and part of a wardrobe
dedicated to the aged relative. Moreover there was no room in the
stable for the visiting carriage horses, as a young Throckmorton had
recently purchased a string of valuable hunters that must be housed,
although Miss Ann's Golddust breed were forced to present their broad
backs to the rain and wind in the pasture.

Old Billy slept in the coach, but he often did this in late
years--how often he never let his mistress know. In early days he had
been welcomed by the servants and treated with the respect due Miss
Ann Peyton's coachman, but the older generation of colored people had
died off or had become too aged and feeble to "make the young folks
stand around." As for the white people, Uncle Billy couldn't make up
his mind what was the matter with them. Wasn't Miss Ann the same Miss
Ann who had been visiting ever since her own beautiful home, Peyton,
had been burned to the ground just after the war? She was on a visit
at the time. Billy was coachman and had driven her to Buck Hill. He
wasn't old Billy then, but was young and sprightly. He drove a
spanking pair of sorrels and the coach was new and shiny. It was
indeed a stylish turnout and Miss Ann Peyton was known as the belle
and beauty of Kentucky.

It was considered very fortunate at the time of the fire that Ann was
visiting and had all of her clothes and jewels with her. They at least
were saved. From Buck Hill they had gone to the home of other
relations and so on until visiting became a habit. Her father, a
widower, died a few weeks after the fire and later her brother. The
estate had dwindled until only a small income was inherited by the
bereaved Ann. Visiting was cheap. She was made welcome by the
relations, and on prosperous blue-grass farms the care of an extra
pair of carriage horses and the keep of another servant made very
little difference. Cousin Ann, horses and coachman, were received with
open arms and urged to stop as long as they cared to.

In those days there always seemed to be plenty of room for visitors.
The houses were certainly no larger than of the present day but they
were more elastic. Of course entertaining a handsome young woman of
lively and engaging manners, whose beaux were legion, was very
different from having a peculiar old lady in a hoop skirt descend upon
you unawares from a shabby coach drawn by fat old horses that looked
as though they might not go another step in spite of the commands of
the grotesque