The English Countryside Certainly they are not the kind about which national songs are composed as in the case of the Rhine or the danube or the volga; but at least they are the kind in which a boy can bathe and in which (even today) a farmhand can tickle an occasional trout. They permit of such homely occupations as the gathering of watercress or the growing of osiers for basket weaving; and although the mill-wheels they once turned are silent now and weed- clogged men still lean over the weirs on summer evenings and watch the swallows cross the clear water under the bridges. Such rivers, insignificant as they may be, influence the lives of those who live near them in the most subtle and sensuous wayCertainly they are not the kind about which national songs are composed, as in the case of the Rhine or the Danube or the Volga; but at least they are the kind in which a boy can bathe and in which (even today) a farmhand can tickle an occasional trout. They permit of such homely occupations as the gathering of watercress or the growing of osiers for basket weaving; and although the mill-wheels they once turned are silent now and weed-clogged, men still lean over the weirs on summer evenings and watch the swallows cross the clear water under the bridges. Such rivers, insignificant as they may be, influence the lives of those who live near them in the most subtle and sensuous way. The English Countryside