346 THE OLD MANOR HOUSE 



the tawny owl is hooting, or the white owl 

 shrieking in the adjacent elm trees, that the shades 

 of many generations of the Binghams were fondly 

 hovering. 



Further on again, is a circular dovecote of stone 

 without an angle in the whole, walls, roof, or top, 

 like the Temple of Vesta at Rome, such as no well- 

 conditioned Manor House of the Edwards or the 

 Henrys would willingly have been without. Long 

 borders of herbaceous plants, with grass walks 

 between them, intersect the kitchen garden ; while, 

 outside the latter, is a green walk, always shady and 

 cool, sheltered by filberts and rhododendrons below, 

 and by tall silver firs and sycamores above. There 

 is a " lovers' seat " and a " lovers' walk." There is a 

 lower garden with a little stream, which often comes 

 down in spate. There is a picturesque old water 

 wheel, and a meadow named " Swallow Flights," 

 suggestive of one of the chief joys of summer. 

 There are three fish ponds with little islands in 

 them, the haunt of the moorhen and the wild duck, 

 and there is a plantation surrounding the whole, in 

 which the beech and the plane, the chestnut and 

 the yew, thrive well, and which is carpeted in mid- 

 winter an acre of it or more with snowdrops ; 

 while, in the spring, the rest is covered with 



