FROM THE GARDEN 1914

The timbered building on the left is the Chapel; in the foreground
is the unfinished rose-garden.]

But now there is a surprise; the back of the house is much older than
the front. You see that it is a venerable Tudor building, with pretty
panels of plaster embossed with a rough pattern. The moulded brick
chimney-stacks are Tudor too, while the high gables cluster and lean
together with a picturesque outline. The back of the house forms a
little court, with the cloister of which I spoke before running round
two sides of it. Another great yew tree stands there: while a doorway
going into the timber and plaster building which I mentioned before has
a rough device on it of a papal tiara and keys, carved in low relief and
silvered.

A friendly black collie comes out of a kennel and desires a little
attention. He licks my hand and looks at me with melting brown eyes, but
has an air of expecting to see someone else as well. A black cat comes
out of a door, runs beside us, and when picked up, clasps my shoulder
contentedly and purrs in my ear.

The house seen from the back looks exactly what it is, a little old
family mansion of a line of small squires, who farmed their own land,
and lived on their own produce, though the barns and rick-yard belong to
the house no longer. The red-brick front is just an addition made for
the sake of stateliness at some time of prosperity. It is a charming
self-contained little place, with a forgotten family tradition of its
own, a place which could twine itself about the heart, and be loved and
remembered by children brought up there, when far away. There is no sign