During her absence, I had full leisure to look around and note the
desolate condition of Coote-down. The lawn--thickly overspread with
rank grass--could scarcely be distinguished from the fishpond, which
was completely covered with water-weeds. The shrubbery was choked
and tangled, whilst a very wide rent in the wall laid open to view an
enclosure which had once been a garden, but was now a wilderness.
For a time the sorrowful effect which all this decay produced on my
mind was increased by the extreme solitude which reigned around.
This, however, was presently relieved by a cackling sign of life
which issued from a brood-hen as it flew from the sill of a
side-parlour window. On casting my eyes further into the landscape,
I also perceived a very fat cow lazily browsing on the rich pasture
of a paddock.

On turning round to view the house, new tokens of desolation were
visible. Its shattered casements and worm-eaten doors, with tufts of
weed growing at each corner, showed that for many years the front of
the mansion had not been inhabited or its doors opened. One evidence
of fallen grandeur was highly characteristic--over the porch the
family-arms had been carved in stone, but was now scarcely
distinguishable from dilapidation: a sparrow had established a
comfortable nest in the mouth of the helmet, and a griffin 'rampant'
had fallen from his place beside the shield, and tamely lay
overgrown with weeds.

These observations were interrupted by the light step of my cousin,
who came to inform me that the lady of the house, after much,
persuasion, had consented to receive me. Conducting me to the back
of the mansion, my fair guide took me through a dark passage into a
sort of kitchen. A high and ample 'settle' stood, as is usual in