22 COUNTRY LIFE 



spite of the length of their rent-rolls, the plurality of 

 their mansions, and a certain formal state that is the 

 inevitable adjunct of their great positions, they manage 

 to divert themselves with much the same pursuits as 

 the more moderately-acred squire. To appreciate the 

 attractions of their historic homes, and the sylvan 

 beauties of their parks with the masses of secular 

 timber, one ought to read Howitt. We own to having 

 been early prejudiced in his favour, for his " Boy's 

 Country Book " was one of our boyish delights ; but 

 seeing how his " Book of the Seasons " and his " Visits 

 to Remarkable Places " have asserted their influence on 

 us in our maturity, we cannot believe that we admire 

 him unduly. It is not only his bewitching panoramas 

 of scenery, wonderfully true to nature as they are, 

 when he invites you to an excursion across the brown 

 moors of the Cheviots, or plunges with your waist- 

 deep into the luxuriant bracken under the boughs 

 of the oaks in some deer-park in the Midlands ; or 

 when he leads you away to some deserted and half- 

 forgotten old hall like Compton Wyniates to some 

 spectre-haunted Norman hold that looks grimly for- 

 bidding in the gloaming, like the ancient castle of the 

 Lumleys ; or when he takes you on a brisk walk 

 through the Black Country to the humble birthplace 

 of an artist like Bewick, on the beautiful banks of the 

 Tyne, past grim rows of colliers' cottages. But he 

 thoroughly enters into the life of the English country- 

 people of all ranks, reflecting their feelings with 

 unfailing fidelity ; he sympathises with the pursuits 



