132 LORD LILFOKD 



our old country houses. It is of comparatively 

 small size, containing about thirty rooms, 

 not counting those occupied by servants, and 

 can boast no past inmate of note. There are 

 no apartments tenanted in bygone days by 

 makers of English history, no treasured Cax- 

 tons of priceless value, no exquisite livres 

 dlieures. 



And yet, although one cannot trust a pen 

 which hardly knows how to write of the old home 

 in fitting terms of restraint, it is at least safe to 

 say that, even to strangers, and without any 

 extraneous sources of interest, the grey time- 

 mellowed house has a charm all its own. Even 

 so fastidious a critic as Lady Holland, fresh 

 from the attractions of Holland House, and not 

 too well disposed in any sense towards the house 

 of Lilford, found much to admire in the cheer- 

 ful aspect and ' liveableness ' of my mother's 

 country home. One visitor, it is true, on being 

 taken by the latter through the flower and 

 kitchen gardens to inspect the school and the 

 exquisite white-tiled dairy, the round ending 

 with a walk through the lynches overhanging 

 the river, uttered no word of praise but only 



