of the house, and by the lofty iron railings and gates which
protect it in front. A large circular fish-pond with stone sides, and
an allegorical leaden monster in the middle, occupies the centre of the
square. The pond itself is full of gold and silver fish, and is
encircled by a broad belt of the softest turf I ever walked on. I
loitered here on the shady side pleasantly enough till luncheon-time,
and after that took my broad straw hat and wandered out alone in the
warm lovely sunlight to explore the grounds.

Daylight confirmed the impression which I had felt the night before, of
there being too many trees at Blackwater. The house is stifled by
them. They are, for the most part, young, and planted far too thickly.
I suspect there must have been a ruinous cutting down of timber all
over the estate before Sir Percival's time, and an angry anxiety on the
part of the next possessor to fill up all the gaps as thickly and
rapidly as possible. After looking about me in front of the house, I
observed a flower-garden on my left hand, and walked towards it to see
what I could discover in that direction.

On a nearer view the garden proved to be small and poor and ill kept.
I left it behind me, opened a little gate in a ring fence, and found
myself in a plantation of fir-trees.

A pretty winding path, artificially made, led me on among the trees,
and my north-country experience soon informed me that I was approaching
sandy, heathy ground. After a walk of more than half a mile, I should
think, among the firs, the path took a sharp turn--the trees abruptly
ceased to appear on either side of me, and I found myself standing
suddenly on the margin of a vast open space, and looking down at the
Blackwater lake from which the house takes its name.

The ground, shelving away below me, was all sand, with a few little
heathy hillocks to break the monotony of it in certain places. The
lake itself had evidently once flowed to the spot on which I stood, and
had been gradually wasted and dried up to less than a third of its
former size. I saw its still, stagnant waters, a quarter of a mile
away from me in the hollow, separated into pools and ponds by twining
reeds and rushes, and little knolls of earth. On the farther bank from
me the trees rose thickly again, and shut out the view, and cast their
black shadows on the sluggish, shallow water. As I walked down to the
lake, I saw that the ground on its farther side was damp and ma