Its lowest visible stratum is of black stones, beneath the sea-level; then a stratum of large red bricks; then turf.

The willow branches are invisible, within.

The land hereabout is undoubtedly some distance below sea-level, but it is impossible either here or anywhere in Holland to believe in the old and venerable story of the dyke plugged by an heroic thumb to the exclusion of the ocean and the safety of the nation.
As I lay on the bank in the sun, listening to a thousand larks, with all Friesland on one hand and the pearl grey sea on the other, a passer-by stopped and asked me a question which I failed to understand.

My reply conveyed my nationality to him.

"Ah," he said, "Eenglish.