ss, which are necessary to accomplish such results, die out in
America. Nevertheless, such grounds are exceedingly beautiful to look
upon, and I was much obliged to the owners of these places for keeping
their gates hospitably open, as seems to be the custom here.

After a drive of seven or eight miles, we alighted in front of Speke
Hall. This house is a specimen of the old fortified houses of England,
and was once fitted up with a moat and drawbridge, all in approved
feudal style. It was built somewhere about the year 1500. The sometime
moat was now full of smooth, green grass, and the drawbridge no longer
remains.

This was the first really old thing that we had seen since our arrival
in England. We came up first to a low, arched, stone door, and knocked
with a great old-fashioned knocker; this brought no answer but a treble
and bass duet from a couple of dogs inside; so we opened the door, and
saw a square court, paved with round stones, and a dark, solitary yew
tree in the centre. Here in England, I think, they have vegetable
creations made on purpose to go with old, dusky buildings; and this yew
tree is one of them. It has altogether a most goblin-like, bewitched
air, with its dusky black leaves and ragged branches, throwing
themselves straight out with odd twists and angular lines, and might put
one in mind of an old raven with some of his feathers pulled out, or a
black cat with her hair stroked the wrong way, or any other strange,
uncanny thing. Besides this they live almost forever; for when they have
grown so old that any respectable tree ought to be thinking of dying,
they only take another twist, and so live on another hundred years. I
saw some in England seven hundred years old, and they had grown queerer
every century. It is a species of evergreen, and its leaf resembles our
hemlock, only it is longer. This sprig gives you some idea of its
general form. It is always planted about churches and graveyards; a kind
of dismal emblem of immortality. This sepulchral old tree and the bass
and treble dogs were the only occupants of the court. One of these, a
great surly mastiff, barked out of his kennel on one side, and the
other, a little wiry terrier, out of his on the opposite side, and both
strained on their chains, as if they would enjoy making even more
decided demonstrations if they could.

There was an aged, mossy fountain for holy water by the side of the
wall, in which some weeds were growing. A door in