io8 "TRESPASSERS" 



as he looks. At first, painted white and set upright 

 in his place, he commands a passive respect, and 

 conveys the impression that the old lord of the 

 manor has just died, and that his successor has been 

 making a violent study of the geography of his 

 newly acquired domains. As time goes by he 

 mellows down : resentful boys throw pats of clay 

 at him ; birds of the air settle upon and further 

 disfigure him ; but the critical point at which he loses 

 for ever our respect, is when through violent collision 

 or subsidence of the soil he strikes an angle of about 

 thirty degrees to the perpendicular. We pity him, 

 but we cannot respect him any more. Still, having 

 known this old party intimately all my life, and 

 having found him in one place or another in every 

 stage of declination between the upright and 

 complete prostration, I feel a certain softness for his 

 weaknesses. He is very old, probably aboriginal, 

 for I never heard of a predecessor ; and although 

 so old, he clings still with refreshing faith to 

 the promise of his youth " Trespassers will be 

 prosecuted " the tense of what may be called the 

 permanent indefinite future. 



I have known but one reputable variant of the old 

 legend, the work of a rhyming Cheshire squire, who 

 set up his sign 



This road forbidden is to all 



Save such as wend their way to call 



At Mill o j Green or Arley Hall. 



I had proceeded three-fourths of the way along 

 the forbidden path when I learned from a maid that 

 the rhyming squire had been long dead. I found 



