the verge of the natural declivity, and on that side of the hill where
its base was washed by the rivulet, a rude piazza stretching along the
whole of its front and overhanging the stream. Several large, irregular,
and clumsy chimneys, rose out of different parts of the roofs, another
proof that comfort, rather than taste, had been consulted in the
disposition of the buildings. There were also two or three detached
offices on the summit of the hill, placed near the dwelling, and at
points most convenient for their several uses. A stranger might have
remarked that they were so disposed as to form, far as they went, the
different sides of a hollow square. Notwithstanding the great length of
the principal building, and the disposition of the more minute and
detached parts, this desirable formation would not, however, have been
obtained, were it not that two rows of rude constructions in logs, from
which the bark had not even been stripped, served to eke out the parts
that were deficient. These primeval edifices were used to contain various
domestic articles, no less than provisions; and they also furnished
numerous lodging-rooms for the laborers and the inferior dependants of
the farm: By the aid of a few strong and high gates of hewn timber, those
parts of the buildings which had not been made to unite in the original
construction, were sufficiently connected to oppose so many barriers
against admission into the inner court.

But the building which was most conspicuous by its position, no less than
by the singularity of its construction, stood on a low, artificial mound,
in the centre of the quadrangle. It was high, hexagonal in shape, and
crowned with a roof that came to a point, and from whose peak rose a
towering flagstaff. The foundation was of stone; but, at the height of a
man above the earth, the sides were made of massive, squared logs, firmly
united by an ingenious combination of their ends, as well as by
perpendicular supporters pinned closely into their sides. In this