yS WINTER SKETCHES. 



has been instituted, fixed, established in Brit- 

 ain for centuries. The English castle and 

 manor-house have been and are still the scenes 

 which English novelists most delight to pict- 

 ure. Comfort, that charming English word 

 for which there is no French equivalent, is 

 centered in them. 



Beautiful as they are in summer, with their 

 parks and green lawns, it is in the winter that 

 they are at their best. It is in the winter that 

 people *' run down to the country" for their 

 most perfect enjoyment. Christmas was made 

 for the country. Those Christmas holidays ! 

 That blessed season of family reunions, of 

 unbounded hospitality, of universal benev- 

 olence commemorating the birth of Christ as 

 he would have it observed ! He may have 

 been the predicted " man of sorrows and ac- 

 quainted with grief," but if I read his history 

 aright, he who feasted with Pharisees, publicans, 

 and sinners alike, was of a temperament so 

 happy and genial that he would look with more 

 favor on gatherings like these than upon the 

 life-long fasts and penances of fanatical priests 

 and saints. Christmas, merry Christmas ! Yes, 

 he intended that it should be merry. He meant 

 that man should be happy, not miserable, for 



