106 FIELD AND HEDGEROW. 
adds, I think, to the interest of the old place, for it is a 
curve that has grown and was not premeditated ; it has 
grown like the bough of a tree, not from any set human 
design. This, too, is the character of the house. It is 
not large, nor overburdened with gables, not ornamental, 
nor what is called striking, in any way, but simply an 
old English house, genuine and true. The warm sur: 
light falls on the old red tiles, the dark beams look the 
' darker for the glow of light, the shapely cone of the hop: 
, oast rises at the end; there are swallows and flowers, 
and ricks and horses, and so it is beautiful because it is 
natural and honest. It is the simplicity that makes it 
so touching, like the words of an old ballad. Now at 
Mayfield there is a timber house which is something of 
a show place, and people goto see it, and which certainly 
has many more lines in its curves and woodwork, but 
yet did not appeal to me, because it seemed too pur- 
posely ornamental. A house designed to look well, 
“even age has not taken from it its artificiality. Neither 
is there any cone nor cart-horses about. Why, even a 
tall chanticleer makes a home look homely. I do like - 
to see a tall proud chanticleer strutting in the yard and 
barely giving way as I advance, almost ready to do 
battle with a stranger like a mastiff. So I prefer the 
simple old home by Buckhurst Park. 
The beeches and oaks become fewer as the ground 
rises, there are wide spaces of bracken and little woods 
or copses, every one of which. is called a ‘shaw.’ Then 
come the firs, whose crowded spires, each touching each, 
succeed for miles, and cover the hill-side with a solid 
mass of green. They seem so close together, so thick- 
ened and matted, impenetrable to footsteps, like a 
mound of earth rather than woods, a solid block of 
wood ; but there are ways that wind through and space 
