Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1873-02-05

with the small diamond panes of Tudor
times, the stone balustrades bordering the
terraces that rose in picturesque uneven
ness around the fower-g garden and shrub
beries,-everything, indeed, wore an old
time look, and carried one back to the
days of stately Elizabeth and Raleigh.
We received information from the chair
man of the perambulating Society, that
our guests would arrive at such and such
an hour (about Iuncheon-time, l think /,
and after partaking of our hospitality,
would 60 on to the little town and inspect
the church, the family monuments, the
almshouses, and an old grammar-school
and farmhouse of the fourteenth century,
finishing with ruined and deserted chapel
of very ancient date in small hamlet a
mile or so further than the town.
W. spent good deal of time and
trouble getting up the substantial part of
the entertainment, and the whole house
hold was busy for days in the various de-
partments, making enormous pasties, won-
derlul conglomerations of cold meats, pies,
galantines, mountains of confectionery and
inlmitable brown bread, ices and cream
cheeses, for the expected guests The
| fruit and flower decoration of the long
table in the Elizabethan dining-room might
have shamed a painters taste, and the
adjuncts of highly carved oak chairs,
scul ptured stone mante-piece, and family
portraits covering the walls, made splen-
did and appropriate background.
We expected very particular " lion ~
with the Archaeological Society, Miss
Agnes Strickland, the veteran historian of
English and Scottish royalty, and the
brave advocate of slandered Mary Stuart
Her books had been familiar to US from
childhood, and stood on the old library
shelves in imposing array, twenty or thirty
volumes at east.
The day came, and towards noon we
were all expectation. II was quite novel
experience, and we had been anxiously
looking forward to it. The Society ar
rived in nuuberless vehicles, Of all kinds
and sizes, some very much overloaded.
1t did not look very fashionable indeed,
its costumes were, on the contrary, rather
eccentric The gentlemen wore rusty
black clothes, tourists costumes, shooting
garments-anythiDg. The ladies had on
very thick boots, blue wells, saucer-shaped
hats, and all manner of comfortable,
though hardly elegant wraps. Altogether
the males Of the party looked " Sc edy,"
and their companions strong-minded. ;"
1t was curious bevy to welcome to the
quiet old house.
Many cergymen were there earnest in
searching out ecclesiastico architectural
details, aud some of them very much in
terested in our domestic chapel, little
Gothic gem, which, albeit modern, was
worthy of the thirteenth century. The
guests roamed from room to room, admir-
ing as one does in museum, the objects
of art and rirtu scattered around, and now
and then issuing out on the terraced flow
er-gardan, laid out English-wise in geome-
trica patterns of brilliantly tinted and
well coltrasted flowers. The huge cruel.
form barn, supposed to have been a monas
tic tith-barn, and which now served as
coach-house and stables, drew much atten-
ton and occasioned scientific comments
without number Most people mistake it
for a church, on first approaching it from
the carriage road, and the illusion is
heightened by the narrow Sits like lancet
windows cut between the buttresses, and
the quasi cross shaped ornament that
crowns its foremost gable. Bouquets were
hastily picked and presented to the ladies
Of the party, as we accompanied them
through the grounds, stopping to see the
views which certain openings cut among
the trees We're calculated to frame to the
best advantage.
There were more people than we had
reckoned on, but, thanks to the prudence
of our invaluable house-keeper, not more
than we were prepared for. There Ger
tainly was a goodly proportion of guests
whose devotion to archaeology was less
perceptible than their reverent curiosity
about their superiors. We had been
warned Of this, and if it gave these good
people any pleasure to see how we dined
lived, slept and prayed, it certainly was
no trouble to US to crafty the innocent
prying. So with our incongruous medley
Of visitors the time passed quickly and
pleasantly till the gong doomed out its
summons to breakfast" There was a
rush for the dining-room, but the Society
could not get in all together for the table
would not seat much more than twenty or
thirty a. time), so it had to feed in
patches. 1t must have been very hungry
for the first batch left but wreck for the
cooopl 70 HnIeb np1 II l.
appeased with the reserve dishes that pru
dence had only supplied in time. II
eschewed the breakfast, and continued
doing the honors of the house and grounds
Miss Agnes Strickland had come with
the rest. She seemed wonderfully buoy
ant and sociable. 1t was the first time | |
had seen an authoress face to face, and
one whose works were so familiar to me as
standard school-books. She was an old
tall, healthy and masculine, a |
great talker, and CHEEKY, warm hearted
person. She was asked to give us a quiet
week after the Archaeological jaunt. and
she consented apparently very gladly. The
afternoon being now pretty far advanced,
It was thought time, though the days were
still long, to resume the ostensible busi-
ness which lay at the root of this ban
lueting tour. 1t was a pretty and
curious sight to see the male and female
lntiquaries gather from all parts of the
house and grounds, some fresh from devo-
ional admiration of the Gothic chapel,
others from poring over the Carthaginian
marbles ingeniously wrought into a mosaic
able, others again from poetic wanderings
n the strawberries at the back of the
house. The carriages were once more
packed, and the Society's implements
lammers or.the geological, poetical guide
,ooks for the romantic, sun-umbrellas for
he practical-safely slowed away. The
procession defled through the park and