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The sky and the clouds, with their ever varying shapes and 
colours, are always of great interest and sublimity. The ever- 
lasting hills, the moorlands and forests, the wild waves, the 
placid sea, the murmuring brook or the crashing waterfall, the 
sweet pastures, with browsing cattle, all demand careful study, 
and literally lead us into fresh scenes and pastures new. Abbeys 
and old churches, picturesque old manor houses, quaint cottages 
and comfortable looking farm houses, all of which abound in our 
district, are pleasant subjects for pencil and brush. And whilst 
copying their quaint beauties, you cannot but be carried by 
imagination to picture your own ideas of their past history. 
How very interesting it would be if we could see a good sketch, 
say, of Worsthorne Hall or Barcroft Hall in their former glory. 
Philip Gilbert Hamerton has pictured Worsthorne Hall as it was 
in his youth. Lt is a beautiful sketch, and illustrates his poem 
‘© Moonrise ”’— 
‘OQ look at that superb autumnal moon 
That rises from behind the manor house 
That crowns the knoll! I’ve watched the cloudy sky 
Grow brighter till the globes upon the the gables 
Stood round and clear against the fleecy clouds; 
And now I see one black against her disc, 
A transit as of Mercury ’cross the sun.” 
As a hobby sketching is bad to beat. It can be practised in 
company, or you can thoroughly enjoy it alone. It is a most 
economical hobby, for paper, pencil and colours do not cost 
much, and are all that is needed. This hobby can be ridden 
when we become old, too old to ride many of the hobbies of the 
day. If we mean to have pleasure and happiness in these 
pursuits when we are old, we must carefully practise them when 
young.” 
cS 
