It commanded the avenue and court-yard; but we were many windows removed
from that over the hall-door, and immediately beneath ours lay the two
giant lime trees, prostrate and uprooted, which I had observed as we drove
up the night before.
I saw more clearly in the bright light of morning the signs of neglect and
almost of dilapidation which had struck me as I approached. The court-yard
was tufted over with grass, seldom from year to year crushed by the
carriage-wheels, or trodden by the feet of visitors. This melancholy
verdure thickened where the area was more remote from the centre; and under
the windows, and skirting the walls to the left, was reinforced by a thick
grove of nettles. The avenue was all grass-grown, except in the very
centre, where a narrow track still showed the roadway The handsome carved
balustrade of the court-yard was discoloured with lichens, and in two
places gapped and broken; and the air of decay was heightened by the fallen
trees, among whose sprays and yellow leaves the small birds were hopping.
Before my toilet was completed, in marched my cousin Milly. We were to
breakfast alone that morning, 'and so much the better,' she told me.
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