Nor shall the casual reader be led carelessly and wearily to note the
many sweet memorials of private friendship, records of the living and
the dead, which, standing forth from amid the lightsome glades and leafy
shadows around, make the place sacred to many a strong affection.
Romantic the scenery without is not, and for spacious halls and gorgeous
canopies the eye may search in vain within. But for the warm cheer of
the little oak library,--for the quaint carvings, the tracery of other
times, which abound therein,--for the awful note of the blood-hound,
baying upon his midnight chain,--and the pleasing melancholy of the
hooting owl from his hereditary chamber in the roof,--and for the
tunefulness of the cooing wood-quests, and the morning rooks which
bustle and caw, and of the high winds that pipe and roar, daily and
nightly, through the boughs,--and for the deep glossy verdure of the
pastures stretching forth to the brave distant hills which fence the
vale,--to those, who in such things take delight, Lilies hath still
its charms.
From the fireside of the afore-mentioned little oak library the
following legends proceed.
[Few of the pieces fall under the denomination of "Legends," if we
except "the Feast of alle Deuiles, an ancient ballad;" "the Costly
Dague;" "the Ladye's Counselloure;" and "the Dole of Tichborne;" which
are in the quaint olden style.
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