preceding reign, may probably be doubted. That
there were fragments of masonry, and parts of old timber, remaining
from the monastery was probably true enough. The great body of the
old house, as it now stood, had been built in the time of Charles
II., and there was the date in the brickwork still conspicuous on the
wall looking into the court. The hall and front door as it now stood,
very prominent but quite at the end of the house, had been erected in
the reign of Queen Anne, and the modern drawing-rooms with the best
bedrooms over them, projecting far out into the modern gardens, had
been added by the present baronet's father. The house was entirely
of brick, and the old windows,--not the very oldest, the reader will
understand, but those of the Caroline age,--were built with strong
stone mullions, and were longer than they were deep, beauty of
architecture having in those days been more regarded than light. Who
does not know such windows, and has not declared to himself often
how sad a thing it is that sanitary or scientific calculations
should have banished the like of them from our houses? Two large
oriel windows coming almost to the ground, and going up almost to
the ceilings, adorned the dining-room and the library. From the
drawing-rooms modern windows, opening on to a terrace, led into the
garden.

You entered the mansion by a court that was enclosed on two sides
altogether, and on the two others partially. Facing you, as you drove
in, was the body of the building, with the huge porch projecting on
the right so as to give the appearance of a portion of the house
standing out on that side. On the left was that old mythic Tudor
remnant of the monastery, of which the back wall seen from the court
was pierced only with a small window here and there, and was covered
with ivy. Those lattice windows, from which Emily Hotspur loved to
think that the monks of old had looked into their trim gardens, now
looked on to a bowling-green which was kept very trim in honour of
the holy personages who were supposed to have played there four
centuries ago. Then, at the end of this old building, there had been
erected kitchens, servants' offices, and various rooms, which turned
the corner of the court in front, so that only one corner had, as
it were, been left for ingress and egress. But the court itself was
large, and in the middle of it there stood an old stone ornamental
structure, usually called the fountain, but quite ignor