A JOURNAL KEPT IN THE COUNTRY. IOI 



from small squares at the ridge to broad flagstones at 

 the eaves, best of roofs in cold or heat. The yard 

 rises from sallow-planted bottoms, by grassy mounds 

 and pits which in ampler times were the fish-stews of 

 the mansion ; there is a little lawn before the door 

 bordered with pansies and pink daisies. A vine 

 straggles over the broad base of one of the chimneys ; 

 a yew half buries another and reaches out over old 

 garden-walls, where fig-trees and pears show vast boles 

 and a thicket of shoots. 



The heavy oak door was wide ; and I found Avery 

 sorting out garden-seeds in the kitchen. When Lycetts 

 was Twy hurst, a house of the great family of the 

 Beres or Beers, who made themselves places in three 

 counties, this kitchen was the hall. It has yet the 

 great chimney-breast and open hearth, where an arm- 

 ful of sticks smoulders between the dogs, and a black 

 pot hangs from the bright steel crane or rack on the 

 chimney-back. Something remains of the old panel- 

 ling, faded and patched. Overhead the iron hooks 

 along the black timbers tell of ancient provision. 

 Out of the kitchen winds a broad staircase of solid 

 balks of oak, guarded at the foot by a massy trap of 

 the same timber, which when down and sparred across 

 would defend the upper stories, if the outer doors were 

 forced in a siege. In the middle of the great room 



