with some difficulty. I had to rally him a little on a sesquipedality that would have lost Charles his kingdom and life. The house seems to have remained unchanged for two centuries, just as it was when it served as such a hiding-place for him in his desperate extremity. The large dining-room is wainscoted with oak, older than the one in which he slept with his head on Colonel Carlis' lap. The different scenes of his experience here are engraven in the black marble facing of the fireplace, and make well-executed pictures. In one he is represented in the tree with several troopers dashing about in search of him. In another he is on the old mill-horse on his way to Moseley, guarded by the Penderels with their axes and hedge-bills. A portrait of him, in all his long locks and royal robes, hangs over the mantel-piece, giving him a somewhat unhappy expression, as affected either by a presentiment or memory of his sharp troubles. In another apartment is the portrait of Cromwell himself, making him look as if he had just come out of the battle of Worcester and was regarding it as "a crowning mercy," which would have been more grateful to him if he had caught Charles. The old servant who showed us the various apartments facetiously remarked that he always locked the door between the two portraits at night lest they should get together and have a
