The solitary and romantic look of this piece of
woodland, and the frequent recurrence of its mazy stream, put him in
mind, Colonel Wildman said, of the little German fairy tale of Undine,
in which is recorded the adventures of a knight who had married a
water-nymph. As he rode with his bride through her native woods, every
stream claimed her as a relative; one was a brother, another an uncle,
another a cousin. We rode on amusing ourselves with applying this
fanciful tale to the charming scenery around us, until we came to a
lowly gray-stone farmhouse, of ancient date, situated in a solitary
glen, on the margin of the brook, and overshadowed by venerable trees.
It went by the name, as I was told, of the Weir Mill farmhouse. With
this rustic mansion was connected a little tale of real life, some
circumstances of which were related to me on the spot, and others I
collected in the course of my sojourn at the Abbey.
Not long after Colonel Wildman had purchased the estate of Newstead, he
made it a visit for the purpose of planning repairs and alterations. As
he was rambling one evening, about dusk, in company with his architect,
through this little piece of woodland, he was struck with its peculiar
characteristics, and then, for the first time, compared it to the
haunted wood of Undine.
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