luenced by the Gulf Stream, comes from the south-west up the
Severn and Avon valleys, between the Malverns and the Cotswolds, and
which brings out the plum blossom on thousands of acres, a bitter
frost sometimes occurs, when the destruction of the tender bloom is a
tragedy in the Vale, while the Hills escape owing to their more
backward development.

The Manor House had been added to and largely altered, but many years
had brought it into harmony with its surroundings, while Nature had
dealt kindly with its colouring, so that it carried the charm of long
use and continuous human habitation. Behind the house an old walled
garden, with flower-bordered grass walks under arches of honeysuckle
and roses, gave vistas of an ample mill-pond at the lower end, forming
one of the garden boundaries. The pond was almost surrounded by tall
black poplars which stretched protecting arms over the water, forming
a wide and lofty avenue extending to the faded red-brick mill itself,
and whispering continuously on the stillest summer day. The mill-wheel
could be seen revolving and glittering in the sunlight, and the hum of
distant machinery inside the mill could be heard. The brook, which fed
the pond, was fringed by ancient pollard willows; it wound through
luxuriant meadows with ploughed land or cornfields still farther back.
The whole formed a peaceful picture almost to the verge of drowsiness,
and reminded one of the "land in which it seemed always afternoon."

The space below the house and the upper part of the garden immediately
behind it was occupied by the rickyard, reaching to the mill and pond,
and a long range of mossy-roofed barns divided it from the farmyard
with its stables and cattle-sheds.

The village occupied one side only of the street, as it was
called--the street consisting of two arms at a right angle, with the
Manor House near its apex. The cottages were built, mostly in pairs,
of old brick, and tiled, having dormer windows, and gardens in front
and at the sides, well stocked with fruit-trees and fruit-bushes, and
this helped the cottagers towards the payment of their very moderate
rents, which had remained the same, I believe, for the best part of
half a century.

Throughout all the available space not so occupied, on either side of
the two arms of the street, and again behind the cottages themselves,
beautiful old orchards, chiefly of apple-trees, formed an unsurpassed
setting both when the blossom was out in pi