To George Woodburn and Elizabeth Drury, who had become deeply attached to each other, and with the mutual consent of parents on both sides, this disagreement of tastes in their fathers was a subject of the greatest concern and anxiety. George quietly begged of Mr. Drury not to say anything to his father on agricultural topics, for that nothing would induce him to adopt any new notions; but then Mr. Trant Drury’s whole thought, feeling, taste, and conversation were agricultural. New modes of tillage, new implements, new manures, new kinds of vegetables for winter feed,—these made up the furniture, stock, and staple of his mind. His imagination stood as thickly planted with those ideas as his rick-yard with ricks, his fold-yard with cattle, or his fields with crops. George Woodburn listened patiently to his perpetual talk on these subjects, and admitted to a certain extent the value of them: but as to cutting down hawthorn hedges and hedge-row trees, he stood out as firmly as his father. When Mr. Drury was riding his indefatigable hobby in that direction, he remained quiet and let the stream flow over him. His after-conversations with Elizabeth were a rich compensation for this otherwise rather severe martyrdom. Every day showed Elizabeth in a more loveable character. Her lively, cheerful manner, combined with a beautifully intellectual and religious sentiment, and great intelligence, made her the beloved friend of Ann and Mrs. Woodburn; and Mr. Woodburn looked on her with pride as his future daughter-in-law. He only regretted that such a woman should be the daughter of what he began in his own house to term such an unmitigated bore. Mr. Trant Drury went to work vigorously on his own farm to exemplify his peculiar code of agriculture, and, as he said, to set an example to the benighted farmers around. His landlady, who lived in London, readily granted him permission to pare down his fences and fell hedge-row trees as he pleased. As the property was her own, but would go, at her death, for want of direct issue, to another branch of the family, she was at liberty to do this. The very first autumn and winter, Mr. Drury had men cutting close the fences, and felling all the trees but the oaks, which must stand till the proper season for peeling, in spring. Part of this timber he was allowed to employ in extending his outbuildings, and in making new gates, gateposts, hurdles, &c. Part went to the wood-merchant, its proceeds to be remitted to the landlady.