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One peering then into its depths saw, far down below, marvellous sea gardens all fronded and ferny and waving; and through the foliage of this fairy-land went darting schools and shoals of fish queerly shaped and as brilliantly coloured as tropical birds. At the top of the beach, girdling it on its land side, and stencilling themselves against the sky line, ran a fringing of coconut palms.
The two people walking through the ferny paths leading to the cottage of Forked Pond were not, however, paying much attention to the landscape round them. Meynell showed himself at first preoccupied and silent.
'He is gone, said Charlotte; 'he was here yesterday to take leave of missus. Mr. James goes later 'Gone! cried Tom. 'If he didn't say he'd come and see me at Mr. Smith's! 'Did you want to speak to him? 'I wanted to see him particular. There's a thing lays heavy on my mind. You see that place down in Ferny dell there's a steep bank down to the water.
Who does not remember, as one of his most delightful recollections of England, delightful as all his recollections of that dear old Mother-land are, if he has really seen her, who does not thus remember the drive from the little country town to the old family place, up the long avenue under its ancestral trees, the ferny brook crossed by the stone bridge with its carved balustrade, the deer feeding on the green slope of the open park or lying under some secular oak, the heavy white clouds casting their slow shadows on the broad lawn, the dark spreading cedars of Lebanon standing on the edge of the bright flower-garden, the old house itself, with its quaint gables and oriels, the broad flight of steps leading to the wide door, the cheerful reception from the prim, but good-natured housekeeper, her pride in the great hall, and in the pleasant, home-like rooms, in Vandyck's portrait of the beautiful countess, and in Holbein's of the fifth earl, the satisfaction with which she would point to the pictures and the marbles brought two centuries ago from Italy, now stopping before this to tell you that "it is considered a very improportionable Virgin by Parmigianino," and calling you to observe this old statue "of a couching Silenius wrapped in the skin of a Pantheon," and then, when the Rubens, and the Claude, and all the other pictures have been seen, her letting you pass, as a great favor, through the library with its well-filled oaken shelves, the gilding worn off the backs of many of its books by the love of successive generations; who does not remember such scenes as these, and recall the glorious pictures from Florence, or from Venice, or from Antwerp, that enrich many an English country home?
He will be struck by the capital road that winds among the groves of ancient oak, and the turfy and ferny wilderness which extends on each side, whence the deer gaze on him with haughty composure, as if conscious that he was an intruder into their kingdom of whom they need have no fear.
The fallow deer trooped among its ferny solitudes and gigantic oaks; but, beyond the waters of the broad and winding lake, the scene became more savage, and the eye caught the dark forms of the red deer on some jutting mount, shrinking with scorn from communion with his gentler brethren. Lothair was the little boy whom the duchess remembered.
The blue morning glories were yet unwilted, rivulets dropped down into ferny grottoes and lingered there, rose ohia blossoms lighted shady places, orange flowers gleamed like stars amidst the dense leafage, and the crimped-leaved coffee shrubs were white with their mimic snow.
'Thank you; I'm afraid they would have been no use to me! But, seriously, if I had been moderately prudent, it would not have happened. And as it is, I hope I shall be glad of that roll in Ferny dell to the end of my life. 'I did go to see after mending them stones! cried Tom, as if injured by losing this one compensation; 'but they are all done up, and there ain't nothing to do to them.
Then we did run, for we knew it was our last chance and, indeed, but little further, a young wolf raced down a ferny glade, vanishing into some alders on the further side of the glade. I nearly trod on a fleeing hare. The beaters could not be far off. Yet, for a bit, we seemed to be gaining on them, although we were quartering their front on a long slant.
Gliding on and on, the scenery seemed at every turn to become more lavishly fruitful in forms as well as more sublime in dimensions snowy falls booming in splendid dress; colossal domes and battle meets and sculptured arches of a fine neutral-gray tint, their bases raved by the blue fiord water; green ferny dells; bits of flower-bloom on ledges; fringes of willow and birch; and glaciers above all.