335 ample of virtue so prevailing, as metamorphos'd many evill people , while they were under his roofe, into ano ther appearance of sobriety · and holinesse. He was going up to attend the businesse of his country abovP, for the ente rtainment of g uests. The sides of the stair-case and gallery were hung wit h pictures, and both se rved as an orchestra either to the hall or to a large room over part of it, which wns a ball room. To the left of the hall were the rooJDS commonly occupied by the fam ily. All parts were built so substantially, and so well secured, that neither fire nor thieves could penetrate from room to room, nor from one flight of itairs to another, if ever so little resisted . The house stood on a little eminence in the vale of Belvoir, at a small dis tan ~e from the foot of those hill s along which the Roman foss-way from Leicester runs. The (vestern side of the house was covered by the offices, small village, and church, interspersed with many trees. The south,- which was the front of entrance, looked over a large extent of grass grounds which were the demesne, and were bounded by hills covered with wood which Col. Hutchinson had planted. On the eastern side the entertain ing rooms opened on to a terrace, which e~circled a very large bowling green or level lawn; next to this had been a flower garden, and next to that a shrubbery, now become a wood, through which vistas were cut to let in a view of Langar, the · seat of Lord Howe, at two miles, and of Belvoir-castle, at seven miles distance, which, as the afternoon sun sat full upon it, made a glorious object: at the further end of this small wood was a spot (of about ten acres) which appeared to have been a morass, and through which ran a rivulet: this spot Col. Hutchinson had dug into a g reat number of canals, and planted the ground between them, leaving room for walks, so that the whole formed at once a wi lderness or bower, reservoir& for fish, and a decoy for wild fowl. To the north, at some hundred yards di&tance, was a lake of water, which fil1ing the space between two quarters of wood land, appeared, as viewed from the large window of the hall, like a moderate river, and beyond this the eye res ted on the wolds or high wilds which accompany the foss-way towards Newark.-The whole had been deserted near forty years, but' resisted the ravages of time so well as to discover the masterly hand by which it had been planned and executed. But the m~st extraordinary and gratifying circumstance was the veneration for the family which still subsisted, and wh ich, at the period when the last possessor had by his will ordered this and all his es tates in Notts to be sold, and the produce given to strangers, induced the tenants to offer a large advance of their rents, and a good share of the money necessary for purchasing the estates, in order to enabl e the remains of the family to come and reside again among them.-It was too late! the steward had contracted with the executors, and resold the most desirable part, where the timber of Col. Huteh- £ z
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