ARRIVAL AT MR. BARRILI/S HOME. 261 



And I pitied the miserable beings who were compelled to 

 drag out an 'existence in such a gloomy prison of houses. 

 My impressions were not concealed from Mr. Barrill, nor 

 were they offensive. He said that England had some 

 beautiful scenes, and that it was endeared to him as the 

 home of his fathers, but as a place of residence, he ac- 

 knowledged that it was greatly inferior to most countries 

 we had visited. 



I was heartly glad when we arrived at the country 

 seat in the county of Kent. It was a beautiful estate of 

 about two hundred acres, well-arranged and watered, and 

 having some nicely arranged scenes in imitation of nature. 

 The mansion was a structure of a venerable aspect, but 

 spacious and commodious. A small stable and a kennel 

 adjoined a great stone barn, but they were now scantly 

 filled. An old couple and their stalwart son, named John, 

 of course had resided in the mansion during Mr. Ban-ill's 

 absence. They seemed extremely glad to see him, and 

 from the kindly way in which he spoke to them, I have 

 no doubt of their sincerity. We found that the trophies 

 of our hunting expeditions had arrived, and the boxes, un- 

 opened, were ranged in the great hall. 



I remained two weeks at this hospitable mansion, as- 

 sisting Mr. Barrill to unpack and arrange his stock of 

 trophies hearing stories of his ancestry, whose portraits 

 looked stifly from the walls of the library examining the 



