and sundry canisters of diamond gunpowder,
Brough's, were displayed on a long table under the end window--a
four-horse whip, and two fly-rods in India-rubber cases, stood in the
chimney-corner; while reveling in the luxurious warmth of the piled
hearth lay basking on the rug, three exquisitely formed Blenheim
spaniels of the large breed--short-legged and bony, with ears that
almost swept the ground as they stood upright, and coats as soft and
lustrous as floss silk.

On a round table, which should have occupied the centre of the parlor,
now pulled up to the window-seat, whereon reclined the worthies, stood a
large pitcher of iced water; a square case-bottle of cut crystal filled,
as the flavor which pervaded the whole room sufficiently demonstrated,
with superb old Antigua Shrub; several large rummers corresponding to
the fashion of the bottle; a twisted taper of green wax, and a small
silver plate with six or eight cheroots, real manillas.

Supper was evidently over, and the friends, amply feasted, were now
luxuriating in the delicious indolence, half-dozing, half-daydreaming,
of a calm sleepy smoke, modestly lubricated by an occasional sip of the
cool beverage before them. If we except a pile of box-coats, capes, and
mackintoshes of every cut and color--a traveling liquor-case which,
standing open, displayed the tops of three more bottles similar to that
on the table, and spaces lined with velvet for all the glass in use--and
another little leathern box, which, like the liquor-case, showed its
contents of several silver plates, knives, forks, spoons, flasks of
sauce, and condiments of different kinds--the whole interior, as a
painter would have called it, has been depicted with all accuracy.

Without, the view on which the windows opened was indeed most lovely.
The day had been very bright and calm; there was not a single cloud in
the pale transparent heaven, and the sun, which had shone cheerfully all
day from his first rising in the east, till now when he was hanging like
a ball of bloody fire in the thin filmy haze which curtained the
horizon, was still shooting his long rays, and casting many a shadow
over the slopes and hollows which diversified the scene.

Immediately across the road lay a rich velvet meadow, luxuriant still
and green--for the preceding month had been rather wet, and frost had
not set in to nip its verdure--sloping down southerly to a broad shallow
trout-stream, which rippled all glittering a