194 KILWORTHY. 



myself a lover of the good old times, (at least in 

 retrospection) an air of sanctity is connected with 

 them, and in imagination I would willingly replenish 

 the earth with its ancient customs and people : — 

 how far reality might dissipate my dream of felicity 

 I leave wiser persons than myself to guess. Old 

 places certainly have their charms, and Kil worthy 

 not less than others; even the cumbrous barn, 

 dotted with pigeon holes, and decorated with relics 

 of the sportsman's skill, impresses the beholder with 

 an idea of the respectability of the mansion to which 

 it belongs. 



The interior of Kilworthy presents a picture of 

 those incongruities in which our ancestors some- 

 times loved to indulge. Narrow passages and wide 

 staircases, a wainscotted hall, and small and large 

 rooms are mingled together in most admirable con- 

 fusion. That hall, where, in bygone days, moved 

 with courtly dignity the noble races of Glanville 

 and Manaton, has since resounded with the joyful 

 shouts of a tribe of merry boys, who, under mild 

 scholastic rule, formed strange contrasts to its early 

 and rightful possessors. Curious indeed are the 

 vicissitudes of places as well as of persons. The 

 manor of Kilworthy, with every thing belonging 

 thereunto, has passed from the family of Glanvilles, 

 and all that remain (besides tradition) to mark their 

 former possession, are the coats of arms decorating 

 the eastern entrance, thus exhibiting, even in faded 

 grandeur, " the boast of heraldry, the pomp of 

 power." It has since, as I have before hinted, been 

 used as a place of learninoj. Many juvenile feats 

 within those precincts, " when toil remitting lent its 

 turn to play,'*' may be even now remembered by 

 staid parsons, or care-worn merchants, who were 

 once chief actors in each frolic of the hour. The 

 sailor too, parading with dignity his own quarter- 

 deck, may recal the time when, swinging from bough 

 to bough of some tall elm in " the Rookery," he 

 sought to gain the well built nest of our cawing 



