76 WILLEY. 



outside were oaks and other aged trees, scathed by 

 lightning's bolt and winter's blast. Here and there 

 stood a few monarchs of the old forest in groups, 

 each group a brotherhood sublime, carrying the 

 thoughts back to the days when "from glade to 

 glade, through wild copse and tangled dell, the 

 wild deer bounded." Trees, buildings, loose stones 

 that had fallen, and still lay where they fell, were 

 mossed with a hoar antiquity. Everything in fact 

 seemed to say that the place had a history of its 

 own, and that it could tell a tale of the olden time. 



From the lawn and grounds adjoining a path 

 led to the flower-gardens, intersected by gravel 

 walks and grassy terraces, where a sun-dial stood, 

 and where fountains, fed by copious supplies from 

 unfailing springs on the high grounds of Shirlot, 

 threw silvery showers above the shadows of the 

 trees into the sunlight. 



"Willey, augmented by tracts of Shirlot, which 

 was finally disafibrested and apportioned two cen- 

 turies since, came into possession of the Foresters 

 by the marriage of Brook Forester, of Dothill Park, 

 with Elizabeth, only surviving child and heiress of 

 George Weld, of Willey ; and George Forester, " the 

 Squire of Willey," was the fruit of that marriage. 



