THE RESIDENTS 105 



Oakenhurst covers, he has always half a dozen of made 

 hunters in his stables to mount himself or a friend. The 

 steppers he drives in his chariot or mail-phaeton are 

 matched to a hair. The pair of cobs which carry him 

 about the estate, and which can easily be persuaded to 

 take a fence on occasion, are models of breeding and 

 solid symmetry, and do credit to their Norfolk pedi- 

 grees. There is always something worth looking at to 

 be seen in the paddocks, where playful colts and fillies 

 are grazing among pensioners more or less worn out. 

 There is an unnecessary number of grooms and helpers 

 under the corpulent old coachman, who acts as master 

 of the horse ; and they have their quarters under his 

 immediate supervision, in rooms on one side of the 

 cheerful courtyard that is finished off by the great 

 clock-tower with the gilded cupola. The gardens 

 are kept up rather as a matter of state ; but the Squire 

 passes more than once in the day along the sunny 

 terrace-walks that leads to the keeper's cottage and 

 the kennels. The occupants of these last are rather 

 select than numerous ; but the Oakenhurst breed 

 of spaniels has long been famous, and the Squire 

 would sooner give away the presentation to a living 

 than part lightly with one of his ebony favourites. 

 There is no prettier spot in the park than the slope 

 below the hanging beech-wood, where the many-gabled 

 cottage stands under the walnut tree. On the one 

 side are the ranges of pheasant-coops that are shifted 

 about upon the lawns that lie beyond the garden and 

 the beehives ; on the other the kennels on the little 



