and as he had no establishment at Lufton Park--which indeed had not
been inhabited since his grandfather died--he lived with his mother
when it suited him to live anywhere in that neighbourhood. The
widow would fain have seen more of him than he allowed her to do.
He had a shooting lodge in Scotland, and apartments in London, and
a string of horses in Leicestershire--much to the disgust of the
country gentry around him, who held that their own hunting was as
good as any that England could afford. His lordship, however, paid
his subscription to the East Barsetshire park, and then thought
himself at liberty to follow his own pleasure as to his own
amusement.

Framley itself was a pleasant country place, having about it
nothing of seigneurial dignity or grandeur, but possessing
everything necessary for the comfort of country life. The house
was a low building of two stories, built at different periods, and
devoid of all pretensions to any style of architecture; but the
rooms, though not lofty, were warm and comfortable, and the gardens
were trim and neat beyond all others in the county. Indeed, it was
for its gardens only that Framley Court was celebrated. Village
there was none, properly speaking. The high road went winding
about through the Framley paddocks, shrubberies, and wood-skirted
home fields, for a mile and a half, not two hundred yards of which
ran in a straight line; and there was a cross-road which passed
down through the domain, whereby there came to be a locality called
Framley Cross. Here stood the 'Lufton Arms', and here at Framley
Cross, the hounds occasionally would meet; for the Framley woods
were drawn in spite of the young lord's truant disposition; and
then, at the Cross also, lived the shoemaker, who kept the
post-office.