2l8 IDLEHURST : 



was dead, the heir come and turned Madam out of the 

 house ; she was niece to Comber the clocksmith in 

 Tisfield, and she'd been there some time afore the old 

 lady died. She thought she would ha' had the house 

 left her, and she wouldn't go ; but they carried her 

 out in a chair, and put her down, chair and all, in the 

 road outside the gates. There was goings on then, 

 and no mistake ! Ridin' all day and drinkin' all night, 

 and cards, and shootin' at the family portraits with 

 their pistols, and all manner of wickedness. They 

 said the old gen'lman was alias sober on Bench-days 

 for nigh on twenty years ; and he generally come to 

 Church in his old yella carriage, and the ringers used 

 to keep on till they see him come in. They was 

 reg'lar besieged once by the bailiffs ; shut up in the 

 house for a week, and pullin' up their victuals through 

 a winda in a basket of a night. We heard the old 

 gen'lman firin' his guns out of the upstairs' windas to 

 frighten 'em ; and if he'd hit one on 'em he wouldn't 

 have cared. After a bit, the heir began to cut the 

 timber, and in a year or two he sold the whole place ; 

 and that was the end of that lot. It seems to me 

 like as if the old fam'lies got wore out, same as chicken 

 and garden-stuff, if you goes on alias with the same 

 old stock." 



So Avery moralises the fall of the long line of the 



