30 o'clock
p.m., in the Royal Hotel, Plymouth. Any particulars not mentioned in
the bills would be readily furnished on application at the office
of the vendor's solicitors; and parties wishing to inspect the
premises might obtain the keys from Miss Belcher's lodge-keeper,
Mr. Polglaze--that is to say, from the nearest dwelling-house down
the road.
Plinny, with the help of half a dozen of Miss Belcher's men and a
couple of waggons, had employed these three days in removing our
furniture to the great cricket pavilion above the hill; an excellent
storehouse, where, for the time, it would remain in charge of Mr.
Saunders, the head keeper. We ourselves removed to the shelter of
Miss Belcher's lordly roof, as her guests; and Ann, the cook, to a
cottage on the home farm, where that lady--who usually superintended
her own dairy--had offered her the post of _locum tenens_ until our
return from foreign travel. By the morning when the bill-poster came
and affixed the notice of sale, Minden Cottage stood dismantled--a
melancholy shell, inhabited only by memories for us, and for our
country neighbours by mysterious ghostly terrors.
This was one of the many grounds on which we agreed that the Lord
Chancellor had acted foolishly in insisting upon a public auction.
Pages:
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234