really a very beautiful picture of a lovely woman.

Sir Thomas Birch proposed to go with us and get us admittance into
Knowsley Park, where we could not possibly find entrance without his aid.
So we went to the stables, where the old groom had already shown
hospitality to our cabman, by giving his horse some provender, and
himself some beer. There seemed to be a kindly and familiar sort of
intercourse between the old servant and the Baronet, each of them, I
presume, looking on their connection as indissoluble.

The gate-warden of Knowsley Park was an old woman, who readily gave us
admittance at Sir Thomas Birch's request. The family of the Earl of
Derby is not now at the Park. It was a very bad time of year to see it;
the trees just showing the earliest symptoms of vitality, while whole
acres of ground were covered with large, dry, brown ferns,--which I
suppose are very beautiful when green. Two or three hares scampered out
of these ferns, and sat on their hind legs looking about them, as we
drove by. A sheet of water had been drawn off, in order to deepen its
bed. The oaks did not seem to me so magnificent as they should be in an
ancient noble property like this. A century does not accomplish so much
for a tree, in this slow region, as it does in ours. I think, however,
that they were more individual and picturesque, with more character in
their contorted trunks; therein somewhat resembling apple-trees. Our
forest-trees have a great sameness of character, like our people,--
because one and the other grow too closely.

In one part of the Park we came to a small tower, for what purpose I know
not, unless as an observatory; and near it was a marble statue on a high
pedestal. The statue had been long exposed to the weather, and was
overgrown and ingrained with moss and lichens, so that its classic beauty