248 EVERSLEY GARDENS 



of Virginia Creeper ; and the Beeches are golden 

 and the Oaks copper against the Fir trees ; and 

 the Bracken turns every shade from palest 

 yellow to deepest bronze ; and the proud phea- 

 sants, who have had things all their own way 

 for months, begin to know the fate for which 

 they were raised, and walk warily when they 

 leave its shelter. Then comes the first Wednes- 

 day in November, a date much thought of round 

 here. And the great fore-court on the west 

 front, from the steps up to the house almost 

 to the pepper-box towers, is thronged by the 

 whole countryside and bright with red coats, 

 as the hounds meet on the green turf and then 

 stream away through the glades of the park, 

 the low Autumn sun glancing in the frosty air 

 through the shafts of the Fir trees upon red 

 coats and moving horses, and the twinkling 

 tails of eager hounds as they press through the 

 deep Heather. 



But Bramshill was once the scene of a more 

 famous and fateful hunting nigh upon three 

 hundred years ago, than has ever befallen with 

 the foxhounds ; when King James, and my 

 collateral ancestor, Robert Abbot, Archbishop 



