preserve their original character,--the velvet lawn, studded with large
plots of flowers, shaded and scented, here to the left by lilacs,
laburnums, and rich syringas; there, to the right, giving glimpses, over
low clipped yews, of a green bowling-alley, with the white columns of a
summer-house built after the Dutch taste, in the reign of William III.;
and in front stealing away under covert of those still cedars, into the
wilder landscape of the well-wooded undulating park. Within, viewed by
the placid glimmer of the moon, the scene was no less characteristic of
the abodes of that race which has no parallel in other lands, and which,
alas! is somewhat losing its native idiosyncrasies in this,--the stout
country gentleman, not the fine gentleman of the country; the country
gentleman somewhat softened and civilized from the mere sportsman or
farmer, but still plain and homely; relinquishing the old hall for the
drawing-room, and with books not three months old on his table, instead
of Fox's "Martyrs" and Baker's "Chronicle," yet still retaining many a
sacred old prejudice, that, like the knots in his native oak, rather adds
to the ornament of the grain than takes from the strength of the tree.
Opposite to the window, the high chimneypiece rose to the heavy cornice
of the ceiling, with dark panels glistening against the moonlight. The
broad and rather clumsy chintz sofas and settees of the reign of George
III. contrasted at intervals with the tall-backed chairs of a far more
distant generation, when ladies in fardingales and gentlemen in trunk-
hose seem never to have indulged in horizontal positions. The walls, of
shining wainscot, were thickly covered, chiefly with family pictures;
though now and then some Dutch fair or battle-piece showed that a former
proprietor had been less exclusive in his taste for the arts. The
pianoforte stood open near the fireplace; a long dwarf bookcase at the
far end added its sober smile to the room. That bookcase contained what
was called "The Lady's Library,"--a collection commenced by the squire's
grandmother, of pious memory, and completed by his mother, who had more