manners"), and that its recorded occupations and conversations occasionally
strike one as lacking a certain desirable salt. But, for all that, when, in
the region to which I allude, my companion spoke of this and that place
being likely sooner or later to come to the hammer, it seemed as if nothing
could be more delightful than to see the hammer fall upon an offer made by
one's self. And this in spite of the fact that the owners of the places in
question would part with them because they could no longer afford to keep
them up. I found it interesting to learn, in so far as was possible, what
sort of income was implied by the possession of country-seats such as are
not in America a concomitant of even the largest fortunes; and if in these
interrogations I sometimes heard of a very long rent-roll, on the other
hand I was frequently surprised at the slenderness of the resources
attributed to people living in the depths of an oak-studded park. Then,
certainly, English country life seemed to me the most advantageous thing in
the world: on these terms one would gladly put up with a little dulness.
When I reflected that there were thousands of people dwelling in brownstone
houses in numbered streets in New York who were at as great a cost to make
a reputable appearance in those harsh conditions as some of the occupants
of the grassy estates of which I had a glimpse, the privileges of the
latter class appeared delightfully cheap.

There was one place in particular of which I said to myself that if I had
the money to buy it, I would simply walk up to the owner and pour the sum
in sovereigns into his hat. I saw this place, unfortunately, to small
advantage: I saw it in the rain. But I am rather glad that fine weather did
not meddle with the affair, for I think that in this case the irritation of
envy would have been really too acute. It was a rainy Sunday, and the rain
was serious. I had been in the house all day, for the weather can best be
described by my saying that it had been deemed an exoneration from
church-going. But in the afternoon, the prospective interval between lunch