… The sheepfold here
Pours out its fleecy tenants o’er the glebe.
At first, progressive as a stream they seek
The middle field: but, scatter’d by degrees,
Each to his choice, soon whiten all the land.
(from William Cowper’s The Task
When Cowper wrote this in the 18th Century he was living in Bedfordshire, almost as flat as the Sussex salt marshes, where the picture was taken. And he would have seen the occasional stage coach pass by, not hourly trains, as seen in the background here.
A delightful word picture, an illumination like those little sketches in mediaeval manuscripts.
Will Turnstone 