io6 FIELD AND HEDGEROW. 



adds, I think, to the interest of the old place, for it is a 

 curve that has grown and was not premeditated ; it has 

 grown like the bough of a tree, not from any set human 

 design. This, too, is the character of the house. It is 

 not large, nor overburdened with gables, not ornamental, 

 nor what is called striking, in any way, but simply an 

 old English house, genuine and true. The warm sun- 

 light falls on the old red tiles, the dark beams look the 

 darker for the glow of light, the shapely cone of the hop- 

 oast rises at the end ; there arc swallows and flowers, 

 and ricks and horses, and so it is beautiful because it is 

 natural and honest. It is the simplicity that makes it 

 so touching, like the words of an old ballad. Now at 

 Mayfield there is a timber house which is something of 

 a show place, and people goto sec it, and which certainly 

 has many more lines in its curves and woodwork, but 

 yet did not appeal to me, because it seemed too pur- 

 posely ornamental. A house designed to look well, 

 even age has not taken from it its artificiality. Neither 

 is there any cone nor cart-horses about. Why, even a 

 tall chanticleer makes a home look homely. I do like 

 to see a tall proud chanticleer strutting in the yard and 

 barely giving way as I advance, almost ready to do 

 battle with a stranger like a mastiff. So I prefer the 

 simple old home by Buckhurst Park. 



The beeches and oaks become fewer as the ground 

 rises, there are wide spaces of bracken and little woods 

 or copses, every one of which is called a ' shaw.' Then 

 come the firs, whose crowded spires, each touching each, 

 succeed for miles, and cover the hill-side with a solid 

 mass of green. They seem so close together, so thick- 

 ened and matted, impenetrable to footsteps, like a 

 mound of earth rather than woods, a solid block of 

 wood ; but there arc ways that wind through and space 



