Page:Walks in the Black Country and its green border-land.pdf/251

Rh pasturage of cows as well as sheep, and now presented that warty, humpy surface of cropped and uncropped herbage which such grazing always produces without the requisite attention in early spring. Still, we could trace the artistic contour of the estate, the plan of the trees, fountains, cascades, the east and west windows in the woods and groves for views of distant landscapes. The open grounds were not pastured all the way up to the door-stone of the house, but between it and the rough space allotted to sheep there was a real lawn of considerable size, pretty well kept, with a fountain in the centre, and walks in good order. The house itself is of moderate dimensions, with outside walls of what some call dash-and-splash work, or a coarse brick surface rough-cast with small pebbles and sand and then painted. In a word, it was a comfortable looking mansion, which a prosperous ironmaster would be satisfied with for its intrinsic worth and convenience as a residence; though if building anew he would make the two storeys higher between joints. Ascending to the eastern boundary of the grounds, we sat on a stile and looked down over the estate and to the world beyond, and discussed the groundwork of the poet's predilection for this site on which to concentrate his taste, genius, and fortune. He was born in Halesowen in 1714, and this was his paternal estate. A natural attachment to the locality