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 winding 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 
G 4 
