It is certainly a very fine building, and looks as nice and
new as stone and mortar can make it, but the ivy green will soon cover
it all up with its green mantle. We were not able to walk over even the
allowed portion of the grounds, as they extended for miles. We parted
from our gentlemanly conductor at a certain gate. He was so nice that we
felt almost ashamed to offer the expected gratuity which was, however,
thankfully received.
I pondered a little way over the man's remarks who had been our guide
through the demesne. He always kept repeating that we might have been
shown the gardens and the house, but for the disturbance in the country.
I wondered to hear hints of trouble on this estate, for no man, woman or
child, with whom I conversed, but spoke highly of the generosity,
magnanimity and kindliness of Lord Ardilaun, and his father before him.
I have seen in his lordship's own writing and over his signature the
statement that, during prosperous years, even, the rent has not been
raised, that he had for years spent on his property more than double the
rental in improvements and for labor. When I read this I thought of the
causeway raised along the brow of a hill over which I walked in the
demesne, I thought at the time what an amount of labor was expended to
place it there.
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