Book Description

The day arrived. A post-chaise stood in front of the old grey manor-house. I have it all before me. The pointed gablesÑthe high-pitched, dark weather; stained roofÑthe numberless latticed windowsÑthe moat, now dry, which had once served to keep out a body of CromwellÕs horseÑthe tall elms, which had nestled many a generation of rooksÑthe clump of beech trees, and the venerable wide-spreading oakÑthe broad gravelled court on one side, and the velvety lawn on the other, sloping away down to the fine, large, deep fish-pond, whose waters, on which I had obtained my first nautical experiences, as seen through the green foliage, were sparkling brighter than ever under the deep blue of the summer sky. At the hall door were assembled all those I loved on earthÑand dearly, too, I loved them. My mother, as good and kind a mother as ever nursed a somewhat numerous and noisy progeny; my sisters, dear, sweet, good girls; and half-a-dozen brothers, honest, generous, capital fellows; our father, tooÑsuch a father!Ñwe always agreed that no one could come up to him. Other fellows might have very good fathers, but they were not equal to him! He could be just like one of us at cricket, or out fishing, or shooting, and yet he was always right, and there was not a finer-looking gentleman in the county, and that every one said. We were all at home for the Midsummer holidaysÑthat is to say, we boys; our mother was not a person to let her girls go to school. Who could say that we were not met for the last time in our lives?