286 A Walk from 



yards of this lace only weigh about an ounce ! If 

 the negroes on one of the South Carolina Sea-island 

 plantations could have been shut into that dressing- 

 room for two whole minutes, with the mercury at 120 

 degrees, they would have rolled up the whites of their 

 eyes in perfect amazement and made a rush for 

 " Dixie" again. 



From Nottingham I made an afternoon walk to 

 Mansfield. The weather was splendid and the country 

 in all the glory of harvest. On reaching Newstead 

 Abbey, I found, to my regret, that the entree to the 

 public had been closed by the new proprietor, one, I 

 was told, of the manufacturing gentry of the Man- 

 chester school. Not that he was less liberal and 

 accommodating to sight-seers than his predecessors, 

 but because he was making very extensive and costly 

 improvements in the buildings and grounds. I have 

 seen nothing yet in England to compare, for ornate 

 carving, with the new gateway he is making to the 

 park. It is of the finest kind of arabesque work done 

 in stone that much resembles the Caen. This pre- 

 vention barred me from even a distant view of the once 

 famous residence of Lord Byron, as it could not be 

 seen from the public road. 



Within about three miles of Mansfield, I came to 

 a turnpike gate a neat, cosy, comfortable cottage, 



