We have not space to record the arguments
in favour of or against this view.
[36] _The Progresses of James I_, by Nichols.
[Illustration: Window-catch, Brockhall, Northants]
"The greatest advantages men have by riches are to give, to build, to
plant, and make pleasant scenes." So wrote Sir William Temple,
diplomatist, philosopher, and true garden-lover. And many of the
gentlemen of England seem to have been of the same mind, if we may
judge from the number of delightful old country-houses set amid
pleasant scenes that time and war and fire have spared to us. Macaulay
draws a very unflattering picture of the old country squire, as of the
parson. His untruths concerning the latter I have endeavoured to
expose in another place.[37] The manor-houses themselves declare the
historian's strictures to be unfounded. Is it possible that men so
ignorant and crude could have built for themselves residences bearing
evidence of such good taste, so full of grace and charm, and
surrounded by such rare blendings of art and nature as are displayed
so often in park and garden? And it is not, as a rule, in the greatest
mansions, the vast piles erected by the great nobles of the Court,
that we find such artistic qualities, but most often in the smaller
manor-houses of knights and squires.
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