magnificent gate of cast-iron. This I at once recognised, from the
description given me by Mr. Jones, to be the principal entrance to Oxton
Hall. Satisfied that it was so, I unhesitatingly entered--and the house
of one of the proudest of England's aristocracy stood before me, in all
its lordly magnificence. A spacious lawn, of the brightest and most
beautiful verdure, dotted over with noble oaks, and tenanted by some
scores of fallow-deer, stretched far and wide on every side. In the
centre of this splendid park--such a park as England alone can
exhibit--arose the mansion-house, an ancient and stately pile, of great
extent and lofty structure.

Having found the person to whose civilities I was recommended by mine
host of the White Hart--a mild and pleasant-looking old man, of about
seventy years of age--I put my credentials into his hands. On reading
it, the old man looked at me smilingly, and said that he would have much
pleasure in obliging his good friend Mr. Jones, by showing me all that
was worth seeing both in and about the house; and many things both
curious and rare, and, I may add, both costly and splendid, did I see
ere another hour had passed away; but fearing the reader's patience
would scarcely stand the trial of a description of them, I refrain from
the experiment, and proceed to say, that, just as our survey of the
house was concluded, my cicerone, as if suddenly recollecting himself,
said--

"By-the-by, sir, perhaps you would like to see the picture gallery,
although it is hardly worth seeing just now--most of the pictures having
been removed to our house in Grosvenor Square last winter; and, being in
this denuded state, I never think of showing it to visitors. There are,
however, a few portraits of different members of the family still left,
and these you may see if you have any curiosity regarding them."

Such curiosity I avowed I felt, and was immediately conducted into the
presence of a number of the pictorial ancestry of the illustrious house
of Wistonbury. The greater part of the pictures had been removed, as my
conductor had informed me; but a few still remained scattered along the
lofty walls of the gallery.

"That," said my cicerone, pointing to a grim warrior, clad from head to
heel in a panoply of steel,--"that is Henry, first Earl of Wistonbury,
who fell in Palestine during the holy wars; and this," directing my
attention to another picture, "is the grandfather of the present Earl."

"A