ered. 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. A few old domestics stuck by the family in its fallen
fortunes, and of these one who had entered into their service some
quarter of a century previous waited upon us at lunch with
dignified ceremony. After lunch a tour of the house commenced.
Into this I shall not enter into in detail; many of the rooms were
so bare that little could be said of them, but the Great Hall, an
apartment modelled somewhat on the lines of the more palatial
Rainham, needs the pen of the author of _Lammermoor_ to describe.
It was a very large and lofty room in the pseudo-classic style,
with a fine cornice, and hung round with family portraits so
bleached with damp and neglect that they presented but dim and
ghostly presentments of their originals. I do not think a fire
could have been lit in this ghostly gallery for many years, and
some of the portraits literally sagged in their frames with
accumulations of rubbish which had dropped behind the canvases.
Many of the pictures were of no value except for their
associations, but I saw at least one Lely, a family group, the
principal figure in which was a young lady displaying too little
modesty and too much bosom. Another may have been a Vandyk, while
one or two were early works representing gallants of Elizabeth's
time in ruffs and feathered caps. The rest were for the most part
but wooden ancestors displaying curled wigs, legs which lacked
drawing, and high-heeled shoes. A few o