Page:Over fen and wold; (IA overfenwold00hissiala).pdf/404

 Now, first at Scrivelsby we have "the lion-guarded gate"; then the second arched gateway we drove through may well be Tennyson's "gateway tower"; further still the "casement where the trailer mantles all the mouldering bricks" might be the oriel window above the porch, as it is a prominent feature from the archway. Though I may be wholly wrong, I cannot help fancying that Scrivelsby has lent bits towards the building up of Locksley Hall. Perhaps I may have looked for resemblances—and so have found them; for it is astonishing how often we find what we look for. "Trifles," to the would-be-discoverer, are "confirmation strong as proofs of holy writ." Some short time ago I was calling on an artist friend, and I observed hanging on the wall of his studio a charming picture representing an ancient home, with great ivy-clad gables, bell-turrets, massive stacks of clustering chimneys, mullioned windows, and all that goes to make a building a poem. "What an ideal place," I promptly exclaimed; "do tell me where it is; I must see the original; it's simply a romance." My friend's reply was somewhat puzzling. "Well, it's in six different counties, so you can't see it all at once!" "Whatever do you mean?" I retorted. "Well," he responded, "it's a composition, if you will know—a bit from one old place, and a bit from another; the bell-turret is from an old Lancashire hall, that curious chimney-stack is from a Worcestershire manor-house, that quaint window I sketched in a Cotswold village, and so forth. I can't locate the house, or give it a distinguishing name, you see." Now this incident