The Terrors of a Solitary House -- Sense of Insecurity which a Townsman feels in a Solitary House at Night -- Wide Difference in our Feeling of such a Place by Day and by Night -- Nervous Fancies excited by them on Stormy Nights -- Decrease of Burglaries and Highway Robberies through Modern Improvements -- Noble Defence of his House by Colonel Purcell -- Attack of the House of a Welsh Gentleman, Mr. Powell, and his Murder -- Fact related by a Minister of the Society of Friends -- Sturdy Rogues -- Fright of an Old Gentleman with one -- Cowardice inspired by living in a Solitary House -- Superstitions generated by such Places -- Concluding Remarks 139 CHAPTER VI. Midsummer in the Fields -- the Spiritual Effect of Green Fields at Midsummer -- True Wisdom of Izaak Walton -- Delicious Haunts of the Angler at this Season -- Profound Repose of Trees -- Rich Mosaic of Fields -- Sound of Birds at this Season -- Mowers at work -- Delights of Brooksides, with their Plants and Insects -- Curious Metamorphosis of Midges -- Beauty of Dragon-flies -- Summer Birds -- Feelings connected with this fleeting Season 159 PART III. PICTURESQUE AND MORAL FEATURES OF THE COUNTRY. CHAPTER I. Gipsies: their History and present State -- Gipsies Part and Parcel of the English Landscape -- an essential Portion of our Poetry and Literature -- Uses made of them by many kinds of Writers -- Gipsy Adventure of Sir Roger de Coverley -- Gipsy Sketches by Wordsworth, Cowper, Crabbe, and others -- Inquiries after their Origin -- the Notion of the Ettrick Shepherd of it -- Arab-like Character of Gipsies -- Researches of Grellman and Buttner into the Gipsy Origin -- Account of their Numbers, Treatment, and Habits in all Nations -- their Language -- various Names by which they are and have been known -- M. Hasse’s Theory of their Antiquity -- pointed out by Herodotus and Strabo -- Causes of their more numerous Appearance in Western Europe about the year 1400 -- their first entry into France in 1427, as described by Pasquin -- Banished by Proclamation -- the same Policy pursued in other Countries -- Cruelties practised on them in Spain -- Order to drive them from France with Fire and Sword -- Attempt to expel them from Sweden, Denmark, Italy, and England -- Entry respecting them in the Parish Records of Uttoxeter -- the Inquiries of Mr. Hoyland into their History and Condition -- his Visits to their Haunts at Norwood and London -- their Annual Progresses from London through various Counties -- Mr. Hoyland’s Researches in Scotland -- the Border-Country their chief Resort -- Letter of Sir Walter Scott respecting them -- Remarkable Scene with them at Riding the Marches near Yetholm -- Sir Walter Scott’s recognition of one of them at Kelso Fair -- the Family of the Faas -- Old Will Faa, the Gipsy King’s Journey to see the Laird on his