140 THE AMATEUR TRAMP IN ENGLAND 



yard ; and opposite there stands the great elm tree, 

 which shelters the sign-post and the creaking sign. 

 Or, in place of the elm, may be a glorious horse- 

 chestnut we have more than one of these at this 

 moment in our eye with its fragrant load of snowy 

 blossom in the season ; and beyond the dusty road, an 

 enclosure of close-shaven lawn ; and beyond the lawn 

 and the bowling-green, a stream that is dear to angling 

 guests, although their perseverance may be'unfrequently 

 rewarded. Or, in place of the large white house, with 

 the big bow-windows of its dining-parlours looking out 

 upon the great horse-trough, a little mansion, in modern 

 Elizabethan, may have broken out all over in fantastic 

 angles and gables. In either case, within doors is the 

 cool bar, with the presiding naiad of the ale-barrels 

 embowered in geraniums and fuchsias a bar that in 

 sultry summer weather might shake the self-denial of 

 the most ascetic of teetotallers ; and there is the roomy 

 cupboard in the passage, with its doors of glass, through 

 which you may admire a choice selection of cold joints, 

 and salads, and cucumbers, and cheeses, and pastry, and 

 fruit-tarts. You may make a very good English dinner 

 in these places ; and a good English dinner is no bad 

 thing, since it is within the scope of the commonplace 

 cook, who would come to shame and confusion among 

 foreign-fangled entrees. Are there not the primest of 

 rounds and sirloins reared in those rich meadows hard 

 by, though the beasts that carried them may barely hold 

 their own with the best bullocks of Aberdeenshire ? 

 And there are saddles of mutton from the neighbouring 



