Excerpt from English Sketches: From the "Sketch Book" The residence Of people of fortune and refinement in the country has diffused a degree Of taste and elegance in rural economy, that descends to the lowest class. The very laborer, with his thatched cottage and narrow slip Of ground, attends to their embellishment, The trim hedge, the grass-plot before the door, the little flower-bed bordered with snug box, the wood bine trained up against the wall, and hanging its blossoms about the lattice, the pot Of flowers in the window, the holly, provi dently planted about the house, to cheat winter Of its dreariness, and to throw in a semblance Of green summer to cheer the fire side: all these bespeak the influence Of taste, flowing down from high sources, and pervading the lowest levels Of the pub lic mind. If ever Love, as poets sing, delights to visit a cot tage, it must be the cottage Of an English peasant. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.