CHAPTER II - THE COUNTRYSIDE

Summary

And this our life exempt from public haunt,

Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks,

Sermons in stones, and good in every thing.

I would not change it.

As You Like It, ii. i. 15–18

COUNTRY-FOLK

A Country Gentleman

Remember who commended thy yellow stockings.

Twelfth Night, ii. v. 160

Is a thing, out of whose corruption the generation of a justice of peace is produced. He speaks statutes and husbandry well enough to make his neighbours think him a wise man; he is well skilled in arithmetic or rates: and hath eloquence enough to save his twopence. His conversation amongst his tenants is desperate; but amongst his equals full of doubt. His travel is seldom farther than the next market town, and his inquisition is about the price of corn: when he travelleth, he will go ten mile out of the way to a cousin's house of his to save charges; and rewards the servants by taking them by the hand when he departs. Nothing under a subpoena can draw him to London: and, when he is there, he sticks last upon every object, casts his eyes away upon gazing, and becomes the prey of every cutpurse. When he comes home, those wonders serve him for his holiday talk. If he go to court, it is in yellow stockings; and if it be in winter, in a slight taffety cloak, and pumps and pantoffles.