A fine October morning succeeded to the foggy evening that had witnessed my first introduction to Crimsworth Hall. I was early up and walking in the large park-like meadow surrounding the house. The autumn sun, rising over the —— shire hills, disclosed a pleasant country; woods brown and mellow¹ varied² the fields from which the harvest had been lately carried; a river, gliding³ between the woods, caught on its surface the somewhat cold gleam of the October sun and sky; at frequent intervals⁴ along the banks of the river, tall, cylindrical⁵ chimneys, almost like slender round towers, indicated the factories which the trees half concealed⁶; here and there mansions⁷, similar to Crimsworth Hall, occupied agreeable sites on the hill-side; the country wore, on the whole, a cheerful, active, fertile look. Steam, trade, machinery⁸ had long banished⁹ from it all romance and seclusion¹⁰. At a distance of five miles, a valley, opening between the low hills, held in its cups the great town of X——. A dense¹¹, permanent vapour brooded over this locality — there lay Edward’s “Concern.”

I forced my eye to scrutinize¹² this prospect

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