i66 FRANCIS ORPEN MORRIS 



cation of the work. At one time the sale of this 

 and other works was so large that a difficulty was 

 experienced in finding a sufficient number of old tea- 

 chests a favourite means for packing the volumes 

 Mr. Fawcett produced and the country around 

 Driffield was scoured far and wide for these articles, 

 and for some time a whole lorry-load was brought 

 to his premises daily. 



It was impossible, as has been said, that a work 

 like this should ever be complete. One of the diffi- 

 culties of the undertaking was to know where to 

 begin, and which seats to select. As was stated by 

 the author in his prefatory address 



" In describing the mansions of Old England, the 

 difficulty that first occurs is to decide with which 

 to begin where so many claim foremost attention. 

 Here is one to which I could point where the same 

 family has dwelt, generation after generation, for 

 six hundred years ; and there another whose quaint 

 Gothic architecture demands and receives our ad- 

 miration. This is approached by a stately avenue 

 of ancient elms, the Cunabula gentis of the cawing 

 rooks, so well in keeping with all around, that 

 exhibits in front a dazzling labyrinth of the most 

 gorgeous coloured flowers. Here is one the novelty 

 of whose structure arrests the eye, and there an- 

 other the remarkable seclusion of whose situation 

 at once engages our interest. Again we see one 

 the vastness of whose size asserts for itself a hold 

 on our notice on that account ; and yet again 

 another, the present desolation of which, and decay 



