LITERARY AND DOMESTIC LIFE. 405 



trees up and down the banks ; but the view in front open, not ex- 

 posed. The house was originally of this common kind : door in 

 the middle, window on each side, three windows above, and win- 

 dowless roof. A stone portico, since erected, takes away the for- 

 mality, and breaks the blast. Freestone, neat with a window, good 

 place for a clock, or even a ' beetle.' Entering through a glass door 

 into the passage, to the left is the drawing-room, about sixteen feet 

 square, I think, though I have not measured it yet ; one window 

 looking to the front, another up the river into a close scene pretty 

 with trees; a most pleasant parlor. 



"To the right is the parlor, 15 feet by 12, small no doubt, but 

 lodgeable and comfortable. Up-stairs (which face you on your 

 entrance) are four bedrooms, all comfortable ; the two to the front 

 excellent and lit for anybody ; one of them with a small dressing- 

 room with a window. I forgot to say, that behind the drawing- 

 room is a pretty little room for a boudoir, study, or bedroom. All 

 these rooms are papered, not, perhaps, as we would have papered 

 them, but all neat and tidy, and not to be needlessly found fault 

 with. So done only two years ago ; so is the passage and stair- 

 case. An addition had been made to the house at the end to the 

 right hand ; and on the ground floor is the dining-room, into which 

 you enter through the aforesaid parlor. It is, I believe, 18 feet by 

 16. One window looks to the front, and one into a grove of trees. 

 It is oil-painted, of the color of dark brick-dust, with a gilt mould- 

 ing; rather ugly at first sight, but I am trying to like it, and, for 

 the present, it will do. Doors, etc., of all the rooms, good imitation 

 of oak. 



" Above the dining-room, and behind it overhead, are two largish 

 rooms, very low in the roof, communicating with one of the best 

 bedrooms aforesaid, and used formerly as nurseries. 



" So there are, in fact, seven bedrooms. 



" There is a good kitchen (fatally to me, not to John) near the 

 dining-room, and back kitchen, also servants' hall, as it is called, or 

 rather butler's pantry — a very comfortable and useful place — and 

 fitted up with presses, which John bought. There is a woman- 

 servant's room, with two beds; ditto, ditto, man-servant's. A 

 storeroom — good size — and a large dark closet, fit to hold the six 

 tin canisters, though they were sixty, and other things besides. 

 Behind are a few out-houses in rather a shaky condition. The 



