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The Country Curate, by the Author of 'the Subaltern'.
The Country Curate by the Author of 'the Subaltern' Author:George Robert Gleig General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1834 Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million book... more »s for free. Excerpt: COUNTRY CURATE. INTRODUCTION. The ordinary traveller who journeys from London to Paris, and who is not greatly in the habit of diverging from the beaten track, -- who neither sees, nor desires to see, more of the country through which he passes, than the fields on each side of the highway may chance to present, -- can form no idea of the rude and romantic scenery which is occasionally to be met with, even in the southern county of Kent. I am not quite sure that the border districts of Scotland itself can boast of glens more striking, or hills more wild and pastoral, than are to be found in this the cultivated garden of England. The general aspect of the country is, indeed, rather beautiful than grand; swelling downs, luxuriant corn-fields, rich hop-gardens, and exquisite hedgerows, furnishing the more customary features in a Kentish landscape. But Kent is not altogether deficient in what deserves to be ranked as the sublime; and it may be worth while to inform this wandering generation whereabouts it behoves them to look for it. Soon after he has passed the racecourse on Barham Downs, the wayfaring man will arrive at a sort of by-road, which, striking off from the highway in a direction to the right, winds between a couple of fir plantations that skirt the extremities of Denne Hill and Broom. Let him pursue this path without hesitation. It leads across a wild country to Folkestone and Hythe; and it conducts to the very glens and hills of which notice has just been given. As he goes on he will perceive a change in the aspect of external things, not less remarkable, perhaps, than any which he may have...« less