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364 in his treatment of them. They were merely "somebody's children"—the children of humble artisans of a distant town; but he opened his park to them with as kind a welcome as if he had stood godfather to every mother's son of them all, in his own parish church. Now this is a fact and feature of the times very pleasant to dwell upon. Here are private parks and gardens kept in the highest state of beauty and perfection, at immense expense, by wealthy noblemen, opened as pic nic and play-grounds for the multitudes that toil in the mines and redden the heavens of the district by night with their fiery industries. While the spaces between these villages grow narrower and blacker; and while the chimneys thicken, and their swart dew falls faster on roof, road, and walk, here are breathing-grounds held in reserve for their recreation, and kept smokeless, free, and open for their enjoyment. Surely the nobility and gentry of these manufacturing districts, by imitating these generous examples, have it in their power, as many of them have it in their will, to attach the working classes to them by stronger ties than ever bound the peasantry of the feudal times to the lords of the soil.

Immediately on my arrival the Earl took me a walk of two or three miles all around the park, which was of great extent and most pleasantly variegated in surface and wooded very