There was not much difference in the aspect of the sylvan scene upon the other side of the fence.

Sir David's domain had been a good deal neglected of late years, and the brushwood and brambles grew thick under the noble old trees.

The timber had not yet suffered by its owner's improvidence.

The end of all things must have come for Sir David before he would have consented to the spoliation of a place he fondly loved, little as he had cared to inhabit it since the day that shattered all that was brightest and best in his life.
For some time Captain Sedgewick and his companions went along a footpath under the shelter of the trees, and then emerged upon a wide stretch of smooth turf, across which they commanded a perfect view of the principal front of the old house.

It was a quadrangular building of the Elizabethan period, very plainly built, and with no special beauty to recommend it to the lover of the picturesque.