therefore, passes the whole of his time on his estate. He is
a strenuous advocate for the revival of the old rural games
and holiday observances, and is deeply read in the writers,
ancient and modern, who have treated on the subject. In-
deed, his favorite range of reading is among the authors who
flourished at least two centuries since; who, he insists, wrote
and thouht more like true Englishmen than any of their suc-
cessors. He even regrets sometimes that he had not been
born a few centuries earlier, when England was itself, and
had its peculiar manners and customs. As he lives at some
distance from the main road, in rather a lonely part of the
country, without any rival gentry near him, he has that most
enviable of all blessings to an Englishman, an opportunity of
indulging the bent of his own humor without molestation.
Being representative of the oldest family in the neighbor-
hood, and a great part of the peasantry being his tenants, he
is much looked up to, and, in general, is known simply by the
appellation of ' The 'Squire;' a title which has been ac-
corded to the head of the family since time immemorial. I
think it best to give you these hints about my worthy old
father, to prepare you for any little eccentricities that might
otherwise appear absurd."

We had passed for some time along the wall of a park,
and at length the chaise stopped at the gate. It was in a
heavy magnificent old style, of iron bars, fancifully wrought
at top into flourishes and flowers. The huge square columns
that supported the gate were surmounted by the family crest.
Close adjoining was the porter's lodge, sheltered under dark
fir trees, and almost buried in shrubbery.

The post-boy ran a large porter's bell, which resounded
through the still frosty air, and was answered by the distant
barking of dogs, with which the mansion-house seemed gar-
risoned. An old woman immediately appeared at the gate.
As the moonlight fell strongly upon her, I had a full view of
a little primitive dame, dressed very much in antique taste,
with a neat kerchief and stomacher, and her silver hair peep-

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