It was not a hilly country about his native place, and his horizon was a very limited one, usually bounded by the hedgerow timber at the end of the level field.

The things he depicts were seen at short range, and the poetry, we see, was of a very modest kind.

It was a "humble note" which pleased me in the days of long ago when I was young and very ignorant, and as it pleases me still it may be supposed that mentally I have not progressed with the years.
Nevertheless, I am not incapable of appreciating the greater music; all that is said in its praise, even to the extremest expressions of admiration of those who are moved to a sense of wonder by it, find an echo in me.

But it is not only a delight to me to listen to the lark singing at heaven's gate and to the vesper nightingale in the oak copse--the singer of a golden throat and wondrous artistry; I also love the smaller vocalists--the modest shufewing and the lesser whitethroat and the yellowhammer with his simple chant.

These are very dear to me: their strains do not strike me as trivial; they have a lesser distinction of their own and I would not miss them from the choir.