196 LONGSHORE MEMORIES 
in the marsh, full five miles away from any other 
dwelling. You reached it by a marshland road, by no 
means an easy one to travel over, or you could branch 
off down to it from the upland hard main road, that 
overlooked nothing but marsh and water for miles 
upon miles, by a narrow track just wide enough for 
one waggon to go up or down it. The farm-house 
and buildings, with one or two substantial cottages for 
the farm ' lookers,' as they were called, stood on the 
end of a slope, one of those long strips of solid ground 
that here and there rise gently up from the swamp- 
lands and join on to the uplands. 
The main house was a large square brick build- 
ing, of two stories, having huge chimney-stacks ; 
solid it was throughout. The upper windows were 
lead lights, so were most of the lower ones, on strong 
iron casements ; all the woodwork was of oak, dark 
with age, but sound as a bell. The windows of the 
large parlour and living room, where the master and 
his family enjoyed the small leisure they could allow 
themselves, had very strong window-sashes with 
numerous small squares of glass, all being protected 
by inside as well as outside shutters. These windows 
opened on to the large walled-in garden, where figs, 
peaches, and nectarines ripened to perfection after the 
burning marshland summers. In the latter part of 
