Era uma região de extensas pastagens, de charnecas cobertas de urze, de ribeiros e riachos nascidos das rochas, de floresta e colina e vale escassamente habitados, com o mar a leste, oculto, e as montanhas por todo o lado, sempre visíveis e mudando incessantemente de aspeto. Por ela vagueavam boieiros e pastores e pelas suas estradas quase desusadas passavam, por vezes mas raramente, vendedores ambulantes e mulas de carga. Minerais e mármores jaziam sob a sua relva, mas ninguém os procurava; charcos e lagos dormiam nela, sem serem perturbados, exceto por milhões de aves aquáticas e seus perseguidores. Ruínas de templos e palácios estavam cobertas pelas suas bagas silvestres e flores silvestres. O búfalo pastava onde, em tempos, os imperadores se banqueteavam e o abetouro voava lentamente sobre os campos de batalhas esquecidas.
It was a country of wide pastures, of moors covered with heath, of rock-born streams and rivulets, of forest and hill and dale, sparsely inhabited, with the sea to the eastward of it, unseen, and the mountains everywhere visible always, and endlessly changing in aspect. Herdsmen and shepherds wandered over it, and along its almost disused roads pedlars and pack mules passed at times but rarely. Minerals and marbles were under its turf, but none sought for them; pools and lakes slept in it, undisturbed save by millions of water fowl and their pursuers. The ruins of temples and palaces were overgrown by its wild berries and wild flowers. The buffalo browsed where emperors had feasted, and the bittern winged its slow flight over the fields of forgotten battles.
