ii LETTERS TO MARCO 9 



were being excavated, a great quantity of 

 coal being dug up from the edge of the river, 

 as well as the remains of the old timbers of a 

 canal-boat. The gentleman who purchased 

 the property many years ago must in build- 

 ing have utilised some old house or other 

 which no doubt was on the spot, for in effect- 

 ing the considerable structural alterations 

 which I made the builders came upon timber 

 and brick walls of a much older character 

 than the rest of the work. The house has 

 been altered and enlarged by almost every 

 one of its different owners at various 

 times, and is in consequence very rambling 

 and intricate in its internal arrangements, 

 abounding in narrow back stairs, crooked 

 passages, dummy windows, etc. The house 

 was last used as a boarding-school for young 

 ladies, and when I came to view it before 

 buying it there were still a few little girls at 

 work in the large class-room, to whom my 

 intrusion must have been a source of curiosity 

 and excitement. The lady who kept this 



