Part 32 (1/2)

But, though the two blood-horses are by no means slow of

[226 ADVENTURES OF MR VERDANT GREEN]

action, and do, in truth, gallop apace like fiery-footed steeds, yet to Mr Verdant Green's anxious nificent country through which they pass offers but slight charhts; until (at last) they coe, and Mr Honeywood, pointing with his whip, exclaims, ”Yon's the Cheevyuts, as they say in these parts; there are the Cheviot Hills; and there, just where you see that glea some trees - there is Honeywood Hall”

Did Mr Verdant Green remove his eyes fro hills, for a time, hid it from his view? did he, when they neared it, and he saw its landscape beauties bathed in the golden splendours of a July sunset, did he think it a very paradise that held within its bowers the Peri of his heart's worshi+p?

did he - as they passed the lodge, and drove up an avenue of firs - did he scan the s of the house, and immediately determine in his own ht sleep on the other side of the building? did he, as they pulled up at the door, scrutinize the feures ere there to receive the h not present, aiting near with a heart beating as anxiously as his own? did he make wild re-expected ht him face to face with the adorable Patty? did he envy Charles Larkyns for possessing and practising the cousinly privilege of bestowing a kiss upon her rosy cheeks? and did he, as he pressed her hand, and low of her happy face, did he feel within his heart an exultant thrill of joy as the fervid thought fired his brain - one day she may be mine?

Perhaps!

[AN OXFORD FRESHMAN 227]

CHAPTER II

MR VERDANT GREEN DELIVERS MISS PATTY HONEYWOOD FROM THE HORNS OF A DILEMMA

<vg227jpg> EVEN if Mr Verdant Green had not been filled with the peculiarly pleasurable sensations to which allusion has just been ly probable that he would have found his visit to Honeywood Hall one of those agreeable and notable events which the memory of after-years invests with the ~couleur du rose~

In the first place - even if Miss Patty was left out of the question - every one was so particularly attentive to hiarded amusement and occupation, were pro heavily upon his hands And, in the second place, the country, and its people and customs, had so much freshness and peculiarity, that he could not stir abroad withoutwith novelty New ideas were constantly received; and other sensations of a still htful nature were daily deepened

Thus the time passed pleasantly away at Honeywood Hall, and the hours chased each other with flying feet

Mr Honeyas a squire, or laird; and though the prospect fro monarch of ~all~ that he surveyed, yet he was the proprietor of no inconsiderable portion The sht its one wide street of long, low, lime-washed houses hard by the hall, - owned no other master than Mr Honeywood; and all its inhabitants were, in one way or other, his labourers They had their own blackseneral shop of the tea-coffee-tobacco-and-snuff genus; and they lived as one fae In fact, the villages in that district were as sparingly distributed as are ”livings” a poor curates, and, when met with, were equally as small; and so it happened, that as the landowners usually resided, like Mr Honeywood, aentlehbour, as though he had been a resident in the backwoods of Canada This evil, however, was productive of good, in that it set aside

[228 ADVENTURES OF MR VERDANT GREEN]

the possibility of a deliberate interchange of forhbours to be hospitable to each other, ~sans cereood fellowshi+p To drive fifteen, twenty, or even five-and-twenty miles, to a dinner party was so coer, whose wonderue would be quickly dispelled on witnessing the hearty hospitality and friendly freedom that made a north country visit so enjoyable, and robbed the dinner party of its ordinary character of an English solee was the Squire's s, and its co at sunrise, when our Warwickshi+re friends were yet in bed, such of theht sleepers would hear a not very e that the day's as begun, which signal was repeated at sunset This old custoret was that he had left behind him his celebrated tin horn But he took to the cow-horn with the readiness of a child to a new plaything; and, having placed hi> the Northuo the complete unicorn (as he ont to express it, in his peculiarly figurative eastern language) with a stilleffect than he had done on his forentle the tireatly to the delight of s, and hly-trained donkey, rode to and fro to the neighbouring post-town

Although Mr Verdant Green was not (according to Mr Bouncer) ”a bucolical party,” and had not any very ariculture, he nevertheless could not but feel interested in what he saw around him To one as so accustoe-rows of the rand, though naked aspect, like soladiator of the stern old tie extent; and it was no uncoht to see, within one boundary fence, a

[AN OXFORD FRESHMAN 229]

hundred acres of wheat, rippling into mimic waves, like sorand scale; men counted their sheep, not by tens, but by hundreds Everything seee character of the scenery The green hills, with their short sweet grass, gave good pasture for the fleecy tribe, ere dotted over the sward in alratified with ”the silly sheep,” as with anything else that he witnessed in that land of novelty To see the shepherd, with his bonnet and grey plaid, and long slinging step, walking first, and the flock following him, - to hear him call the sheep by name, and to perceive how he knew them individually, and how they each and all would answer to his voice, was a realization of Scripture reading, and a northern picture of Eastern life

The head shepherd, old Andrew Graha snowy locks had been bleached by the snows of eighty winters - was an especial favourite of Mr Verdant Green's, ould never tire of his coe was at a distance fro hollow of one of the hills There he lived, and there had been brought up his six sons, and as hters Of the latter, tere out at service in noble families of the county; one was maid to the Misses Honeywood, and the three others were at hoe were housed, was a h old Andreas of a superior condition in life to the other cottagers of Honeybourn, yet his doee room, fitted up with cupboards, in which, one above another, were berths, like to those on board a stea toilettes were perforreater ood-looking trio of damsels were always to be found neat, clean, and presentable; and, as their mother one day proudly remarked, they were ”douce, sonsy bairns, eel-faur'd nebs; and, for puir folks, would be weel tochered” Upon which our hero said ”Indeed!” which, as he had not the slightest idea what the good woman meant, was, perhaps, the wisest reenerally to be found spinning at herto the music of its cheerful hum, the while her spun thread was rapidly coiled up on the spindle The others, as they busied thehtened up the delf and pewter, and set it out on the shelf to its best advantage, would join in soood taste and skill that our friends would

[230 ADVENTURES OF MR VERDANT GREEN]

frequently love to linger within hearing, though out of sight

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But these artless ditties were soe-roo fire-place For, old Andreas a great sly fond of waylaying hi a cloud” with so loquacious and novel a companion And Mr Verdant Green sometimes joined him in these visits; on which occasions, as harmony was the order of the day, he would do his best to further it by singing ”Marble Halls,” or any other song that his limited ~repertoire~ could boast; while old Andreould burst into ”Tullochgorum,” or do violence to ”Get up and bar the door”