XXIV 



WOULD you view fair Levens aright ? you must 



visit it in earliest spring, for that is the 

 A North 



Country season in which to realise its peculiar 

 Hall 



charm. Summer, in sooth, is sweet 



there; nowhere does June sunlight fall on fairer 

 prospect of sloping lawn, grey crag, deep-bosomed 

 wood, and bending river ; but then every English 

 park is enchanted ground in summer. In autumn 

 this northern vale is rich with ripening grain, 

 stretching away to the silvery limestone bluff of 

 Whitbarrow, and round it to the blue loops and 

 crests of the Cumberland range. But westland 

 autumns are of precarious mood ; it is depressing to 

 gaze on a sloppy harvest through streaming panes. 

 In wan winter twilight, when lights beckon early 

 across the frore, the old hall is almost too pictur- 

 esque, suggesting the cheap art of Christmas cards. 

 But though winds of March, sweeping bare the land 



