This England

When I visited the library in Auckland I always enjoyed
looking at some of the "This England" magazines. There were articles describing the
beauty of English villages,
often with historical and unknown little snippets of information which were a joy to read, often accompanied by wonderful depictions of historic homesteads
and scenery. While in Australia I have not as yet come across these wonderful
magazines, but will make an endeavour to find out about them.

There was also a poetry page and I remember on one occasion a reader could remember
a few lines of a poem from school but could not remember the rest of the poem or where it came from. The reply was that it was "The Elfin Artist" by Alfred Noyes.

I will include the link for this poem here as I also found it quite exquisite, light and beautiful:

http://www.poemhunter.com/best-poems/alfred-noyes/the-elfin-artist/

This England

  I also think of Shakespeare's poem about "This England" and of course Shakespeare was right,
England is a gem, a beautiful country, as was mentioned in Richard II, quoted by John of Gaunt.
I will have to return to this beautiful isle again sometime.

  My best wishes