1829. ] the Cambridge Coach man. 23 
separated more than a twelyemonth from inheritance. Hence a super- 
stitious dread seized the family, as if death were the necessary result to 
any heir who should venture to live in the mansion ; and accordingly it 
was abandoned, with all its furniture—its rich carpets, its splendid 
hangings, its tables of carved ebony, and of woods yet more precious 
than ebony—to the rats and owls, who soon established a mighty colony 
within the deserted walls. Even the family portraits shared the same 
fate ; for it was argued, with a degree of superstition common to those 
times, and not perhaps quite a stranger to our own, that, like the plague, 
the mysterious cause of death might lurk not only in the building, but in 
all connected with it. In this state it remained for half a century, when 
the uncle of the present tenant got a lease of the ruins, and turned the 
better part into an inn, the low rate of the rent serving, in a great mea- 
sure, to qualify the evil report that even yet clung to them, surviving 
what may not be unaptly termed the natural life of the building. But 
though it soon appeared that the curse of premature death, incident on 
_ inhabiting the forbidden mansion, did not extendto strangers, yet the bold 
~ taverner was not without his troubles. In a short time he found it was 
not enough to satisfy_a living landlord by the due payment of his rent on 
quarter-day ; the dead lords of the place had, it seemed, their privileges 
also, in which they were not to be controlled, and, instead of resting 
quietly in their graves, like other honest folks, they were sure, every 
night, fair weather or foul weather, to haunt the portrait-gallery, more 
generally known by the name of the Prior’s Gallery, from the full-length 
7 _ figure of some defunct prior on the stained glass of the eastern window. 
| } _ As, however, the ghosts were modest enough to limit their pretensions 
ie ee 
—/ 
to this one room, and were moreover well able to defend their rights, 
as appeared by their having severely drubbed the few bold spirits who 
had ventured to do battle with them, the new tenant did not think fit to 
_ dispute the point any farther, but double-locked the door, and left them 
_ in quiet possession of the domains to which they had shewn so good a 
title.—Such was the state of affairs, at the Red Lion, when Frank laid 
his wager with the malicious landlord. 
« But now another difficulty arose; Mr. Barnaby had no mind to shew 
his guest the way to the haunted room at such an hour, unless backed in 
the perilous adventure by at least some half-dozen of the company ; the 
_ company had just as little inclination for thrusting themselves into a 
hazard that nowise concerned them ; and Frank, for his part, loudly pro- 
_ tested against passing the night in a cold, damp room, without a fire. 
For some time this obstacle threatened to prevent the decision of their 
_ wager; but, at last, the landlord, who had set his heart on getting his 
unwelcome guest into a scrape, succeeded in persuading the boon com- 
ions to rise in mass, and lend him their protection to the Prior’s 
Gallery. It cost him, indeed, the promise of a bow] of punch in requital 
this good deed, to be brewed at his own proper cost and charges. 
But what is a bowl of punch, though it were as big as a water-bucket, 
to the pleasure of gratifying one’s malice? Besides, it was only requisite 
to Ee ploy a little of the host’s alchymy upon the bills already incurred 
_ during the evening, setting down quarts for pints, and shillings for six- 
~ pences, with a few other slight tricks, such as every landlord of any 
sagacity is familiar with, and, in the long-run, he would not lose so much 
as the value of a nutmeg. 
“ Comforting himself with this fair prospect of making good any 
