eshness and verdure of the patch of
green meadow immediately in front. On one side, the garden was bounded
by the village churchyard, with its simple mounds, and its few scattered
and humble tombs. The church was of great antiquity; and it was only in
one point of view that you caught more than a glimpse of its grey tower
and graceful spire, so thickly and so darkly grouped the yew tree and
the larch around the edifice. Opposite the gate by which you gained the
house, the view was not extended, but rich with wood and pasture, backed
by a hill, which; less verdant than its fellows, was covered with sheep:
while you saw hard by the rivulet darkening and stealing away; till your
sight, though not your ear, lost it among the woodland.

Trained up the embrowned paling on either side of the gate, were bushes
of rustic fruit, and fruit and flowers (through plots of which green and
winding alleys had been cut with no untasteful hand) testified by their
thriving and healthful looks, the care bestowed upon them. The main
boasts of the garden were, on one side, a huge horse-chesnut tree--the
largest in the village; and on the other, an arbour covered without
with honeysuckles, and tapestried within by moss. The house, a grey and
quaint building of the time of James I. with stone copings and gable
roof, could scarcely in these days have been deemed a fitting residence
for the lord of the manor. Nearly the whole of the centre was occupied
by the hall, in which the meals of the family were commonly held--only
two other sitting-rooms of very moderate dimensions had been reserved by
the architect for the convenience or ostentation of the proprietor. An
ample porch jutted from the main building, and this was covered with
ivy, as the windows were with jasmine and honeysuckle; while seats were
ranged inside the porch covered with many a rude initial and long-past
date.

The owner of this mansion bore the name of Rowland Lester. His
forefathers, without pretending to high antiquity of family, had held
the dignity of squires of Grassdale for some two centuries; and Rowland
Lester was perhaps the first of the race who had stirred above fifty
miles from the house in which each successive lord had received his
birth, or the green churchyard in which was yet chronicled his death.
The present proprietor was a man of cultivated tastes; and abilities,
naturally not much above mediocrity, had been improved by travel as well
as study. Himself and o