t,
sheltering the house and grounds from every adverse wind. The house
itself was very commodious, but unassuming. The south front had a large
projecting half-circle, with three windows in it and a window on each
side of the half-circle; this formed the drawing-room below and my
uncle's bedroom, and two dressing-rooms above. To the right, looking at
the house, there was a wing with an open-arched passage leading to a
greenhouse and vinery, while above ran a suite of three rooms, each
with one good-sized window overlooking the garden. These were the three
rooms kept for the same number of young gentlemen who might be taken in
for preparation for the University--a number the doctor never exceeded.
Of these rooms I was at present the only occupant. They were built so
as to be shut off from all the rest of the house by a door on the
landing, leading into the corridor, from which a door communicated with
the doctor's dressing-room, and with each of the three rooms. At the
end was a water-closet for general use. I have already mentioned the
first of these rooms had a second door of communication with the
doctor's dressing-room, and this was appropriated to me. Below these
rooms, but looking north, and communicating with the village by a
covered way and having a playground into which it looked, was the
school-room, taking up about half the space of the rooms above. Beyond
the covered way to the village was a quiet garden square, into which
the doctor's study looked. This study was separated by a passage from
the school-room, and had double baize doors both on the house and
school-room sides. It was in fact the doctor's sanctum sanctorum, of
which more will be told in the sequel. In this manner the school-room
part of the house was quite shut off from the rest, and was nowhere
overlooked. To return to the habitable part. The west front contained a
small library, opening from the drawing-room, and beyond a comfortable
dining-room, communicating with the kitchen and offices, which
overlooked the courtyard of the entrance to the house, above these were
the domestics' bedrooms, &c. The entrance was from the north into a
handsome entrance-hall, with a good broad staircase leading to the
upper landing, which, turning westward, led to three extra bedrooms
above the library and dining-room. It was thus a very convenient house
and well-adapted for a clergyman adding scholastic duties to his other
ministrations. I forgot to say that the f