vers veiled their course by their misty
incense to the heavens--wreath after wreath of vapor creeping
upwards; and as the distances faded into indistinctness, the
bold headlands seemed to grow and prop the clouds; the heavens
let down the pall of mystery and darkness with a tender, not
terrific, power; earth and sky blended together, softly and
gently; the coolness of the air refreshed us, and yet the
stillness on that high point was so intense as to become almost
painful. As we looked into the valley, lights sprung up in
cottage dwellings; and then, softly on a wandering breeze, came
at intervals the tolling of a deep bell from the venerable
church at Edensor, a token that some one had been summoned to
another home--perhaps in one of those pale stars that at first
singly, but then in troops, were beaming on us from the pale
blue sky.

"While slowly descending from our eyrie, amid the varied
shadows of a most lustrous moonlight, our eyes fell upon the
distant wood which surrounded Haddon Hall; its massive walls,
its mouldering tapestries, its stately terrace, its quaint
rooms and closets, its protected though decayed records of the
olden time, its minstrel gallery--were again present to our
minds; and it was a natural and most pleasing contrast--that of
the deserted and half-ruined house, with the mansion happily
inhabited, filled with so many art-treasures, and presided
over by one of the best gentlemen a monarch ever ennobled and a
people ever loved."

[Illustration: THE MOORISH SUMMER HOUSE.]

FOOTNOTES:

[1] A quaint whim of the olden time is constructed near one of the
walks; it is the model of a willow-tree in copper, which has all the
appearance of a living one, situated on a raised mound of earth. From
each branch, however, water suddenly bursts, and also small jets from
the grassy borders around. It was considered a good jest some years ago
to delude novices to examine this tree, and wet them thoroughly by
suddenly turning on the water above and around them. This tree was
originally made by a London plumber in 1693; but it has been recently
repaired by a plumber in the neighborhood of Chesterfield, under the
direction of Sir Joseph Paxton.

MEN AND WOMEN OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.

We have _Louis Quinze_ chairs in our parlors, Louis Quinze carving and
gilding about our mi