The latest
alterations appear to have been made during the Strawberry Hill
epoch, when most of the mullioned windows had been transformed to
suit the prevailing taste. Some of the building--a little of
it--seemed habitable, but in the greater part the gables were
tottering, the stucco frontage peeling and falling, and the
windows broken and shuttered. In front of this wreck of a
building stretched the overgrown remains of what once had been a
terrace, bounded by large stone globes, now moss-grown and half
hidden under long grass. It was the very picture of desolation and
proud poverty.
"We drove up to what had once been the entrance to the servants'
hall, for the principal doorway had long been disused, and
descending from the trap I was conducted to a small panelled
apartment, where some freshly cut logs did their best to give out
a certain amount of heat. Of the hospitality meted out to me that
day I can only hint with mournful appreciation. I was made welcome
with all the resources which the family had available. But the
place was a veritable vault, and cold and damp as such. I think
that this state of things had been endured so long and with such
haughty silence by the inmates that it had passed into a sort of
normal condition with them, and remained unnoticed except by
new-comers.
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