Karel Čapek

“ What is there in man that causes him to hold his breath when he sees so uncanny and mournful a region? Is there something beautiful about it?
Up hill and down dale, up hill and down dale through green Devon between two walls of quickset hedge which divides the broad acres into squares, as in our country the fragrant field-borders, and all the time among old trees, among the sagacious eyes of the flocks, up hill and down dale to the red shore of Devon. ”

“ The journey there is along prettily winding roads across curved hills through that shaggiest of green regions, which contains the densest of quickset hedges, the biggest of sheep, the greatest quantities of ivy, coppices and hawthorn, as well as the bushiest trees and cottages covered with the thickest thatches that I have ever seen. An old tree in Devon shire is as compact as a rock and as perfect as a statue. ”