Mary Russell Mitford - Life at a Country Parish 汉译

       We have the good fortune to live in an unenclosed parish, and may thank the wise obstinacy of two or three sturdy famers, and the lucky unpopularity of a ranting madcap lord of the manor, for preserving the delicious green patches, the islets of wilderness amidst cultivation, which form, perhaps, the peculiar beauty of English scenery. The Common that I am passing now—the lea, as it is called—is one of the loveliest of these favoured spots. It is a little sheltered scene, retiring, as it were, from the village; sunk amidst higher lands—hills would be almost too grand a word: edged on one side by one gay highroad, and interested by another; and surrounded by a most picturesque confusion of meadows, cottages, farms, and orchards; with a great pond in one corner, usually bright and clear, giving a delightful cheerfulness and daylight to the picture. The swallows haunt that pond; so do the Children. There is a merry group round it now; I have seldom seen it without one. Children love water ; clear, bright, sparkling water; it excites and feeds their curiosity; it is motion and life.