Londoner rarely exceeded three months
out of twelve. Except for these three months, my habits, as they formed
themselves after my father's death, were for a long time these: Of the
nine other months I spent about two in Devonshire, where by this time,
through inheritance, a new home was open to me--Lauriston Hall,
overlooking Torbay, whose waters were visible from the windows through a
screen of balustrades and rhododendrons. I generally wintered
abroad--for the most part on the Riviera--and the rest of my time was
occupied in country visits at home, from the South of England and
Ireland to the borders of Sutherland and Caithness.

During the months of the London season my immediate preoccupations,
superficially at all events, were, no doubt, those of an idler; but even
during such periods, as I presently shall have occasion to mention,
serious thoughts beset me almost without cessation. Even experiences of
human nature which were flashed on me at balls and dinners, through that
species of mental polygamy of which society essentially consists, helped
me to mature projects which I executed under conditions of greater calm
elsewhere. In the following chapter I shall speak of country houses,
describing the atmosphere and aspect of some of those which were best
known to me, and which I found most favorable to the prosecution of such
serious work as I have accomplished in the way of philosophy, of
fiction, and of direct or of indirect politics.

CHAPTER VIII

SOCIETY IN COUNTRY HOUSES

A Few Country Houses of Various Types--Castles and Manor Houses
from Cornwall to Sutherland

The pleasantest form of society in country houses--I speak here for
myself--is not to be found on occasions such as that of a great shooting
party or a party for a country ball, but rather in gatherings of a
smaller and more intimate kind.

As an illustration of my own views in this respect, I may mention an
incident which may appeal, perhaps, to the sympathies of others whose
tastes or distastes are like my own. I was asked to stay in Shropshire
with some friends whom I knew so intimately that they did not care how
they treated me; and on this occasion they had treated me very ill. As I
was approaching my destination by way of a little local line, I was
surprised at seeing on the platform of one station after another an
extraordinary amount of luggage, together with a number of footmen and
unmistakable ladies' maids. What coul