44 AN ENGLISH SQUIRE 



among great shrubberies of laurel ; quaint-gabled 

 cottages in blooming gardens cottages that are either 

 as old as they seem or else admirable modern imita- 

 tions ; an old-fashioned inn, with a great bow-window 

 and a broad gravelled space before the door, where 

 the sign is swinging from an overshadowing elm 

 tree ; and better than all, a general look of content- 

 ment and cheerful comfort, which tells of confidence 

 in kindly friends and happy relations with generous 

 landlords. 



The estate is a model of good English farming of 

 the olden time, with just so many modern improve- 

 ments introduced as may be compatible with preserving 

 its picturesque appearance. Farm houses with spacious 

 kitchens, and with sumptuous parlours that are only 

 used upon state occasions; rambling steadings round 

 great straw-yards, where the cattle are ruminating up 

 to their bellies in litter, and where pigs, constrained to 

 cleanliness in spite of themselves, are grunting and 

 gorging themselves in supreme felicity ; a shady horse- 

 pond well stocked with ducks and geese, flocks of fat 

 poultry picking up a leisurely living among the wheat- 

 stacks, and flights of pigeons cooing on the tiles. 

 There has been little grubbing of hedgerows or 

 straightening of roads. The lanes meander about 

 among thorn-bushes, matted with the wild clematis 

 and overgrown with the wild hop and honeysuckle. 

 There is turf enough between the hedges and the cart- 

 way to pasture the horses of whole caravans of tramps 

 and gipsies ; and, in fact, you may often see them 



