sleeper for these many years. Downstairs there was also an
interesting collection of armour, together with several huge
trunks and coffers. A great many of them had been recently
taken out and cleaned, as if a long dormant interest in them
were suddenly revived. Doubtless they were those which had
been used by the living originals of the phantoms that looked
down from the frames.

This excellent hoard of suggestive designs for wood-work,
metal-work, and work of other sorts, induced Somerset to
divert his studies from the ecclesiastical direction, to
acquire some new ideas from the objects here for domestic
application. Yet for the present he was inclined to keep his
sketch-book closed and his ivory rule folded, and devote
himself to a general survey. Emerging from the ground-floor
by a small doorway, he found himself on a terrace to the
north-east, and on the other side than that by which he had
entered. It was bounded by a parapet breast high, over which
a view of the distant country met the eye, stretching from the
foot of the slope to a distance of many miles. Somerset went
and leaned over, and looked down upon the tops of the bushes
beneath. The prospect included the village he had passed
through on the previous day: and amidst the green lights and
shades of the meadows he could discern the red brick chapel
whose recalcitrant inmate had so engrossed him.

Before his attention had long strayed over the incident which
romanticized that utilitarian structure, he became aware that
he was not the only person who was looking from the terrace
towards that point of the compass. At the right-hand corner,