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,