planted trees in them of all kind of fruits"; when he
"made him pools of water to water therewith the wood that bringeth
forth trees"; when he "gathered silver and gold and the treasure of
provinces," and got him singers, and players of musical instruments,
and "the delights of the sons of men,"--he did so that, having tried
and sifted all these things, he might, by the exercise of a ripe and
untrammeled judgment, decide what amongst them is illusory and but as a
passing show, and what--be it never so small a remnant--has in it the
promise of eternal subsistence, and therefore of vital worth; and that,
having so decided and thus gained an even mind, he might prepare
serenely to take leave of the life he had dared so largely to live.

Commencing his labours at Brockhurst during the closing years of the
reign of Queen Elizabeth, Denzil Calmady completed them in 1611 with a
royal house-warming. For the space of a week, during the autumn of that
year,--the last autumn, as it unhappily proved, that graceful and
scholarly prince was fated to see,--Henry, Prince of Wales,
condescended to be his guest. He was entertained at Brockhurst--as
contemporary records inform the curious--with "much feastinge and many
joyous masques and gallant pastimes," including "a great slayinge of
deer and divers beastes and fowl in the woods and coverts thereunto
adjacent." It is added, with unconscious irony, that his host, being a
"true lover of all wild creatures, had caused a fine bear-pit to be
digged beyond the outer garden wall to the west." And that, on the
Sunday afternoon of the Prince's visit, there "was held a most mighty
baitinge," to witness which "many noble gentlemen of the neighbourhood
did visit Brockhurst and lay there two nights."

Later it is reported of Denzil Calmady, who was an excellent
churchman,--suspected even, notwithstanding his little turn for
philosophy, of a greater leaning towards the old Mass-Book than towards
the modern Book of Common Prayer,--that he notably assisted Laud, then
Bishop of St. David's, in respect of certain delicate diplomacies. Laud
proved not ungrateful to his friend; who, in due time, was honoured
with one of King James's newly instituted baronetcies, not to mention
some few score seedling Scotchfirs, which, taking kindly to the light
moorland soil, increased and multiplied exceedingly and sowed
themselves broadcast over the face of the surrounding country.

And, save for the vigorous upgrow