They gave
the house something of the air of a French chateau, only it looked
stronger and far grimmer. Carved around some of the windows,
in ancient characters, were Scripture texts and antique proverbs.
Two time worn specimens of heraldic zoology, in a state of fearful
and everlasting excitement, stood rampant and gaping, one on each
side of the hall door, contrasting strangely with the repose of
the ancient house, which looked very like what the oldest part of
it was said to have been--a monastery. It had at the same time,
however, a somewhat warlike expression, wherein consisting it would
have been difficult to say; nor could it ever have been capable of
much defence, although its position in that regard was splendid. In
front was a great gravel space, in the centre of which lay a huge
block of serpentine, from a quarry on the estate, filling the office
of goal, being the pivot, as it were, around which all carriages
turned.
On one side of the house was a great stone bridge, of lofty span,
stretching across a little glen, in which ran a brown stream spotted
with foam--the same that entered the frith beside the Seaton; not
muddy, however, for though dark it was clear--its brown being a
rich transparent hue, almost red, gathered from the peat bogs of
the great moorland hill behind. Only a very narrow terrace walk,
with battlemented parapet, lay between the back of the house, and
a precipitous descent of a hundred feet to this rivulet.
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