" A FINE OLD ENGLISH GENTLEMAN " 305 



miles a day, and we lodged three nights out of four at 

 gentlemen's houses. I bore it without inconvenience, 

 and am here as well at least as I was at Spring Grove. 

 My ladies, who are both rather crazy, approve much of 

 this leisurely mode of travelling. We shall therefore 

 return in the same manner as we came ; and, I trust, 

 dine in Soho Square on the Wednesday before the Society 

 meets. 



" Give my love to my god-son, and thank him for 

 his kindness in writing to me so frequently when I was 

 anxious on your account ^In his last letter he apologizes 

 for its not being longer, although it fills a page and a half. 

 Pray assure him that the shorter a letter is which com- 

 municates what is to be transmitted, the better both 

 for the writer and the reader. Women who have little 

 to do scold each other for shortness in letters. Men who 



have anything to do know the value of brevity." 



It would be unsatisfactory to close this history without 

 at least a peep behind the scenes at Revesby Abbey. 

 The tale would lack an important feature if Banks's 

 doings as a country squire were entirely obscure. He was 

 a thorough County man, experiencing to the full all the 

 delights which belong to rural business and rural plea- 

 sures. His home life at Revesby exemplified the character 

 in the famous old song : 



" Of a fine old English gentleman 



Who had an old estate, 

 And who kept up his old mansion 

 At a bountiful old rate. . . ." 



The house at Revesby was a large, square, uniform build- 

 ing, dating from the latter part of the seventeenth cen- 

 tury ; not altogether attractive in its somewhat cumbrous 

 shape, but capacious and comfortable. The park, given 

 over to sheep, cattle, and deer, situated on the last slope 



