times, those days of noble, good,
as well as fierce, evil deeds and lives, the faith that kings and
warriors bowed to when sovereignty was absolute and military power
supreme. America has no gray abbeys, no ruined cloisters, to tell
of monastic brotherhoods--the preserves of ancient historic
chronicles, the guardians of the early wells and springs of classic
learning and genius. In America there are no great, old,
time-stained, weather-beaten, ivy-mantled churches full of tombs,
such as we saw to-day, with curious carvings and quaint effigies,
and where the early rulers of the land embraced the faith and
received the baptism of Christ. That must be a very strange
country. But they have Plymouth Rock, on the shore where the
Protestant Pilgrims landed.

The horses having come to the door, we set off for our ride; our
steeds were but indifferent hacks, but the road was charming, and
the evening serene and pure, and I was with my father, a
circumstance of enjoyment to me always. The characteristic feature
of the scenery of this region is the vivid, deep-toned foliage of
the hanging woods, through whose dense tufts of green, masses of
gray rock and long scars of warm-colored red-brown earth appear
every now and then with the most striking effect. The deep-sunk
river wound itself drowsily to a silver thread at the base of steep
cliffs, to the summit of which we climbed, reaching a fine level
land of open downs carpeted with close, elastic turf. On we rode,
up hill and down dale, through shady lanes full of the smell of
lime-blossom, skirting meadows fragrant with the ripe mellow hay
and honey-sweet clover, and then between plantations of aromatic,
spicy fir and pine, all exhaling their perfumes under the influence
of the warm sunset. At last we made a halt where the road, winding
through Lord de Clifford's property, commanded an enchanting view.
On our right, rolling ground rising gradually into hills, clothed
to their summits with flourishing evergreens, firs, larches,
laurel, arbutus--a charming variety in the monotony of green. On
the farthest of these heights Blaise Castle, with two gray towers,
well defined against the sky, looked from its bosky eminence over
the whole domain, which spread on our left in sloping lawns, where
single oaks and elm