They talk with serious fervor about Nature, when the whole of their landed estate is less than one of the back yards in which the town dwellers of my youth grew giant rosebushes that bloomed brilliantly in the mild city air. .... When Sydney Smith wrote from the dignified seclusion of his rectory at Combe-Florey, ?I look forward eagerly to the return of the bad weather, coal fires, and good society in a crowded city,? he put the pleasures of the mind above the pleasures ...
