My Lady Ludlow | Page 6

to see you drive up to
the house."
"Are we near the house?" said I, suddenly checked by the idea.
"Down there, Miss," replied he, pointing with his whip to certain stacks
of twisted chimneys rising out of a group of trees, in deep shadow
against the crimson light, and which lay just beyond a great square
lawn at the base of the steep slope of a hundred yards, on the edge of
which we stood.
I went down the steps quietly enough. I met Randal and the gig at the
bottom; and, falling into a side road to the left, we drove sedately round,
through the gateway, and into the great court in front of the house.

The road by which we had come lay right at the back.
Hanbury Court is a vast red-trick house--at least, it is cased in part with
red bricks; and the gate-house and walls about the place are of
brick,--with stone facings at every corner, and door, and window, such
as you see at Hampton Court. At the back are the gables, and arched
doorways, and stone mullions, which show (so Lady Ludlow used to
tell us) that it was once a priory. There was a prior's parlour, I
know--only we called it Mrs. Medlicott's room; and there was a
tithe-barn as big as a church, and rows of fish-ponds, all got ready for
the monks' fasting-days in old time. But all this I did not see till
afterwards. I hardly noticed, this first night, the great Virginian Creeper
(said to have been the first planted in England by one of my lady's
ancestors) that half covered the front of the house. As I had been
unwilling to leave the guard of the coach, so did I now feel unwilling to
leave Randal, a known friend of three hours. But there was no help for
it; in I must go; past the grand- looking old gentleman holding the door
open for me, on into the great hall on the right hand, into which the
sun's last rays were sending in glorious red light,--the gentleman was
now walking before me,--up a step on to the dais, as I afterwards
learned that it was called,-- then again to the left, through a series of
sitting-rooms, opening one out of another, and all of them looking into
a stately garden, glowing, even in the twilight, with the bloom of
flowers. We went up four steps out of the last of these rooms, and then
my guide lifted up a heavy silk curtain and I was in the presence of my
Lady Ludlow.
She was very small of stature, and very upright. She wore a great lace
cap, nearly half her own height, I should think, that went round her
head (caps which tied under the chin, and which we called "mobs,"
came in later, and my lady held them in great contempt, saying people
might as well come down in their nightcaps). In front of my lady's cap
was a great bow of white satin ribbon; and a broad band of the same
ribbon was tied tight round her head, and served to keep the cap
straight. She had a fine Indian muslin shawl folded over her shoulders
and across her chest, and an apron of the same; a black silk mode gown,
made with short sleeves and ruffles, and with the tail thereof pulled
through the pocket-hole, so as to shorten it to a useful length: beneath it
she wore, as I could plainly see, a quilted lavender satin petticoat. Her

hair was snowy white, but I hardly saw it, it was so covered with her
cap: her skin, even at her age, was waxen in texture and tint; her eyes
were large and dark blue, and must have been her great beauty when
she was young, for there was nothing particular, as far as I can
remember, either in mouth or nose. She had a great gold-headed stick
by her chair; but I think it was more as a mark of state and dignity than
for use; for she had as light and brisk a step when she chose as any girl
of fifteen, and, in her private early walk of meditation in the mornings,
would go as swiftly from garden alley to garden alley as any one of us.
She was standing up when I went in. I dropped my curtsey at the door,
which my mother had always taught me as a part of good manners, and
went up instinctively to my lady. She did not put out her hand, but
raised herself a little on tiptoe, and kissed me on both cheeks.
"You are cold, my child. You shall have a dish of tea with me." She
rang a little hand-bell on the