He allowed his mind to
linger by preference on the many graceless and unedifying pleasures
which his position placed at his command. He could on occasion
close the mouths of his dependents by a good bomb-like oath, and he
argued doggedly with the parson on the virtues of cock-fighting and
baiting the bull.
This nobleman's personal appearance was somewhat impressive. His
complexion was that of the copper-beech tree. His frame was
stalwart, though slightly stooping. His mouth was large, and he
carried an unpolished sapling as his walking-stick, except when he
carried a spud for cutting up any thistle he encountered on his
walks. His castle stood in the midst of a park, surrounded by dusky
elms, except to the southward; and when the moon shone out, the
gleaming stone facade, backed by heavy boughs, was visible from the
distant high road as a white spot on the surface of darkness.
Though called a castle, the building was little fortified, and had
been erected with greater eye to internal convenience than those
crannied places of defence to which the name strictly appertains.
It was a castellated mansion as regular as a chessboard on its
ground-plan, ornamented with make-believe bastions and
machicolations, behind which were stacks of battlemented chimneys.
On still mornings, at the fire-lighting hour, when ghostly house-
maids stalk the corridors, and thin streaks of light through the
shutter-chinks lend startling winks and smiles to ancestors on
canvas, twelve or fifteen thin stems of blue smoke sprouted upwards
from these chimney-tops, and spread into a flat canopy on high.
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