AN ENGLISH DEER-PARK. 29] 



and whether the passers-by are going to the market 

 town, or returning to the village, they cannot escape 

 observation. If they come from the town, the steep 

 descent compels them to walk their horses down it ; if 

 from the village, they have a hard pull up. So the 

 oaken window-seat in the gun-room is as polished and 

 smooth as an old saddle ; for if the squire is indoors, he 

 is certain to be there. He often rests there after half an 

 hour's work on one or other of the guns in the rack ; for, 

 though he seldom uses but one, he likes to take the locks 

 to pieces upon a little bench which he has fitted up, and 

 where he has a vice, tools, a cartridge-loading apparatus, 

 and so forth, from which the room acquired its name. 

 With the naked eye, however, as the road is half a mile 

 distant, it is not possible to distinguish persons, except 

 in cases of very pronounced individuality. Nevertheless 

 old ' Ettles/ the keeper, always declared that he could 

 see a hare run up the down from the park, say a mile 

 and a half. This may be true ; but in the gun-room 

 there is a field-glass, said to have been used at the siege 

 of Seringapatam, which the squire can bring to bear 

 upon the road in an instant, for from constant use at the 

 same focus there is a rim round the tarnished brass. 

 No time, therefore, need be lost in trials ; it can be 

 drawn out to the well-known mark at once. The 

 window itself is large, but there is a casement in it, — a 

 lesser window, — which can be thrown open with a mere 

 twist of the thumb on the button, and as it swings open 

 it catches itself on a hasp. Then the field-glass exa- 

 mines the distant wayfarer. 



When people have dwelt for generations in one place 

 they come to know the history of their immediate world. 

 There was not a waggon that went by without a mean- 

 ing to the squire. One perhaps brought a load of wool 



