The Old Place 



revolving after sundown, while of a still 

 evening the monotonous roll of the waves 

 upon the beach could be clearly heard. 



The old house, which we vainly tried to The ruined 

 find habitable, had stood for two hundred house ' 

 years, and must have been a fine dwelling 

 in its day ; its rooms, though low-ceiled, 

 being spacious and numerous, and their 

 outlook picturesque. It was ill-planned 

 for modern ideas, though many of its con- 

 temporaries in this ancient town are still 

 occupied, and by a little alteration made 

 very comfortable ; while, owing to neglect 

 and ill usage by tenants, the owners hav- 

 ing long since moved away, it was in a 

 condition of hopeless disrepair. The floors 

 had settled, and the walls with them, un- 

 til in some of the lower rooms there were 

 gaps beside the beams of the ceiling, in 

 which rats or squirrels had made their 

 nests, so that supplies of nuts were to be 

 seen safely stored away in the holes. The 

 window-panes were broken, the shingles 

 mossgrown and ragged, the chimneys fall- 

 ing into ruins, and the sills had rotted 

 away. Moreover, the road that wound by 

 the door had been so raised by the accre- 

 5 



