neighbouring rill were famous, and so was the mutton which came from
Hazeldean Park.

From the outside of the coach had descended two passengers, who, alone
insensible to the attractions of mutton and trout, refused to dine,--two
melancholy-looking foreigners, of whom one was Signor Riccabocca,
much the same as we see him now, only that the black suit was less
threadbare, the tall form less meagre, and he did not then wear
spectacles; and the other was his servant. "They would walk about
while the coach stopped." Now the Italian's eye had been caught by
a mouldering, dismantled house on the other side the road, which
nevertheless was well situated; half-way up a green hill, with its
aspect due south, a little cascade falling down artificial rockwork, a
terrace with a balustrade, and a few broken urns and statues before
its Ionic portico, while on the roadside stood a board, with
characters already half effaced, implying that the house was "To be let
unfurnished, with or without land."

The abode that looked so cheerless, and which had so evidently hung long
on hand, was the property of Squire Hazeldean. It had been built by his
grandfather on the female side,--a country gentleman who had actually
been in Italy (a journey rare enough to boast of in those days), and
who, on his return home, had attempted a miniature imitation of an
Italian villa. He left an only daughter and sole heiress, who married
Squire Hazeldean's father; and since that time, the house, abandoned
by its proprietors for the larger residence of the Hazeldeans, had
been uninhabited and neglected. Several tenants, indeed, had offered
themselves; but your true country squire is slow in admitting upon his
own property a rival neighbour. Some wanted shooting. "That," said the
Hazeldeans, who were great sportsmen and strict preservers, "was quite
out of the question." Others were fine folks from London. "London
servants," said the Hazeldeans, who were moral and prudent people,
"would corrupt their own, and bring London prices." Others, again,
were retired manufacturers, at whom the Hazeldeans turned up their
agricultural noses. In short, some were too grand, and others too
vulgar. Some were refused because they were known so well: "Friends were
best at a distance," said the Hazeldeans; others because they were not
known at all: "No good comes of strangers," said the Hazeldeans. And
finally, as the house fell more and more into decay, no one would
take it