The Project Gutenberg EBook of Country Lodgings, by Mary Russell Mitford

This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org

Title: Country Lodgings

Author: Mary Russell Mitford

Release Date: October 2, 2007 [EBook #22838]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK COUNTRY LODGINGS ***

Produced by David Widger

COUNTRY LODGINGS

By Mary Russell Mitford

Between two and three years ago, the following pithy advertisement
appeared in several of the London papers:--

"Country Lodgings.--Apartments to let in a large farm-house,
situate in a cheap and pleasant village, about forty miles
from London. Apply (if by letter post-paid) to A. B., No. 7,
Salisbury-street, Strand."

Little did I think, whilst admiring in the broad page of the Morning
Chronicle the compendious brevity of this announcement, that the
pleasant village referred to was our own dear Aberleigh; and that the
first tenant of those apartments should be a lady whose family I had
long known, and in whose fortunes and destiny I took a more than common
interest!

Upton Court was a manor-house of considerable extent, which had in
former times been the residence of a distinguished Catholic family,
but which, in the changes of property incident to our fluctuating
neighbourhood, was now "fallen from its high estate," and degraded
into the homestead of a farm so small, that the tenant, a yeoman of
the poorest class, was fain to eke out his rent by entering into an
agreement with a speculating Belford upholsterer, and letting off a part
of the fine old mansion in the shape of furnished lodgings.

Nothing could be finer than the situation of Upton, placed on the summit
of a steep acclivity, looking over a rich and fertile valley to a range
of woody hills; nothing more beautiful than the approach from Belford,
the road leading across a common between a double row of noble oaks, the
ground on one side sinking with the abruptness of a north-country burn,
whilst a clear spring, bursting from the hill side, made its way to the
bottom between patches of shaggy underwood and a grove of smaller
trees; a vine-covered cottage just peeping between the foliage, and the
picturesque