Hoft. That is my master's creft, and you

may

fee three cotton hanks for arms; that agrees with the name.

Angler. With a chevron azure between. Painter. And a bear falient, fable armed gules, muzzled and chain'd or.

Hoft. These are the Beresford arms: and here the quarterings of the noble family of the Stanhopes.

Painter. Stanhope, fay you ?-Quarterly ermine and gules-How is that?

Hoft. Sir, you are to note, my late mistress Olive, the mother of Mr. Cotton, was the daughter of Sir John Stanhope, Knt. by the heiress of Beresford.

Angler. I thank you; it is all of a piece, and excellently finished.

Hoft. Gentlemen, if I may be fo bold to remind you, we have many other things which will entertain you for fome hours-as the Flambeaux Tower, and the Fishing House, and the River.

Angler. True; our present pleasing thoughts had made us forgetful: but we are ready to follow you.

Hoft. Then, if you please, we may descend once more to the hall, and so into the garden. And now I will lead you by this rifing

ground to the Tower.

Angler. What is here?—a handsome terrace of grass, set round with a double row of trees.

Hoft. This is the bowling green: if you will take the trouble to look over this parapet, you may fee a precipice fome hundred feet deep.

Angler. It is quite a gulph, but overgrown with trees and briars. Here is a smooth ground for bowls; and I remember PISCATOR speaks of this bowling green, and declares himself to be no very great bowler;' but he fays, I am 'not fo totally devoted to my own pleasure, but 'that I have alfo fome regard to other men's.'

Hoft. That was but his modeft opinion of himself; for I have seen him play and win great matches at bowls and quoits, both here and on Wolfscote Hill, which is a little distance on the other fide of the Dove. But here we have the Profpect Tower: you may fee how it stands on the highest top of the rock, and within is an ornamented fummer room.

Painter. It is a costly building, and in due proportions of architecture.

Angler. Then I beseech you deny me not a picture, if it be but an outline,—only a me

mento.

Painter. I am free to do your bidding. And would you have those handsome stone steps and

ballusters leading to the porch, and that stone feat near the door?

Angler. Aye, fo please you; and do not forget some of those shady trees: but above all, the beacon on the top, which has served his beloved Hero to bring her Leander home, and recalls the olden times of our forefathers: for learned Mr. Lambarde,* in his Perambulation of Kent, brings this word from the Saxon "Bechnian, which is to call by figne, or beck-on, 'when they were made of great stakkes of

wood, but were ordained by King Edward 'the Third to be highe standards with their 'pitch-pots,' in the fashion you here see it.

Painter. 'Tis worthy of all my little skill: an enchanting spot, and nothing neglected for its adorning.

Angler. Was it built by merry Mr. Rolfton? Hoft. The fame; and thofe fmooth ftones were brought from the quarries of Sheen, fome miles off; and my master told him to do his utmoft; because his refolution was to have a

*A PERAMBULATION OF KENT, containing the Descriptive Hystorie and Customes of that Shyre, by William Lambarde, of Lincolnes Inne, Gent. 1576. 12o. He was one of the most eminent antiquaries of this country, and declared by the great Camden to be as distinguished for learning and piety. He was appointed

little apartment for his own especial privateness, where he might feaft his eye with these profpects, and so retired from the world, that no one might interpose between him and the vein of his thoughts. For he is fo inclinable to be in love with books, that he will fometimes pass his day in a continual study.

Angler. I remember, in that poem prefixed to his COMPLETE ANGLER, he says,

'Dear folitude, the foul's best friend,

'That man acquainted with himself dost make, 'And all his Maker's wonders to intend; With thee I here converfe at will,

' And would be glad to do so still; 'For it is thou alone that keep'st the soul awake. 'How calm and quiet a delight

'It is, alone,

To read, and meditate and write,

'By none offended, and offending none !'

Painter. Well, it is a place, of all others, where a man may create a phantastic world around him, free from all the accidents of fortune. And how tempered in our thoughts and

Keeper of the Records in the Tower, of which he presented an account to her Majesty, under the title of Pandecta Rotulorum. This, with other great works, did not fee the light till published by his grandfon in 1635. His tomb may be found in the church of Sevenoaks.-ED.

R

wishes should we all be, if we could oftener regale ourselves with such spiritual repafts of study and contemplation! But come, I have defigned the tower in black and white; and now let us within.

Hoft. This way, Sirs,—and so to the top. Here is the beacon and the marks of the torchlights, that have many a night guided my master on his return to the Hall.

Angler. Look over this mirador, and see the garden below embroidered with roses, and other choiceft plants and flowers.

Painter. It is a little paradife: there is such a concealed artfulness in these contrivances, as makes them like a cultivated nature.

Hoft. This we ufe to call the garden of the tower, and every flower and fhrub hath been planted and watered by the hand of his Countess.*

Angler. And here Mr. Cotton occupies many hours with great pleasantness to himself, in writing those histories you spoke of?

Painter. It is not to be wondered at; for fo peaceful a spot might well kindle the thoughts

*The fecond wife of Mr. Cotton; Mary, the daughter of Sir William Ruffell, and widow of Wingfield Cromwell, Earl of Ardglass.—ED.