Alone in the Midst of the Land

Found a striking contrast between these words from Isaiah 5:8 . . .

Woe to those who join house to house;

They add field to field,

Till there is no place

Where they may dwell alone in the midst of the land!

. . . and this description of the land surrounding Malabar Farm in Ohio in 1940 as described by Louis Bromfield's daughter, Ellen, in her book The Heritage, remembering the land as it was when her family first moved onto the property:

The road we followed was impassable to cars. Sheltered by the trees, its earth was always damp and cold, even in the drought of August, and in many places it was worn away to a bare shelf of sandstone and shale over which spring water trickled from somewhere deep in the earth. Walking along this road in the shade of the tall trees, one had the sensation of having come unexpectedly upon a part of a great, enclosed world which had avoided, or perhaps even defied, progress. It seemed almost as if the noise and clatter and brassiness of the modern age were prohibited here and, knowing this, one felt extremely grateful. At the top of that road, we passed through a sagging gate and came upon the great dome of wind-swept grass that was the Ferguson Place, high above the Ohio country. (italics added)