246 THE WILD-FLOWERS OF SELBORNE 



where a room may be seen panelled with ancient oak 

 and with a stately Jacobean mantelpiece, which tra- 

 dition associates with the dismantled manor-house of 

 Knighton. Nothing could exceed the quiet beauty of 

 the scene when the writer visited the deserted site 

 a few summers ago. From one of the gables of the 

 farm-buildings a female kestrel-hawk was calmly sur- 

 veying the surrounding stubble. Scores of rabbits 

 were feeding and scuttling about at the foot of the 

 noble down. A squirrel was playing in the branches 

 of a magnificent elm-tree. Swallows were skimming 

 over the pool, in which, according to tradition, a 

 former owner of the property, overwhelmed with 

 grief at the sudden loss of his wife and children, 

 committed suicide. In the copse beside the stream 

 which issued from the haunted pool the rare marsh- 

 fern {N. thelypteris^ Desv.) was growing abundantly, 

 and splendid specimens of purple foxglove covered 

 the rising ground. Not a sound was to be heard, 

 save the murmur of innumerable insects, and the 

 notes of a willow-wren in the coppice beyond. 



In the quiet beauty of the parish of Brading Legh 

 Richmond found a constant source of refreshment 

 and delight. The wide open downs were dear to 

 him, and the chalk cliffs and the seashore. On his 

 frequent rounds of pastoral visitation, often to distant 

 parts of the parish, his mind would be occupied with 

 the contemplation of nature. " How much do they 

 lose," he exclaims in one of his narratives, " who 

 are strangers to serious meditation on the wonders 

 and beauties of nature ! " To his mind " the behever 

 possessed a right to the enjoyment of nature, as well 

 as to the privileges of grace." And this feeling, which 

 shows itself in his graceful descriptions of local scenery, 



