THE AMATEUR TRAMP IN ENGLAND 143 



is interspersed with lilacs and laburnums, and though 

 the bloom may be over, the verdure remains : and 

 outside the village is the Gothic church, newly raised by 

 liberal contributions, with a spire of portentous height, 

 emblematic of transcendent High Church aspirations. 

 A mile or two further, and you are leaving villas and 

 cottages ornees behind. You are among country seats 

 that have been built generations before, although many 

 of them have changed hands of late years, as we may 

 judge by the additions that have been recently made. 

 The ground is rolling prettily ; there are clumps of 

 trees in the swelling park-land, where colonies of rooks 

 are cawing cheerily, or would be cawing if your walk 

 were early in the spring. A profusion of money has 

 been lavished on landscape-gardening, with more or less 

 taste and discretion : there are masses of laurel and 

 rhododendrons and azaleas enfolding labyrinths of 

 winding paths ; and if there be a bit of a brook its 

 bed has been widened and its waters have been carried 

 down over tiny waterfalls, among the ferneries and 

 artificial rockeries. The properties hereabouts are not 

 very big, yet you get among farms and tempting field- 

 paths which cut great angles off the dusty high-road. 

 Some of these farmhouses seem the very places for the 

 well-to-do hermit who has a fancy for cutting his 

 profession or trade, and spending his declining years in 

 losing money in agriculture. It is true that if he were 

 to take them on repairing lease, he must make up his 

 mind to considerable outlay. It is their age that lends 

 enchantment to their view : and doubtless their internal 



