you say your errand was?'

I was again compelled to assure him that the matter was not one of which
I could speak with a stranger, on which he appeared to be huffed, and
rode for some miles without opening his mouth. Groves of trees lined the
road on either side, and the sweet smell of pines was in our nostrils.
Far away the musical pealing of a bell rose and fell on the hot, close
summer air. The shelter of the branches was pleasant, for the sun was
very strong, blazing down out of a cloudless heaven, and raising a haze
from the fields and valleys.

''Tis the bell from Chipping Sodbury,' said my companion at last, wiping
his ruddy face. 'That's Sodbury Church yonder over the brow of the hill,
and here on the right is the entrance of Badminton Park.'

High iron gates, with the leopard and griffin, which are the supporters
of the Beaufort arms, fixed on the pillars which flanked them, opened
into a beautiful domain of lawn and grass land with clumps of trees
scattered over it, and broad sheets of water, thick with wild fowl. At
every turn as we rode up the winding avenue some new beauty caught our
eyes, all of which were pointed out and expounded by Farmer Brown, who
seemed to take as much pride in the place as though it belonged to him.
Here it was a rockery where a thousand bright-coloured stones shone out
through the ferns and creepers which had been trained over them. There
it was a pretty prattling brook, the channel of which had been turned so
as to make it come foaming down over a steep ledge of rocks. Or perhaps
it was some statue of nymph or sylvan god, or some artfully built
arbour overgrown with roses or honeysuckle. I have never seen grounds
so tastefully laid out, and it was done, as all good work in art must
be done, by following Nature so closely that it only differed from her
handiwork in its profusion in so narrow a compass. A few years later our
healthy English taste was spoiled by the pedant gardening of the Dutch
with their straight flat ponds, and their trees all clipped and in a
line like vegetable grenadiers. In truth, I think that the Prince of
Orange and Sir William Temple had much to answer for in working this
change, but things have now come round again, I understand, and we have
ceased to be wiser than Nature in our pleasure-grounds.

As we drew near the house we came on a large extent of level sward on
which a troop of horse were exercising, who were raised, as my companion
informed me, en