280 INTRODUCTION. 



rooks and the " steeple daws," were notorious for 

 their longevity. Had a village Rip van Winkle 

 of 1 680 been aroused from his century and a half of 

 slumber, and placed on the steps of the tavern, 

 looking up the dell above the green mill-meadows, 

 he would have seen just as they appeared before 

 the Reformation the grey old Hall and the 

 heronry behind it ! the deer still browsing in the 

 deep shades of that most umbrageous of parks ! 

 the swans still floating on the miniature lake ! 

 the winged griffins on the columns at the park- 

 gates, still watchful as the dragon that guarded the 

 golden fruit in the orchard of the Hesperides ! 

 the trees and ivy still embowering the lodge ! 

 and, in the distance, the grouse-hills still unin- 

 closed ! 



Oakleigh was famous for its yews and its hollies 

 for the large growth and dark foliage of its forest- 

 trees for its innumerable birds of song for its 

 rich water-meadows and sunny gardens for the 

 narrowness and steepness of its lanes and the 

 height of its hawthorn hedges ! From the river to 

 the Hall, the country was an Eden in fertility ! 

 but beyond the woods behind and above the Hall, 

 a different clime presented itself: on the one hand 

 a wilderness of heather, and on the other a wide- 

 ranging, treeless view of smooth-turfed limestone 

 hills studded with white rocks. 



