THE HALLAM SUCCESSION.




CHAPTER I.


"The changing guests, each in a different mood,
Sit at the road-side table and arise:
And every life among them in likewise
Is a soul's board set daily with new food.

"May not this ancient room thou sitt'st in dwell
In separate living souls for joy or pain?
Nay, all its corners may be painted plain
Where Heaven shows pictures of some life well-spent."

Yorkshire is the epitome of England. Whatever is excellent in the
whole land is found there. The men are sturdy, shrewd, and stalwart;
hard-headed and hard-fisted, and have notably done their work in every
era of English history. They are also a handsome race, the finest
specimens extant of the pure Anglo-Saxon, and they still preserve the
imposing stature and the bright blonde characteristics of the race.

Yorkshire abounds in what is the typical English home--fine old halls
and granges, set in wooded parks, and surrounded by sweet, shady
gardens. One of the fairest of these homes is Hallam-Croft. There may
be larger halls in the West Riding, but none that combines so finely
all the charms of antiquity, with every modern grace and comfort. Its