WARWICK WOODLANDS. 93 



magazine of shot, and sundry canisters of diamond gunpowder, 

 B rough's, were displayed on a long table under the end win- 

 dow a four-horse whip, and two fly-rods in India-rubber cases, 

 stood in the chimney-corner; while revelling in the luxurious 

 warmth of the piled hearth lay basking on the rug, three ex- 

 quisitely formed Blenheim spaniels of the large breed short- 

 legged and bony, with ears that almost swept the ground as 

 they stood upright, and coats as soft and lustrous as floss 

 silk. 



On a round table, which should have occupied the centre of 

 the parlor, now pulled up to the window-seat, whereon reclined 

 the worthies, stood a large pitcher of iced water ; a square case- 

 bottle of cut crystal filled, as the flavor which pervaded the 

 whole room sufficiently demonstrated, with superb old Antigua 

 Shrub ; several large rummers corresponding to the fashion of 

 the bottle ; a twisted taper of green wax, and a small silver 

 plate with six or eight cheroots, real manillas. 



Supper was evidently over, and the friends, amply feasted, 

 were now luxuriating in the delicious indolence, half-dozing, 

 half-day-dreaming, of a calm sleepy smoke, modestly lubricated 

 by an occasional sip of the cool beverage before them. If we 

 except a pile of box-coats, capes, and macintoshes of every cut 

 and color a travelling liquor-case which, standing open, dis- 

 played the tops of three more bottles similar to that on the ta- 

 ble, and spaces lined with velvet for all the glass in use and 

 another little leathern box, which, like the liquor-case, showed 

 its contents of several silver plates, knives, forks, spoons, flasks 

 of sauce, and condiments of different kinds the whole interior, 

 as a painter would have called it, has been depicted with all 

 accuracy. 



Without, the view on which the windows opened was indeed 

 most lovely. The day had been very bright and calm ; there 

 was not a single cloud in the pale transparent heaven, and the 

 sun, which had shone cheerfully all day from his first rising in 

 the east, till now when he was hanging like a ball of bloody 

 fire in the thin filmy haze which curtained the horizon, was still 

 shooting his long rays, and casting many a shadow over tfye 

 slopes and hollows which diversified the scene. 



Immediately across the road lay a rich velvet meadow, luxu- 

 riant still and green for the preceding month had been rather 

 wet, and frost had not set in to nip its verdure sloping down 

 southerly to a broad shallow trout-stream, which rippled all 



