This is expressing the matter too strongly, no doubt; but there is too
much truth in it, nevertheless; and one of the officers remarked that
even ladies of respectability had grown much more free in manners and
conversation than at first. I have heard observations similar to this
from a Nova-Scotian, in reference to the moral influence of soldiers when
stationed in the provinces.
WOOTON.
Wooton stands in a hollow, near the summit of one of the long swells that
here undulate over the face of the country. There is a good deal of wood
behind it, as should be the case with the residence of the author of the
Sylva; but I believe few, if any, of these trees are known to have been
planted by John Evelyn, or even to have been coeval with his time. The
house is of brick, partly ancient, and consists of a front and two
projecting wings, with a porch and entrance in the centre. It has a
desolate, meagre aspect, and needs something to give it life and stir and
jollity. The present proprietor is of the old Evelyn family, and is now
one of the two members of Parliament for Surrey; but he is a very shy and
retiring man, unmarried, sees little company, and seems either not to
know how to make himself comfortable or not to care about it. A servant
told us that Mr. ------ had just gone out, but Tupper, who is apparently
on intimate terms with him, thought it best that we should go into the
house, while he went in search of the master.
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