THE KEPP. 127 



thronging to drink in great numbers ; I have seen 

 the same thing, however, in other places, lately. 

 The ants, also, are very thirsty, crowding to every 

 vessel of water in the house ; forming long, serpen- 

 tine, black lines up the sides, around the edges, and 

 down the concavities of the basins and ewers in our 

 bed-rooms, and black circles around the water's edge. 

 The orange-groves were in blossom, and delighted 

 the senses of sight and smelling with their beauty 

 and profuse fragrance. 



After wdnding round many of the curious hemi- 

 spherical hills that I have already mentioned, we 

 came to the Kepp, the estate of George Marcy, Esq., 

 to whom I had an introduction. This property is par- 

 ticularly beautiful: its surface is very varied, present- 

 ing continual changes of scenery. The broad swells 

 and slopes of pasture, verdant in spite of the drought, 

 are enriched by a great variety of fine trees, standing 

 singly and in clumps, all of them useful, and many 

 of noble and imposing beauty. The negro huts of 

 the estate, embosomed, as usual, in luxuriant groves 

 of deepest green, and in small gardens of pro- 

 visions; — the white mansion crowning a swelling 

 hill ; — the dark belts of surrounding forest, admitting, 

 here and there, peeps at the smiling fields of neigh- 

 bouring estates ; — impart a peculiar character of 

 loveliness to the scene. One lofty tree was nearly 

 covered with the dark-green foliage, and magnificent 

 white trumpet-blossoms of a climbing plant, probably 

 a species of Bignonia, that had spread itself over the 

 branches like a mantle, and hung down in the richest 

 profusion. On the fruit-trees of the estate, many 



