near the house that this wing--if it may so be called--containing
two good-sized rooms nearly on a level with the upper floor, had
nothing below but some open stone vaultings, under which it was only
just possible for my tall brothers to stand upright, at the
innermost end. These opened into the cellars which, no doubt,
belonged to the fifteenth-century structure. There seemed to have
once been a door and two or three steps to the ground, which rose
very close to the southern end; but this had been walled up. The
rooms had deep mullioned windows east and west, and very handsome
groined ceilings, and were entered by two steps down from the
gallery round the upper part of the hall. There was a very handsome
double staircase of polished oak, shaped like a Y, the stem of which
began just opposite the original front door--making us wonder if
people knew what draughts were in the days of Queen Anne, and
remember Madame de Maintenon's complaint that health was sacrificed
to symmetry. Not far from this oldest portion were some broken bits
of wall and stumps of columns, remnants of the chapel, and prettily
wreathed with ivy and clematis. We rejoiced in such a pretty and
distinctive ornament to our garden, and never troubled ourselves
about the desecration; and certainly ours was one of the most
delightful gardens that ever existed, what with green turf, bright
flowers, shapely shrubs, and the grand beech-trees enclosing it with
their stately white pillars, green foliage, and the russet arcades
beneath them. The stillness was wonderful to ears accustomed to the
London roar--almost a new sensation. Emily was found, as she said,
'listening to the silence;' and my father declared that no one could
guess at the sense of rest that it gave him.

Of space within there was plenty, though so much had been sacrificed
to the hall and staircase; and this was apparently the cause of the