vulgar hands
of the mere reader;" and, to continue the happy expressions of an
ingenious writer, "dazzling one's eyes like eastern beauties, peering
through their jealousies."[3]

[Footnote 3: D'Israeli--_Curiosities of Literature_.]

He has a great desire, however, to read such works in the old
libraries and chapter-houses to which they belong; for he thinks a
black-letter volume reads best in one of those venerable chambers
where the light struggles through dusty lancet windows and painted
glass; and that it loses half its zest, if taken away from the
neighbourhood of the quaintly-carved oaken book-case and Gothic
reading-desk. At his suggestion, the Squire has had the library
furnished in this antique taste, and several of the windows glazed
with painted glass, that they may throw a properly tempered light upon
the pages of their favourite old authors.

The parson, I am told, has been for some time meditating a commentary
on Strutt, Brand, and Douce, in which he means to detect them in
sundry dangerous errors in respect to popular games and superstitions;
a work to which the Squire looks forward with great interest. He is,
also, a casual contributor to that long-established repository of
national customs and antiquities, the Gentleman's Magazine, and is one
of those that every now and then make an inquiry concerning some
obsolete custom or rare legend; nay, it is said that several of his
communications have been at least six inches in length. He frequently
receives parcels by coach from different parts of the kingdom,
containing mouldy volumes and almost illegible manuscripts; for it is
singular what an active correspondence is kept up among literary
antiquaries, and how soon the fame of any rare volume, or unique copy,
just discovered among the rubbish of a library, is circulated among
them. The parson is more busy than common just now, being a little
flurried by an advertisement of a work, said to be preparing for the
press, on the mythology of the middle ages. The little man has long
been gathering together all the hobgoblin tales he could collect,
illustrative of the superstitions of former times; and he is in a
complete fever lest this formidable rival should take the field before
him.

Shortly after my arrival at the Hall, I called at the parsonage, in
company with Mr. Bracebridge and the general. The parson had not been
seen for several days, which was a matter of some surprise, as he was
an almost dail