A Stream and a Garden 17 



Waiting at the door, however, I remarked 

 with approval that the stream flowed close 

 to the house, so close that you might hook 

 a trout from one of the lower windows. 

 The hall of the old place was of noble 

 dimensions, with a broad, gently sloping 

 staircase, of the kind peculiar to old country 

 houses ; and the chief reception-room one 

 of great attractiveness, having fine bay 

 windows and many quiet nooks and corners. 

 The walls were decked with none of your 

 modern fashionable papers, but hidden by 

 old oak panelling, whilst the floor was also 

 of oak, smooth and polished. One of the 

 windows opened on to a lawn and a flower- 

 garden, through the centre of which ran the 

 trout-stream, spanned by several small bridges. 

 There were 



*. . . sinuous paths of lawn and moss, 

 Which led through the garden along and across ; 

 Some open at once to the sun and the breeze, 

 Some lost among bowers of blossoming trees.' 



There were, too, many beds and border- 

 ings of lovely flowers, such as the dahlia, 



B 



