Let us take, for instance, the case of Soping Hall. There will be none
of that untidy straggling arrangement about it which detracts so largely
from the beauty of Soping Barnet, Little Soping and Soping Monachorum.
In Soping Hall the billiard-room will be the village club, the armoury
the blacksmith's shop, the housekeeper's room the place where you buy
buttons and balls of string and barley-sugar, the cellars the village
tavern, and very nice too. In the state-saloon, with a few trifling
alterations, such as the introduction of a geyser and a sink, will live
Mrs. Ponsonby-Smith, who will sniff a little at the Jeffries in their
attic suite and the Mutts who live in the moat. But Mrs. Jeffries will
have compensations, because the air is really so much more bracing, my
dear, on the higher ground, and on fine days one can walk about the roof
and peep through the boiling-oil holes, while as for the Mutts they are
protected, at any rate, from those bitterly piercing east winds and have
an excellent view of the draw-bridge.
A further advantage of residing at Soping Hall will be that you can do
all your shopping and pay your calls without going out-of-doors on a wet
day, and, if you like, have a communal dining-room or restaurant, where
only those who have been recognised by the county should sit above the
salt.
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