AMONG THE HILLS. 49 



nestling in the rich woodlands within sight of a 

 glimpse of thin blue smoke, curling up from some 

 glades where those who worked on their estates 

 lived in their substantial old cottages, that had 

 more solid oak timber in one of them than there 

 is in a dozen of those built at the present time. 

 They were the only signs of human life that the 

 wanderer would see when I first came to these 

 parts of Surrey ; but time brings changes — nearly 

 all the old gentry have gone, to the sorrow of some 

 of us, for they were ladies and gentlemen in the 

 fullest sense of the word. A few old families re- 

 main, bearing justly honoured names, but these 

 might be counted on the fingers of one hand, I 

 believe. With the old families, their old retainers 

 the woodmen and their " post and tan " cottages 

 have passed away. They were a hard-handed folk, 

 but kind and homely of speech, themselves nature's 

 gentlemen. I have wandered many a day long with 

 some of them, but they are now nearly all laid to 

 rest in the quaint churchyards of the different ham- 

 lets, where they lie covered with what the foresters 

 call their " daisy quilts." 



Loyal henchmen I knew them to be, to a man ; 

 D 



