It was of large proportions and faced to the north, where the mountains were most wildly figured.

The embers of a fire smouldered and smoked upon the hearth, to which a chair had been drawn close.

And yet the aspect of the chamber was ascetic to the degree of sternness; the chair was uncushioned; the floor and walls were naked; and beyond the books which lay here and there in some confusion, there was no instrument of either work or pleasure.

The sight of books in the house of such a family exceedingly amazed me; and I began with a great hurry, and in momentary fear of interruption, to go from one to another and hastily inspect their character.

They were of all sorts, devotional, historical, and scientific, but mostly of a great age and in the Latin tongue.