lorid tracery of the iron gate
showing like the draperies of white robes hanging from their extended arms
to the earth.

Our courier got down and shoved the great gate open, and we entered,
between sombre files of magnificent forest trees, one of those very broad
straight avenues whose width measures the front of the house. This was all
built of white stone, resembling that of Caen, which parts of Derbyshire
produce in such abundance.

So this was Bartram, and here was Uncle Silas. I was almost breathless as
I approached. The bright moon shining full on the white front of the old
house revealed not only its highly decorated style, its fluted pillars and
doorway, rich and florid carving, and balustraded summit, but also its
stained and moss-grown front. Two giant trees, overthrown at last by the
recent storm, lay with their upturned roots, and their yellow foliage still
flickering on the sprays that were to bloom no more, where they had fallen,
at the right side of the court-yard, which, like the avenue, was studded
with tufted weeds and grass.

All this gave to the aspect of Bartram a forlorn character of desertion and
decay, contrasting almost awfully with the grandeur of its proportions and
richness of its architecture.

There was a ruddy glow from a broad window in the second row, and I thought
I saw some one peep from it and disappear; at the same moment there was a
furious barking of dogs, some of whom ran scampering into the court-yard
from a half-closed side door; and amid their uproar, the bawling of the man
in the back seat, who jumped down to drive them off, and the crack of
the postilions' whips, who struck at them, we drew up before the lordly
door-steps of this melancholy mansion.

Just as our attendant had his hand on the knocker the door opened, and we
saw, by a not very brilliant candle-light, three figures--a shabby little
old man, thin, and very much stooped, with a white cravat, and looking as
if his black clothes were too large, and made for some one else, stood with
his hand upon the door; a young, plump, but very pretty female figure, in
unusually short petticoats, with fattish legs, and nice ankles, in boots,
stood in the centre; and a dowdy maid, like an old charwoman, behind her.

The household paraded for welcome was not certainly very brilliant. Amid
the riot the trunks were deliberately put down by our attendant, who kept
shouting to the old man at the door, and to the dogs in turn; and