The squires3 of Allington had been squires of Allington since squires, such as squires are now, were first known in England. From father to son, and from uncle to nephew, and, in one instance, from second cousin to second cousin, the sceptre had descended4 in the family of the Dales; and the acres had remained intact, growing in value and not decreasing in number, though guarded by no entail6 and protected by no wonderful amount of prudence7 or wisdom. The estate of Dale of Allington had been coterminous8 with the parish of Allington for some hundreds of years; and though, as I have said, the race of squires had possessed9 nothing of superhuman discretion10, and had perhaps been guided in their walks through life by no very distinct principles, still there had been with them so much of adherence11 to a sacred law, that no acre of the property had ever been parted from the hands of the existing squire2. Some futile12 attempts had been made to increase the territory, as indeed had been done by Kit13 Dale, the father of Christopher Dale, who will appear as our squire of Allington when the persons of our drama are introduced. Old Kit Dale, who had married money, had bought outlying farms,—a bit of ground here and a bit there,—talking, as he did so, much of political influence and of the good old Tory cause. But these farms and bits of ground had gone again before our time. To them had been attached no religion. When old Kit had found himself pressed in that matter of the majority of the Nineteenth Dragoons, in which crack regiment14 his second son made for himself quite a career, he found it easier to sell than to save—seeing that that which he sold was his own and not the patrimony15 of the Dales. At his death the remainder of these purchases had gone. Family arrangements required completion, and Christopher Dale required ready money. The outlying farms flew away, as such new purchases had flown before; but the old patrimony of the Dales remained untouched, as it had ever remained.
It had been a religion among them; and seeing that the worship had been carried on without fail, that the vestal fire had never gone down upon the hearth16, I should not have said that the Dales had walked their ways without high principle. To this religion they had all adhered, and the new heir had ever entered in upon his domain17 without other encumbrances18 than those with which he himself was then already burdened. And yet there had been no entail. The idea of an entail was not in accordance with the peculiarities19 of the Dale mind. It was necessary to the Dale religion that each squire should have the power of wasting the acres of Allington,—and that he should abstain20 from wasting them. I remember to have dined at a house, the whole glory and fortune of which depended on the safety of a glass goblet21. We all know the story. If the luck of Edenhall should be shattered, the doom22 of the family would be sealed. Nevertheless I was bidden to drink out of the fatal glass, as were all guests in that house. It would not have contented23 the chivalrous24 mind of the master to protect his doom by lock and key and padded chest. And so it was with the Dales of Allington. To them an entail would have been a lock and key and a padded chest; but the old chivalry25 of their house denied to them the use of such protection.
I have spoken something slightingly of the acquirements and doings of the family; and indeed their acquirements had been few and their doings little. At Allington, Dale of Allington had always been known as a king. At Guestwick, the neighbouring market town, he was a great man—to be seen frequently on Saturdays, standing26 in the market-place, and laying down the law as to barley27 and oxen among men who knew usually more about barley and oxen than did he. At Hamersham, the assize town, he was generally in some repute, being a constant grand juror for the county, and a man who paid his way. But even at Hamersham the glory of the Dales had, at most periods, begun to pale, for they had seldom been widely conspicuous28 in the county, and had earned no great reputation by their knowledge of jurisprudence in the grand jury room. Beyond Hamersham their fame had not spread itself.
They had been men generally built in the same mould, inheriting each from his father the same virtues29 and the same vices,—men who would have lived, each, as his father had lived before him, had not the new ways of the world gradually drawn30 away with them, by an invisible magnetism31, the upcoming Dale of the day,—not indeed in any case so moving him as to bring him up to the spirit of the age in which he lived, but dragging him forward to a line in advance of that on which his father had trodden. They had been obstinate32 men; believing much in themselves; just according to their ideas of justice; hard to their tenants33—but not known to be hard even by the tenants themselves, for the rules followed had ever been the rules on the Allington estate; imperious to their wives and children, but imperious within bounds, so that no Mrs. Dale had fled from her lord's roof, and no loud scandals had existed between father and sons; exacting34 in their ideas as to money, expecting that they were to receive much and to give little, and yet not thought to be mean, for they paid their way, and gave money in parish charity and in county charity. They had ever been steady supporters of the Church, graciously receiving into their parish such new vicars as, from time to time, were sent to them from King's College, Cambridge, to which establishment the gift of the living belonged;—but, nevertheless, the Dales had ever carried on some unpronounced warfare35 against the clergyman, so that the intercourse36 between the lay family and the clerical had seldom been in all respects pleasant.
Such had been the Dales of Allington, time out of mind, and such in all respects would have been the Christopher Dale of our time, had he not suffered two accidents in his youth. He had fallen in love with a lady who obstinately37 refused his hand, and on her account he had remained single; that was his first accident. The second had fallen upon him with reference to his father's assumed wealth. He had supposed himself to be richer than other Dales of Allington when coming in upon his property, and had consequently entertained an idea of sitting in Parliament for his county. In order that he might attain38 this honour he had allowed himself to be talked by the men of Hamersham and Guestwick out of his old family politics, and had declared himself a Liberal. He had never gone to the poll, and, indeed, had never actually stood for the seat. But he had come forward as a liberal politician, and had failed; and, although it was well known to all around that Christopher Dale was in heart as thoroughly39 conservative as any of his forefathers40, this accident had made him sour and silent on the subject of politics, and had somewhat estranged41 him from his brother squires.
In other respects our Christopher Dale was, if anything, superior to the average of the family. Those whom he did love he loved dearly. Those whom he hated he did not ill-use beyond the limits of justice. He was close in small matters of money, and yet in certain family arrangements he was, as we shall see, capable of much liberality. He endeavoured to do his duty in accordance with his lights, and had succeeded in weaning himself from personal indulgences, to which during the early days of his high hopes he had become accustomed. And in that matter of his unrequited love he had been true throughout. In his hard, dry, unpleasant way he had loved the woman; and when at last he learned to know that she would not have his love, he had been unable to transfer his heart to another. This had happened just at the period of his father's death, and he had endeavoured to console himself with politics, with what fate we have already seen. A constant, upright, and by no means insincere man was our Christopher Dale,—thin and meagre in his mental attributes, by no means even understanding the fulness of a full man, with power of eye-sight very limited in seeing aught which was above him, but yet worthy42 of regard in that he had realized a path of duty and did endeavour to walk therein. And, moreover, our Mr. Christopher Dale was a gentleman.
Such in character was the squire of Allington, the only regular inhabitant of the Great House. In person, he was a plain, dry man, with short grizzled hair and thick grizzled eyebrows43. Of beard, he had very little, carrying the smallest possible gray whiskers, which hardly fell below the points of his ears. His eyes were sharp and expressive44, and his nose was straight and well formed,—as was also his chin. But the nobility of his face was destroyed by a mean mouth with thin lips; and his forehead, which was high and narrow, though it forbad you to take Mr. Dale for a fool, forbad you also to take him for a man of great parts, or of a wide capacity. In height, he was about five feet ten; and at the time of our story was as near to seventy as he was to sixty. But years had treated him very lightly, and he bore few signs of age. Such in person was Christopher Dale, Esq., the squire of Allington, and owner of some three thousand a year, all of which proceeded from the lands of that parish.
And now I will speak of the Great House of Allington. After all, it was not very great; nor was it surrounded by much of that exquisite45 nobility of park appurtenance which graces the habitations of most of our old landed proprietors46. But the house itself was very graceful47. It had been built in the days of the early Stuarts, in that style of architecture to which we give the name of the Tudors. On its front it showed three pointed48 roofs, or gables, as I believe they should be called; and between each gable a thin tall chimney stood, the two chimneys thus raising themselves just above the three peaks I have mentioned. I think that the beauty of the house depended much on those two chimneys; on them, and on the mullioned windows with which the front of the house was closely filled. The door, with its jutting49 porch, was by no means in the centre of the house. As you entered, there was but one window on your right hand, while on your left there were three. And over these there was a line of five windows, one taking its place above the porch. We all know the beautiful old Tudor window, with its stout50 stone mullions and its stone transoms, crossing from side to side at a point much nearer to the top than to the bottom. Of all windows ever invented it is the sweetest. And here, at Allington, I think their beauty was enhanced by the fact that they were not regular in their shape. Some of these windows were long windows, while some of them were high. That to the right of the door, and that at the other extremity51 of the house, were among the former. But the others had been put in without regard to uniformity, a long window here, and a high window there, with a general effect which could hardly have been improved. Then above, in the three gables, were three other smaller apertures52. But these also were mullioned, and the entire frontage of the house was uniform in its style.
Round the house there were trim gardens, not very large, but worthy of much note in that they were so trim,—gardens with broad gravel53 paths, with one walk running in front of the house so broad as to be fitly called a terrace. But this, though in front of the house, was sufficiently54 removed from it to allow of a coach-road running inside it to the front door. The Dales of Allington had always been gardeners, and their garden was perhaps more noted55 in the county than any other of their properties. But outside the gardens no pretensions56 had been made to the grandeur57 of a domain. The pastures round the house were but pretty fields, in which timber was abundant. There was no deer-park at Allington; and though the Allington woods were well known, they formed no portion of a whole of which the house was a part. They lay away, out of sight, a full mile from the back of the house; but not on that account of less avail for the fitting preservation58 of foxes.
And the house stood much too near the road for purposes of grandeur, had such purposes ever swelled59 the breast of any of the squires of Allington. But I fancy that our ideas of rural grandeur have altered since many of our older country seats were built. To be near the village, so as in some way to afford comfort, protection, and patronage60, and perhaps also with some view to the pleasantness of neighbourhood for its own inmates61, seemed to be the object of a gentleman when building his house in the old days. A solitude62 in the centre of a wide park is now the only site that can be recognized as eligible63. No cottage must be seen, unless the cottage orné of the gardener. The village, if it cannot be abolished, must be got out of sight. The sound of the church bells is not desirable, and the road on which the profane64 vulgar travel by their own right must be at a distance. When some old Dale of Allington built his house, he thought differently. There stood the church and there the village, and, pleased with such vicinity, he sat himself down close to his God and to his tenants.
As you pass along the road from Guestwick into the village you see the church near to you on your left hand; but the house is hidden from the road. As you approach the church, reaching the gate of it which is not above two hundred yards from the high road, you see the full front of the Great House. Perhaps the best view of it is from the churchyard. The lane leading up to the church ends in a gate, which is the entrance into Mr. Dale's place. There is no lodge65 there, and the gate generally stands open,—indeed, always does so, unless some need of cattle grazing within requires that it should be closed. But there is an inner gate, leading from the home paddock through the gardens to the house, and another inner gate, some thirty yards farther on, which will take you into the farm-yard. Perhaps it is a defect at Allington that the farm-yard is very close to the house. But the stables, and the straw-yards, and the unwashed carts, and the lazy lingering cattle of the homestead, are screened off by a row of chestnuts66, which, when in its glory of flower, in the early days of May, no other row in England can surpass in beauty. Had any one told Dale of Allington—this Dale or any former Dale—that his place wanted wood, he would have pointed with mingled67 pride and disdain68 to his belt of chestnuts.
Of the church itself I will say the fewest possible number of words. It was a church such as there are, I think, thousands in England—low, incommodious, kept with difficulty in repair, too often pervious to the wet, and yet strangely picturesque69, and correct too, according to great rules of architecture. It was built with a nave70 and aisles71, visibly in the form of a cross, though with its arms clipped down to the trunk, with a separate chancel, with a large square short tower, and with a bell-shaped spire72, covered with lead and irregular in its proportions. Who does not know the low porch, the perpendicular73 Gothic window, the flat-roofed aisles, and the noble old gray tower of such a church as this? As regards its interior, it was dusty; it was blocked up with high-backed ugly pews; the gallery in which the children sat at the end of the church, and in which two ancient musicians blew their bassoons, was all awry74, and looked as though it would fall; the pulpit was an ugly useless edifice75, as high nearly as the roof would allow, and the reading-desk under it hardly permitted the parson to keep his head free from the dangling76 tassels77 of the cushion above him. A clerk also was there beneath him, holding a third position somewhat elevated; and upon the whole things there were not quite as I would have had them. But, nevertheless, the place looked like a church, and I can hardly say so much for all the modern edifices78 which have been built in my days towards the glory of God. It looked like a church, and not the less so because in walking up the passage between the pews the visitor trod upon the brass79 plates which dignified the resting-places of the departed Dales of old.
Below the church, and between that and the village, stood the vicarage, in such position that the small garden of the vicarage stretched from the churchyard down to the backs of the village cottages. This was a pleasant residence, newly built within the last thirty years, and creditable to the ideas of comfort entertained by the rich collegiate body from which the vicars of Allington always came. Doubtless we shall in the course of our sojourn80 at Allington visit the vicarage now and then, but I do not know that any further detailed81 account of its comforts will be necessary to us.
Passing by the lane leading to the vicarage, the church and to the house, the high road descends82 rapidly to a little brook83 which runs through the village. On the right as you descend5 you will have seen the "Red Lion," and will have seen no other house conspicuous in any way. At the bottom, close to the brook, is the post-office, kept surely by the crossest old woman in all those parts. Here the road passes through the water, the accommodation of a narrow wooden bridge having been afforded for those on foot. But before passing the stream, you will see a cross street, running to the left, as had run that other lane leading to the house. Here, as this cross street rises the hill, are the best houses in the village. The baker84 lives here, and that respectable woman, Mrs. Frummage, who sells ribbons, and toys, and soap, and straw bonnets85, with many other things too long to mention. Here, too, lives an apothecary86, whom the veneration87 of this and neighbouring parishes has raised to the dignity of a doctor. And here also, in the smallest but prettiest cottage that can be imagined, lives Mrs. Hearn, the widow of a former vicar, on terms, however, with her neighbour the squire which I regret to say are not as friendly as they should be. Beyond this lady's modest residence, Allington Street, for so the road is called, turns suddenly round towards the church, and at the point of the turn is a pretty low iron railing with a gate, and with a covered way, which leads up to the front door of the house which stands there. I will only say here, at this fag end of a chapter, that it is the Small House at Allington. Allington Street, as I have said, turns short round towards the church at this point, and there ends at a white gate, leading into the churchyard by a second entrance.
So much it was needful that I should say of Allington Great House, of the Squire, and of the village. Of the Small House, I will speak separately in a further chapter.
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1 dignified | |
a.可敬的,高贵的 | |
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2 squire | |
n.护卫, 侍从, 乡绅 | |
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3 squires | |
n.地主,乡绅( squire的名词复数 ) | |
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4 descended | |
a.为...后裔的,出身于...的 | |
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5 descend | |
vt./vi.传下来,下来,下降 | |
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6 entail | |
vt.使承担,使成为必要,需要 | |
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7 prudence | |
n.谨慎,精明,节俭 | |
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8 coterminous | |
adj.毗连的,有共同边界的 | |
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9 possessed | |
adj.疯狂的;拥有的,占有的 | |
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10 discretion | |
n.谨慎;随意处理 | |
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11 adherence | |
n.信奉,依附,坚持,固着 | |
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12 futile | |
adj.无效的,无用的,无希望的 | |
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13 kit | |
n.用具包,成套工具;随身携带物 | |
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14 regiment | |
n.团,多数,管理;v.组织,编成团,统制 | |
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15 patrimony | |
n.世袭财产,继承物 | |
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16 hearth | |
n.壁炉炉床,壁炉地面 | |
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17 domain | |
n.(活动等)领域,范围;领地,势力范围 | |
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18 encumbrances | |
n.负担( encumbrance的名词复数 );累赘;妨碍;阻碍 | |
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19 peculiarities | |
n. 特质, 特性, 怪癖, 古怪 | |
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20 abstain | |
v.自制,戒绝,弃权,避免 | |
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21 goblet | |
n.高脚酒杯 | |
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22 doom | |
n.厄运,劫数;v.注定,命定 | |
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23 contented | |
adj.满意的,安心的,知足的 | |
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24 chivalrous | |
adj.武士精神的;对女人彬彬有礼的 | |
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25 chivalry | |
n.骑士气概,侠义;(男人)对女人彬彬有礼,献殷勤 | |
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26 standing | |
n.持续,地位;adj.永久的,不动的,直立的,不流动的 | |
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27 barley | |
n.大麦,大麦粒 | |
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28 conspicuous | |
adj.明眼的,惹人注目的;炫耀的,摆阔气的 | |
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29 virtues | |
美德( virtue的名词复数 ); 德行; 优点; 长处 | |
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30 drawn | |
v.拖,拉,拔出;adj.憔悴的,紧张的 | |
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31 magnetism | |
n.磁性,吸引力,磁学 | |
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32 obstinate | |
adj.顽固的,倔强的,不易屈服的,较难治愈的 | |
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33 tenants | |
n.房客( tenant的名词复数 );佃户;占用者;占有者 | |
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34 exacting | |
adj.苛求的,要求严格的 | |
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35 warfare | |
n.战争(状态);斗争;冲突 | |
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36 intercourse | |
n.性交;交流,交往,交际 | |
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37 obstinately | |
ad.固执地,顽固地 | |
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38 attain | |
vt.达到,获得,完成 | |
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39 thoroughly | |
adv.完全地,彻底地,十足地 | |
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40 forefathers | |
n.祖先,先人;祖先,祖宗( forefather的名词复数 );列祖列宗;前人 | |
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41 estranged | |
adj.疏远的,分离的 | |
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42 worthy | |
adj.(of)值得的,配得上的;有价值的 | |
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43 eyebrows | |
眉毛( eyebrow的名词复数 ) | |
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44 expressive | |
adj.表现的,表达…的,富于表情的 | |
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45 exquisite | |
adj.精美的;敏锐的;剧烈的,感觉强烈的 | |
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46 proprietors | |
n.所有人,业主( proprietor的名词复数 ) | |
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47 graceful | |
adj.优美的,优雅的;得体的 | |
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48 pointed | |
adj.尖的,直截了当的 | |
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49 jutting | |
v.(使)突出( jut的现在分词 );伸出;(从…)突出;高出 | |
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51 extremity | |
n.末端,尽头;尽力;终极;极度 | |
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52 apertures | |
n.孔( aperture的名词复数 );隙缝;(照相机的)光圈;孔径 | |
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53 gravel | |
n.砂跞;砂砾层;结石 | |
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54 sufficiently | |
adv.足够地,充分地 | |
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55 noted | |
adj.著名的,知名的 | |
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56 pretensions | |
自称( pretension的名词复数 ); 自命不凡; 要求; 权力 | |
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57 grandeur | |
n.伟大,崇高,宏伟,庄严,豪华 | |
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58 preservation | |
n.保护,维护,保存,保留,保持 | |
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59 swelled | |
增强( swell的过去式和过去分词 ); 肿胀; (使)凸出; 充满(激情) | |
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60 patronage | |
n.赞助,支援,援助;光顾,捧场 | |
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61 inmates | |
n.囚犯( inmate的名词复数 ) | |
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62 solitude | |
n. 孤独; 独居,荒僻之地,幽静的地方 | |
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63 eligible | |
adj.有条件被选中的;(尤指婚姻等)合适(意)的 | |
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64 profane | |
adj.亵神的,亵渎的;vt.亵渎,玷污 | |
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65 lodge | |
v.临时住宿,寄宿,寄存,容纳;n.传达室,小旅馆 | |
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66 chestnuts | |
n.栗子( chestnut的名词复数 );栗色;栗树;栗色马 | |
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67 mingled | |
混合,混入( mingle的过去式和过去分词 ); 混进,与…交往[联系] | |
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68 disdain | |
n.鄙视,轻视;v.轻视,鄙视,不屑 | |
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69 picturesque | |
adj.美丽如画的,(语言)生动的,绘声绘色的 | |
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70 nave | |
n.教堂的中部;本堂 | |
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71 aisles | |
n. (席位间的)通道, 侧廊 | |
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72 spire | |
n.(教堂)尖顶,尖塔,高点 | |
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73 perpendicular | |
adj.垂直的,直立的;n.垂直线,垂直的位置 | |
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74 awry | |
adj.扭曲的,错的 | |
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75 edifice | |
n.宏伟的建筑物(如宫殿,教室) | |
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76 dangling | |
悬吊着( dangle的现在分词 ); 摆动不定; 用某事物诱惑…; 吊胃口 | |
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77 tassels | |
n.穗( tassel的名词复数 );流苏状物;(植物的)穗;玉蜀黍的穗状雄花v.抽穗, (玉米)长穗须( tassel的第三人称单数 );使抽穗, (为了使作物茁壮生长)摘去穗状雄花;用流苏装饰 | |
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78 edifices | |
n.大建筑物( edifice的名词复数 ) | |
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79 brass | |
n.黄铜;黄铜器,铜管乐器 | |
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80 sojourn | |
v./n.旅居,寄居;逗留 | |
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81 detailed | |
adj.详细的,详尽的,极注意细节的,完全的 | |
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82 descends | |
v.下来( descend的第三人称单数 );下去;下降;下斜 | |
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83 brook | |
n.小河,溪;v.忍受,容让 | |
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84 baker | |
n.面包师 | |
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85 bonnets | |
n.童帽( bonnet的名词复数 );(烟囱等的)覆盖物;(苏格兰男子的)无边呢帽;(女子戴的)任何一种帽子 | |
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86 apothecary | |
n.药剂师 | |
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87 veneration | |
n.尊敬,崇拜 | |
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