and in nearly everything we discover that there is a Number 2 which
can put out of joint the nose of Number 1.

Once more the shadow of Mrs. Toosypegs fell upon the walls of Manor
Green; and then, her mission being accomplished, she passed away for
ever; and our hero was left to be the sole son and heir, and the prop
and pride of the house of Green.

And if it be true that the external forms of nature exert a hidden
but powerful sway over the dawning perceptions of the mind, and shape
its thoughts to harmony with the things around, then most certainly
ought Mr. Verdant Green to have been born a poet; for he grew up amid
those scenes whose immortality is, that they inspired the soul of
Shakespeare with his deathless fancies!

The Manor Green was situated in one of the loveliest spots in all
Warwickshire; a county so rich in all that constitutes the


[10 ADVENTURES OF MR. VERDANT GREEN]

picturesqueness of a true English landscape. Looking from the
drawing-room windows of the house, you saw in the near foreground the
pretty French garden, with its fantastic parti-coloured beds, and its
broad gravelled walks and terrace; proudly promenading which, or
perched on the stone balustrade might be seen perchance a peacock
flaunting his beauties in the sun. Then came the carefully kept
gardens, bounded on the one side by the Long Walk and a grove of
shrubs and oaks; and on the other side by a double avenue of stately
elms, that led, through velvet turf of brightest green, down past a