t, there
can be no other way to escape (if one would) unless by the plashy lane,
so full of springs, by which your servant reaches the solitary wood
house; to which lane one must descend from a high bank, that bounds the
poultry yard. For, as to the front-way, you know, one must pass through
the house to that, and in sight of the parlours, and the servants' hall;
and then have the open courtyard to go through, and, by means of the
iron-gate, be full in view, as one passes over the lawn, for a quarter
of a mile together; the young plantations of elms and limes affording
yet but little shade or covert.

* This, in another of her letters, (which neither is
inserted,) is thus described:--'A piece of ruins upon it,
the remains of an old chapel, now standing in the midst of
the coppice; here and there an over-grown oak, surrounded
with ivy and mistletoe, starting up, to sanctify, as it
were, the awful solemnness of the place: a spot, too, where
a man having been found hanging some years ago, it was used
to be thought of by us when children, and by the maid-
servants, with a degree of terror, (it being actually the
habitation of owls, ravens, and other ominous birds,) as
haunted by ghosts, goblins, specters: the genuine result of
the country loneliness and ignorance: notions which, early
propagated, are apt to leave impressions even upon minds
grown strong enough at the same time to despise the like
credulous follies in others.'

The Ivy Summer-house is the most convenient for this heart-affecting
purpose of any spot in the garden, as it is not far from the back-door,
and yet in another alley, as you may remember. Then it is seldom
resorted to by any body else, except in the summer-months, because it is
cool. When they loved me, they would often, for this reason, object to
my long continuance in it:--but now, it is no matter what becomes of me.
Besides, cold is a bracer, as my brother said yesterday.

Here I will deposit what I have written. Let me have your prayers, my
dear; and your approbation, or your censure, of the steps I have taken:
for yet it may not be quite too late to revoke the appointment. I am

Your most affectionate and faithful CL. HARLOWE.

Why will you send your servant empty-handed?

LETTER XLIII

MISS HOWE, TO MISS CLARISSA HARLOWE SAT. AFTERNOON.

By your last date of ten o'clock in your letter of this day, yo