ldiers and
died abroad.

In close proximity to the church stands the vicarage, once the Priory; a
quaint old rambling building, surrounded by magnificent old trees. Here
for long centuries, a tribe of rooks have held undisputed possession,
filling the boughs with their nests and the air with their voices, and,
like genuine lords of the soil, descending at their own grave will and
pleasure upon the adjacent lands.

Picturesque and mediaeval as all these old buildings and old associations
help to make us, we of Saxonholme pretend to something more. We claim to
be, not only picturesque but historic. Nay, more than this--we are
classical. WE WERE FOUNDED BY THE ROMANS. A great Roman road, well known
to antiquaries, passed transversely through the old churchyard. Roman
coins and relics, and fragments of tesselated pavement, have been found
in and about the town. Roman camps may be traced on most of the heights
around. Above all, we are said to be indebted to the Romans for that
inestimable breed of poultry in right of which we have for years carried
off the leading prizes at every poultry-show in the county, and have
even been enabled to make head against the exaggerated pretensions of
modern Cochin-China interlopers.

Such, briefly sketched, is my native Saxonholme. Born beneath the shade
of its towering trees and overhanging eaves, brought up to reverence its
antiquities, and educated in the love of its natural beauties, what
wonder that I cling to it with every fibre of my heart, and even when
affecting to smile at my own fond prejudice, continue to believe it the
loveliest peacefulest nook in rural England?

My father's name was John Arbuthnot. Sprung from the Arbuthnots of
Montrose, we claim to derive from a common ancestor with the celebrated
author of "Martinus Scriblerus." Indeed, the first of our name who
settled at Saxonholme was one James Arbuthnot, son to a certain
nonjuring parson Arbuthnot, who lived and died abroad, and was own
brother to that famous wit, physician and courtier whose genius, my
father was wont to say, conferred a higher distinction upon our branch
of the family than did those Royal Letters-Patent whereby the elder
stock was ennobled by His most Gracious Majesty King George the Fourth,
on the occasion of his visit to Edinburgh in 1823. From this James
Arbuthnot (who, being born and bred at St. Omer, and married, moreover,
to a French wife, was himself half a Frenchman) we Saxonholme Arbuthn