One is impressed by its ancient character. The cottages are
old, stone-built and thatched; older still is the church with
its grey square tower, and all about are scattered the
memorials of antiquity--the chantry on the hill, standing
conspicuous alone, apart, above the world; the vast old abbey
barn, and, rough thick stone walls, ivy-draped and crowned
with beautiful valerian, and other fragments that were once
parts of a great religious house.
Looking back at the great round hill from the village it is
impossible not to notice the intense red colour of the road
that winds over its green slope. One sometimes sees on a
hillside a ploughed field of red earth which at a distance
might easily be taken for a field of blossoming trifolium.
Viewed nearer the crimson of the clover and red of the earth
are very dissimilar; distance appears to intensify the red of
the soil and to soften that of the flower until they are very
nearly of the same hue. The road at Abbotsbury was near and
looked to me more intensely red than any ordinary red earth,
and the sight was strangely pleasing. These two complementary
colours, red and green, delight us most when seen thus--a
little red to a good deal of green, and the more luminous the
red and vivid the green the better they please us. We see
this in flowers--in the red geranium, for example--where there
is no brown soil below, but green of turf or herbage.
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