The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1892-08-11
ONE OF ENeLANp.s Parks.

Charlecote In Warwiokshire Being Over
run by Cockney Pleasure Parties.
Charlecote strikes us as one of the
most attractive of English parks of the
third order, considering that it enjoys
no great natural advantages. Or rather,
we should say, that it's beauties arc
soft, not stern; and the ground, al
though gently rolling and gracefully
broken, is but n piece of tolcrably level
Warwickshire woodland There IRE no
trees SO venerable as those at Welbeck
or Thoresby; the oaks are scarcely so
luXuriantly outrageous as those ut the
adjacent Stoneleigh; but the elm,
which is the tree of Warwicxshirc par
excellence, is to be seen ut Charlecote
In perfection If n poet had something
less than the dramatic talent of a
Shakespeare, it would be hard to con-
ccive him not finding inspiration in
these scenes The elns, with their
rugged and roughly ribbed stems, cast
broad shadows across the smooth-nib-
blcd turf, which catches each flickering
reflection of the heccy clouds The
rocks clamor in the foliage overhead;
the jnckdaws seem to be perpetually
playing hide and seek in the riffs and
holes where they make their nests and
nurse their families; the rabbits, gray
ind white, are bobbing in and out of
their burrows, and tho dappled fallow
deer, which nre the seignorinl aristocracy
of the domain, are either leisurely flick
ing at the flies with tails and horns or
Illuminating In blissful ropose, buried ND
to the lustrous eyes in the bracken.
Beyond all is the moss-grown palisade
Of onk, built up of shnpeless blocks of
timber, rather than rails, patched and
mended by peasant craftsmen in all
directions, and yet looking as if it
might have been put together by the
Sir Thomas of Shakespenrian celebrity
and built for eternity rather than time
1t Is genuinely English scene, and
seems as If it ought to be lonely, peace
full and sequestereI The swan floats
in solemn state on the river that swirls
gently along between the sedgy banks,
at tho back of the old Tudor manor
house, with itscmany nodded chimney
stacks and mullioned windows The
rabbits and the deer have become used
to intrusion, and care as little for the
presence of the pedestrians going pic
nicing as the cattle IN the midland
meadows for the flying express But
the occupants of that ancient and ro-
mantle Warwickshire hall can scarcely
be expected to regard recent changes so
complacently. All day long, when they
take their strolls abroad, they must lis
ten TO the rattle of the flies from STRAIT
ford to Warwick passing along the road
that skirts the park The more ener-
getic of members of these Oockney or
American pleasure parties, who have
been making their pilgrimage to the
shrine of Shakespeare, get out mt the
lodge to enjoy the park-and small
blame to them. Nor is it to be expected
that they should keep strictly to the
beaten track, and so they practically
confiscate the lord of the manors pri-
vate domain, which, MS we have said,
although it is beautiful, is not very ex-
tensive- Hitherto the visitors seemed
to have been content with the run of the
land, now they insist on having free
passage by the water as we'll And at
Charlecote the Avon encircles the flower
terraces and literally goes gliding round
beneath the windows of the public
rooms. If the rights Of the public are
not absolutely beyond legal challenge,
we cannot wonder that the inmates Of
Charlecote should be inclined to contest
them Review.