It glided
away, and they rolled on easy springs at the rate of twelve miles an hour
till they came to the lodge-gate. It was opened at their approach, and
they drove full half a mile over a broad gravel path, with rich grass on
each side, and grand old patriarchs, oak and beech, standing here and
there, and dappled deer, grazing or lying, in mottled groups, till they
came to a noble avenue of lofty lime-trees, with stems of rare size and
smoothness, and towering piles on piles of translucent leaves, that
glowed in the sun like flakes of gold.
At the end of this avenue was seen an old mansion, built of that
beautiful clean red brick--which seems to have died out-- and white-stone
facings and mullions, with gables and oriel windows by the dozen; but
between the avenue and the house was a large oval plot of turf, with a
broad gravel road running round it; and attached to the house, but thrown
a little back, were the stables, which formed three sides of a good-sized
quadrangle, with an enormous clock in the center. The lawn,
kitchen-garden, ice-houses, pineries, green houses, revealed themselves
only in peeps as the carriage swept round the spacious plot and drew up
at the hall door.
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