Mr. B. went in, and shortly afterwards Sir Thomas Birch came out,--a very
frank and hospitable gentleman,--and pressed me to enter and take
luncheon, which latter hospitality I declined.
His house is in very nice order. He had a good many pictures, and,
amongst them, a small portrait of his mother, painted by Sir Thomas
Lawrence, when a youth. It is unfinished, and when the painter was at
the height of his fame, he was asked to finish it. But Lawrence, after
looking at the picture, refused to retouch it, saying that there was a
merit in this early sketch which he could no longer attain. It was
really a very beautiful picture of a lovely woman.
Sir Thomas Birch proposed to go with us and get us admittance into
Knowsley Park, where we could not possibly find entrance without his aid.
So we went to the stables, where the old groom had already shown
hospitality to our cabman, by giving his horse some provender, and
himself some beer. There seemed to be a kindly and familiar sort of
intercourse between the old servant and the Baronet, each of them, I
presume, looking on their connection as indissoluble.
The gate-warden of Knowsley Park was an old woman, who readily gave us
admittance at Sir Thomas Birch's request. The family of the Earl of
Derby is not now at the Park. It was a very bad time of year to see it;
the trees just showing the earliest symptoms of vitality, while whole
acres of ground were covered with large, dry, brown ferns,--which I
suppose are very beautiful when green.
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