Last words of Thomas Carlyle - Warburg Institute

56 WOTTON REINFEEDA circular valley of some furlongs in diameterlay round them like a huge amphitheatre, broken onlyin its contour by the entrance of two oblique chasmslike the one they had left ; on its level bottom of thepurest green stood a large stately mansion, whichseemed to be of granite, for in the sunbeams it glitteredfrom amid its high clusters of foliage like apalace of El Dorado, overlaid with precious metal.Behind it, and on both sides at a distance, the hillssloped up in gentle wavy curvature ; the sward wasof the greenest, embossed here and there with lowdark-brown frets of crag, or spotted by some spreadingsolitary tree and its shadow ; in front at a corner ofthe valley lay the small lake, hemmed in by woodycliffs : and beyond and around all this, ridge afterridge, higher and bluer and wilder as they receded,were seen the peaks of the mountains watching insevere loveliness, like everlasting guardians, over ascene so calm.Servants hastened out on the lawn to meet ourtravellers, who a few minutes after found themselvesin a large parlour before the lady of the mansion.'Dorothy, my love,' said the host, ' I have madea capture in the east to-day. Here are two strangers,whom we must change into friends.''The beginning of friendship is good offices,'replied she, with graceful courtesy: 'you must befaint and wearied, as pilgrims are wont ; and dinnerwill not come for an hour.'