it and to find some difficulty in getting out again by any of its known
gates; and such was the beauty of the landscape, that a lover or
scenery would be tempted thus to lose himself.

I have said that on one side lay the kennels, and this will give me an
opportunity of describing here one especial episode, a long episode, in
the life of the existing squire.

He had once represented his county in Parliament, and when he ceased to
do so he still felt an ambition to be connected in some peculiar way
with that county's greatness; he still desired that a Gresham of
Greshamsbury should be something more in East Barsetshire, than Jackson
of the Grange, or Baker of Mill Hill, or Bateson of Annesgrove. They
were all his friends, and very respectable country gentlemen; but Mr
Gresham of Greshamsbury should be more than this: even he had enough
ambition to be aware of such a longing. Therefore, when an opportunity
occurred he took to hunting the county.

For this employment he was in every way well suited;--unless it was in
the matter of finance. Though he had in his very earliest manly years
given such great offence by indifference to his family politics, and
had in a certain degree fostered the ill-feeling by contesting the
county in opposition to the wishes of his brother squires,
nevertheless, he bore a loved and popular name. Men regretted that he
should not have been what they wished him to be, that he should not
have been such as was the old squire; but when they found that such was
the case, that he could not be great among them as a politician, they
were still willing that he should be great in any other way if there
were county greatness for which he was suited. Now he was known as an
excellent horseman, as a thorough sportsman, as one knowing in dogs,