at
it was still capable of repair. I felt like Wilfred of Ivanhoe, when he
resolved to leave his home for ever; and if there had been any crusade
going on in 1838, and an Isaac of York willing to furnish me with horse
and harness, I should have been very glad to try my chance against the
Saracens, and prove myself a true Red Cross knight; for even at that
time, I felt assured that against any body but my father I could hold up
my head like a man; or on any subject but my stupidity--(which I was
willing to concede, as it came guaranteed under the hand and seal of the
master of a college)--I could have maintained my ground with the courage
of a Front-de-Boeuf. I took a bolder step and manlier bearing as I
passed along in the sunshine, and saw defined on the grass before me the
shadow of a gigantic being, elongated in the slanting rays to about
twelve feet high, with limbs and shoulders certainly a little attenuated
by the same solar deception, but still not quite such thread-papers as I
have since seen do duty in ball-rooms, to the evident satisfaction of
then possessors. The Wilderness was reached at last: and here I must
premise that the aristocratic appearances of bucks and roes entirely
ceased; for the said Wilderness was appropriated to the feeding of
certain animals of unpoetic figures, and even prosaic names, but which,
when well cooked and duly supplied with a condiment of beans, furnish by
no means a contemptible dinner to a hungry sportsman. The man who
despises beans and bacon is uniformly a puppy. I will, therefore, now
venture on the vulgar word, and say the Wilderness was used for feeding
swine, and all the long days the frisky quadrupeds went wiggling their
curly tails, and snorting among the oak-trees, with enormous
satisfaction. On reaching the centre of this umbrageous feeding-ground,
I was surprised to see my usual place of meditation occupied by a
stranger. It was a young girl, exhausted apparently by the heat of the
day, resting on the mossy turf and leaning against the trunk of a fine
old tree. Her bonnet was on the ground beside her; her hair was gently
moved to and fro by the wandering breeze; and on her lap lay a
work-basket, which she had evidently laid down to give herself more
entirely to repose. She was sound asleep, and I need scarcely say, as my
experience of the fair sex was extremely limited, that she was the most
captivating specimen I had ever seen; but shyness and awkwardness
overcame my