{"product_id":"escape-and-other-essays-gb-4652","title":"Escape, and Other Essays","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eEscape, and Other Essays\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e1\nI walked to-day down by the river side. The Cam is a stream much\r\nslighted by the lover of wild and romantic scenery; and its chief\r\nmerit, in the eyes of our boys, is that it approaches more nearly\r\nto a canal in its straightness and the deliberation of its slow\r\nlapse than many more famous floodsand is therefore more adapted\r\nfor the maneuvres of eight-oared boats! But it is a beautiful\r\nplace, I am sure; and my ghost will certainly walk there, \"if our\r\nloves remain,\" as Browning says, both for the sake of old memories\r\nand for the love of its own sweet peaceableness. I passed out of\r\nthe town, out of the straggling suburbs, away from tall, puffing\r\nchimneys, and under the clanking railway bridge; and then at once\r\nthe scene opens, wide pasture-lands on either side, and rows of old\r\nwillows, the gnarled trunks holding up their clustered rods. There\r\non the other side of the stream rises the charming village of Fen\r\nDitton, perched on a low ridge near the water, with church and\r\nvicarage and irregular street, and the little red-gabled Hall\r\nlooking over its barns and stacks. More and more willows, and then,\r\nlying back, an old grange, called Poplar Hall, among high-standing\r\ntrees; and then a little weir, where the falling water makes a\r\npleasant sound, and a black-timbered lock, with another old house\r\nnear by, a secluded retreat for the bishops of Ely in medieval\r\ntimes. The bishop came thither by boat, no doubt, and abode there\r\nfor a few quiet weeks, when the sun lay hot over the plain; and a\r\nlittle farther down is a tiny village called Horningsea, with a\r\nbattlemented church among orchards and thatched houses, with its\r\nown disused wharfa place which gives me the sense of a bygone age\r\nas much as any hamlet I know. Then presently the interminable fen\r\nstretches for miles and miles in every direction; you can see, from\r\nthe high green flood-banks of the river, the endless lines of\r\nwatercourses and far-off clumps of trees leagues away, and perhaps\r\nthe great tower of Ely, blue on the horizon, with the vast spacious\r\nsky over-arching all. If that is not a beautiful place in its\r\nwidth, its greenness, its unbroken silence, I do not know what\r\nbeauty is! Nothing that historians call an event has ever happened\r\nthere. It is a place that has just drifted out of the old lagoon\r\nlife of the past, the life of reed-beds and low-lying islands, of\r\nmarsh-fowl and fishes, into a hardly less peaceful life of\r\ncornfield and pasture. No one goes there except on country\r\nbusiness, no armies ever marshalled or fought there. The sun goes\r\ndown in flame on the far horizon; the wild duck fly over and settle\r\nin the pools, the flowers rise to life year by year on the edges of\r\nslow watercourses; the calm mystery of it can be seen and\r\nremembered; but it can hardly be told in words.\n2\n\u003cb\u003e ......Buy Now (To Read More)\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eProduct details\u003ch3\u003e\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eEbook Number\u003c\/b\u003e: 4652 \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor\u003c\/b\u003e: Benson, Arthur Christopher \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eRelease Date\u003c\/b\u003e: Nov 1, 2003 \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat\u003c\/b\u003e: eBook \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage\u003c\/b\u003e: English \u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"booksdeli.com","offers":[{"title":"Benson, Arthur Christopher,1862-1925 \/ eBook \/ English","offer_id":43212441387165,"sku":"gb-4652-ebook","price":9.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0619\/5648\/9373\/products\/4652_12ed35a9-ea78-46ba-bba1-373bc28af901.jpg?v=1671278541","url":"https:\/\/booksdeli.com\/products\/escape-and-other-essays-gb-4652","provider":"booksdeli.com","version":"1.0","type":"link"}