deep and lasting impression.
From Shelby City we went west sixty or more miles, skirting the
blue-grass region, to Lebanon Junction, where I took the train for Cave
City. The blue-grass region is as large as the State of Massachusetts,
and is, on the whole, the finest bit of the earth's surface, with the
exception of parts of England, I have yet seen. In one way it is more
pleasing than anything one sees in England, on account of the greater
sense of freedom and roominess which it gives one. Everything is on a
large, generous scale. The fields are not so cut up, nor the roadways
so narrow, nor the fences so prohibitory. Indeed, the distinguishing
feature of this country is its breadth: one sees fields of corn or
wheat or clover of from fifty to one hundred acres each. At Colonel
Alexander's I saw three fields of clover lying side by side which
contained three hundred acres: as the clover was just in full bloom,
the sight was a very pleasing one. The farms are larger, ranging from
several hundred to several thousand acres. The farmhouses are larger,
with wide doors, broad halls, high ceilings, ample grounds, and
hospitality to match. There is nothing niggardly or small in the people
or in their country. One sees none of the New York or New England
primness and trimness, but the ample, flowing Southern way of life. It
is common to see horses and cattle grazing in the grounds immediately
about the house; there is nothing but grass, and the great forest
trees, which they cannot hurt. The farmhouses rarely stand near the
highway, but are set after the English fashion from a third to half a
mile distant, amid a grove of primitive forest trees, and flanked or
backed up by the many lesser buildings that the times of slavery made
necessary. Educated gentlemen farmers are probably the rule more than
in the North. There are not so many small or so many leased farms.
The proprietors are men of means, and come the nearest to forming a
landed gentry of any class of men we have in this country. They are
not city men running a brief and rapid career on a fancy farm, but
genuine countrymen, who love the land and mean to keep it. I remember
with pleasure one rosy-faced young farmer, whose place we casually
invaded in Lincoln County. He was a graduate of Harvard University and
of the Law School, but here he was with his trousers tucked into his
boot-legs, helping to cultivate his corn, or looking after his herds
upon his broad acres. He was nearly the ideal of a simple, hearty,
educated country farmer and gentleman.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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