It is only too easy for the pheasant lords to plant larch13 in parallelograms: to escape from them it is necessary to[69] go in amongst them. Yet there are parts of the forest large and dark and primeval in look, with a few poor isolated14 houses and a thin file of telegraph posts crossing it among the high gloomy pines and down to the marshy15 hollows, to the strewn gold of dwarf16 willows17, and up again to the deserted18 wooden windmill, the empty boarded cottage, the heather-thatched sheds at the southern edge of the moor2. Looking at this tract19 of wild land the mind seems to shed many centuries of civilization and to taste something of the early man’s alarm in the presence of the uncultured hills—an alarm which is in us tempered so as to aid an impression of the sublime20. Its influence lingers in the small strips of roadside gorse beyond its proper boundary. Then, southward, there are softly dipping meadows, fields of young corn, and oaks thrown among the cowslips. The small farmhouses21 are neat and good—one has a long stone wall in front, and, over the road, tall Scotch23 firs above a green pond dappled by the water crowfoot’s white blossoms and bordered by sallow and rush. Narrow copses of oak or wide hedges of hazel and sallow line the road; and they are making cask hoops24 under lodges25 of boughs26 at the woodsides. Bluebells27 and primroses28 and cuckoo flowers are not to be counted under the trees. The long moist meadows flow among the woods up and down from farm to farm and spire29 to tower. Each farmhouse22 group is new—this one is roofed and walled with tiles; and opposite is a tangle30 of grass and gorse, with fowls31 and hen-coops amongst it, a sallowy pond, a pile of faggots, some crooked32 knees of oak, some fresh-peeled timber: old grey hop33 poles lean in a sheaf all round a great oak. The gates are of good[70] unpainted oak, and some few are of a kind not often seen elsewhere, lower than a hurdle34 and composed of two stout35 parallel bars united by twenty uprights and by two pieces meeting to form a V across these. The gates deserve and would fill a book by themselves.
Green lucent calipers36 of flags shadow one another in little wayside ponds, white-railed; for this is the Weald, the land of small clay ponds. The hazels are the nightingale’s. In many of the oak woods the timber carriages have carved a way through primroses and bluebells deep into the brown clay. The larger views are of cloudy, oak woods, ridge37 behind ridge, and green corn or grass and grey ploughland between; and of the sun pouring a molten cataract38 out of dark machicolated clouds on to one green field that glows a moment and is insignificant39 again: the lesser40 are of little brambly precipitous sandpits by the road, of a white mill at a crossing, of carved yews41 before black-timbered inns, of a starling that has learned the curlew’s call perched on a cottage roof, of abeles all rough silver with opening leaf shivering along the grass-bordered evening road, of two or three big oaks in a meadow corner and in their shadow unblemished parsley and grasses bowed as if rushing in the wind. At an inn door stands a young labourer, tall and straight but loosely made, his nose even and small, his eyes blue and deep set, his lips like those of Antinous, his face ruddy and rough-grained, his hair short and brown and crisp upon his fair round head; his neck bound by a voluminous scarf (with alternate lozenges of crimson42 and deep green divided by white lines) that is gathered beneath his chin by a brass43 ring and thence flows down under his blue[71] coat; his trousers of grey cord, dirty and patched with drab to a weathered stone colour, fitting almost tightly to his large thighs44 and calves45 and reaching not too near to his small but heavily-shod feet. A prince—a slave. He is twenty, unmarried, sober, honest, a noble animal. He goes into a cottage that stands worn and old and without a right angle in its timbers or its thatch any more than in its apple trees and solitary46 quince which all but hide the lilac and massed honesty of the little garden. This is a house—I had almost said this is a man—that looked upon England when it could move men to such songs as, “Come, live with me and be my love,” or—
“Hey, down a down!” did Dian sing,
“Than love there is no vainer thing,
And so think I, with a down, down derry.
For a moment or less as he goes under the porch I seem to see that England, that swan’s nest, that island which a man’s heart was not too big to love utterly49. But now what with Great Britain, the British Empire, Britons, Britishers, and the English-speaking world, the choice offered to whomsoever would be patriotic50 is embarrassing, and he is fortunate who can find an ideal England of the past, the present, and the future to worship, and embody51 it in his native fields and waters or his garden, as in a graven image.
The round unending Downs are close ahead, and upon the nearest hill a windmill beside a huge scoop52 in the chalk, a troop of elms below, and then low-hedged fields of grass and wheat. The farms are those of the down[72]land. One stands at the end of the elm troop that swerves53 and clusters about its tiled roof, grey cliff of chimney-stack, and many gables; the stables with newer tiles; the huge slope of the barn; the low mossy cart-lodge and its wheels and grounded shafts54; the pale straw stacks and the dark hay ricks with leaning ladders. A hundred sheep-bells rush by with a music of the hills in the wind. The larks55 are singing as if they never could have done by nightfall. It is now the hour of sunset, and windy. All the sky is soft and dark-grey-clouded except where the sun, just visible and throbbing56 in its own light, looks through a bright window in the west with a glow. Exactly under the sun the grass and wheat is full both of the pure effulgence57 and of the south-west wind, rippling58 and glittering: there is no sun for anything else save the water. North of the sun and out of its power lies a lush meadow, beyond it a flat marshland cut by several curves of bright water, above that a dark church on a wooded mound59, and then three shadowy swoops60 of Down ending at a spire among trees.
South-west, the jagged ridgy61 cluster of a hillside town, a mill and a castle, stand dark and lucid62, and behind them the mere63 lines of still more distant downs.
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beech
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n.山毛榉;adj.山毛榉的 | |
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2
moor
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n.荒野,沼泽;vt.(使)停泊;vi.停泊 | |
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grassy
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adj.盖满草的;长满草的 | |
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torrents
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n.倾注;奔流( torrent的名词复数 );急流;爆发;连续不断 | |
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likeness
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n.相像,相似(之处) | |
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thatch
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vt.用茅草覆盖…的顶部;n.茅草(屋) | |
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maker
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n.制造者,制造商 | |
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plies
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v.使用(工具)( ply的第三人称单数 );经常供应(食物、饮料);固定往来;经营生意 | |
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grooves
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n.沟( groove的名词复数 );槽;老一套;(某种)音乐节奏v.沟( groove的第三人称单数 );槽;老一套;(某种)音乐节奏 | |
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Ford
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n.浅滩,水浅可涉处;v.涉水,涉过 | |
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spines
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n.脊柱( spine的名词复数 );脊椎;(动植物的)刺;书脊 | |
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fragrant
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adj.芬香的,馥郁的,愉快的 | |
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larch
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n.落叶松 | |
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isolated
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adj.与世隔绝的 | |
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marshy
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adj.沼泽的 | |
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dwarf
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n.矮子,侏儒,矮小的动植物;vt.使…矮小 | |
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willows
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n.柳树( willow的名词复数 );柳木 | |
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deserted
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adj.荒芜的,荒废的,无人的,被遗弃的 | |
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tract
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n.传单,小册子,大片(土地或森林) | |
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sublime
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adj.崇高的,伟大的;极度的,不顾后果的 | |
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21
farmhouses
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n.农舍,农场的主要住房( farmhouse的名词复数 ) | |
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farmhouse
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n.农场住宅(尤指主要住房) | |
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23
scotch
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n.伤口,刻痕;苏格兰威士忌酒;v.粉碎,消灭,阻止;adj.苏格兰(人)的 | |
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hoops
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n.箍( hoop的名词复数 );(篮球)篮圈;(旧时儿童玩的)大环子;(两端埋在地里的)小铁弓 | |
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lodges
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v.存放( lodge的第三人称单数 );暂住;埋入;(权利、权威等)归属 | |
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boughs
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大树枝( bough的名词复数 ) | |
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bluebells
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n.圆叶风铃草( bluebell的名词复数 ) | |
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primroses
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n.报春花( primrose的名词复数 );淡黄色;追求享乐(招至恶果) | |
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spire
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n.(教堂)尖顶,尖塔,高点 | |
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30
tangle
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n.纠缠;缠结;混乱;v.(使)缠绕;变乱 | |
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fowls
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鸟( fowl的名词复数 ); 禽肉; 既不是这; 非驴非马 | |
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crooked
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adj.弯曲的;不诚实的,狡猾的,不正当的 | |
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hop
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n.单脚跳,跳跃;vi.单脚跳,跳跃;着手做某事;vt.跳跃,跃过 | |
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34
hurdle
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n.跳栏,栏架;障碍,困难;vi.进行跨栏赛 | |
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calipers
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n.书法,测径器;测径器 | |
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ridge
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n.山脊;鼻梁;分水岭 | |
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cataract
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n.大瀑布,奔流,洪水,白内障 | |
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insignificant
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adj.无关紧要的,可忽略的,无意义的 | |
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lesser
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adj.次要的,较小的;adv.较小地,较少地 | |
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41
yews
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n.紫杉( yew的名词复数 ) | |
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42
crimson
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n./adj.深(绯)红色(的);vi.脸变绯红色 | |
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brass
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n.黄铜;黄铜器,铜管乐器 | |
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44
thighs
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n.股,大腿( thigh的名词复数 );食用的鸡(等的)腿 | |
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calves
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n.(calf的复数)笨拙的男子,腓;腿肚子( calf的名词复数 );牛犊;腓;小腿肚v.生小牛( calve的第三人称单数 );(冰川)崩解;生(小牛等),产(犊);使(冰川)崩解 | |
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solitary
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adj.孤独的,独立的,荒凉的;n.隐士 | |
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47
virgins
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处女,童男( virgin的名词复数 ); 童贞玛利亚(耶稣之母) | |
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48
maidens
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处女( maiden的名词复数 ); 少女; 未婚女子; (板球运动)未得分的一轮投球 | |
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49
utterly
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adv.完全地,绝对地 | |
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patriotic
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adj.爱国的,有爱国心的 | |
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51
embody
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vt.具体表达,使具体化;包含,收录 | |
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52
scoop
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n.铲子,舀取,独家新闻;v.汲取,舀取,抢先登出 | |
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swerves
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n.(使)改变方向,改变目的( swerve的名词复数 )v.(使)改变方向,改变目的( swerve的第三人称单数 ) | |
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54
shafts
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n.轴( shaft的名词复数 );(箭、高尔夫球棒等的)杆;通风井;一阵(疼痛、害怕等) | |
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55
larks
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n.百灵科鸟(尤指云雀)( lark的名词复数 );一大早就起床;鸡鸣即起;(因太费力而不想干时说)算了v.百灵科鸟(尤指云雀)( lark的第三人称单数 );一大早就起床;鸡鸣即起;(因太费力而不想干时说)算了 | |
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throbbing
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a. 跳动的,悸动的 | |
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57
effulgence
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n.光辉 | |
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rippling
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起涟漪的,潺潺流水般声音的 | |
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mound
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n.土墩,堤,小山;v.筑堤,用土堆防卫 | |
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swoops
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猛扑,突然下降( swoop的名词复数 ) | |
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ridgy
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adj.有脊的;有棱纹的;隆起的;有埂的 | |
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lucid
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adj.明白易懂的,清晰的,头脑清楚的 | |
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mere
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adj.纯粹的;仅仅,只不过 | |
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