The Longwoods Of The Grange

Author : Books Group
Publisher : General Books
ISBN 13 : 9781458901859
Total Pages : 268 pages
Book Rating : 4.9/5 (18 download)

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Download or read book The Longwoods of the Grange, by the Author of 'Adelaide Lindsay'. written by Books Group and published by General Books. This book was released on 2012-02 with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III. I Have mentioned that the family mansion was one of the sacrifices which my father found it absolutely necessary to make in order to clear the encumbrances upon the estate. A Sir Joseph Mortlake became the purchaser when it was put up to sale, with most of the surrounding property. It was said that he was the possessor of untold wealth, and certainly it looked like it, for not satisfied with what he found already completed to his hand, at the price of the ruin of one wealthy and ancient family, he must yet add to the cost ofthe magnificent pile; enlarging the conservatories and hot-houses to a size capacious enough to furnish the whole county with fruit and flowers, throwing up terraces, laying out fresh pleasure-grounds, and sinking many a goodly acre of meadow-land to enlarge a piece of ornamental water which was already the boast of the neighbourhood. These out-of- door improvements failed even to satisfy the inexhaustible Sir Joseph. The dining-room, it appears, was not large enough to accommodate his family and guests, so he turned it into a billiard-room, and built another, twice as large as its predecessor. Poor dear Aunt Dorothy It was more than her philosophy could accomplish, to witness all these alterations with the indifference, which was, at least, manifested by my father. With the tenacity of hereditary proprietorship, she still kept up her interest in the old place, and looked upon these improvements as so many insolent sacrileges upon the part of the present possessor. She did not mind somuch what was done to the Hall, that modern affair; though at the same time, she did think that what had been good enough, nay, had caused the ruin of a Longwood might have served the turn of such people as the Mort- lakes. But the destruction made of the old...