1896] Longleat, Metis and Wells 237 



is, it is lost in the size of the park. What makes it look dull is the uni- 

 form plate-glass which has been put in every window. It is astonish- 

 ing how this destroys the beauty of old buildings. It is as though the 

 eyes in a beautiful face had been put out and replaced with spectacles. 

 I prefer Mells, where I now am, a really fascinating little place, a 

 comfortable eighteen'th-century house, remote and shut in, which gives 

 a sense of immemorial quiet screened from the world's view. I arrived 

 late at half-past seven, but they had not yet gone to dress for dinner, 

 and presently out rushed the whole family. Mrs. Horner, with her 

 children, very pretty ones, and Godfrey Webb, who is staying 'there, 

 and Horner, who went out to help me choose a camping place, and 

 invited me in to dinner. I was not expected, but travelling in this 

 way calls out the latent hospitality of 'the countryside almost as much 

 as if one were in the East, and Horner gave himself endless trouble 

 about my road to Wells next morning. 



" iyth Aug. — My day's drive to-day was along the Mendlip Hills 

 to Wells, where I baited the horses at 'the Swan Inn, near the Cathe- 

 dral. Wells Cathedral is the most perfect in England. The inside has 

 been scraped, but not much spoiled, while the outside is quite intact. 

 Its surroundings are unique — the Bishop's palace, the famous wells 

 in the Episcopal garden, and 'the moat. While in the Cathedral I 

 got shut in behind the choir, and sat on a stone bench listening, not 

 unedified, to the chaunting of a service. It is an interesting thing to 

 have witnessed, as I have, from its beginning, the revival of 'the 

 Church of England, which fifty years ago seemed almost dead. In 

 those days a Cathedral like this was left almost without ceremonial from 

 Sunday to Sunday, and the officiating canon, if he read the church 

 service to his clerk, would begin with ' Dearly beloved brother,' for 

 want of other congregation. Now all is elaborately ordered, yet I 

 confess I like the old godless way best, it was more honest and marked 

 the fact, which was a fact, that the continuity of church worship had 

 been broken at the Reformation. Now all is sham medievalism, sham 

 seventeenth century, sham eighteenth century. We shall get back pres- 

 ently, I hope, to our pews on eclectic principles, and a new Georgian 

 era of ecclesiastical wigs and gowns. Then I ran down by train to 

 Glastonbury and back, and camped for the night in a beautiful coombe 

 belonging to a Mr. Tudway, a local banker to whom Horner had given 

 me a letter, dining with him in a beautiful Georgian house belonging to 

 his family since 1760. Here my driving journey ended, for we were 

 overtaken with heavy rains. 



" 2,0th Aug. — We have had three public events during the week, 

 first Cecil Rhodes has patched up a peace with the Matabeles, heralded 

 in all the daily papers as an heroic act of courage, because he went 

 personally to the Matabele camp to treat. Secondly, our gallant fleet 



