The Project Gutenberg EBook of Jesse Cliffe, by Mary Russell Mitford

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Title: Jesse Cliffe

Author: Mary Russell Mitford

Release Date: October 2, 2007 [EBook #22839]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JESSE CLIFFE ***

Produced by David Widger

JESSE CLIFFE

By Mary Russell Mitford

Living as we do in the midst of rivers, water in all its forms, except
indeed that of the trackless and mighty ocean, is familiar to our
little inland county. The slow majestic Thames, the swift and wandering
Kennett, the clear and brimming Loddon, all lend life and verdure to our
rich and fertile valleys. Of the great river of England--whose course
from its earliest source, near Cirencester, to where it rolls calm,
equable, and full, through the magnificent bridges of our splendid
metropolis, giving and reflecting beauty,* presents so grand an image
of power in repose--it is not now my purpose to speak; nor am I about
to expatiate on that still nearer and dearer stream, the pellucid
Loddon,--although to be rowed by one dear and near friend up those
transparent and meandering waters, from where they sweep at their
extremest breadth under the lime-crowned terraces of the Old Park
at Aberleigh, to the pastoral meadows of Sandford, through which the
narrowed current wanders so brightly--now impeded by beds of white
water-lilies, or feathery-blossomed bulrushes, or golden flags--now
overhung by thickets of the rich wayfaring tree, with its wealth of
glorious berries, redder and more transparent than rubies--now spanned
from side to side by the fantastic branches of some aged oak;--although
to be rowed along that clear stream, has long been amongst the choicest
of my summer pleasures, so exquisite is the scenery, so perfect and so
unbroken the solitude. Even the shy and foreign-looking kingfisher, most
gorgeous of English birds, who, like the wild Indian retiring before the
foot of man, has nearly deserted our populous and cultivated country,
knows and loves the lovely valley of the Loddon.

* There is nothing finer in London than the view from
Waterloo-bridge on a July evening, whether coloured by the