112 NATURE IN DOWNLAND 



had received accommodation at this place. Hearing 

 that the house was full I was not very confident of 

 getting a bed ; but when I came and looked at the 

 place, and passed into the peaceful shadows of its grey 

 walls and ancient trees, and when I knocked at the 

 door under the porch, and it was opened to me by a 

 comely young woman with the softest dark eyes and soft 

 and most musical voice, I begged her not to refuse me 

 and make me walk miles away in that blazing sun 

 when I was tired and hungry and wanted food and 

 rest. She considered the matter for some moments, 

 then asked me in to dinner, for it was the dinner hour ; 

 and later in the day some good-natured fellow was 

 persuaded to give up his room to me and accept a 

 shake-down in another part of the house. 



The place really was a house, although let at a 

 cottage rental to a working-man. It was a very old 

 farmhouse, deprived of its land and standing apart 

 in its own grounds, with large shade-trees in front 

 and an orchard behind. There were many rooms, low- 

 ceilinged and scantily furnished, and an immense old 

 kitchen with a brick floor. The charm of the place 

 was outside, where for long years Nature had had a 

 free hand to make it beautiful in her own matchless 

 way. The rough stone walls and low tiled roof were 

 overgrown with ivy, and small creepers, and grey and 

 yellow lichen and stone-crop ; and all the orchard and 

 the ground that had once been garden was covered 

 with grass and with wild flowers and garden flowers — 



