tions of a
modern mansion of the noblest proportions. The new owner of the
estate, though only a manufacturer from Congleton, chose to dwell in a
palace; and by the time his splendid Doric temple was complete, under
the name of Lexley Park, the vain-glorious proprietor, Mr Sparks, had
taken his seat in Parliament for a neighbouring borough.

Little was known of him in the neighbourhood beyond his name and
calling; yet already his new tenants were prepared to oppose and
dislike him. Though they knew quite as little personally of the young
baronet by whom they had been sold into bondage to the unpopular
clothier--him, with the caprice of ignorance, they chose to prefer.
They were proud of the old family--proud of the hereditary lords of
the soil--proud of a name connecting itself with the glories of the
reign of Elizabeth, and the loyalty shining, like a sepulchral lamp,
through the gloomy records of the House of Stuart. The banners and
escutcheons of the Althams were appended in their parish church. The
family vault sounded hollow under their head whenever they approached
its altar. Where was the burial-place of the manufacturer? In what
obscure churchyard existed the mouldering heap that covered the
remains of the sires of Mr Jonas Sparks? Certainly not at Lexley!
Lexley knew not, and cared not to know, either him or his. It was no
fault of the parish that its young baronet had proved a spendthrift
and alienated the inheritance of his fathers; and, but that he had
preserved the manor-house from desecration, they would perhaps have
ostracized him altogether, as having lent his aid to disgrace their
manor with so noble a structure as the porticoed facade of Lexley
Park!

Meanwhile the shrewd Jonas was fully aware of his unpopularity and its
origin; and, during a period of three years, he allowed his
ill-advised subjects to chew, unmolested, the cud of their discontent.
Having a comfortable residence at the further extremity of the county,
he visited Lexley only to overlook the works, or notice the placing of
the costly new furniture; and the grumblers began to fancy they were
to profit as little by their new masters as by their old. The steward
who replaced the trusty Wightman, and had been instructed to legislate
among the cottages with a lighter hand, and distribute Christmas
benefaction in a double proportion, was careful to circulate in the
parish an impression that Mr Sparks and his family did not care to
inhabit