THE VICARAGE. 309 



sides were decorated with old armour, horns of 

 deer, and portraits of favourite horses and dogs. 

 An enormous fire place was at one end in which 

 the Christmas log was wont to burn, and at the 

 other, a large table of Devonshire marble, on 

 which fishing-rods, nets, and other implements of 

 sporting were deposited. A door on one side of 

 the hall opened upon a terrace which went the 

 whole length of the house. Below it was an 

 extensive lawn, having at each corner a leaden 

 statue, and beyond it was a grove of tall trees, on 

 the tops of which rooks were busily engaged in 

 feeding their young. A half circular wall termi- 

 nated each end of the terrace, in which busts of 

 some of the Roman Emperors had been inserted. 



There were two large drawing-rooms, with 

 pannels of black oak, on which full length por- 

 traits of some of Mr. Neville's ancestors might be 

 seen in grim armour or velvet dresses. The furni- 

 ture of these rooms was about the time of James 

 the first. The library was well filled with books, 

 in which a learned friend of ours might revel in 

 the charms of black lettered poetry and antient 

 romances. 



Such was Coombe-Neville, affording a proof of 

 the wealth of its former possessors, but now, from 

 neglect, fast falling to decay. 



Our party took leave of Captain Neville and 

 his Aunt with many grateful acknowledgments, 



