Rensselaer Republican, Volume 14, Number 46, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 August 1882 — An Engash Moor. [ARTICLE]

An Engash Moor.

Harper’s Magaxine. The aspect of the moor is totally unlike that of any other scene; it has an individual character as marked as that of thd ocean or the Alps or the Arctic ice fields, and no amount of description prepares one against surprise on beholding it for the first time. We could not see it fairly from the village street, but sauntering one day across a bridge that led into a vine-embowered lane, we came suddenly in view of the

ricu upland, witn jts alternate snaaes of purple, brown and yellow. No nesd for us to feel the strong pure air blown across it; it typified in a glance the “wind-swept moorlands of the West.’' We could scent the breath of the strong air. the heather, the mingled odors of herb and earth which made the moorlands keen with fra* grance. We felt all impatience fora drive out upon the desolate, fascinating region, and drove across the bridge and round by a pretty, peaceful country, the road curving about a hill. We came suddenly upon a strong fresh breeze charged with life. At the same moment we found the surroundings swiftly changing; from a green embowered lane we emerged upon a rocky, trackless hillside, thick with furze and heather, except where gray boulders were heaped uj). The ground was soft and elastic, with a luxuriant vegetation. Above, the sky was halfhidden by swift-flying clouds that cast deep shadows on the moor, with shafts of -purple and golden light between. The moor seemed endless, yet when we reached a high point we looked down upon a wide sweep of country, a group of villages framed in the rich landscape of two counties, Devon and Somerset. Church and tower, park and hamlet, lay peacefully below us, while the wild, dai upland we were driving across hau a peculiar character of its own, suggesting, perhaps some unpaiuted picture, some touch of Hardy’s pen, some bit ol witchcraft, yet in reality a\ t y uu* familiar to our eyes and minus.