Scenes and Characters | Page 6

she not? She will not--that is all,' said the Marquis. 'Such

slow people you all are! You would all go to sleep if I did not
sometimes rouse you up a little--grow stagnant.'
'Not an elegant comparison,' said Lilias; 'besides, you must remember
that your hasty brawling streams do not reflect like tranquil lakes.'
'One of Lily's poetical hits, I declare!' said Lord Rotherwood, 'but she
need not have taken offence--I did not refer to her--only Claude and
Emily, and perhaps--no, I will not say who else.'
'Then, Rotherwood, I will tell you what I am--the Lily that derives all
its support from the calm lake.'
'Well done, Lily, worthy of yourself,' cried Lord Rotherwood, laughing,
'but you know I am always off when you talk poetry.'
'I suspect it is time for us all to be off,' said Claude, 'did I not hear it
strike the quarter?'
'And to-morrow I shall be off in earnest,' said Lord Rotherwood. 'Half
way to London before Claude has given one turn to "his sides, and his
shoulders, and his heavy head."'
'Shall we see you at Easter?' said Emily.
'No, I do not think you will. I am engaged to stay with somebody
somewhere, I forget the name of place and man; besides, Grosvenor
Square is more tolerable then than at any other time of the year, and I
shall spend a fortnight with my mother and Florence. It is after Easter
that you come to Oxford, is it not, Claude?'
'Yes, my year of idleness will be over. And there is the Baron looking
at his watch.'
The 'Baron' was the title by which the young people were wont to
distinguish Mr. Mohun, who, as Lily believed, had a right to the title of
Baron of Beechcroft. It was certain that he was the representative of a
family which had been settled at Beechcroft ever since the Norman
Conquest, and Lily was very proud of the name of Sir William de
Moune in the battle roll, and of Sir John among the first Knights of the
Garter. Her favourite was Sir Maurice, who had held out Beechcroft
Court for six weeks against the Roundheads, and had seen the greater
part of the walls battered down. Witnesses of the strength of the old
castle yet remained in the massive walls and broad green ramparts,
which enclosed what was now orchard and farm- yard, and was called
the Old Court, while the dwelling-house, built by Sir Maurice after the
Restoration, was named the New Court. Sir Maurice had lost many an

acre in the cause of King Charles, and his new mansion was better
suited to the honest squires who succeeded him, than to the mighty
barons his ancestors. It was substantial and well built, with a square
gravelled court in front, and great, solid, folding gates opening into a
lane, bordered with very tall well- clipped holly hedges, forming a
polished, green, prickly wall. There was a little door in one of these
gates, which was scarcely ever shut, from whence a well-worn path led
to the porch, where generally reposed a huge Newfoundland dog,
guardian of the hoops and walkingsticks that occupied the corners. The
front door was of heavy substantial oak, studded with nails, and never
closed in the daytime, and the hall, wainscoted and floored with
slippery oak, had a noble open fireplace, with a wood fire burning on
the hearth.
On the other side of the house was a terrace sloping down to a lawn and
bowling-green, hedged in by a formal row of evergreens. A noble
plane-tree was in the middle of the lawn, and beyond it a pond
renowned for water-lilies. To the left was the kitchen garden,
terminating in an orchard, planted on the ramparts and moat of the Old
Court; then came the farm buildings, and beyond them a field, sloping
upwards to an extensive wood called Beechcroft Park. In the wood was
the cottage of Walter Greenwood, gamekeeper and woodman by
hereditary succession, but able and willing to turn his hand to anything,
and, in fact, as Adeline once elegantly termed him, the 'family tee
totum.'
To the right of the house there was a field, called Long Acre, bounded
on the other side by the turnpike road to Raynham, which led up the
hill to the village green, surrounded by well-kept cottages and gardens.
The principal part of the village was, however, at the foot of the hill,
where the Court lane crossed the road, led to the old church, the school,
and parsonage, in its little garden, shut in by thick yew hedges. Beyond
was the blacksmith's shop, more cottages, and Mrs. Appleton's
wondrous village warehouse; and the lane, after passing by the
handsome old farmhouse of Mr. Harrington, Mr. Mohun's principal
tenant,