THE RUSSELLS 283 



The largest is 10 feet loiio- by 5 feet, and 2 feet thick, 

 lying clown. A notice informs all who care to know 

 that this group is constituted by the owner, accord- 

 ing to the Act of Parliament, an ' Ancient Monu- 

 ment.' The cynically -minded might well say that 

 the hundreds of similar ' ancient monuments ' with 

 which the neighbouring downs are peppered might 

 also be railed off, to give a welcome fillip to the trade 

 in iron fencing, and certainly this caretaking of every 

 misshaj)en stone without a story is the New Idolatry. 



Just beyond this point is the castellated lodge of 

 the park of Bridehead, embowered amid trees. The 

 place obtains its name from the little river Bride or 

 Bredy which rises in the grounds and Hows away to 

 enter the sea at Burton ( = ' Bride-town ') Bradstock, 

 eight miles away ; passing in its course the two other 

 places named from it, Little Bredy and Long Bredy. 



Now the road rises as^ain, and ascends wild un- 

 enclosed downs which gradually assume a stern, and 

 even mountainous, character. Amid this panorama, 

 in the deep hollows below these stone-strewn heights, 

 are gracious wooded dells, doubly beautiful by con- 

 trast. In the still and sheltered nooks of these 

 sequestered spots the primrose blooms early, and frosts 

 come seldom, while the uplands are covered with 

 snow or swept with bleak winds that freeze the 

 traveller's very marrow. One of these gardens in the 

 wilderness is Kingston Russell, the spot whence the 

 Russells, now Dukes of Bedford, sprang from obscurity 

 into wealth and power. Deep down in their retire- 

 ment, the world (or such small proportion of it as 

 travelled in those days) passed unobserved, though 



