are going over to see the result of his labours."

Bretton Park, which was then undergoing such complete renovation, is
situated about a couple of miles from Cannon Hall, and its owner at this
date afforded endless food for discussion both in Yorkshire and London.

In a previous volume, [21] reference has been made to the celebrated Mrs
Beaumont, or, as she was universally called by her generation, Madame
Beaumont. The natural daughter of Sir Thomas Blackett of Bretton, she had
been made his heiress, and had married Colonel Beaumont, M.P. for York.
Although Mrs Stanhope and many others then living could remember her as a
village girl riding to Penistone every market day to sell butter and eggs,
Mrs Beaumont successfully ignored any such unpleasant reminiscences on the
part of those acquainted with her early life, and continued to dominate a
situation to which, thus heavily handicapped, she might well have
succumbed.

By dint of an unassailable belief in her wealth and importance, she held
her own with the county families, whose slights she ignored or repaid with
interest, and whom she alternately flouted and patronised. At once a
source of irritation and of amusement to her neighbours, this was
particularly so in the case of the family at Cannon Hall, whose property
adjoined her own and who were perpetually annoyed by her interference and
impertinence. There was unfortunately no boundary line between the
estates, so Mrs Beaumont used unhesitatingly to inform strangers that all
the land from the walls of Bretton to those of Cannon Hall was hers; while
on one occasion, when a dispute arose between herself and Mr Stanhope
respecting a certain tree, she settled the question in a characteristic
manner by causing this to be cut down in the night.