London to John O* Groat's. 301 



cheaper than the stony pasturage around the villages 

 of New England. I noticed a flock of Spanish sheep, 

 black-and-white, looking like a drove of Berkshire hogs, 

 and seemingly clothed with bristles instead of wool. 

 They are kept rather as curiosities than for use. 



Chatsworth, with all its treasures and embodiments 

 of wealth, art and genius, with an estate continuous in 

 one direction for about thirty miles, is but one of the 

 establishments of the Duke of Devonshire. He owns 

 a palace on the Thames that might crown the ambition 

 of a German prince. He also counts in his possessions 

 old abbeys, baro'nial halls, parks and towns that once 

 were walled, and still have streets called after their 

 gates. If any country is to have a personage occupy- 

 ing such a position, it is well to have a considerable 

 number of the same class, to yeomenise such an aristo- 

 cracy to make each feel that he has his peers in fifty 

 others. Otherwise an isolated duke would have to 

 live and move outside the pale of human society ; a 

 proud, haughty entity dashing about, with not even a 

 comet's orbit nor any fixed place in the constellation of 

 a nation's communities. It is of great necessity to 

 him, independent of political considerations, that there 

 is a House of Peers instituted, in which he may find 

 his social level ; where he may meet his equals in con- 

 siderable numbers, and feel himself but a man. 



