon . The laborers are away , the village children yet in

    school , the women' busy in doors , the railway whistle has , as it seemsaroused no one but the solitary station master , who paces

    his desolate platform , or poverty up and -stricken down . place Yet , as it may is far be from plainl an y seen unknown . Here , or ,

    , as elsewhere , eternal advance has set her blessed feet . Here is material progress of many kinds , the . spiritual will surely follow .

    New-built cottages and villas nestle in the hollows of the hills , new farms contrast their ruddy brickwork with the intense viridity of

    hedge and field , a new bridge is being built over the exquisitely icturesque little river , and new roads wind their way about and up

    the p _hillsc All this newness and vitality is . the result of the railway , for the old cottages and farms , and bridge and roads , are all very

    old indeed , and tell what the old days were when the place was all but unknown , except on the county map , and to the incumbent ,

    the landlords , the farmers , and the untaught drudges who tilled the land .

    The eldest of the gentlemen is tall , stout , iron-framed , past middle age . His hair is tinged with grey , yet his face has lost

    none of its expression of great original force of will , and power of intellect . He has the marked physiognomy of those foremost

    Englishmen who build bridges , dig mines , construct canals and railwaysimprove steam engines , invent machinery . If it lacks

    , somewhat a spiritual expression , the force indicated is an equivalent . It is a Hue manly earnest English face . The & ve other gentlemen

    are clearly his sons . They range from the school lad of fourteen ,

• Citation
  • English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), June 1, 1858, page 246, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01061858/page/30/