CLEVELAND HALL. 49 



with much cordiality. We found them sitting at 

 an open window, or rather glass door opening upon 

 a wide and extensive terrace, drinking their tea. 

 Though it was only six o^clock, that was the hour 

 in those good times, at which the refreshment I 

 mentioned wag usually ordered. After we had 

 partaken of it, finding my companion busily engaged 

 in talking over family matters with his aunts, I 

 strolled out upon the terrace. The view from it, as 

 the yellow beams of the setting sun rested upon 

 the woods in the park, was beautiful. They were 

 chiefly of beech, and from the top of one of 'the 

 trees, a lonely thrush began to pour forth its even- 

 ing song. 



' The massy piles of old magnificence, 



' Which, clust'ring high, the tufted groves o'erlook' 



were so different from any thing I had been accus- 

 tomed to see, that my mind imperceptibly fell into a 

 contemplative mood, and I began to meditate on 

 events long since passed away. I observed a small 

 mound of earth, just below the terrace, covered 

 with little clusters of the wild strawberry, on the 

 leaves of which some drops of rain which had 

 recently fallen, (and had added to the freshness of 

 the evening,) sparkled like so many diamonds. I 

 fancied that this mound might, in a former age, 

 have been piled up over the bones of some mighty 

 warriors, and that the trees near it were still bend- 

 ing their heads in deference to their valour. No 

 D 



