fragrance. At the distance of half a mile, we enter the Park field, which conducts to the object of our research. "Kilworthy is a gentile house" asserts honest John Prince, and the saying may be repeated even in our more fastidious days. Kilworthy is a proper and genteel residence for all who love country quarters. Encircled by groups of noble forest trees,-here a line of chestnuts lifting their glowing blossoms in the air, spring after spring with never-tiring beauty, there a few stately yews waving their sombre boughs in triumph over the storms of a hundred winters: in that mossy dell the gnarled roots of some towering oaks fixed with the strength of adamant in their kindred soil; and at a distance a grove of elms, affording shelter to a colony of ever clamorous rooks; all around speaks to the eye, if not to the ear, of the venerable antiquity of the place. Then the wellshaven green, the rising terraces, the prim garden, the ancient summer-houses with carved heads frowning on "each dainty dame who whilome took pleas-aunce therein," present beauties to all who are not wholly prejudiced in favour of the sad innovations of the nineteenth century. I confess myself a lover of the good old times, (at least in retrospection) an air of sanctity is connected with them, and in imagination I would willingly replenish the earth with its ancient customs and people :-how far reality might dissipate my dream of felicity I leave wiser persons than myself to guess. Old places certainly have their charms, and Kilworthy not less than others; even the cumbrous stable, dotted with pigeon holes, and decorated with relics of the sportsman's skill, impresses the beholder with an idea of the respectability of the mansion to which it belongs.

The interior of Kilworthy presents a picture of those incongruities in which our ancestors sometimes loved to indulge. Narrow passages and wide staircases, a wainscotted hall, and small and large rooms are mingled

together in most admirable confusion. That hall, where in bygone days, moved with courtly dignity the noble races of Glanville and Manaton, has since resounded with the joyful shouts of a tribe of merry boys: the lighthearted pupils of the dominie of the place. Many juvenile feats in the surrounding meadows, "when toil remitting lent its turn to play," may be even now remembered by staid parsons, or careworn merchants, who were once chief actors in each frolic of the hour. The sailor too, parading with dignity his own quarter deck, may recall the time when, swinging from bough to bough of some tall elm in "the rookery," he sought to gain the well-built nest of our cawing neighbours, or aimed to rock his slight weight on the topmost branch, and indulge in a day-dream of naval glory to come. The author bending over his literary labours, may now perhaps sigh for a breath of the pure Dartmoor air, he once enjoyed, to cool his fevered and anxious brow.

Curious indeed are the vicissitudes of places as well as of persons. The manor of Kilworthy with everything belonging thereunto has passed from the families of Glanville and Manaton, and all that remain (besides tradition) to mark their former possession are the coats of arms decorating the eastern entrance, thus exhibiting, even in faded grandeur, "the boast of heraldry, the pomp of power." "These armorial bearings are painted on wood and in good preservation; they were originally placed in the hall but to make room for some (so called) improvements, they were taken down and thrown into a lumber room, from whence the present occupiers of the house with much good taste had them removed, varnished, and fixed, where they may be seen though not to the best advantage. The coats of arms are well executed as far as painting is concerned, but there are inaccuracies in their arrangement which a person who knows anything of heraldry will not fail to discover. Just within the

eastern entrance in a sort of passage are the arms of Glanville and Manaton impaled with those of several old and celebrated families (principally Cornish) with whom they have matched; in another passage on the left hand are the arms of some of those families not impaled.” Amongst the proud names thus recorded as having been connected with the former owners of the place, we may mention those of Godolphin, Courtenay, Rolle of Heanton, Kelly, Edgcumbe, Carew, Carminow, Tremayne, Esse or de Esse.

The following quaint story, as intending to illustrate an event of some importance connected with the ancient inhabitants of the place, may be introduced here, with due apology for the anachronism, committed on the authority of old John Prince, in placing the erection of Kilworthy at an earlier date, than is warranted by other

accounts.

66 THE LADYE WINIFRED."

Now it happened in the 9th year of the reign of good King James, of "happie memorie," that a great feast was holden at Kilworthy, a pleasant and genteel house, belonging to that worthy knight Sir John Glanville; and there were invited his neighbours both of high and low degree to take part in the games and sports of the day. Many and grevious were the troubles of the Ladye Winifred Glanville in catering for the goodly entertainment of her guests; and in hastening the labours of her hand-maidens, who truly (as hand-maidens have been and and ever will be) were sad plagues to the ever busy and ever anxious house-wife. Dame Winny was well instructed in every gentle craft of that time; the delicate drapery grew beneath her pliant fingers; her skill in cross stitch, and back stitch, hem stitch, and side stitch, could not be denied; her knowledge of herbs and simples was admirable; besides which she at times dabbled in chirurgery, as may be known from an ancient well favoured portrait,