n a
rocky nook on the confines of Dartmoor. Macaulay, whose brother was
vicar of the neighboring parish of Bovey-Tracey, knew it well,
and tells us in his _History_ that Clifford (a member of the Cabal
ministry) retired to the woods of Ugbrook. He was a lucky man to have
such paternal acres to retire to, but probably the visitor to-day sees
this park in a condition which Charles's minister would indeed have
enjoyed. There is no place in England where a man may feel more
grateful to those who have gone before him for their taste and
forethought in creating a sylvan paradise. Although not very large,
this park contains almost every variety of scenery. There is a grove
gloomy from the heavy shadows of the magnificent trees which compose
it, glorious avenues of lime and beech, and monarch-like trees, which,
standing alone amid an expanse of sward, show to the fullest advantage
their superb proportions. Entering the park on one side, the road
winds beside a river, to which the bank gently slopes on the one hand,
whilst on the other it rises precipitately, clad with the greenest
foliage. An especial feature of this place is what is known as "the
riding park," a stretch of smooth turf extending some miles, from
which you may get a view over thirty miles, with the rocky heights of
Dartmoor Forest, where the autumn manoeuvres take place this year, on
the one hand, and the Haldon Hills on the other. This ancient heritage
is still the property of the Cliffords, the present peer being eighth
baron in direct descent from the lord treasurer. The Cliffords have
always remained constant to the Roman Catholic faith, and a Catholic
chapel adjoins the mansion.

A discriminating foreign tourist writes of Lord Hill's park,
Hawkstone, in Shropshire, which, also lying rather off the beaten
track, is comparatively little known: "I must in some respects give
Hawkstone the preference over all I have seen. It is not art nor
magnificence nor aristocratic splendor, but Nature alone to which it
is indebted for this pre-eminence, and in such a degree that were I
gifted with the power of adding to its beauty, I should ask, What can
I add? Imagine a spot so commandingly placed that from its highest
point you can let your eye wander over fifteen counties. Three sides
of this wide panorama rise and fall in constant change of hill and
dale like the waves of an agitated sea, and are bounded at the horizon
by the strangely formed, jagged outline of the Wel