The Small House at Allington | Page 3

yet in certain family arrangements
he was, as we shall see, capable of much liberality. He endeavoured to
do his duty in accordance with his lights, and had succeeded in
weaning himself from personal indulgences, to which during the early
days of his high hopes he had become accustomed. And in that matter
of his unrequited love he had been true throughout. In his hard, dry,

unpleasant way he had loved the woman; and when at least he learned
to know that she would not have his love, he had been unable to
transfer his heart to another. This had happened just at the period of his
father's death, and he had endeavoured to console himself with politics,
with what fate we have already seen. A constant, upright, and by no
means insincere man was our Christopher Dale--thin and meagre in his
mental attributes, by no means even understanding the fullness of a full
man, with power of eye-sight very limited in seeing aught which was
above him, but yet worthy of regard in that he had realised a path of
duty and did endeavour to walk therein. And, moreover, our Mr
Christopher Dale was a gentleman.
Such in character was the squire of Allington, the only regular
inhabitant of the Great House. In person, he was a plain, dry man, with
short grizzled hair and thick grizzled eyebrows. Of beard, he had very
little, carrying the smallest possible grey whiskers, which hardly fell
below the points of his ears. His eyes were sharp and expressive, and
his nose was straight and well formed--as was also his chin. But the
nobility of his face was destroyed by a mean mouth with thin lips; and
his forehead, which was high and narrow, though it forbad you to take
Mr Dale for a fool, forbad you also to take him for a man of great parts,
or of a wide capacity. In height, he was about five feet ten; and at the
time of our story was as near to seventy as he was to sixty. But years
had treated him very lightly, and he bore few signs of age. Such in
person was Christopher Dale, Esq, the squire of Allington, and owner
of some three thousand a year, all of which proceeded from the lands of
that parish.
And now I will speak of the Great House of Allington. After all, it was
not very great; nor was it surrounded by much of that exquisite nobility
of park appurtenance which graces the habitations of most of our old
landed proprietors. But the house itself was very graceful. It had been
built in the days of the early Stuarts, in that style of architecture to
which we give the name of the Tudors. On its front it showed three
pointed roofs, or gables, as I believe they should be called; and between
each gable a thin tall chimney stood, the two chimneys thus raising
themselves just above the three peaks I have mentioned. I think that the

beauty of the house depended much on those two chimneys; on them,
and on the mullioned windows with which the front of the house was
closely filled. The door, with its jutting porch, was by no means in the
centre of the house. As you entered, there was but one window on your
right hand, while on your left there were three. And over these there
was a line of five windows, one taking its place above the porch. We all
know the beautiful old Tudor window, with its stout stone mullions and
its stone transoms, crossing from side to side at a point much nearer to
the top than to the bottom. Of all windows ever invented it is the
sweetest. And here, at Allington, I think their beauty was enhanced by
the fact that they were not regular in their shape. Some of these
windows were long windows, while some of them were high. That to
the right of the door, and that at the other extremity of the house, were
among the former. But the others had been put in without regard to
uniformity, a long window here, and a high window there, with a
general effect which could hardly have been improved. Then above, in
the three gables, were three other smaller apertures. But these also were
mullioned, and the entire frontage of the house was uniform in its style.
Round the house there were trim gardens, not very large, but worthy of
much note in that they were so trim--gardens with broad gravel paths,
with one walk running in front of the house so broad as to be fitly
called a terrace. But this, though in front of the house, was sufficiently
removed from it to allow of a coach-road running inside