text:  From the first hill which we ascended the view for leagues round exhibited nothing but the rich tranquillity of a country wholly agricultural; soft uplands covered with cattle grazing; ploughed fields purpling in the twilight; clumps of trees sheltering villages from which the smoke of the evening fires rose slowly on the almost breathless air giving an impression of the comfort and plenty of the meal within; and at intervals some huge old chateau with its buttressed and richly-wrought architecture--those carvings and colourings which so strikingly convey the idea of a past age of quaint luxury and lavish wealth--rose from the centre of its beech grove glaring against the sunset as if it had been suddenly covered with a sheet of gold