NO MAN'S LAND. 181 



place to wild plums, the black and the lighter 

 bullace ; crab-trees and more walnuts show ; another 

 turn, and we have on our right a walled farm. I 

 have never seen a building such as this excepting 

 in Flemish paintings. Away from the road, walled 

 in all round and surrounded by trees, it looks truly 

 grim. There is a sort of out-of-the-world look and 

 feeling about it. In the woods on either side some 

 of the trees are nodding to their fall. The same 

 grizzly -looking casements show themselves here as 

 those we noted before. 



Farther on, we come to a mansion covered with 

 weather-stains and mosses. It has embrasures like 

 some old battlements of ancient days. Old age is 

 stamped over everything. 



Not even a wild rabbit have we seen yet. It is 

 not to be surprised at, for all wild creatures love 

 light and life, and there is little of either here. 

 The whole line of country so far has a desolate 

 and forsaken look about it, so much so that we want 

 to be quit of it. At length, at the end of the road, 

 we see the entrance-gates of what one would sup- 

 pose to be a noble domain. It is surrounded by 

 flint walls. Here at least we are near human beings. 



