So beautiful did these red cows look in the meadow that I stood still for half an hour feasting my eyes on the sight.
No less was the pleasure I experienced when I caught sight of that road winding over the hill above the village.

On going to it I found that it had looked as red as rust simply because it was rust-earth made rich and beautiful in colour with iron, its red hue variegated with veins and streaks of deep purple or violet.

I was told that there were hundreds of acres of this earth all round the place--earth so rich in iron that many a man's mouth had watered at the sight of it; also that every effort had been made to induce the owner of Abbotsbury to allow this rich mine to be worked.

But, wonderful to relate, he had not been persuaded.
A hard fragment of the red stuff, measuring a couple of inches across and weighing about three ounces avoirdupois, rust-red in colour with purple streaks and yellow mottlings, is now lying before me.

The mineralogist would tell me that its commercial value is naught, or something infinitesimal; which is doubtless true enough, as tens of thousands of tons of the same material lie close to the surface under the green turf and golden blossoming furze at the spot where I picked up my specimen.