vol. xxx, no. 4 april 1926 universal brotherhood - a fact in nature

IN CONSTABLE'S COUNTRY
N the northern borders of the county of Essex, some seventy
miles northeast of London, and ten miles west of Harwich,
is that part of the valley of the Stour known as Constable's
country. It is a most typical example of English country-
side, which was so lovingly construed by the painter John Constable.
Here a sluggish river meanders through lush meadows, its bed
rank with aquatic growths and teeming with life. There are coarse fish
in plenty, bream, roach, and many varieties of the eel-family. Tall
trees flourish among the hedgerows, while the tow-path is lined with
pollard willows. The pastures are filled with comfortable cattle, and
sheep roam over the rougher grazing land. An occasional barge is slowly
brought through the locks by a sturdy horse, who knows how to jump
over the low styles placed across the path for the protection of the cattle.
The woodwork about the river is of a kind unlike that found elsewhere,
and is constructed to last many generations.
The town of Dedham, not much more than a village, was at one
time a center of the worsted industry, but was left high and dry by the
commercialism of the railway era, which kept too far from this secluded
spot for it to benefit. The church-tower of the town figures in the back-
ground of many of Constable's pictures, often in topographically im-
possible positions.
The farmer-folk of the Stour country have little use for the auto-
mobile. There is good grazing for a horse, and a horse can jog-trot through
the narrow lanes with little concern for the mechanical age. While
grass grows green, and cows are well fed and contented and nature smiles,
what need to scurry with machinery?
In spring, this restful pasture-land is glorious enough in the sun-
shine, but it is even more beautiful in the rain. Then all is quiet, save
for the swish of the falling water and the rustle of the new foliage. The
full leaves drip their quota of moisture to the ready earth, the grass
breathes a scent of heaven. When the sky smiles again young birds
are hopping about as they laboriously gain their first lessons in aviation;
the parents circle round, to scream their alarm at the intrusion of the
human. The cattle are taking their rest by the opposite bank, and fish