172 BEGGARS ON HORSEBACK. 



were not admitted on Sunday. All that remained 

 was to sit exhausted on the grass, and stare with 

 amazement at the lacework of black carved wood 

 spread upon the white walls. Not a nook without 

 a satyr head or a writhing animal, not a doorway 

 without its bossy pent-house, not a window with- 

 out its special pattern of lattice panes, each repre- 

 senting a special acquisition, and doubtless a vast 

 wear and tear of riding - habit. Their work is 

 respected, and the plain two-storey house still 

 holds like a casket the treasures of their finding, 

 and stands, crusted with ornament, as freshly 

 white and black as when the ladies took tea in 

 their porch with Wordsworth or Sir Walter Scott. 

 We hung about the small pleasure-grounds for 

 a little, among antique stone fonts and sundials, 

 and tried to find it pleasant ; but the exasperation 

 induced by a narrow vision of strange and lovely 

 things, half seen through a lancet-window, would 

 not be denied, and we presently went sulkily back 

 to the Grapes Hotel. The Arch-Druid was await- 

 ing us : we saw from afar his white beard, throned 



