The Manor House had been added to and largely altered, but many years
had brought it into harmony with its surroundings, while Nature had
dealt kindly with its colouring, so that it carried the charm of long
use and continuous human habitation. Behind the house an old walled
garden, with flower-bordered grass walks under arches of honeysuckle
and roses, gave vistas of an ample mill-pond at the lower end, forming
one of the garden boundaries. The pond was almost surrounded by tall
black poplars which stretched protecting arms over the water, forming
a wide and lofty avenue extending to the faded red-brick mill itself,
and whispering continuously on the stillest summer day. The mill-wheel
could be seen revolving and glittering in the sunlight, and the hum of
distant machinery inside the mill could be heard. The brook, which fed
the pond, was fringed by ancient pollard willows; it wound through
luxuriant meadows with ploughed land or cornfields still farther back.
The whole formed a peaceful picture almost to the verge of drowsiness,
and reminded one of the "land in which it seemed always afternoon."
The space below the house and the upper part of the garden immediately
behind it was occupied by the rickyard, reaching to the mill and pond,
and a long range of mossy-roofed barns divided it from the farmyard
with its stables and cattle-sheds.
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