Page:A tour through the northern counties of England, and the borders of Scotland - Volume II.djvu/88

 them; she with a countenance expressive of grief, holding in her hand a white handkerchief; he serious and saturnine, imparting to her his intention of renouncing the world, and spending his future days in monastic severities and seclusion. The artist seems to have exhausted all his pains on the head of Charles, which is in a style of fine composition and colouring, and far superior to the lady's.—A good portrait of the severe Lord William Howard, the owner of Naworth-Castle, and collateral ancestor of the present respectable possessor of Corby-Castle, is in the same room; as well as a still greater curiosity of Saxon antiquity, a square freestone, dug out of the ruins of Hyde-Abbey near Winchester, and inscribed with these words—, Elfredus Rex 881, the founder of that monastery.

The walks of Corby were disposed for the most part by the father of the present possessor, who begun his improvements about the year 1706, and might be called the first man that had hardihood enough to oppose the national taste, and break in upon the Dutch style, which had been adopted in England in compliment to King William. The exchange of manners was so far for the better, that the latter had classical ideas for its foundation, but the climate and scenery of this country never