xteen, saved her jewels and one or two of
her more elaborate gowns, and then sat down by the sun-dial and cried.
The servants worked furiously as long as the devouring flames allowed
them, but when there was nothing left of Kencote Hall but smouldering,
unsafe walls, under a black, winter sky, and the piled-up heap of things
that had been got out into the garden came to be examined, it was found
to be made up chiefly of the lighter and less valuable pieces of
furniture, a few pictures and hangings, many tumbled folios from the
library, kitchen and house utensils, and just a few pieces of plate and
other valuables to salt the whole worthless mass.

So perished in a night the chief pride of the Clintons of Kencote, and
the noble house, with its great raftered hall, its carved and panelled
chambers, its spoil of tapestries and furniture, carpets, china, silver,
pictures, books, all the possessions that had been gathered from many
lands through many years, was only a memory that must fade more and more
rapidly as time went on.

The young couple went back to her ladyship's father, not many miles
away, and Kencote was left in its ruins for ten years or so. Then my
Lord Beechmont died, sadly impoverished by unfortunate dealings with the
stock of the South Sea Company, the house and land that remained to him
were sold, and Kencote was rebuilt with the proceeds, much as it stands
to-day, except that Merchant Jack, the father of Colonel Thomas, bitten
with the ideas of his time, covered the mellow red brick with a coating
of stucco and was responsible for the Corinthian porch, and the
ornamental parapet surmounted by Grecian urns.

Merchant Jack had been a younger son and had made his fortune in the
city. He was modern in his ideas, and a rich man, and wanted a house as
good as his neighbours. Georgian brick, and tall, narrow, small-paned
windows had gone out of fashion. So had the old formal gardens. Those at
Kencote had survived the destruction of the house, but they did not
survive the devastating zeal of Merchant Jack. They were swept away by a
pupil of Capability Brown's, who allowed the old walls of the kitchen
garden to stand because they were useful for growing fruit, but
destroyed walls and terraces and old yew hedges everywhere else, brought
the well-treed park into relation, as he thought, with the garden, by
means of sunk fences, planted shrubberies, laid down vast lawns, and
retired very well pleased with himself a